Overstock Adds Augmented Reality Feature to Android Shopping App

On March 20, 2018, e-commerce retailer Overstock (OSTK) announced that it had added an AR (augmented reality) feature to its Android shopping app. The company’s shopping app for Apple’s (AAPL) iOS system, which was launched back in September 2017 along with Apple’s ARKit, already has the AR feature. Augmented reality refers to technology that overlays graphic images on to the real environment. This technology has a great deal of potential in various areas from enhancing classroom teaching to assisting in complicated surgeries or giving customers an idea how a piece of furniture would look in a particular room.

Saum Noursalehi, Overstock’s president, stated that Overstock is constantly working on improving technology to enhance customers’ online shopping experience. According to the press release, the new AR feature will allow customers to see how products would look in their living rooms to help them make better purchase decisions. Moreover, the feature enables customers to add products to the cart and head to the checkout page without the need to leave the AR environment. At present, customers can use the AR feature to buy products ranging from home goods, furniture, rugs, and décor with more products likely to follow in the coming days.

Overstock hopes AR will boost its sales. The company is facing stiff competition as the online retail space gets crowded. The company saw a 13% drop in revenue in 4Q17, which included the important holiday season. In comparison, Wayfair (W) delivered 46.2% growth in revenue, while Shopify’s (SHOP) revenue was up an impressive 71%.

In the next article, we’ll look at Overstock’s plans for the online retail division.