In an increasingly digitalized world, the possibilities of our future being more and more visual using different types of realities are huge, especially in marketing. It is important to firstly explain the various expressions of reality that came up this last decade and what their domain of application is.
There are three main types of realities that are currently hot topics:
Virtual reality (VR), which is a complete immersion into another universe, makes use of a VR headset that can be put on, that cuts its user off entirely from his actual reality and makes him only experience what has been programmed onto it.
Augmented reality (AR) makes use of the consumers’ real environment and enhances it with adding a computer-generated element (sound, graphics…). The most recent best example for it could be, Pokémon Go.
Mixed reality (MR) is a spin-off of augmented reality (with the added elements of augmented virtuality). The virtual and the real world of its user are combined, which allows him to interact with gestures and voice commands.
These new realities are of high value and a promising potential for the retail industry.
Online shopping will massively benefit from it. For example, potential clothes buyers will finally be able to try the clothes on they want from home; this experience will simplify their decisions and make them more satisfied about online shopping. Going into a crowded store, standing in line to wait for the fitting room, running around to find the matching size, waiting even more to eventually pay: all of this will be distant memories. Same thing goes for home furniture! Being able to place the new wanted table at its exact wished position using mixed reality is a massive advantage; maybe it will not fit with the shapes and colors of other furnitures but this information will be delivered in a matter of seconds! All these struggles, among others measuring other household furnitures to see if the new one could possibly fit, are soon to be over! Marketers can be enchanted, as an open environment becomes a sensational tool for them! Using their creativity, they will be able to sneak and conceive new
ads and enter a whole new world of advertising.
Visual intelligence is a new technology that has not yet been used at its full potential. We have to keep in mind that it is still relatively expensive. AR and VR are hard to be set up in the markets as every new technology arrivals. The market penetration for these pieces of technology is very slow because of their price. On the other hand, the generational aspect is very important: If we take the example of the use of voice assistants (such as siri or cortana), the generation Y and Z represent the part of the population to be the most likely to use this new technology.
These voice assistants are about to become very useful to make online shopping easier for everyone, and Microsoft has shown it with the update of Cortana, where users can select new clothes, buy and ship them, by only conversing with their phones. 
In the retail industry, Amazon uses visual intelligence to make the research of a product easier by simply taking a photo of a bar-code. Pinterest has also developed a tool, making it possible to find similar objects seen in a picture. As dislayed in the picture, the customer can find his new towel easily. This is a huge benefit to be exploited in the future by retailers. More interesting, since Google purchased Moodstock, it is now possible to find information about something you took in picture. Take the example of a pair of shoes that you like. The image recognition software identifies the make and model, and tells you where you can buy it and how much it costs.
Visual intelligence has a huge potential in the retail industry. It might have a big impact in consumer’s behaviors since more and more people are equipped with a smartphone, but also in how society is evolving. Tech companies become more and more powerful and huge amounts of money are invested to create new items using existing technologies, but also disruptive innovation. Work is in progress, and creating new user experiences becomes a big deal for many players in the industry. Recently, augmented reality has been used during the fashion week last september. People could use an app during the show, to see how the clothes would look on their own body.
Anna Lefèvre
Sébastien Fors
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