What Canadian Decor Stores Should Look for in an AR (Augmented Reality) Provider

Picture a decor store owner in Toronto. She sells mirrors, wall art, vases and lamps from one shop and a website that ships across the country. She is ready to put AR (Augmented Reality) on her product pages, and three vendors have sent her quotes. The quotes do not look like they describe the same product. Here is the checklist that cuts through them.

It comes down to four questions. Who produces the views. Whether the shopper needs an app. How true size is proven. What the real price is for one year. Ask all four in writing before you sign anything.

1. Who produces the views, and from what

Start here, because everything else follows. Ask the vendor a plain question: who makes the AR views of my pieces, and what do they start from?

On some routes, you supply the files yourself. The vendor sells a viewer, you commission the files from artists at roughly $100 to $500 per product, and you manage the whole pipeline. For a 60 piece catalogue, that bill is the project, not the software.

On the done for you route, you send photos and your real listed dimensions, and the vendor produces the true size AR (Augmented Reality) views. ARQR360 works this way. Our designing department produces the views for you, from your photos, with new season stock handled the same way. When you compare quotes, compare the full job: views plus viewer plus hosting, not the monthly fee alone.

2. Does the shopper need an app

Ask before you sign: does the customer need to download an app to open the view? If the answer is yes, most of them will not use it. People do not install apps to check a mirror. A view that opens in the phone browser, from a link or a QR code, gets used. Test that on your own phone with our live decor demo.

This matters more for decor than for most categories. A mirror or a canvas is judged against a wall the shopper already lives with. If opening the view takes an app download, the shopper will judge it from the flat photo instead, and the flat photo is exactly what caused the return problem in the first place.

3. What does one year actually cost

Get the quote in writing for your full catalogue, for one year, with everything included. The monthly fee is usually the smallest line. The rest is per product production fees, per view charges that grow with your traffic, setup fees, and the cost of new season stock. A quote that will not put that number in writing is a quote you cannot compare.

For reference, ARQR360 is flat and public: $249 one time setup and $29 a month, with all AR (Augmented Reality) view production included. About seven days from photos to a live catalogue. No product cap, no per view fees. Custom packages are available if your store needs something beyond the standard catalogue, and our team follows up after launch to make sure the views are working where shoppers actually see them.

One number worth knowing, and it is Shopify's own data, not ours: products with 3D or AR views convert about 94% better than products without. Shoppers who can check the true size hesitate less.

4. How is true size proven

A mirror that is even a few inches off teaches the customer the tool cannot be trusted. Ask the vendor how they check every view against the real listed dimensions, and what happens when a piece is off. A serious answer names a process. A vague answer is the answer.

For decor, the test is simple and you can run it yourself. Put the view beside the real piece. The vase on the screen should match the vase on the shelf. The mirror on the wall should match the mirror in the shop. If it does not, the view is decoration, not a buying tool.

Where the links go

• Next to the price on every product page. That is where size doubt lives. A see it at true size link beside the buy button answers the question at the moment it matters.
• On the price tags in the shop. A QR code on the tag opens the same piece in AR. Customers check it at home and come back decided.
• In Instagram posts and stories. The link opens on a phone, which is exactly where your shoppers browse.

Distance is the other reason this matters in Canada. A shopper in a town hours from your shop cannot walk in to hold a vase against their shelf. The AR (Augmented Reality) view brings the shop to them, in the room the piece would actually live in. For that angle in full, read how Canadian decor stores sell to distant shoppers with AR.

The cheapest way to check before you buy

You do not have to sign anything to run the checklist. Send a photo of your bestselling mirror or wall art piece and we will build you one true size AR (Augmented Reality) view free. Put it on your own phone, check it against the real piece, and test your four questions against the actual thing. If it does not convince you, you have spent nothing. Try the live decor demo first: it opens in your phone browser, no install.