Augmented reality has a lot of potential to help us learn new skills, experience new entertainment and even shop. The problem with the latter though is it often requires the use of a third party applications; not with Augment for Retailers though. The AR SDK makes it possible to natively support AR products in a store's app, or on their website.

One common trend in a lot of industries, is that while home grown software often works ok, expert developer solutions are often far more effective. That's what Augment is hoping to put across with its new SDK, which makes it possible for retailers to implement augmented reality with just a few lines of code. It lets consumers try out products at home, see if they'll fit, try new colour schemes and even animate some of them.

The actual implementation will depend on the license the retailer in question goes for however. The base system lets them implement augmented reality product shopping within a mobile application, while the more advanced one does that, but also offers the ability to implement AR natively in an eCommerce (or as Augmented calls it, aCommerce) website. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OgoTsKTua4′]

This sort of function has been available before, but it often means consumers are tasked with downloading third party applications. In this instance, shoppers can use the one application or website and have the same augmented shopping experience.

“Today's consumers are looking to brands and retailers for innovative and more efficient ways to browse and shop,” said Jean Francois Chianetta, CEO and co-founder of Augment. “As mobile commerce growth outpaces e-commerce; it's becoming crucial for brands to enhance their mobile customer offerings. By opening up our technologies and allowing brands to integrate it into their sites and apps, e-retailers will now be able to enhance the shopping experience for their customers by bringing customized products into their homes in real time.”

The only downside to the whole thing is that entire product catalogues will not be available from the get go. Augment has a library of 3D models it can use, but if a product is not present in the collection, Augment will only add it if the product proves popular enough. For starters it seems, niche products may lose out when it comes to AR.

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KitGuru Says: This seems like a neat feature that could help take online shopping to a new level. No longer will people be surprised by the size or form factor of products they buy online. 

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