Microsoft Hackathon 2019
The PixShop app lets you virtually try products before making a purchase! You can also shop the look from your favorite social media posts.

INSPIRATION
AR investments in retail continues to grow with projections of it being close to 30 Billion USD by 2023. Retailer brands such as Nike, Ikea & Sephora have created customized AR experience for individuals to try out products before making purchase. As this continues to grow especially with the next generation Gen Z who live in some form of extended reality, the future of shopping will continue to evolve.

Meanwhile, social media platforms are generating tons of well curated high quality image contents everyday. There are huge demands to shop the same look (outfits/furniture/decors, etc) in influencers posts, searching and shopping through hashtags and comments is not an easy task and requires third party apps.

PixShop is an AR interactive shopping platform that is bridging the gap between social media image searches and AR retail experiences. We hope to transform users' image searches from being 2-dimensional to becoming more visual where they are able to access all types of products within their environment and have the ability to purchase them.

Its seats at the intersection of bringing image explorations with augmented reality opportunities.

MARKET OPPORTUNITY
"93% of consumers find UGC to be helpful when making a purchasing decision." - ADWEEK
"UGC-based ads get 4x higher click-through rates and a 50% drop in cost-per-click than average."
-YOTPO
"75% of consumers now expect retailers to offer an augmented reality experience" - HUBSPOT
"78% Gen Z think that through AR or VR, the internet will impact our view of the world constantly."
- WGSN

HOW IT WILL WORK / HOW IT WILL BE BUILT
A user after performing an image search in filtered/merged social media contents, would have the general shopping results (brands/prices...) returned including AR-type shopping results. The user would then be able to switch to the AR view where they then have the ability to try it out and shop it.

1. Bing image search with social ranker and visual search:
To get the image results, we will be using the Bing API with social rankers and visual search API for identification of objects. We will also be using an AR kit to visualize the object within the user's environment. Once they are able to view the object, the name and cost of object would be identified and there would be an opportunity to click to purchase the object.

2. Bing AR model standards:
The standard AR models will be defined by Bing, and provided by third party brands (Nike/IKEA/Sephora/... etc), that was incorporated in Bing image search shopping results.