SeeMore Leverages Augmented Reality To Fight Retail Showrooming

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Sept. 11, 2013 - PRLog -- We've all been here. We see a great product online, we add it to our cart. Then the questions start creeping in: Should we spend all this money on pants that don't match our style, or a table that might not match the living room?

Ohio-based SeeMore Interactive is one such startup. It's a pioneer in the burgeoning field of augmented reality (AR) offering solutions that allow mobile shoppers to bring products to life like never before. With SeeMore, a customer can select a product, snap a picture of a space and instantly see how it would look in a given environment.

SeeMore's brandable experiences enable merchants to take in-store videos, product recommendations and wish lists to the next level, for what it says is an immersive customer experience that can ease customer concerns and encourage buying.

"Whereas retailers once divided print, digital and in-store marketing efforts, AR presents an opportunity to create a continuous consumer experience by bridging digital, print and in-store efforts," Neal Applefeld, founder and CEO of SeeMore Interactive, told PYMNTS.com.

While exciting, the technology is still untested, and it remains to be seen whether even AR is the technology that will successfully bridge the gap between the page and the store. For more about AR and how it could affect the payments process in the coming years, we spoke to Applefeld in an exclusive interview.

PYMNTS.com: This is the first time we've had SeeMore Interactive on PYMNTS.com. With this in mind, would you mind introducing your solution to our readers, explaining how SeeMore fits into the omnichannel retail ecosystem?

For more information Visit at http://www.seemoreinteractive.com

Neal Applefeld: Technology has changed the way consumers shop. With the rise of online retail, a phenomenon known as "showrooming" has emerged. Shoppers visit brick-and-mortar stores to check out merchandise firsthand, then return home to make their purchase from an online retailer that offers the same goods at a lower price. This trend has taken a toll on brick-and-mortar retailers, creating a need for them to tap into new and more innovative ways to capture their shoppers' attention.

As the digital and physical collide, smartphones have become a powerful decision-making tool. Whereas retailers once divided print, digital and in-store marketing efforts, AR presents an opportunity to create a continuous consumer experience by bridging digital, print and in-store efforts.

SeeMore Interactive's technology helps retailers re-engage their customers by harnessing the power of AR and leveraging the potential of the smartphones shoppers are already using to make purchasing decisions - in and out of store. By enhancing a printed collateral with AR features, SeeMore Interactive makes it possible for brands to create a branded, dynamic, interactive consumer experience.

For example, when a consumer browses a furniture catalog, they're currently limited to browsing photos of couches and dining room tables. Enter SeeMore Interactive. With just a snap of the smartphone, it suddenly becomes possible for the same shopper to virtually "see" the couch in their living room, add it to their holiday wish list and share it with friends via their social channels.

Given that your product is so new, can you take us through your client acquisition process. Are merchants seeking out solutions like SeeMore, or is this still an advancement where you're seeking to educate clients about SeeMore's benefits?

In some cases, we seek to educate clients about SeeMore’s benefits as they are sharing their business challenges with us. In several instances, their input has helped us refine our core application. As we continue to grow, we are finding a consistent theme across several market segments - most want to know how to engage their consumers on mobile, elevate their brand value and enable mobile commerce.

SeeMore was founded in 2012 and is still in early-stage funding rounds. Would you mind sharing some details with us about the number of customers and users you've attracted so far?

We are still an early-stage company, but have had the opportunity to work in some exciting retail categories while advancing our capabilities, including Trends International and Miramax. And, while the complexities of the applications vary, each creates a unique wow factor.

The ideas behind your product seem similar to those being popularized by Hointer, except SeeMore offers more of a white-label or consumer-focused version. Do you see any similarities between your offering and Hointer's mobile-focused retail store? If so, how does yours compare?

While both Hointer and SeeMore strive to achieve the same goal of bridging the physical and digital divide the retail industry faces, SeeMore’s technology differs in a few distinct areas. SeeMore’s technology is applicable to retailers of all types - from clothing stores to auto dealers - and is completely customizable to each. Additionally, instead of replacing previous sales techniques (e.g. the sales clerk), SeeMore creates a new and exciting level of product interaction through existing sales/marketing channels like point-of-purchase displays, direct mail pieces, catalogs and more.

Essentially, SeeMore’s technology turns everything viewed through a consumer’s mobile device into a digital, interactive experience by integrating image recognition, recommendation engine and location-based technologies through augmented reality.

What do you see as the most encouraging omnichannel statistics that have been reported to date?

More than half of shoppers use their smartphones to research purchases both in and out of store. This is evidence that retailers can no longer afford to separate marketing efforts, and should serve as encouragement to find new and novel ways to engage consumers and bridge the gap between mobile, in-store and web experiences.

Would you care to talk about your strategy for 2013 and what kind of headway you're looking to make through the rest of the year?

We have some exciting partners lining up this year that will enable SeeMore to reach several verticals. Many of these will come to market in early 2014. Execution and user experience are key, so our focus is on the product. We also have some additional features in getting ready to hit the pipeline.