Amazon Launches New Interactive Delivery AR Features

Need to Know

• Amazon’s new augmented reality app feature allows users to scan a QR code on their Amazon delivery box to access interactive, shareable features.
• The boxes are also made of less material, as part of Amazon’s “Less Packaging, More Smiles” campaign.
• Amazon also recently launched an AR shopping option, to allow shoppers to “see” items in their own homes.

Analysis

Amazon is giving users a reason to play with their boxes before they hit the recycling bin, launching a new AR feature that gives smartphone users access to interactive features on the Amazon app that involve Amazon’s delivery packaging.

The tool, called Amazon Augmented Reality, uses a QR code on the side of Amazon delivery boxes. By scanning this code with their smartphone, Amazon customers can access AR features that are fun and shareable—and seem to be a pure brand-building exercise from Amazon, not connected to any point in the traditional customer journey.

One AR feature that is already available via Amazon Augmented Reality involves the drawing of a pumpkin, displayed on the side of an Amazon box. Users can fill in the outline of a pumpkin and then, using the AR tool, animate their animation. Options here include using the selfie function on a photo to have the user’s own head display as a pumpkin, decorating the pumpkin further, and capturing images of the pumpkin to share on social media.

Another function uses AR to turn an Amazon box into a small blue car, which can then be photographed with a person “sitting” in it.

The AR capabilities within Amazon Augmented Reality are limited and designed for interaction and shareability rather than lead generation or sales. The delivery boxes that are equipped with scannable QR codes also feature less material and are part of Amazon’s “Less Packaging, More Smiles” campaign.

The new interactive AR tool is not the first time in recent months that Amazon has bolstered its consumer-facing augmented reality capacities. In August, the company rolled out AR shopping capabilities that allow Amazon customers to place multiple home furnishings in one room in their home. That tool, called Room Decorator, scaled and displayed images in high-definition, making it easy for users to get a good sense of how they might look in real life. That tool was launched at a time when customers were spending more money on home furnishings and decor, due to coronavirus lockdown measures that saw many spending an increased amount of time at home.

Amazon also recently launched Amazon One, a device that allows users to pay for items by swiping their palm, in another bid to tailor its capabilities and services to the ongoing pandemic.

Amazon’s Augmented Reality boxes are now shipping in the U.S.