IDC Projects Retail As Largest AR/VR Industry By 2020

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Augmented Reality Virtual Reality Forecasts

IDC recently updated their Worldwide Semiannual Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Spending Guide to show an increase in forecast revenues of $13.9 Billion in 2017. AR and VR spending is also expected to accelerate over the next few years to a projected $143.3 Billion market by 2020. Wow…

In regards to specific industries that will drive this Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality spending, IDC’s report lists retail as a primary driver:

“Discrete manufacturing and retail are expected to be the only two industries spending more than $1.0 billion on AR/VR solutions this year. Driven by a five-year CAGR of 238.7%, retail will move ahead of discrete manufacturing to become the top industry for AR/VR spending in 2020.”

In addition, the report also lists the specific retail use cases that will drive this retail AR & VR spending:

“The industry use cases that will attract the largest investments in 2017 are retail showcasing ($461 million), product development ($267 million), and industrial maintenance ($249 million). By 2020, online retail showcasing will join retail showcasing and produce development as one of the largest use cases with a five-year CAGR of 403%.”

As we’ve stated on our site in the past, Augmented Reality will be one of the largest (if not the largest) segments for retail in the future. Virtual Dressing Room technology use cases continue to show different engagement and conversion tactics, mobile Augmented Reality with geolocation will help drive consumers to retail and so on.

As other Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality forecasts from Goldman Sachs have shown, it never has been an issue of “if” the retail segment will adopt Augmented Reality technology but “when”. With IDC’s latest report, we now have that answer as to when Augmented Reality technology for retail will arrive.

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