A Practical Guide to 3D and AR Product Views
Interactive 3D models and augmented reality views that let shoppers rotate products or place them in their own space.
Marcus Adeyemi
The key figures
- Formats
- GLB for web and Android, USDZ for iOS AR
- Scale
- models must use real-world dimensions
- Performance
- compressed models load faster
- Platforms
- Shopify and other platforms support 3D media
Why this is worth getting right
3D and AR help shoppers judge size and appearance, especially for furniture and home goods, but models must be accurate and light.
Do this, not that
Do
- Build models to exact product dimensions
- Compress geometry and textures
- Offer both GLB and USDZ
- Match colors to the real product
- Test on common phones
Don’t
- Models at the wrong scale
- Heavy files that fail to load
- Materials that differ from the product
- AR without a regular image fallback
When to bring in help
Our advice Bring in help when adding 3D or AR to a product catalog.
Where this comes from
- Khronos Group — glTF
- Apple Developer — AR Quick Look
- Shopify Help Center — 3D models
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
Working on something like this?
We take on E-commerce Development work for teams who want it done once, properly. Tell us what you are building and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right studio for it. Start a project.
Where to go next
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