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Integrating Augmented Reality into Your WordPress Site
Looking for an effective way to bring new life to your eCommerce products or keep customers engaged with dynamic, immersive activities? Try integrating Augmented Reality (AR) into your WordPress site.
AR can transform user experiences, giving visitors the opportunity to explore every detail of 3D models or even virtually ‘try-on’ products before adding them to the shopping cart.
All it takes to implement is the right tools and proper planning, and this guide covers both.
Below, you’ll discover:
- Practical examples that demonstrate how AR can enhance your site
- The best practices you’ll need to follow to integrate AR successfully
- Our top five recommended Augmented Reality plugins for WordPress.
Ready? Let’s get started.
Why Use Augmented Reality in WordPress? Practical Use Cases
Augmented Reality may not be right for every type of website, but for others, it can be an absolute game-changer, giving you a competitive advantage and delivering the kind of truly immersive user experiences that lead to higher engagement and more conversions.
If you’re still on the fence about using it for your site, or you can’t quite work out how AR could benefit your business, take some inspiration from the following examples:
Ecommerce
Augmented Reality and ecommerce go together like that matching hat and purse you sell in your store. In other words, they’re made for each other, giving customers a unique opportunity to ‘try out’ products from the comfort of their homes.
Selling clothing or fashion accessories?
Add AR to your WooCommerce store and customers can virtually overlay your products onto themselves, allowing them to see how they look before adding them to their cart.
As you can imagine, this goes a long way to reducing the number of returns you receive from customers who order products and then decide that they don’t suit them.
Perhaps your online store sells furniture or valuable artwork. In that case, AR plugins like the ones featured later in this guide will let your customers see how those pieces look in their homes, increasing the likelihood that they’ll hit the Buy Now button.
Is this something your customers would even want?
Most evidence suggests that it is.
A 2022 survey by McKinsey revealed that 48% of respondents expressed an interest in immersive digital shopping experiences, making it the most popular type of immersive activity.
Meanwhile, Modern Retail found that ‘virtual try-ons’ were the second most popular use of AR among marketers after social media apps and filters.
To put all that another way, integrating AR into WooCommerce isn’t just a fun, futuristic add-on designed to make your competitors green with envy, it’s a strategic move that helps your business meet a growing demand among tech-savvy shoppers.
Education
From the showroom to the classroom, Augmented Reality presents a plethora of exciting opportunities to redefine the possibilities of online learning.
For a perfect example of this, look no further than Google Expeditions, which lets students take virtual field trips to museums, science centers, and even the top of Mount Everest.
Whether it’s 3D models of historical artifacts, scientific structures, or interactive maps, adding AR to your WordPress-powered educational website serves as the ideal way to turn passive learning into active engagement.
Events
Have you ever gone to book tickets for a show and been presented with a 3D model of the venue from which you could select your seats?
Maybe you’ve been to a conference and familiarized yourself with the conference center by taking a virtual 3D tour?
If so, you’ve seen AR in action.
Even virtual events like webinars can be enhanced with Augmented Reality, allowing you to link to and share 3D resources hosted on your site that help attendees gain a deeper understanding of concepts.
Real Estate
AR is a powerful tool for real estate websites, creating virtual ‘walk-throughs’ that can reduce staging costs by 97%.
By adding Augmented Reality to your listings, potential buyers can explore each room, experiment with furniture layouts, and even plan possible renovations, all without stepping foot inside the property.
Brick-and-Mortar Businesses
It’s not just online businesses that can benefit from integrating AR into WordPress. It may sound a little cliched, but the possibilities really are endless, even if you’re a predominantly brick-and-mortar business.
Running a restaurant? Create a 3D model that lets customers choose their preferred table and make a reservation.
Run a large-scale retail outlet with hundreds of products? Using AR to create an interactive store map can save customers time by letting them plan their visit and locate specific items before they ever step foot in your store.
Or how about using 3D models so that potential new members can explore your gym or fitness center before they sign up?
Preparing Your Augmented Reality Integration – Recommended Best Practices
No matter what kind of industry you’re in, you’ll get the best results from AR by taking the time to fully prepare for the upcoming integration.
Dive right in without a moment of planning, and you’re setting yourself up for a host of pitfalls and technical challenges.
Stick to the following best practices, however, and you stand a much better chance of success.
1. Define Your AR Goals
First things first, ask yourself a serious question about why you want to use Augmented Reality in the first place.
There are a number of ways you could answer this, but if the only answer you can come up with is “because it looks cool,” then you need to dig a little deeper.
As we’ll discuss in more detail below, AR can be a resource-intensive add-on that requires much more complexity than your average WordPress feature.
Putting in all that extra work just to show off is an exercise in futility which not only does nothing to enhance your business but may even detract from what you’re already doing well, diminish site performance, and do more harm than good when it comes to overall user experience.
Instead, think carefully about how AR can be implemented in a way that aligns with your core business goals.
Do you want to drive sales?
Boost engagement and visitor retention?
Increase foot traffic to your physical store?
Getting a true understanding of your why will ultimately influence your how. It steers you in the direction of the best plugin or tool to use, the best way to implement it, and what KPIs to track to get a sense of whether AR is helping or harming your site.
2. Assess Compatibility and Capability
Next come the most critical questions of all:
- Is your website capable of handling AR?
- Do you have the capability as a developer or site owner to implement AR effectively?
Let’s look at each one in turn:
A. Server Capacity and Site Compatibility
There’s no escaping the fact that Augmented Reality takes up more storage space and requires more bandwidth than your average WordPress feature. So, the most important question you need to ask is:
Can my hosting server handle it?
If you’re running on a shared hosting plan with limited resources, you may find your AR features causing performance issues like slow page load times or unexpected crashes.
So, before you get to work, you may want to consider upgrading your server or perhaps migrating your WordPress site to an entirely new server that’s better equipped to handle resource-intensive AR.
At the very least, you should consider optimizing your WordPress performance before integrating AR.
Use features like lazy loading and image compression and performance-enhancing tools such as Content Delivery Networks to reduce the load on your server, ultimately giving you more resources to handle the additional strain of AR.
When you’re done, run a performance test using a tool like Pingdom or Google PageSpeed Insights. The test results will serve as a benchmark which will later allow you to measure the performance impact of your AR features after you’ve integrated them.
While we’re on the subject of technical requirements, take a look at your WordPress theme.
Older themes in particular may conflict with modern AR plugins, while others may have limited page layout options that could negatively affect the way your Augmented Reality features are displayed on a browser.
If you think it’s time to change things up, check out these top multipurpose WordPress themes.
B. Developer Capability
There are many things about WordPress that could be considered ‘beginner-friendly.’ Augmented Reality integration is not one of them.
Before you get started then, you need to be realistic about whether you -or your team- have the technical expertise to carry out this process.
After reading the rest of this guide, take some time to reflect on what you’ve learned. Is this something you’re really capable of handling in-house right now?
If not, you may need to set aside a budget to bring in outside help, or at the very least, clear up some time to learn more about the intricacies of AR and the skills required to use it on your site.
3. Get Familiar With AR Formats
Here’s where defining your goals in advance really pays off. When you know what you want to achieve with Augmented Reality, you’ll have a better idea of which formats to use.
At this point, the first thing you need to decide is between marker-based and markerless AR.
- Marker-based AR – Augmented Reality content is triggered when a user scans a QR code, clicks on an image, or interacts with some other type of element on the screen. This approach is typically easier to implement, but it ultimately creates a barrier between your user and your content.
If you decide to use marker-based AR, be sure to clearly communicate to your audience how to use these features and the benefits of doing so.
- Markerless AR – Advantage tracking technology is used to place virtual objects in a physical environment without the need for some kind of marker-based trigger.
Markerless AR offers a more seamless and intuitive user experience. However, it’s also more technically advanced and can require some serious server power.
From there, you’ll also need to think about which AR file types are most suitable.
For example, 3D models are the most common type of AR content around. If you’re going to use them, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with file formats like OBJ, FBX, or GLTF. Meanwhile, those of you planning to use video overlays will need to be confident in handling MP4, MOV, or other video-based formats.
4. Use a Staging Environment
As with any new feature that you plan on adding to WordPress it’s always a better idea to test things out in a staging environment before rolling them out to your live website.
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If you’re unfamiliar with staging, follow the step-by-step instructions in our guide to creating a WordPress staging site.
This will show you how to clone your site to a staging environment where you can work on developing your AR content without the risk of impacting your site’s performance or functionality.
5. Create a Backup
When you’re confident that your AR features are working flawlessly, you can migrate them back to the live environment, but not without first taking a backup.
After all, even though everything looks to be running correctly, there’s still a small chance that something could be wrong with the migration which breaks your site or renders it inaccessible.
In that worst-case scenario, being able to restore a good working copy of your site will make all the difference.
Best Augmented Reality Plugins for WordPress
If you know anything at all about WordPress, it won’t come as any surprise to you to learn that the best way to integrate Augmented Reality is through a plugin.
To save you some time in picking out the right one, we’ve rounded up our top five recommended augmented reality plugins for WordPress:
1. AR for WordPress
AR for WordPress tops the list as the most comprehensive and flexible WordPress Augmented Reality plugin on the blog.
Unlike some tools that only support one or the other, AR for WordPress supports both marker-based and markerless AR while integrating seamlessly with 3D model formats like USDZ, GLB, and GLTF.
Compatible with Gutenberg, Elementor, and other major page builders, AR for WordPress and its sister plugin, AR for WooCommerce can be used for everything from allowing customers to ‘try on’ clothes to interacting with restraint menus, or enjoying a full 360-degree models used for education.
Pricing:
- Per Month: $15
- Per Year: $150
2. 3D Viewer for WordPress
Designed for integration with WooCommerce stores, 3D Viewer for WordPress is a relatively easy-to-use tool that lets you quickly upload 3D models in GLB and GLTF formats.
Adding your models to a WordPress page is as straightforward as inserting a shortcode, though the most impressive feature as far as we’re concerned is the ability to create 3D model galleries with different product variants and effortlessly embed them into your product pages.
Price:
- From $3.75 p/m (billed annually)
3. Auglio
Augilo is designed specifically to deliver seamless ‘virtual try-on’ experiences, making it perfect for online retailers in the fashion, accessories, or beauty markets.
For example, eye-wear specialists will love the ‘Frame Removal’ capabilities that let customers try on a new pair of glasses without taking theirs off, while the measurement features prove invaluable for capturing a user’s measurements to ensure that the product they order is the perfect fit.
True, this particular plugin won’t benefit everyone. If you want customers to explore 3D models or design room layouts, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
However, for try-ons, this is undoubtedly one of the best tools in town.
Price:
4. CartMagician Pro
Another tool designed specifically for WooCommerce, CartMagicianPro lets customers place virtual representations of your products directly into their real-world environment at the click of a button.
Ideal for those of you who sell art, furniture, and other physical products, CartMagician is built to meet your customers where they are – on their smartphones.
The platform is powered by WebRAR, a smartphone-specific technology for delivering AR experiences.
Pricing: $12.42Per month monthly billed annually at $149
5. PausAR
If you work primarily with Elementor, PausAR may be the answer to your Augmented Reality needs.
While tools like AR for WordPress come with an Elementor widget, PausAR is purpose-built to be fully compatible with your page builder.
Although limited to marker-based AR, it’s still an excellent option for adding Augmented Reality into your site with no technical programming knowledge required.
Price:
- From €20.83 ($21.69 USD) per month.
Post-Integration: Key Elements to Test
Whether you use one of our recommended AR plugins or a different one altogether, your work isn’t done once you’ve installed that tool and used it to add your augmented reality features.
Before you begin to wow visitors with your impressive new immersive experiences, you first need to do some vigorous testing.
In particular, look at:
1. Cross-Browser Functionality
Load your site on different web browsers and check two key things:
- That the AR features themselves work as expected
- That adding AR to WordPress hasn’t caused other features to malfunction due to issues like plugin conflicts.
Not sure which browsers to test on?
Open up Google Analytics and go to User – Tech – Overview to see which browsers your audience uses to access your site and start with those.
Don’t have Google Analytics set up?
Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox are the most widely-used desktop browsers, while Safari dominates the smartphone browser market. So there’s a very high probability that the majority of your audience use at least one of those.
2. Performance
If you’ve followed our advice to the letter so far, you’ll have carried out a pre-integration performance test and noted the results.
Now, run that same test again using the same tool, whether that’s Pingdom, PageSpeed Insights, or something else entirely.
Is there a big difference in your performance scores?
It’s unlikely that adding Augmented Reality will make your site run faster, so at best, you’re looking for little to no change.
However, if your performance scores are significantly worse, it’s time to take action. See our 16 recommended ways to boost your WordPress site speed.
3. Mobile Responsiveness
Just because everything worked when you tested your site on Safari using your personal iPhone doesn’t guarantee that it’s going to work just as well on every device.
- What about older -or newer’ iPhone models?
- What about Android devices?
- What about the multitude of different tablets out there with their wide variety of screen sizes?
Mobile devices account for between 50% – 60% of all website traffic, so there’s a very good chance that your visitors are using theirs to visit your site.
As such, you need to be confident that your AR is going to perform properly on popular devices.
Of course, we’re not suggesting you run out and spend a fortune buying up every iPhone and tablet on the market, but at the very least use the developer tools in your browser.
To do this, open up the page, right-click, and tap Inspect.
Then, activate the device menu by clicking on the small icon that looks like a smartphone and computer. Now, you can use the drop-down menu to view your site as if it were loaded on different devices.
Does everything work as it should?
If not, make whatever changes you need to make before going live.
If so, congratulations, you’ve successfully integrated Augmented Reality into your WordPress site.
Integrating Augmented Reality in WordPress: Key Takeaways
Feeling inspired and excited about the possibilities of integrating Augmented Reality into your WordPress website?
We don’t blame you. Far from a far-flung science-fiction fantasy, AR is much more accessible than it ever has been, making it a viable and effective way to give your users the kind of online experience they’ll never forget.
However, before you get started, let’s recap the most important points you need to remember.
- Augmented Reality Improves User Experiences – Whether you’re putting customers in your physical venue or putting your products into their homes, AR gives you a unique opportunity to transform the way you interact with your audience.
- The technology needs more resources than your average WordPress site – Check that your server is capable of handling Augmented Reality before you forge ahead.
- Plugins offer an easy way to add AR to your site – Top options include AR for WordPress, 3d Viewer for WordPress, and the ‘virtual try-on’ tool, Augilo.
Looking for more ways to turbocharge your online store? Explore these top plugins for eCommerce success.
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