Kmart moves into AR shopping

Kmart has begun growing its online catalogue with augmented reality capabilities.

Kmart Australia’s augmented reality app.

The new battleground for retailers is virtual. Whether it is due to the impact of COVID or just the ambition to be more innovative, retailers are establishing their online experiences to feel as though you are in the store.

Online shopping has existed for a long time, however the addition of augmented reality and artificial intelligence is their next weapon to get your attention.

When you’re shopping for homewares in a store, it can be difficult to imagine what items will look like in your home. Will it match the decor? Is the size going to work with everything around it? Do the colours fit the style of the room? This is where augmented reality comes in.

Companies like Breville have an app to enable you to virtually place items such as kettles and toasters in your home using your smartphone. The smartphone uses the rear camera to show your room and the screen places the object. Once the object, such as a lounge, is placed in the room, you can walk around it and view it from all angles through your phone. It is a remarkable experience that can prevent major shopping mistakes.

Kmart’s KBot assist chat experience.

Now Kmart has begun growing its online catalogue with augmented reality capabilities. You can browse the website on your smartphone or tablet, and virtually place items in your home. Whether it is a vase or picture frame, the ability to view the item in your home before you purchase serves two purposes.

You can save a photo of an item placed in your home and share it with your significant other for approval. That should get around a second trip to the store should the item need to be returned. In the era of COVID, a returned product might not be resold, and exposure to go through the retail experience potentially twice puts you at increased risk of infection.

“The immersive AR and AI experience was designed to bring joy and inspiration to customers’ lives,” says Melissa Wong, Head of Digital, Kmart. “With extra help from our AI chatbot personality – KBot assist – we have been able to make shopping easier for customers by sprinkling delight across the customer journey.”

It was relatively simple to place items onto a flat surface during my testing of the Kmart AR feature. The app produced a high quality version of the product, and I could get close to an armchair and see the way the fabric was woven.

On the other hand, it proved difficult to place a picture frame on our walls. It seemed the augmented reality engine preferred to place objects on the ground rather than a vertical surface. Maybe the texture of our wallpaper confused the system.

App home screen.

I would have loved to place more than one virtual item in a room. If I were looking to buy a table and chair, I’d like to see them together. The same applies for many homewares.

Kmart’s chatbot is powered by Oracle. The chatbot can assist with some queries such as dimensions, materials and colours. It can also help navigate through the product range and redirect you to then make online purchases.

“Digital assistants, and artificial intelligence more broadly, have reached mainstream adoption and are providing new and exciting brand experiences to customers,” says Cherie Ryan, vice president and regional managing director, Australia and New Zealand, Oracle.

The answers were immediate and well laid during our tests, but they didn’t provide an option to speak to a human if your question wasn’t answered. I tried to ask about stock availability of a product and hit a dead end quickly. Clearly Kmart is testing the waters on this technology still.

When the reality of why we visit retailers can be produced virtually, it can be a time saver and benefit how we experience products before a purchase. Companies must think differently and meet the needs of their customers wherever they are, and today they’re glued to their smartphones.

Geoff Quattromani is a tech commentator across radio, print, online and television. Check out his podcast “Technology Uncorked” for new information each week.