The bridal industry's first immersive experiences
INTRODUCTION
For 70 years, David’s Bridal has dressed customers for their wedding day and other special occasions. Guided by the principle that everyone deserves to have the attire of their dreams, the brand combines a best-in-class online experience with the convenience and service of one-stop shopping for the entire wedding party – and beyond – in more than 300 stores across the US, Canada, Mexico, and the UK.
One in 3 brides in the United States purchase their dress from David’s Bridal, and the company relentlessly strives to be the most relevant and innovative retailer serving the modern bride. David’s Bridal’s digital innovations, ranging from online planning tools through a virtual wedding stylist and Zoom video appointments, help inspire and support customers online. In tandem, brides benefit from a network of stores where they can see, touch, and try on dresses, and where bridesmaids or family members can shop and be fitted near home.
THE CHALLENGE
When COVID-19 forced the shutdown of all David’s Bridal stores for the first time in the brand’s 70-year history, the company seized the opportunity to pioneer web-based 3D & AR capabilities to engage and excite shoppers at home. The industry-first AR implementation was designed from the ground up to bring wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses to life for online shoppers, providing the context and detail necessary to narrow down options and arrive at purchase decisions. This included making sure that brides online could see the details and intricacies of a dress, which are often missed if not seen in store.
Recognizing that in-store appointments are the backbone of its business, David’s Bridal was also eager to provide an immersive and interactive experience that outlasted the pandemic. The brand understood that a successful strategy would not only bring each dress to life at home during pandemic restrictions but remain a valuable, long-term solution to help shoppers confidently pick out the dresses they couldn’t wait to try on in the store.
Overall Results
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lift in conversions to make in-store appointments
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Revenue per visit lift
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the number of AR-enabled products within first year
“As the first in the bridal industry to implement immersive 3D & AR product experiences, we placed a big bet that this technology would help today’s modern brides fall in love with the dress so they’d want to see it in the store or buy it online. 3D & AR has more than delivered, allowing us to continue to leverage a great digital experience in concert with our store advantages to drive sales and satisfaction.” – Lizzy Ellingson, chief digital experience officer
THE SOLUTION
David’s Bridal partnered with Vertebrae to launch the bridal industry’s first 3D & AR experiences, bringing virtual bridal gowns and bridesmaids dresses directly into customers’ homes. Implemented on the Axis platform, the immersive and engaging experience provides instant access to high-quality 3D & AR visualizations of best selling dresses directly from product pages without requiring customers to download a separate app.
Through highly detailed AR visualizations, brides and bridesmaids can view life-size gowns from every angle in their own living room, allowing them to walk around the dress, see how it will look next to other wedding party outfits, and examine intricate details before heading to stores. The Vertebrae technology allows customers to zoom in on elaborate draping, beading, fabric, and trains, as well as place a favorite gown side-by-side with virtual bridesmaids dresses to look at color, print, and style matches. Brides and members of the wedding party can also take pictures standing next to the virtual mannequin.
The web-based experiences are immediately available to shoppers on mobile and desktop. No headset and no application download is required to use 3D & AR capabilities, ensuring a smooth and frictionless experience without leaving the David’s Bridal brand and purchase path. This high-impact, simple mobile experience is particularly important in the wedding category, where brides often come from social channels to view dresses and be inspired. David’s Bridal currently estimates that 75% of its customers shop using mobile devices and anticipates that figure will continue to grow.
David’s Bridal selected Vertebrae because of the level of quality and detail provided by the award-winning technology, and the full implementation (from initial conversation through launch) was completed in less than 3 months. To bring this immersive experience to life, Vertebrae’s Axis platform streamlined the creation of 3D assets using approximately 200 – 300 photos for the initial 52 dresses. Vertebae’s industry leading capabilities that make visualizing products in 3D & AR an instant-loading, frictionless experience for consumers across all devices and browsers, includes analytics to gain insights into the visual characteristics that are driving purchasing behavior.
THE RESULTS
The immersive 3D & AR experience powered by Vertebrae has accelerated digital transformation for David’s Bridal, allowing the company to engage and excite shoppers as online activity and sales surge. The new 3D & AR visualizations allow David’s Bridal to meet brides in their own homes where they can purchase online or head to the store with new confidence in the dresses they want to try on.
Customer reaction has been immediate and positive. Within 3 months, David’s Bridal saw a 100% lift in booking an appointment for shoppers who used 3D & AR, as well as a 30% lift in revenue. Customer feedback has also been extremely positive, and David’s Bridal has enabled 3D & AR on an additional 100 products, including accessories as well as dresses, based on customer demand within the first year of implementation.
Try it for yourself
Select any of the images below to launch a David’s Bridal 3D & AR commerce experience.
