ADOPTING AUGMENTED REALITY

ADOPTING

AUGMENTED REALITY

Edwin Meijer of Garden Connect explains how new technology is changing the way consumers shop online a ow ar e retailers ca e e t

Online shopping just gets easier and easier. And if we thought Apple Pay was impressive, there is a whole new area of technology ready to sweep us off our feet – augmented reality. Customers returning their garden furniture because it didn’t “suit their garden” or was “too large for the space” could become a thing of the past with this new technology too, as Garden Connect has made it available for garden furniture online.

Augmented reality allows customers to virtually place products, such as garden furniture, in their home or garden via their smartphone. This offers the opportunity for users to see whether the product is the ri ht t for that space hopefully a in a return less li ely if they opt to uy it.

Garden furniture could be one of the i est areas to ene t too. arden Connect notes that in 2020, 34% of consu ers purchased or loo ed at arden furniture online, and it is adamant this will not be less this year. So, in February it launched an augmented reality extension for we shops for arden retailers to ta e advantage of this browsing boom, even if they are not currently using Garden Connect services. With the help of a lin on the product page, consumers can virtually place the garden furniture set in their garden using only their s artphone. his a es the purchase of new garden furniture a lot easier,” says Edwin Meijer on behalf of Garden Connect.

“A lot of research has already been done into the effectiveness of AR in webshops. The use of AR increases conversion rates by about 94%. This is not surprising because consumers get a true picture of whether a product ts their home or garden.” etailers li e ea ha e already en a ed the innovation. According to the Google Consumer AR Survey, 66% of people say they are interested in using AR for help when shopping; and six in 10 people say they want to be able to visualise where and how a product could t into their li es says Garden Connect.

“Garden furniture is an expensive purchase, so it was a great place to start with for AR,” says Edwin. “Aside from furniture, we have also created a pot and

Aside from furniture, we have also created a pot and plant confi gurator which is already live and running

plant con urator which is already li e and runnin . t allows isitors to choose a pot and a plant and place the combination in his living room. The visitor can then add the chosen combination to his shopping cart with ust one clic .

The AR shopping is easy to use too. For a start, no app is required to use the add-on as it can be accessed directly through the browser; the product pages in the we shop contain a lin or code which open the user’s camera on their smartphone when scanned. Once the 3D model has loaded, users can then see how the garden furniture – or plant and pot – will loo in their arden or home.

“Our ambition is to help every webshop in the garden industry to use AR, even if they are not on our platform. t is a new technolo y

can code for the full experience that ts well with arden centre products because they are visually strong and so eti es uite e pensi e. n addition to garden furniture, this includes barbecues, decorations, and plants.”

To help garden centres promote the use of AR, Garden Connect provides them with promotional materials for their website, and every user has access to database of AR models.

“The biggest challenge in implementing AR is creating all the necessary models. Because we have more than 300 shops that partly sell the same products, we can or anise this uic ly. We already ha e ore than odels of well nown brands available, and that number is growing rapidly.” onsu ers are continually loo in at easier ways to a e their purchases – and their purchasing decisions – and augmented reality could be the answer. ◗

ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING AT GARDEN CENTRES

All there is to know about offering EV charging to your customers

It’s no secret that the future of personal travel is electric vehicles (EVs). The government won’t stop talking about it, we won’t stop talking about it, and sooner or later you won’t stop hearing about it. In this article, we explain the types of charging available and what we, at Mer, think would be most suitable for garden centres, and why.

Mer is an electric vehicle charging company with more than 400 charge points in the UK, and over 10,000 across Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria and the UK. With a large portion of the global sustainability conversation focusing on carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and wildlife conservation, it’s impossible to see garden centres as anything other than beacons of hope for a sustainable future. Mer is also owned by Statkraft: the largest renewable energy producer in Europe.

In our conversations with commercial landowners, it has become clear that the myriad of information out there can sometimes obstruct the uptake of charge points, rather than assist it. We are keen to make sure the message of EV charging infrastructure is articulated so that people who aren’t in the charge point world can understand it and explain it to customers, staff, colleagues, and friends.

It’s worth noting that the amount of power the car can ‘pull’ will depend on factors like: • The maximum capacity of the battery • The charge level of the battery at the beginning of charging • The battery type • The outside temperature • Whether or not someone else’s car is plugged into the same charging unit

The table below shows how many miles of charge you could expect from a variety of charger types:

TABLE HERE

There are also ultra-rapid chargers (anything over 100kw) which can take a car’s charge level from 0-80% in just 20 minutes. These are approximate times and are for illustrative purposes only.

So, what about garden centres?

It’s best to think about charge points in terms of fast (AC) and rapid (DC) chargers. AC is anything from 22kW and lower, while DC is anything from 25kW. If a driver wants a slow charge, one that would take fourplus hours for a good top up, AC is the way to go. If, on the other end, a faster charge is needed, then DC is more appropriate.

One important consideration is matching the type of charger to your customer’s dwell time. In the case of garden centres, this is typically 45-60 minutes; which would point you towards rapid (DC) chargers. If you have AC chargers installed, most customers won’t be there long enough to make using them meaningful and so you’d be missing out on service to your customers as well as revenue.

We think rapid (50-150kw), and semi rapid (25kw) (DC) chargers are the best choice for garden centres, although we provide a provision of fast (AC) chargers to cater for the plug-in hybrid community. Any charging company can install any charger type, but most tend to specialise in either AC or DC. Mer is one of the few operators to offer both, with a customer centric approach seeking to supply a solution for the whole driver community. With the ene t of studyin any years of data analytics, Mer now specialises in predominately DC charging and is working with landowners across the UK to install DC chargers in suitable locations.

What can you expect?

Mer would pay for the upfront costs and do the installation work, including new grid connections. Mer would also operate the back-end software and integrate charge points with Zap Map and a range of other similar locator platforms, meaning people looking for a charger will be able to see the ones on your site via Zap Map. You could typically be paid either a competitive annual fee for each bay, or a pro t share of the char e your users are paying for; this is typically between 1020%. Finally, contracts are likely to be 1520 years long. Long leases often provide a stronger chance of achieving a return on investment. Mer also replaces out-of-date hardware and provides 24/7 customer service for users. uk.mer.eco info.uk@mer.eco