eBay opens social shopping experience in London’s Covent Garden – pictures

eBay is hosting a “social shopping” pop-up in London over the weekend to tie in with what it predicts to be its busiest online shopping day of the year in the UK. Over six million people are expected to log on to its site this Sunday, and a significant number of those are likely to come from mobile, it says.

No surprise then, the Covent Garden setup is built around how to make the most of eBay using your smartphone or tablet, recognising at the same time how important social media is in that space too.

I just went along to check it out, as the pictures above and below show. On display is a real-time barometer of the most talked about gifts and products over Twitter, an augmented reality experience highlighting this year’s must-have toys (note the Furby in the below shot), an example of its image recognition technology in action, and more.

That latter one sees a number of fashion bloggers pictured on the wall alongside a fabric swatch they’ve picked out. Each one can be scanned using the eBay fashion app to bring up similar colours and items available across the site. We trialled our scarves to double check they weren’t preloaded results – it did of course work wonderful.

eBay says mobile technologies such as this, as well as augmented reality and 3D, will present the UK retail industry with a potential boost of £2.4bn by 2014.

Carrie Bienkowski, head of buyer experience at eBay, said it’s changing the way we shop. “Consumers now carry a global showroom in their pocket and are increasingly as inclined to seek recommendations online and shop mobile as visit the high street. At eBay we expect 2012 to be our most successful mobile Christmas ever with around 30% of the most popular Christmas products being bought through a smartphone.”

eBay’s social shopping pop-up space is open from today until Sunday – if you’re in the area, check it out.

Stylist mag launches interactive #Olympics issue with Blippar

Stylist magazine launched its first augmented reality issue today with an interactive cover featuring Great Britain’s synchronised swimming team.

Enabled through a partnership between the UK free weekly title and image recognition app Blippar, the cover can be scanned to trigger a video of the Olympic hopefuls performing an exclusive routine.

“We knew we wanted to do something really special to mark the Olympics, and when we spoke to the Blippar team it became apparent they could help us create something innovative that would totally engage our readers and celebrate this incredible event,” said editor Lisa Smosarski.

The issue has various additional scannable pages throughout (recognisable by the Blippar logo), giving readers access to more videos as well as social media content and a “Style List” you can shop directly from. There’s also an Olympic medal leader board due to be updated daily throughout the Games.

“There’s so much to see, do and play with in this issue,” Smosarski adds in a video explaining how to use the app, here.

Stylist follows in the footsteps of Tatler and Asos who have previously made their magazines come to life using augmented reality.

Asos partners with Aurasma on scan to shop app

Asos is making its print magazine shoppable straight from the page, thanks to a new partnership with augmented reality technology company Aurasma.

The online retailer has introduced a “Scan to Shop” app that will enable the mag’s 450,000 readers to bring any one of 50 pages to video life via their smartphones, and then click to buy immediately from the Asos mobile site.

Asos has also incorporated a digital treasure hunt in the magazine, with hidden symbols leading to exclusive offers when unlocked.

Duncan Edwards of Asos Magazine, said: “We know our readers love fashion and their mobiles and this app unites the two. Our readers look forward to receiving the magazine in the post, but they also want the convenience and immediacy of shopping via their phones. Our new “Scan to Shop” app uses Aurasma to bring the two experiences – reading the magazine and shopping online – together seamlessly.”

To use the feature, readers must just download the Scan to Shop app from the App Store or Google Play.

The initiative sees Asos added to a rapidly growing list of fashion brands using Aurasma’s innovative image-recognition technology, included among them Net-a-Porter, Dunhill, Debenhams and most recently eBay.

Clarks partners with Aurasma for augmented reality SS12 ads

British footwear retailer Clarks is experimenting with augmented reality for the first time in a bid to close the gap for consumers between its print ads and e-commerce.

Following in the footsteps of Dunhill, Net-a-Porter and the British Fashion Council before it, the brand has partnered with image-recognition technology company Aurasma to make its spring/summer 2012 campaign come alive.

Using the Aurasma app (available for free from iTunes and for the Android), consumers will be able to point their cameras any any Clarks advert to see one of four different videos that accompany it. They will also be able to click through to the Clarks website to continue browsing.

Roy Gardner, head of category at Clarks, said: ‘We’re proud to be the first footwear brand to offer this experience to our consumers in the UK. Aurasma technology enables us to provide fantastic insight into the Clarks brand at a time when we are embracing new and innovative ways of inspiring and
engaging our consumers.’

UPDATE: M&S has also teamed up with Aurasma for a special Valentine’s Day campaign – read more here.

Dunhill Voice campaign comes to life with Aurasma partnership

Alfred Dunhill has launched an augmented reality experience around its autumn/winter 2011/12 “Voice” campaign, starring expedition leader Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Using Aurasma’s advanced image recognition technology, the initiative allows consumers to hold up their smartphone or tablet (using the Aurasma lite app) to bring Sir Ranulph to life.

Other stars telling their story include ballet dancer Rupert Pennefather and theatre director Michael Grandage.

From each video, users can also link to Dunhill retail to shop the collection.

Check out a demo of the AR experience in action, below: