AR Shopping Experience — Trendora
Visual: AR try-on flows, product visualizers in room, and social share UX.
Client Overview
Trendora is a Singapore-based lifestyle e-commerce startup focused on home decor and fashion. To reduce returns and boost engagement, Trendora wanted an augmented reality layer that allowed customers to virtually try items in their space or on themselves, and to share experiences socially.
Challenge
High return rates on visual-dependent categories (home decor and fashion) and low engagement from social channels were limiting growth. Trendora needed performant AR experiences that worked across browsers and mobile apps without heavy downloads, and that could integrate into the cart & share flows.
Solution — Web & App AR Visualizers
We created a hybrid AR solution: WebXR-based lightweight visualizers for quick 'in-room' previews and native AR SDK integrations for higher-fidelity try-ons in the mobile app. The system included on-device inference for apparel fit estimation and server-side rendering for complex 3D models.
Core features
Approach
- Prototype quick web AR experiences for fastest time-to-market and measure engagement lift.
- Parallel native SDK development for app users requiring higher fidelity try-ons.
- Optimize 3D assets for mobile and fallback gracefully to product images when AR not available.
- Instrument share events and purchase conversion from AR sessions for measurement.
Technology stack
Implementation — Sequence
Phase 1 — Prototype & Measure (Weeks 1–6)
Built web AR prototype for 10 SKUs and measured engagement and conversion lift vs control.
Phase 2 — Native App Integration (Weeks 7–14)
Integrated ARCore and ARKit for higher-fidelity try-ons for app users, added pose estimation for apparel fit guides.
Phase 3 — Asset Pipeline & Scale (Weeks 15–22)
Built 3D asset pipeline with LOD, CDN caching, and fallbacks for low-bandwidth regions.
Phase 4 — Social & Commerce Integration (Weeks 23–26)
Added social share and added AR session attribution into marketing analytics for campaign measurement.
Impact & Results
2.1x
Higher engagement time in AR sessions vs product pages
20%
Reduction in return rate for AR-enabled SKUs
11%
Conversion lift from AR sessions
Rapid
Prototype-to-production in 6 months
Qualitative outcomes
- Customers enjoyed trying items in their space before purchase, reducing uncertainty.
- Social shares from AR sessions increased organic discovery and user-generated content.
- Fallbacks ensured users without AR support still had a seamless experience.
Client Testimonial
Key Highlights & Learnings
- Start with a small SKU set for prototype; measure impact before scaling assets.
- Provide graceful fallbacks — AR should enhance, not block, the purchase experience.
- AR sessions are valuable both for conversion and for organic social reach.