London retailers deploy AR technology for Christmas shopping season

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 18, 2016

Augmented reality (AR) will meet shopping in a big way this Christmas shopping season as London’s Covent Garden area links up with AR tech firm Blippar to offer a new experience to consumers for the first time ever.

In the next six weeks, the new initiative will be a world first and will cover over 140 stores and 1m sq ft of retail space. Shoppers will use the Blippar app to discover products recommended by editors from Hearst consumer magazines Elle, Cosmopolitan and Esquire.

They will also be able to ‘Blipp' the Covent Garden Christmas tree and unlock offers from retailers taking part in the event. And there will be a number of digital reindeers hidden around Covent Garden with shoppers able to enter daily competitions to find find them.

Blippar said the initiative is designed to boost brand loyalty as well as increasing footfall, dwell time and revenue in Covent Garden.

Stores taking part include luxury names like Paul Smith and Dior as well as premium fashion and beauty retailers including Hackett, Sandro, Kiehl’s, Charlotte Tilbury, Clinique, The Watch Gallery, Bobbi Brown, and Ted Baker.

The magazines will also each be hosting an event during the Christmas shopping season and will support the Blippar program via their print and digital editions.

Blippar is building a name for itself in AR shopping with the tech firm having previously linked with a number of fashion and beauty names to make their products interactive and their content shoppable.