Shopify Acquires Primer For AR Home Design Tools

eCommerce platform Shopify has acquired Primer, an augmented reality (AR) app that lets users test the effects of a home improvement project before getting their hands dirty.

Terms of the agreement, including the cost of the acquisition, were not disclosed in Primer’s blog post, published on Friday (June 11), but the post did note that Primer’s app will shut down on July 10, 2021.

Primer aims to create commerce that is immersive, the blog post said, a goal that is reflective of larger eCommerce trends. Many companies have turned toward a virtual strategy in their path toward economic recovery, as PYMNTS previously reported. Customers want to recreate in-store experiences, and even more so, they want the flexibility to try products before buying them.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to realize our founding conviction of building immersive shopping experiences on a massive scale at Shopify,” reads Primer’s blog post, written by the company’s co-founders, Russ Maschmeyer and Adam Debreczeni.

Primer offers its augmented reality (AR) technology to brands, which provides both sample and showroom integrations that sales teams and clients can use to view product installations at full scale virtually. The technology can mimic real lighting conditions, textures and sheens that give its customers realistic visuals of tiles, colors and patterns, according to its website.

AR can be a game changer for brands. Shopify released data last year that showed that interacting with AR content when shopping leads to a 94 percent higher conversion rate than shopping without.

In its first-quarter earnings report, the company said it is building out its suite of services to meet consumers’ changing demands and behaviors.

“2020 catapulted commerce into a period of incredibly rapid change, presenting Shopify with unprecedented opportunities in 2021 to accelerate innovation,” the company said.