Simply Augmented Joins Khronos to Help Bring 3D and Augmented Reality (AR) to E-commerce

Simply Augmented Guest Blog Post

Simply Augmented, a tech company moving into the e-commerce home furnishing space, has joined Khronos as a contributor member to participate in the 3D Commerce Working Group.

Since starting Simply Augmented eighteen months ago, I’ve seen adoption accelerate for 3D and AR assets among consumers and B2B customers as they become more comfortable engaging with 3D objects directly on their mobile devices.

Simply Augmented started by selling directly to companies like Herman Miller, an American company that produces office furniture, equipment and home furnishings. We empowered their sales and marketing teams to use 3D and AR to close more deals faster by giving their users the ability to easily try solutions before ordering. Leveraging 3D in this way has proven to be very effective, and we are seeing enterprise sales cycles decrease as a result. In certain cases, the average sales cycle has reduced by as much as 30%.

We also helped Herman Miller accelerate the effectiveness of their showroom experience by using 3D mockups. Their Los Angeles showroom was seeking ways to better optimize the use of their expensive real estate; with limited space in the showroom, their sales representatives weren’t able to show clients the vast majority of their newest and most impressive product offerings. To empower Herman Miller to best showcase their products, Simply Augmented provided the company with a completely customized tool that enables sales representatives to show clients furniture settings and workstations–in full size–right in the showroom via augmented reality.

With our tool, Herman Miller clients receive a unique “leave-behind” that allows them to view–via augmented reality–their favorite product options in their own environment. Additionally, Herman Miller can reduce its expenses on shipping and inventory costs and is now able to show new furniture and products immediately upon their release.

Moving to E-commerce

Now, as Simply Augmented moves further into the e-commerce home furnishing space, we are also helping e-commerce teams transition from 2D to 3D assets and showcase 3D configurators on their websites.

Consumers want to be able to explore and play with different combinations to customize their products and try them before they buy. A report from Retail Perceptions states that 41% of consumers say they would pay more for a product if they were able to experience it in AR. Moreover, 61% say they would prefer to shop with retailers that offer AR–and manufacturers are paying attention to these statistics.

Why the increase in interest? By experiencing an object in 3D, people can see it from all sides in a way that feels realistic–not virtual. This gives them better insight and more confidence in their purchases. More and more manufacturers are beginning to use 3D assets to create product images, and they’re delivering AR experiences to customers in their own environment.

To that end, Simply Augmented designed a communication platform that makes it easy to collaborate, review, and distribute a variety of AR-ready content directly to retailers and consumers.

We’ve also become a new contributor member of Khronos. I’m personally very excited about being involved in the Khronos 3D Commerce Working Group and contributing to the discussion, because I can feel the pain, firsthand, that results from a lack of consistency in 3D asset production. As the co-chair of the Asset Creation Guidelines TSG, I’m further motivated to help set standards that make the creation and review of 3D products more streamlined–especially as 3D begins to scale.

A huge shift is coming for 3D commerce that will profoundly change how people virtually interact with products. I believe that it is crucial for Khronos to set standards for the quality and consistency of this 3D content, and we are committed to joining the mission to make 3D accessible to everyone.