Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani has outlined a plan for his company, Reliance Industries Ltd, to create a retail platform that combines traditional shopping with augmented reality (AR) and online commerce.
The plan was detailed during the annual shareholders meeting in Mumbai, where the plan included plans to involve several branches of the company including Raliance Retail and the telecom arm, Reliance Jio Infocomm.
Reliance Ltd have recently invested as much as 2.5 trillion rupees ($36.3 billion USD) in setting up infrastructure of fibre broadband and mobile 5G services in India, and now the company is looking to further utilise this technology to tap into the online retail market.
The platform will use AR to create what has been described as an ‘immersive shopping experience’. Ambani said that Reliance saw its: “biggest growth opportunity in creating a hybrid, online-to-offline new commerce platform.”
Though the full details have not yet been revealed, it is expected that the platform will utilise AR technology in a similar way to how many other retailers have employed a ‘try before you buy’ scenario to let customers get a better appreciation of the product before purchase.
The plan is for the platform to be made available to small, independent merchants as well as large businesses and brands, with Ambani saying the service will let small businesses: “do everything that large enterprises and large e-commerce players are able to do.”
No timeline or commercial targets were set for the new platform during the meeting, and much of the emphasis remained on the establishment of the Reliance broadband network, with Jefferies India Pvt. analysts led by Somshankar Sinha said in a report after the annual shareholder meeting. “The centerpiece this year was a peek into its convergence strategy across homes, enterprise & e-commerce premised on its fiber network.”
For future coverage of Reliance Ltd AR platform, or future developments concerning Ar in retail, keep checking back with VRFocus.
via Mint VR