Here's How Mothercare is Using Augment Reality to Give Birth to a Living Catalogue

brought to you by WBR Insights

Augmented reality has become incredibly popular with smartphone users in recent years, and parent-focused retailer Mothercare is using it to bring their catalogue to life.

Mothercare was founded in 1961 by Selim Zilkha and Sir James Goldsmith. The company changed its name to Habitat Mothercare plc after a merger in 1986, and then became Storehouse plc ten years later after another merger with British Home Stores (BHS). The original Mothercare brand was reverted to in 2000 after the BHS arm of the business was purchased by Philip Green.

Today, Mothercare is one of the most recognized brands on the UK high street and acquired early-life toy specialist Early Learning Centre in 2007. The company is renowned for great customer service, and was placed at #47 in Which? Magazine's top 100 customer service brands. Mothercare has also been a long-time innovator when it comes to digital technology, launching pregnancy and parenting social media platform Gurgle in 2007. However, now the brand has its sights set on mobile technology.

The Mothercare App

Mothercare has had a rough few years, and in mid-2017 it was predicted that they could close as many of 70 of its high street locations. "From a store point of view, we had a number of stores which had not had a lick of paint in 15 years," said Marketing Director, Gary Kibble. "Some looked like they were in close-down mode: tape on the carpet, chewing gum stains, standards of visual merchandising were very poor. It looked tired and unloved which was very symptomatic of the store estate."

However, the company has managed to survive and, thanks to the innovative technology deployed across its digital channels, the tides look like they could turn back once again.

In part, this popularity has been driven by the success of its mobile app. In one particularly innovative and engaging feature, the Mothercare app gamifies the practice of choosing a baby's name. When expectant parents enter the Baby Names section of the application, they can shake the device to randomly generate a list of names, and enjoy a selection of baby-friendly tunes playing through the phone's speakers.

Mothercare Chief Executive Mark Newton-Jones said, "The trend towards mobile continues, with our digitally enabled customers using their mobiles to browse and purchase products, review content and engage with us on our social channels. Mobile now accounts for 83% of online traffic."

Augmented Reality

Ever since the phenomenal success of the smartphone game Pokemon Go!, many brands have been looking for new ways to incorporate augmented reality (AR) technology into their digital offerings, and Mothercare has found an interesting way to do so.

Combine its popular physical catalogue with mobile technology, Mothercare has teamed up with AR trailblazers Zappar to add an exciting new feature to the company's app.

(Image source: youtube.com )

Now, customers can hold their phone over the catalogue and press a special "Zap" button. The app then captures the image of the catalogue page and creates a convincing illusion that the images have come to life. You can even move the physical book around and the animation will continue, uninterrupted. Customers can then access more information about scanned items, including suggested product combinations, photo galleries, and ordering details.

"When we started Zappar over five years ago, we saw the potential it had for smartphones as a new way to scan and discover the world around you; unlocking content that could surprise and delight people," said Caspar Thykier, co-founder and CEO of Zappar. "Our phones have become the evolutionary appendage we can't live without. With AR, we bring a new lens and function to our phones to scan and retrieve information and entertainment from everyday objects. We already did that to an extent with QR codes, but frankly the experience has always been static and lousy - have you ever heard anyone say, 'Check out this awesome QR code!'"

Planned future functions for the Zap feature include customers being able to use augmented reality to view how Mothercare furniture might look in their own homes.

Final Thoughts

Augmented reality is clearly an exciting frontier for retailers, with many opportunities presented for opening up new revenue channels via AR applications. It's great to see Mothercare on the rise again and making the most of this innovative technology to do so.

The final word goes to Mothercare Marketing Director, Gary Kibble.

"There is a genuine degree of warmth for the brand. People want the brand to do well and succeed. You feel that real passion for it."

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You can hear Mothercare's Head of International Ecommerce, Sayad Gaffar, at eTail Europe 2018 this June at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London.

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