On Wednesday 26th January, Snapchat announced new Catalog-Powered Shopping Lenses as the app looks to take its AR marketing tools up a gear.

The new feature enables eCommerce brands to showcase multiple products in one Lens so Snapchatters can simply swipe through a brand’s collection in one place. Shopping Lenses dynamically pull in product-level information — such as product name and price — from a Product Catalog and visually present this information in new Lens Product Cards on-screen. In this article, we’re going to explore Snapchat Shopping Lenses in more detail and explain why they’re perfect for automotive clothing retailers.

Examples from Snapchat…

A few stats on AR

• 63% of online shoppers claim AR will improve their shopping experience.
• The number of augmented reality users is set to reach 1.73 billion users by 2024.
• Over 30% of industry experts cited technical glitches and bulky software as the biggest headache for AR implementation.
• The UK holds a 9% share of the immersive reality global market.

A few stats on Snapchat

• Snapchat currently has 293 million daily active users worldwide.
• 74 million users use Snapchat daily in Europe.
• On average, people spend over 30 minutes on Snapchat and send 34.1 messages a day.

A few stats on Snapchatters Using AR

• Snapchatters are now engaging with AR more than 6 billion times per day, and 93% of them are interested in using AR for shopping.
• Snapchatters who experience a shoppable AR Lens are 2.4 times more likely to purchase than those who do not.
• Lenses have proven to drive a +14% higher share of incremental sales contribution than video.

Easily Accessible Augmented Reality

One of the biggest blockers for brands getting started with Augmented Reality is the fact that it is difficult and costly to implement (backed up by the stats above). However, Snapchat’s AR tools make it easy and fairly quick for brands of all shapes and sizes to get started.

The new Catalog-Powered Shopping Lenses, in particular, link directly to a company’s product catalogue, providing more capacity for expanded product display in your campaigns and enabling Snap to deliver better feedback and insights, improving overall performance.

The social app is also looking to make it as quick as possible for brands to generate commerce Lenses. 

As per Snap: “We’ve now made it so brands can generate a commerce Lens in as fast as two minutes and Beauty brands can do so in just a few clicks. At launch, this quick click accessibility in Lens Web Builder will be available to Beauty brands and will roll out to other product verticals in the coming months.”

While this is only applicable to Beauty brands, for now, the rollout to clothing brands shouldn’t be that far away so stay tuned.

Why This is a PERFECT Opportunity for Automotive Clothing Brands

Depending on the type of automotive clothing you sell, Shopping Lenses could prove extremely beneficial in your overall digital marketing strategy. For example, if you’re a brand such as HOONIGAN, a pretty cool and on-trend brand that will definitely be attracting a young demographic, then Shopping Lenses just make sense.

For online retailers, a common objective or reason that clothing items don’t sell is the consumer not being able to visualise how they’ll look on. Shopping Lenses resolve this in an instant. The fact that your potential customers on Snap can also see your entire advertised range by swiping and virtually trying additional items or accessories on makes for a seamless shopping experience that should increase customer order value and also make them more likely to shop with your brand again in the future.

Find out more and how to get started with Catalog-powered Lenses: https://forbusiness.snapchat.com/blog/introducing-catalog-powered-ar-shopping-lenses 

Get MORE From Your Automotive Digital Marketing

WDA is a specialist Automotive Branding and Digital Marketing Agency. Over the past 20 years we have been driving business for our 2 and 4 wheel clients across both B2C and B2B markets, and a wide range of sectors including Aftermarket Parts and Accessories, Performance Road, and Motorsports. Get in touch with us today to discover how we can drive business for you.

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