This article was originally published here.
WeChat Mini Programs now enables brands to develop Augmented Reality (AR) feature for the first time. As a pilot launch, WeChat collaborated with Armani to launch a WeChat Mini Program AR lipsticks testing experience.
Users are able to personally try on different lipsticks simply by clicking on the various colours.
Users are also able to upload a picture to the Mini Program to test the colors. The Mini Program automatically detects the lip area and applies the selected color.
The Mini-program also has “viral” features, enabling users to easily generate a 2 by 2 test card for users to share with friends. Since lipsticks are one of the most popular gift categories, this picture uploading feature is especially useful.
However, Armani didn’t seem to experience a large increase of social mentions despite its killer AR feature launch. Most of the coverage for the new feature was carried by tech news outlets.
AR features definitely enable users to relate to the product and makes it easier to select the right colour. But simply providing a state-of-art shopping experience is not enough in today’s social space. High-quality traffic generated by KOL marketing is still the key to a successful WeChat campaign.