100 million people will shop with AR by 2020, market researcher says
5G is the key to it all, according to Gartner.
- She received the Renau Writing Scholarship in 2016 from the University of Louisville's communication department.
VR and AR will be a bigger part of your shopping experience in the future, according to Gartner.
By next year, 100 million consumers will shop using AR either online and in stores, market researcher Gartner predicted Monday.
As part of that shift, 46 percent of retailers plan to integrate augmented reality or virtual reality tech into shopping experiences, according to Gartner's Unified Retail Retailer Survey conducted last summer.
The introduction of 5G wireless networks will help push more stores into using AR and VR, Gartner said. 5G can optimize warehouse resources and store traffic analytics and make it easier to communicate with customers, according to Gartner.
"Retailers can use AR as an extension of the brand experience to engage customers in immersive environments and drive revenue. For example, Ikea's Place app enables customers to virtually 'place' Ikea products in their space," Hanna Karki, principal research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement.