Snapchat Releases Catalogue-Powered Shopping Lenses for a New AR Commerce Experience

Snap has globally launched a new shopping user experience, Catalogue-powered Shopping Lenses. These Shopping Lenses offer the Snapchat generation a fast and easy way of purchasing and trying on multiple products within a seamless AR experience. These Lenses are programmed to perfectly outline the Snapchatters face, body, and world. The AR products are automatically personalised according to Snapchatter’s interests. These products can range from watches to shoes and clothes. According to Snapchat, up to 93 percent of Snapchatters are interested in utilising AR technology for shopping.

Snapchat has developed a new UI for Shopping Lenses to simplify the process of buying products on the app. Snapchatters can now natively shop individual products within one AR try-on experience. The Catalogue-powered Shopping Lenses showcase product cards and descriptions to offer Snapchatters an automatic preview of the product details.

Catalogue-powered Shopping Lenses are designed to drive real-time product data for brands. Businesses can access the engagement data of their products to learn about the products that are resonating on Snapchat down to the SKU level. Clients will have access to information on the variation in time spent, shares, and clicks on the SKU level. Brands can then leverage this data when developing target strategies and during early product development.

“Augmented reality is changing the way we shop, play, and learn, and transforming how businesses tell their stories and sell their products. Starting today, our revamped AR Shopping Lenses will mean a more engaging experience for our Snapchat community, and enable a faster, easier way to build Lenses for businesses…”, said Jeremi Gorman, Chief Business Officer of Snap. The company has continued to invest in self-service creating tools for Lenses. Businesses can now access the Catalogue-powered Shopping Lenses through the Lens Studio. This allows brands to easily create a Catalogue-powered Shopping Lens through the Lens Web Builder. The Supplemental Feeds option allows users to add AR Assets, such as 3D models or textures, to their existing product catalogue in just a few clicks.