Evolution of Extended Reality (XR) in Retail, Global, 2024-2030

This study focuses on the extended reality (XR) platform market and its evolution in the retail space. XR encompasses immersive technologies like VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), and MR (mixed reality). Retail includes brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce platforms, and omnichannel retailers. In retail, XR has been transforming the shopping experiences, streamlining operations, and driving overall sales. This market has witnessed significant growth and adoption in recent years, with retailers leveraging XR to create unique and interactive shopping environments. Retailers use XR to enhance customer engagement by providing personalized experiences, leading to increased customer loyalty and satisfaction. XR bridges the gap between online and offline shopping, enabling retailers to offer a seamless omnichannel experience, which is crucial for modern consumer expectations. Primary retail use cases include AR for product visualization and try-on experiences, VR virtual store tours and immersive product demonstrations, AI-driven XR shopping assistants, VR for employee training and operational efficiency, and enhanced product support through AR-guided troubleshooting and tutorials. Globally, the XR market is growing due to technological advancements in hardware, software, and infrastructure, developments in spatial computing, AI integration, and general funding support from governments, corporate investors, and venture capital firms. As XR adoption in retail grows, so does the investment that fuels innovation, making XR platforms more affordable and accessible. Author: Claudia Hochman