Banana Flame director on augmented reality experience

With retailers looking ever more to develop their customer shopping experience, online fashion site, Banana Flame, has launched a whole new initiative. The new ‘augmented reality’ style shopping experience allows people to ‘try on’ clothes,

while they shop online. Every piece of clothing on Banana Flame's site gives shoppers access to the Webcam Social Shopper technology via a seamlessly integrated "see how it looks" button.

FashionUnited caught up with Company Director, Chandra Saria, to hear about how the idea came about and putting virtual shopping into practice.
 
FU: Can you give me an overview of how the new augmented reality idea works on the Banana Flame website?
Sure. So, let’s say a young woman is shopping on Banana Flame’s site and she sees a dress that she thinks is cute but, she’s not quite sure whether or not she wants to purchase it yet. Offline, she would grab the hanger off the rack, hold the dress up to herself and turn to a friend or the mirror to get a better sense of whether or not the dress’s style and colour are right for her. Well, now s he can replicate that experience on Banana Flame’s site. All she has to do is click on the “See How It Looks” button and then her webcam acts like a mirror. She can see herself within a live video feed, and the dress is overlaid on top of her. With the swipe of a hand she can use our motion capture interface to fine tune the positioning of the dress; see alternate colours (if there are any); or take a photo (and share it on Facebook, Twitter, or via email to get feedback from her friends).

FU: How did the idea initially come about?
I had seen some videos and read about Augmented Reality and that was the time when I realised how this technology could improve people’s shopping experience on the internet. The tool on our website simply allows customers to engage more with the product that they are interested in buying, therefore, giving them a chance to see if the style and colour of the outfit is right for them or not.

FU: How do you think this new feature can implement sales growth and retail interest?
Well, it’s bit early to say if this new feature can help in achieving sales growth because we have only launched a few weeks ago, but so far the results have been great. Both site traffic and engagement have gone up dramatically since we integrated the Webcam Social Shopper. However, what we will see in the future is online retailers using more and more of these types of tools to bring customers more closer to their products and improve shopping experience on the internet.

FU: How do you aim to keep developing the Banana Flame brand?
We always try to keep ourselves updated with what’s new in the market that improves customer online shopping experience. That is how we found Zugara’s Webcam Social Shopper software. In addition to that we have plans to introduce a video section on the website that will offer styling and make-up tips, introduction of blogs, etc. are in the pipeline.
 
FU: How do you think this new feature can implement sales growth and retail interest?
So far the results have been great. Both site traffic and engagement have gone up dramatically since we integrated the Webcam Social Shopper. However, what we will see in the future is online retailers using more and more of these types of tools to bring customers more closer to their products and improve shopping experience on the internet.
 
FU: How do you aim to keep developing the Banana Flame brand?
We always try to keep ourselves updated with what’s new in the market that improves customer online shopping experience. That is how we found Zugara’s Webcam Social Shopper software. In addition to that we have plans to introduce a video section on the website that will offer styling and make-up tips, introduction of blogs, etc. are on the pipeline.
 
FU: With the development of virtual/interactive shopping, how do you see the future of retail?
The future of retail is about creating shopping experiences that are smart, interactive, engaging, and social. It doesn’t matter the channel or touchpoint, but all of them will need to tie together into a cohesive shopping experience. For retailers that are smart enough to adopt it, technology will provide opportunities to build powerful relationships with their customers and it will open up powerful revenue streams. For retailers that ignore technology, for fear of cannibalizing traditional revenue streams, well, I think that those retailers will unfortunately be left behind and in the long run they will suffer greatly.