Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have been gaining traction in the retail landscape, increasingly attracting marketing spend. According to Digi-Capital, by 2021 the AR and VR market will reach $108 billion in revenue, bringing in $83 billion and $25 billion respectively. Within that market, as IDC predicts it, retail will become the No. 1 industry for AR/VR spending.

They are both two points of the same spectrum and aim to add similar value in retail, providing personalized and engaging experiences. While AR consists in overlaying digital content upon the real world, enriching it with interactivity, VR immerses users into an alternate reality, completely disconnected from the actual world.

Our team —and 100,000 fellow visitors— are slowly returning to reality after a crazy week spent at the world's largest mobile-themed "amusement park" that is Mobile World Congress. And even if MWC still resembles a tech Disneyland, this year, it was not only about taking the latest Virtual Reality devices for a spin.

Besides entertaining the masses, companies started to focus on how to create useful, profitable use cases around emerging tech such as AI or Augmented Reality, to make people's lives better and drive business.

Brands and retailers find it increasingly hard to follow their potential customers through their decision-making journey, as it expands way beyond the stores and into people’s lives. Every moment the brand is contact with a consumer - every touchpoint - counts, and it might be critical to the purchase decision.

Technologies such as Augmented Reality and Image Recognition can enhance the customer experience and optimize the decision making journeys, by leveraging on emotional engagement and customer education.

This guide will show you how to implement this tech in each different step of the customer journey to create meaningful touchpoints that generate an emotional connection and reinforce the value of customer relationships with every interaction.

Pokémon Go came into the lives of mobile users and "caught them all". Half the businesses in the world started looking at creative ways of how to jump on this opportunity, such as attracting more visitors to travel destinations or leveling up sales at restaurants with Pokémon Go.

Yet the other half of business owners were left puzzled. Frankly, many of them had to google "What is Augmented Reality?".

So when Richard, our Chief Commercial Officer, was invited to give a speech at the Augmented Business Week to inspire companies in the Food & Beverages and Tourism & Destinations industries, he knew how to offer the attendees something valuable. Show them what Augmented Reality (abbreviated as AR) and Image Recognition solutions can do for their own business, rapidly and effectively generating greater awareness, traffic and revenue.