Best Buy just became the latest retailer to release an augmented reality (AR) app for Apple’s Vision Pro. The app is designed to allow customers to “plan their ultimate home technology setup,” Best Buy said. It’s called Best Buy Envision. Consumers can use it to see how products like TVs and home theater equipment will look in their homes.

The retailer follows a few other early adopters in using the Vision Pro as a way to preview purchases before actually buying them. 

“Best Buy Envision is another way we’re utilizing innovative technology to humanize consumer electronics like no one can,” said Brian Tilzer, chief digital, analytics and technology officer for Best Buy. 

Best Buy is No. 9 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North America’s leading retailers by online sales. Digital Commerce 360 categorizes it as a Consumer Electronics retailer.

How does Best Buy’s Vision Pro app work?

Vision Pro users can download the Best Buy Envision app and see 3D images of how different products will look in their space. Best Buy says featured products include hundreds of big-screen TVs, appliances, fitness equipment and furniture.

“The app allows our customers to see, in a lifelike way, how technology will look and feel right in their own homes, delivering an immersive and personalized shopping experience,” Tilzer said in a statement. According to the app store listing, consumers can mix and match different products to see how they look together.

Consumers can see how Best Buy products will look in their homes.

When the consumer finds a product that interests them, they can access pricing information and customer reviews. The app also allows the user to send a link to the product through a text message or email. Further, they can even make the purchase with the Vision Pro by opening the product page in the Vision Pro Safari app, Best Buy said.

“Best Buy Envision was designed by our team specifically for the Apple Vision Pro. It creates a totally new experience that will take your shopping to the next level and leave you feeling confident in your choice to upgrade to the one TV size bigger,” the retailer said in the statement.

How other retailers are using the Vision Pro

Several online retailers have released Vision Pro apps to facilitate virtual stores and omnichannel experiences.

Lowe’s (No. 11 in the Top 1000) introduced a home design use case for the new headset. The hardware and home improvement chain’s Style Studio app allows Vision Pro owners to choose from preset kitchen designs created by stylists, or create custom designs from their own selections of materials, fixtures and appliances. Similarly, Wayfair’s (No. 10) Decorify app lets consumers upload photos of their homes and redecorate them in various styles using products available through Wayfair.

J. Crew (No. 78) released a virtual closet app. That experience encourages customers to style outfits on a virtual mannequin with input from stylists. E.l.f. Cosmetics (No. 682) took a slightly different approach. Vision Pro users can use its app to purchase e.l.f. products with Apple Pay and take part in paint-by-numbers activities and guided meditation.

Online marketplace StockX also created a shopping app for the Vision Pro. It features a 3D sneaker showcase designed to recreate the experience of shopping in a store, StockX said.

StockX is No. 23 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database, ranking the 100 largest such marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).

Other Best Buy technology

The retailer recently said it will launch a generative AI assistant to handle customer inquiries on BestBuy.com, the Best Buy app, and through its phone support line. The assistant is scheduled to launch in late summer 2024. It will be able to help customers troubleshoot problems, change delivery scheduling and manage subscriptions and memberships, Best Buy said.

Best Buy also uses generative AI for customer service agents to make their roles easier. The technology gives agents real-time recommendations on how to respond to customer inquiries. It also summarizes conversations and uses data from calls to make better recommendations in the future, Best Buy said. The use of AI improves the accuracy of data collection and reduces average engagement time with agents by about 5%, CEO Corie Barry told investors in February.

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