AR Shopping: How It’s Changing Retail (2026)

Augmented reality (AR) shopping helps shoppers picture a product before they commit to buying it. They can see how a pair of glasses might suit their face or whether a sofa will work in their living room. That makes AR especially useful for purchases where appearance, fit, or size can be hard to judge online.

Consumers are asking for more technology in the shopping experience. In SOTI’s 2026 survey, 58% of 13,000 consumers across 11 countries said they wanted more technology-enhanced shopping. AR can meet that demand by helping shoppers make more informed decisions before they buy.

This guide explains what AR shopping is and how retailers use it. It also covers where the AR market is heading and the tools available to add augmented reality to your store.

What is AR shopping?

Augmented reality shopping allows customers to virtually “try on” or preview products through a smartphone, smart glasses, or virtual reality headset.

AR can help customers feel like they are in a brick-and-mortar store interacting with products or show them how products will look in their homes or, in the case of fashion, on their bodies.

The most common AR shopping experiences fall into a handful of formats:

• Virtual try-on: Shoppers preview clothing, eyewear, makeup, or accessories on their own face or body through the front camera.
• In-room placement: Shoppers project furniture or décor into their space at true scale through the rear camera.
• 3D product inspection: Shoppers rotate and zoom a 3D model on the product page to examine details from every angle.
• AR mirrors: In-store displays superimpose products onto a live image of the shopper.
• Branded filters and games: Social media lenses and in-store scavenger hunts turn products into interactive content.

It helps to separate AR from virtual reality (VR). AR overlays digital content onto the real world through a device the shopper already owns. VR replaces the real world entirely, placing the shopper inside a simulated environment.

AR suits retail because it runs on standard smartphones. VR requires a dedicated headset, which limits its reach in retail. For a breakdown of the underlying AR formats, see the different types of AR.

The future of the AR and VR market

Mordor Intelligence valued the augmented and mixed reality market at $256.91 billion in 2025. The firm projects it will reach $998.14 billion by 2030, representing a 31.19% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), with retail and ecommerce among the report's core end-user segments.

Major tech companies are investing in that growth. Apple's Vision Pro and Meta’s smart glasses have brought spatial computing into consumer channels. Both companies continue to expand the developer toolkits used to build retail AR experiences.

For shoppers, the entry point is the phone in their pocket. Improvements in smartphone cameras and software have made AR shopping more accessible across apps. In retail, Grand View Research projects the AR market will grow from $15.7 billion in 2026 to $105.9 billion by 2033, representing a 32.4% compound annual growth rate. Virtual try-on is its fastest-growing application.

Many beauty brands, for example, already use AR to let potential customers try on different colors of hair dye or test different shades of foundation through their smartphone's camera.

AR shopping trends retailers should know

Retailers adopt AR for several reasons. It can build purchase confidence and give shoppers clarity on fit and size. It can also lower return risk and make the shopping experience more interactive. Each trend below serves at least one of those outcomes.

We'll start with one of the most popular uses of AR: social media apps and camera filters.

1. Social media apps and camera filters

Branded filters on Snapchat and Instagram turn products into try-on lenses inside apps shoppers already open daily. That makes them a natural first step in augmented reality marketing. In a 2025 study published by Snap, 81% of Snapchat users agreed that AR is a fun way to discover new products. The same study found Snapchat users are 2.4 times more likely to buy food and beverage products after engaging with branded AR.

For example, Snapchat featured Lancôme in its 2025 Winter Village. Users entered an AR boutique to explore fragrances before continuing to the brand’s ecommerce site to make a purchase.

Getting started is less technical than it once was. Snapchat’s Lens Studio offers templates for building lenses without starting from scratch, and TikTok's Effect House works the same way. The real investment is creative: you still need talent that can produce the 3D models or artwork your filter runs on.

2. Virtual try-on

A common use of AR for brands is product demonstration. Virtual try-ons are especially useful for fashion and beauty brands.

The category has grown into a market of its own. Mordor Intelligence valued the virtual try-on market at $15.18 billion in 2025. The firm projects it will reach $48.10 billion by 2030, representing a 25.95% compound annual growth rate.

Returns data helps justify the investment. The National Retail Federation and Happy Returns project $849.9 billion in US retail returns for 2025, representing an estimated 19.3% of online sales coming back. Try-on tools can address the problem before checkout: Shoppers get a better sense of how a product will look or fit, reducing the risk of ordering the wrong item.

If you're interested in creating virtual try-on experiences for your products, here are a few tips:

• Keep it simple. The more complex you make your AR, the more likely it is to create problems when customers use it. Everyone has a different face and body, so no AR will be perfect at mapping 3D models to all customers.
• Locate it where customers shop. If you're using social commerce such as Instagram or Facebook Shops, you can add AR virtual try-on to your shop for when customers are scrolling through products or variations, removing friction from the buying journey.

3. Virtual showroom

A virtual showroom answers a different question from virtual try-on. Try-on uses the front camera to place a product on the shopper, answering the question “How does this look on me?” A showroom uses the rear camera to place a product in the shopper's environment at true scale, answering “Does this fit my space?”

The underlying technology is similar, which is good news for retailers: one set of 3D assets can potentially power both.

Showroom experiences increasingly start with 3D product inspection. Before a shopper taps “view” in your virtual room, they can rotate and zoom a 3D model on the product page. They can examine stitching and finish the way they would in a store. That inspection step can help build confidence, and AR placement can then help shoppers judge whether the product will fit their space.

When it comes to placing products in the environment using AR, here are some tips to follow:

• Showroom-style AR often requires users to move around with the camera or point it at several places in their environment. Make sure the item can communicate the surfaces that mobile devices can detect so users understand where the AR item can be placed.
• Consider using visual cues or text to show users how to interact with the AR, such as how to move the object around or change its orientation.
• Consider the constraints of both the environment the user might be in and the device they’re using. The AR experience should be easy to manipulate with one hand and usable in a variety of environments.

Virtual showroom-style filters/lenses are currently among the most widely applicable AR formats for businesses selling physical products.

4. Better AR hardware options

Devices set the ceiling on what your AR can do. Depth-sensing hardware such as LiDAR now ships in mainstream smartphones, making object placement more accurate with each device generation. On the software side, iOS renders 3D models in AR directly from the browser through AR Quick Look. Android does the same through Scene Viewer, with no app download required.

Smart glasses are gaining popularity. IDC reports that display-less smart glasses shipments grew 167% year over year in Q1 2026, with roughly as many units shipped in one quarter as in all of 2024. Mobile is still the main target for retail AR today, but the device mix is widening. Brands that want deeper control can build their own applications with Apple's ARKit, as IKEA did for its IKEA Place app.

5. AR mirrors for in-store shopping

Another trend to watch in retail is the use of AR mirrors in-store.

There are two main ways AR mirrors work. The first uses a digital screen with motion-sensor technology placed behind the mirror, with AR superimposing images onto the mirror in real time. The second doesn’t use a real mirror at all, but instead relies on a digital display with cameras, similar to an extra-large smartphone.

If you’re investing in AR mirrors, budget for more than the hardware. A rollout across multiple locations carries the cost of the displays themselves and the software that runs on them. Add integration with in-store inventory and point-of-sale (POS) systems, plus ongoing maintenance and staff training at every site. Those line items multiply per location, which is why retailers may consider piloting in a single store before committing to a fleet.

There’s a compliance cost, too. AR mirrors capture facial imagery, which the Federal Trade Commission treats as biometric information. The FTC's policy statement on biometric information warns that collecting or using this data without clear disclosure can violate Section 5 of the FTC Act. Retailers deploying AR mirrors may need visible consent notices and a defined data-retention policy. They may also need vendor agreements that cover how facial data is processed.

6. Using AR to gamify in-store shopping

What happens if a brand uses AR to make the in-store customer experience more entertaining?

Some brands are using AR to gamify in-store shopping. UK grocery brand Tesco has used this technique to help build brand engagement, loyalty, and longer dwell times with products.

Tesco teamed up with Engine Creative to build AR experiences in the Tesco Discover app. The app helps customers learn more about products they scan while adding elements of play to the shopping experience.

The concept of AR in-store gamification might seem difficult, but here are a few tips that could help you get started:

• Like Tesco, tie your AR experiences to specific products in-store. This way, you don’t have to create extensive 3D-model mapping that would take too much time and money to implement.
• Use a QR code to encourage shoppers to start the AR experience with their phone's camera and consider keeping the experience limited to specific areas in-store, instead of trying to cover the whole store.

Many younger customers will recognize the gamified AR concept from the popular mobile game Pokémon Go, and intuitively know how to proceed after opening the AR experience.

What retailers need to launch AR shopping at scale

Every AR experience starts with a 3D asset: a GLB file for web and Android, plus a USDZ file for AR on iOS. You can commission these models from specialists or produce them in-house with photogrammetry or 3D scanning. Shopify's Partners Directory lists studios that create 3D models for AR. Once the files exist, you add them to product pages the same way you upload an image.

Cost will scale with your catalog. Per-model pricing depends on the complexity of the product’s geometry and the accuracy of its materials. Variant counts and revision rounds will also add to the bill. A brand with 40 hero products faces a different budget than one with 4,000 SKUs, so decide early which products justify a model. Request quotes on a representative product before pricing the full catalog.

The workflow itself is repeatable. Supply the modeler with reference photos from multiple angles and exact product dimensions. Review the returned model against the physical product and check proportions and materials before confirming scale in AR. 

Upload the approved file, then confirm your theme displays 3D media correctly on desktop and mobile. Treat the model library like product photography: Assign an owner, version the files, and refresh models when products change.

Whether the program expands should depend on the numbers, so define what success looks like before launch. Useful measures include AR engagement rate on product pages and conversion for shoppers who interact with a model versus those who don't. Track return rates on AR-enabled products against their pre-AR baseline as well. These are the metrics behind the Gunner Kennels and Rebecca Minkoff results covered below.

This testing supports the argument for a phased rollout over a full-catalog launch. Start with a small set of high-consideration or high-return products, where fit and size questions drive the most hesitation. Run the pilot for a defined period and compare results against the success thresholds you set. Expand across the catalog only when the numbers clear them.

AR retail examples

These examples of augmented reality in shopping show how brands use Shopify’s AR tools to let customers view and interact with products.

Complex Networks

Through Shopify's AR tools, entertainment brand Complex Networks digitized their events to create “a first-of-its-kind immersive digital shopping experience where attendees could explore, engage with brands, and have fun.” The virtual event, ComplexLand, generated 9 million total engagements.

The event was a success, and Complex Networks has continued to engage their audience through digital events. The example shows AR’s range beyond product pages: it can support an entire commerce experience.

Gunner Kennels

Gunner Kennels makes heavy-duty dog kennels to keep pets safe during travel or transportation. But shopping for the right dog kennel online can be daunting, as customers need to make sure their pet will fit comfortably.

Gunner Kennels added 3D models and AR to their product pages using Shopify’s AR tools. Shoppers can place a 3D model of a kennel next to their dog to confirm they've selected the correct size.

Adding this feature increased order conversion by 40% and reduced return rate by 5%, alongside a 3% lift in cart conversion. Gunner Kennels plans to use the technology on additional products due to its success. 

Rebecca Minkoff

Handbag brand Rebecca Minkoff has also used Shopify AR tools to enhance the shopping experience. The brand started using 3D modeling and AR to help customers better connect with their online catalog.

Cofounder Uri Minkoff says, “3D media makes for a much more interactive shopping experience. Customers can examine our products from every angle, including the option to view products in augmented reality, which helps them get a better sense of quality, size, and other details that matter.”

Since the brand activated these features, customers are 27% more likely to place an order after viewing a product in 3D and 65% more likely to place an order after interacting with a product in AR. The split between those two numbers shows the layered value of 3D assets: inspecting products lifts conversion, and AR placement lifts it further.

Best AR shopping apps and tools

Rather than thinking about a single app, think of AR shopping tools as three paths: native product media on Shopify, marketplace AR features, and third-party extensions from the Shopify App Store.

Shopify's native 3D and AR product media

If you want to own your website and store rather than sell through a third-party marketplace, Shopify can host your AR product media natively.

With this built-in 3D and AR support, you can use 3D assets and videos of your products to give customers a better understanding of an item’s size and function and more confidence in its quality and suitability.

Making AR work on Shopify requires three ingredients:

• Model files: GLB for web and Android, USDZ for AR on iOS.
• Theme support: Current Shopify themes display 3D media natively; older third-party themes may need an update.
• Uploaded media: Models attach to product pages alongside images and video, with up to 250 media items per product.

Brands without modeling resources have two shortcuts. The Shopify mobile app can scan products into 3D directly on compatible iOS devices, and the Partners Directory connects you with specialist studios.

As the examples above show, Shopify's AR tools can improve the shopping experience while helping drive more sales and fewer returns.

Marketplace and third-party AR tools

Amazon offers AR through its “View in Your Room” feature, which covers larger home products such as furniture and TVs. If you sell on the marketplace, the feature comes with the channel. The trade-off is that Amazon controls the experience and the customer data.

The Shopify App Store extends what native product media can do. Retailers can add 3D model viewers with custom controls, virtual try-on tools for eyewear and beauty, and builders for fully navigable 3D storefronts. Because these apps integrate with your store, shoppers get the AR experience without leaving your site. You also keep the behavioral data that marketplace AR withholds.

Start using AR in your retail strategy

Businesses use AR today to help customers shop with more confidence and make the experience more fun and immersive. Getting started is a sequence of decisions rather than a leap:

• Pick the use case first. Choose try-on, in-room placement, 3D inspection, or in-store AR based on where your shoppers hesitate most. 
• Scope your 3D assets. Decide which products justify a model and whether you'll scan, build, or commission them. 
• Match the platform to the use case. Use product pages for placement and inspection and social lenses for try-on and discovery. 
• Define success metrics before launch. Track AR engagement, conversion lift, and return rate against a baseline. 
• Cover privacy and permissions. Account for camera-access prompts for web AR and disclosure and retention policies for anything that captures facial data. 
• Start with a pilot set of products. Then expand across the catalog when results clear your thresholds.