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Shopping in the future? Virtual.

You’ve probably heard of augmented virtual reality on social networks. Many of us also know the possibilities of Instagram or Snapchat to put on virtual glasses or a hat. But you probably didn’t realize that exactly these possibilities would rewrite the history of shops and shopping.

Instagram, which provides a large amount of possibilities in shopping, is constantly trying to develop new ways to get products closer to people and e-shops closer to customers. It hasn’t been so long since it created the option to directly tag a given in a post, rolled out their special shopping program, the ability to buy a product directly through Instagram and thus save yourself the trip to the e-shop, but currently they are trying to launch a new method of shopping that will help users even more to try out and get their desired product. We are talking about so-called augmented reality (AR).

Augmented reality is quite commonly used on Instagram today in Stories. But Instagram wants to offer brands the opportunity for customers to try out products from individual brands directly using Spark AR technology. The “Try it on” option was only offered for a limited time by special brands such as Warby Parker or Ray-Ban.

So-called AR shopping, is already a wide-spread term outside of Instagram. You can try out new glasses online on the Eyerim website or in the Wanna kicks application, or Ikea offers a visual tour of your designed room.

At the moment, the global crisis has slowed the economy around the world, but AR shopping is one of the proofs that developers are starting to think about other ways of shopping than just in person in brick-and-mortar shops and then maybe online, not only in the fashion world but also common things such as food.