How Augmented Reality Is Helping Top Retail Outlets With Better Conversion Rates and Effective Marketing Campaigns
Keywords : Print catalog conversion, in-app purchase, brand communication, direct marketing, drive-to-store, in-store promotion
Connecting Print with Digital, at ARGO, we have made Augmented Reality a powerful and effective marketing tool for our clients, primarily retail chains including European market leaders like Decathlon, Boulanger, Pandora, and BUT. While Augmented Reality creates a uniquely intuitive experience for consumers, by getting printed materials augmented, retail chains and stores can now achieve better conversion rates, boost in-app purchases, improve brand loyalty with effective communication, and stand ahead of the competition with their direct marketing campaigns and more.
Taking the user experience to a whole new level, augmented print catalogs allow a potential customer to interact and engage with product images and information like never before. As such, some interesting figures emerging from our recent clients’ AR-based marketing campaigns are not surprising at all.
Though for confidentiality, we cannot disclose certain information, our clients have reported that on average around 62% of their customers preferred print catalog over a digital catalog; the conversion rates for augmented print catalogs are 2 to 3 times higher than the non-augmented ones. Moreover, the reported click/scan rate for augmented catalogs is as high as 96%. Such high click/scan rates translate to a near sure shot conversion once a customer scans an augmented page.
DECATHLON – Much More Than A Brand Statement
Decathlon is the world’s biggest sporting goods retailer. The key to Decathlon’s success has been a unique brand value that it created over the years since its inception in 1976, when it started with one small store in Lille, France. Today, they have over 1400 stores across 45 countries. Further, tapping into new markets, Decathlon made a recent addition to their chain by opening two new stores in 2018 in Montreal (Canada) and San Francisco (USA).
Also, now, by getting their print catalogs augmented, Decathlon is once again making a brand statement – their customers will have the best experience not only while using the product but also when viewing it.
In their bid to strategically promote the brand, Decathlon got dozens of their brochures for many different sports and outdoor experience including biking, hiking, camping, golf among others, augmented. With the new “Decathlon Reality App” , their customers now get a better virtual experience of all the listed products. While this strengthens Decathlon’s value as a trusted brand, it is also expected to help them get better convertibility and increased ROI with marketing campaigns.
Providing potential customers with video tutorials, engaging product descriptions and options to share them on social media, the augmented print catalogs are recreating the way Decathlon’s customers engage with their products. We are proud to have 20+ marketing team members from Decathlon working on ARGO’s online campaign management platform.
BOULANGER – Rendering AR Experience Into The Mainstream
Boulanger is a leading French, consumer electronics retail chain. Their USP is their brand and marketing strategy as a part of which they have established themselves as a best-buy go to store for consumer electronic goods. Recently, driving AR experience into the mainstream, they have got ARGO SDK (Software Development Kit) embedded into the Boulanger mobile app, which has over 1 million installs.
Thanks to the ARGO SDK technology, the Boulanger App now offers an entirely new experience and provides consumers with multiple features as they can now scan the Boulanger’s printed catalog pages, get access to product descriptions via video tutorials and 3D animations, and ultimately buy them on their fingertips. For Boulanger, the new technology opens doors to new opportunities; they can now acquire more customers and sales, directly through in-app purchases with minimum marketing efforts.
Moreover, Boulanger has got their special edition of this year’s 130 pages Christmas catalog augmented which will not only transform their print audience into mobile and online customers but also boost sales with a better conversion rate.
Take a look at the following page from the Boulanger augmented Christmas catalog and scan it with the Bear Lite app for Android and iOS.
PANDORA – Pandora’s Disney App Got Over 100k Scans In The First Week
More famous for their designer rings, bracelets, and necklaces amongst other jewelry items, Pandora, an international Danish jewelry manufacturer and retailer is the world’s third largest jewelry company in terms of sales volume.
In the opening of their new store – Disneyland Paris Pandora – they resorted to an unconventional marketing strategy by having a dedicated Pandora Disney App created to promote the event. They also had dozens of scannable print materials inside the store, and their visitors and potential customers could directly download the app and scan Pandora’s materials for a 360 visual experience.
With over 100k scans just in the first week of the app launch strongly indicates how successful this new strategy has been for Pandora. While the dedicated Pandora’s Disney App featured fun videos, interactive games, and social networking options, it helped Pandora’s new store in creating space for itself amongst the vibrant group of stylish and trendy jewelry lovers in Paris.
MAGASINS BUT – BUT To Boost Its Print Direct Marketing Campaigns With Augmented Reality
With over 280 stores and more than 6500 workers, BUT, a part of the Kingfisher international retail group, is a leading French retail chain of furniture and home appliances. Interestingly enough, BUT had no mobile app at all until it jumped into the AR world by launching its first dedicated app which goes by the name of “Magasins BUT” based on ARGO’s white label app. “Magasins BUT” was very well received by their existing and potential customers with the active users base rapidly growing to 150k.
To the core of BUT’s marketing strategy is rolling out massive direct marketing campaigns with millions of print materials including brochures, leaflets, and handbills sent to thousands of households every year. As such, the App “Magasins BUT” played a crucial role in these direct marketing campaigns. With the mix of a traditional marketing campaign and innovative AR technology, BUT is able to boost print direct marketing by getting better user engagement given the experience their potential clients get with Augmented Reality.
Using Digital Lotteries and special coupons as a drive-to-store channel, BUT is witnessing more footfalls to their stores as it allowed BUT to effectively incentivize potential customers and target groups. Also, with more unique visitors BUT’s marketing campaign is sure to pay off as they get more sales and better conversion rates.
Augmented Reality solutions have emerged as a powerful tool to get better conversion rates and improved ROI with marketing campaigns, especially for Retail chains and outlets. Strategically speaking, with the growing competition it is crucial to adapt and adopt innovative measures. At ARGO we help recreate user experiences and interactions by connecting Print with Digital and offering all AR-based industry and market-specific solutions.
