Experince Layer : Problem
The Structural Breakpoint in Digital Commerce
Experience
Problem
Digital commerce suffers from a fundamental experience gap that shapes how customers evaluate, trust, and decide on products. To understand the scale of this gap and why AR and VTO have become essential, this section outlines the core problems limiting online shopping today, from sensory limitations to expectation mismatches, declining confidence, and measurable financial impact.
The Digital Experience Deficit
Despite major digital investments, customers are still expected to buy products they cannot physically examine or experience.
57% of consumers want to see, touch, and feel products before buying, yet online shopping cannot satisfy this fundamental need.
This sensory gap erodes confidence and increases risk perception, especially in categories where size, fit, color, and style are critical.
Unanswered Buying Questions and Expectation Mismatch
Customers face persistent uncertainty in evaluating products.
Key questions remain unanswered:
Will this sofa fit my space?
Does this rug or flooring match my lighting and décor?
Will this watch, ring, or pair of glasses suit me?
Does this color truly match my skin tone?
Will this configuration fit my lifestyle and room layout?
This leads to mismatched expectations.
42% of consumers return items because they were not as expected, showing the scale of the imagination gap in digital retail.
Trust and Confidence Gap
Limited visualization creates hesitation in purchasing high-involvement items.
Consumers lack clarity about scale, material, fit, and placement. This uncertainty drives cart abandonment, indecision, and skepticism toward product pages.
In fashion, poor fit and sizing issues account for up to 70% of returns, and makeup or eyewear buyers struggle to predict aesthetic suitability. Trust declines when digital previews fail to match reality.
The Business Impact
The experience deficit creates measurable financial pain.
Online purchases average 15.2% return rate, nearly triple in-store.
Apparel sees 22% online returns versus 6.2% in-store.
US shoppers returned 890 billion dollars in goods last year.
Internal retail data shows 45% of returns stem from sizing issues and 22 to 31% from products not matching expectations.
This systemic inefficiency drains profitability, increases waste, and worsens sustainability metrics.
The core issue is simple: digital commerce still fails to replicate the try-before-buy certainty of physical retail.
These systemic experience gaps reveal not just isolated UX issues but a foundational failure in digital retail. The next question is what can close this gap. AR and VTO emerge as the only technologies capable of resolving these problems at scale.
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