Cellulant seeks to build Africa’s first Augmented Reality (AR) powered try-on experiences in Facebook Messenger.
As part of the roll-out programme, Kenyan brandHuddah Cosmetics, has been selected as the first social commerce merchant on Mula to launch the platform; leveraging on Facebook to provide a unique product discovery shopping experience for their customers.
The brand will leverage on Facebook to provide a unique product discovery shopping experience for their customers.
Augmented Reality presents an opportunity for African brands and companies to build trust with consumers where “touch and feel” is often a pre-requisite before purchase.
Cellulant has recently extended product offerings on its Mula payment platform to include Mula Shops – a simple and convenient online shopping experience for the rising number of micro-merchants (or Hustle-preneurs) on social networking sites.
Mula Shops integrates Augmented Reality into the Facebook Messenger where customers are able to discover and try products before they purchase.
Brands that leverage social media as platforms for e-commerce can now give their customers a world-class one-stop-shop service from the trial, to payment and delivery, all within Facebook and Instagram. This is a departure from the current disjointed social commerce experience.
For Huddah lipsticks, for example, the AR technology switches on the camera on your cell phone and engages the buyer to try different shades before making a choice and concluding the purchase through Mula seamlessly.
Augmented Reality presents an opportunity to push brand lift, deliver world-class customer experience, brand interactions, improving conversion, and real-time purchase fulfilment.
According to Cellulant’s Chief Product Officer Faizal Mirza, the future is in providing a seamless experience in a space that is currently fragmented.
This partnership with Facebook allows us to do so for a segment that is often neglected when considering the economies of scale in Africa. This is the beginning of our journey to offering seamless, smart and connected digital payment experience to our customers across Africa.
Kenya is the first country to launch this new online experience with Nigeria, Tanzania and Rwanda to follow.
