Amazon and Snap on Wednesday announced that they co-operate to make it easier for people to try and buy virtual eyeglasses. Using the augmented reality feature Lenses, Snapchat users will be able to “try on” thousands of glasses from eyewear brands available on Amazon Fashion, including Maui Jim, Persol, Oakley, and Costa Del Mar.
Users will be able to access the eye lenses through @amazonfashion’s Public Profile on Snapchat, in Snap’s Lens Explorer on the For You and Dress Up tabs, and in the Snapchat Camera Lens Carousel.
Snapchat users can also browse additional products directly in the Amazon Fashion ‘store’ tab on the @amazonfashion profile on Snapchat. From there, they can link to Amazon to make purchases.
This partnership will help Amazon reach a growing number of customers shopping on their mobile devices. Over the past year, Amazon Fashion customers have ordered more than a billion items on mobile devices, the company said. Snapchat, meanwhile, has 363 million daily active users.
The partnership also highlights how AR and VR are becoming more popular. Snap has invested many years in the AR Lens platform. Last month, the company said during its Q3 earnings call that more than 250 million people interact with augmented reality on Snapchat every day.
“Our AR products and services are now making a huge impact at scale as Snapchatters use our services to shop, play, learn, discovery and entertainment,” CEO Evan Spiegel said on the earnings call. “This quarter, we announced a number of valuable new partnerships, innovative AR experiences, and new AR features and capabilities in Lens Studio.”
AR has also been an important tool for Amazon.
“Millions of customers regularly use Amazon’s AR shopping technology across our store categories, with Virtual Try-On for Eyewear being the favorite choice of longtime customers,” said Muge Erdirik Dogan , president of Amazon Fashion, said in a statement. “We’re excited to partner with Snapchat and further expand AR shopping to both fashion brands and today’s new generation of digital shoppers.”
Companies planning to expand their joint virtual test (VTO) Shopping lens beyond eyeglasses in the future.
