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Amazon’s iOS app now uses ARKit for virtual shopping ahead of Black Friday

Along with launching today’s Countdown to Black Friday 2017, Amazon updated its iOS app to include a new feature for the holiday shopping season called ‘AR View’. Leaning heavily on Apple’s own ARKit, this new feature allows customers to virtually place products in their home “allowing them to visualize the aesthetic” prior to purchasing. (Also Amazon is currently offering a $50 iTunes gift card for $42.50. That’s 15% off.)

This new functionality is integrated directly into the Amazon app which is available for free in the App Store. Users can activate ARView by selecting the camera icon within the app and choosing ARView. Amazon has “thousands” of items available at launch that can be virtually placed throughout your home with this new functionality.

In the case of furniture or electronics, this feature could be particularly helpful when considering a new purchase. Shoppers can customize colors on virtual products within the app to match their home decor to find just the right combination. Watch Amazon’s own introduction video to see just how fun it can be to place a virtual toaster in your kitchen:

With Black Friday 2017 just around the corner, Amazon’s new ARKit-enabled features arrive just in time for the busy holiday shopping season. It follows other major retailers such as IKEA and Target that have recently also rolled out similar functionality. The updated Amazon iOS app with ARView is available as a free download today on the App Store.

Be sure to keep it locked to 9to5Toys throughout the holiday season for all the latest deals on Apple gear, electronics and more. You can catch up on all of the latest Black Friday 2017 news here.

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 1, 2017– (NASDAQ:AMZN) – Amazon today announced the opening of its Black Friday Deals Store, officially marking the start of the holiday shopping season. The Black Friday Deals Store, available at www.amazon.com/blackfriday, offers deals across every category now through Black Friday. Customers can find deals on everything from toys and electronics to holiday entertaining essentials and wardrobe must haves – all in one convenient location. Today, customers can save up to 30% on favorite toys including Baby Alive Sweet Tears, Dropmix, Tickle Me Elmo and more. This holiday season, customers can also expect great deals on premium TVs from brands like LG, Samsung and Sony, as well as popular toys from LEGO, Melissa & Doug, Nerf, Paw Patrol, Star Wars and more.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171101005882/en/

“We’re excited to officially kickoff another holiday season, bringing customers better deals than ever before on everything they’ll need – from electronics and toys to clothing, home essentials and more,” said Doug Herrington, Senior Vice President of North American Retail at Amazon. “Customers shop Amazon year-round for our great prices, unbelievable selection, and free shipping on over 100 million products. During the holiday season, customers love to discover great deals and must-have holiday gifts for friends and family. Some of the most popular starting points for holiday shoppers are our Black Friday Deals Store, Amazon’s curated Home and Electronics Gift Guides, the Holiday Toy List, the newly redesigned Gift Finder, our Handmade Gift Shop, and Interesting Finds.”

More Ways to Shop than Ever Before

Voice Shopping: Customers can voice shop with Alexa for tens of millions of Prime-eligible items, including many of the products available in the Black Friday Deals Store and featured in the 2017 Holiday Gift Guides. Available on the Alexa family of devices including Amazon Echo, Echo Plus, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap, and Amazon Dash Wand, as well as screened devices such as the all-new Amazon Fire TV, all-new Fire HD 10 Tablet, Echo Show and soon to be released Echo Spot, it’s as simple as saying, “Alexa, order [product]” and Alexa will find a top-rated product that ships with Prime. Just say, “yes” to buy it. Changed your mind? No problem, any physical product purchased with your voice is eligible for free returns. Customers must be Prime members with default payment and shipping information.

Amazon App: The Amazon App is designed to make your holiday shopping fast and easy. In fact, last holiday season, more than 70% of Amazon customers worldwide shopped using a mobile device. Customers can find where their holiday packages are in seconds, use camera search to quickly and easily find the items they want by pointing at an item or barcode, and never miss a deal by setting Watch-a-Deal alerts. Customers can also search and reorder with Alexa. Once Amazon boxes begin to arrive, customers can use the Amazon App’s Package X-Ray feature to scan the barcode and see what’s inside, allowing them to wrap gifts without ever opening the box or spoiling the surprise.

AR view: Amazon’s latest augmented reality offering within the Amazon App launched today for customers with iOS 11 installed on their iPhone 6S or later. Using Apple’s ARKit, AR view helps customers make better shopping decisions by allowing them to visualize the aesthetic and fit of products in their own living space. Customers simply open the Amazon App, click on the camera icon and choose AR view. They can then select from thousands of items – from living room, bedroom, kitchen and home office products to electronics, toys and games, home décor and more. Whether customers are buying a sofa or a kitchen appliance, they can overlay it onto their existing living space, move it and rotate it to get a full 360-degree peek in a live camera view to make sure it fits their style and aesthetic.

Amazon.com in Spanish: Since adding the option for customers to set their language preference earlier this year, millions of customers have chosen Spanish as their preferred language to shop on Amazon.com and in the Amazon App. Customers can shop, browse and search for millions of products, view their shopping cart, and place orders in Spanish. Customers can update their language settings in their Amazon App, as well as visit Amazon.com and click the ‘globe’ button – located in the navigation bar at the top of their Amazon home screen – to set and begin shopping in their preferred language. Preferred language settings will be saved for future site visits under ‘Your account’ settings.

Treasure Truck: Now available in 25 select cities, Treasure Truck is a new way for customers to shop this holiday season. Customers can opt-in to receive notifications from the Amazon App for special must-have offers from Treasure Truck, order the item, and pick-up at the truck all season long. Each time the truck rolls, one hand-picked offer will be available including gifts for the adventurer, foodie, hostess, kids and techie, as well as delicious seasonal food items, and more. Look for the truck at various locations this holiday season.

Amazon Books: Now open in Seattle, New York City (on 34th St and at Columbus Circle), Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston (Dedham and Lynnfield), San Diego, San Jose, Portland, Bellevue (Wash.) and Paramus (N.J.), Amazon Books integrates the benefits of offline and online shopping to help customers find books and devices that they’ll love. Whether customers want to discover a new book for the holidays or test-drive an Amazon device, Amazon Books offers gifts for everyone. Browse in-store deals and holiday features like Most-Wished-For-Gifts, Hidden Gem Gifts, the Holiday Toy List and customer favorites like Page Turners: Books Kindle Readers Finish in 3 Days or Less, Local Bestsellers, 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime.

Shop with Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs
Half of the items sold on Amazon worldwide are from small businesses and entrepreneurs, many of which will be offering deals on their products throughout the holiday season. Some of the small businesses and entrepreneurs offering deals include Sleepyheads, Furbo, Lightaccents, Owlee and TigerSecu.

Inspired Gifting for Everyone on Your List

Curated Gift Guides: Thoughtfully curated and inspired by Amazon product experts and influencers, Amazon’s 2017 Holiday Toy List, Electronics Gift Guide and Home Gift Guide take the guesswork out of gifting and offer customers quick and easy access to the top gifts for everyone on their list.

Customers can browse more than a thousand of the most sought-after products for kids of all ages and interests on the 2017 Amazon Holiday Toy List, available at amazon.com/holidaytoylist.

Those who want to shop more than 500 of the season’s hottest technology products, from TVs to gaming systems, can do so while shopping the 2017 Amazon Electronics Gift Guide, available at amazon.com/electronicsgiftguide.

And customers can browse the 2017 Amazon Home Gift Guide, available at amazon.com/homegiftguide for more than a thousand products for inside and outside the home.

New this year, the 2017 Business Gift Guide by Amazon Business is a curated list of more than 200 items designed to make holiday gifting easier for office employees, company clients and colleagues. Available at amazon.com/businessgiftguide, Amazon.com and Amazon Business customers can shop from numerous categories, including Electronics, Grocery, Entertainment, Audio & Accessories, and more. Shoppers can also discover white elephant gift exchange and budget-friendly gift ideas in the Business Gift Guide.

Handmade Gift Shop: Support small businesses and entrepreneurs this holiday by shopping Amazon Handmade where all products are handcrafted by local Artisans from around the world. New this year, the Amazon Handmade Gift Shop, available at amazon.com/handmadegiftshop, allows customers to shop handcrafted products for every occasion.

Gift Finder: For those in need of additional inspiration, the redesigned Gift Finder helps identify gift ideas when a customer doesn’t have a particular idea in mind. Gift Finder, available at amazon.com/giftfinder, offers a diverse collection of unique, but universally appealing gift ideas across categories. Shop gifts for men, women, teens, kids, toddlers, babies, pets or holiday fun.

Amazon Lists: Customers can find and shop friends and family’s Wish Lists at www.amazon.com/yourfriends to give them what they really want this holiday. To customize your own list, click ‘Add to List’ from any product detail page or go to www.amazon.com/yourlists to add multiple items in one convenient location. To save a gift idea in the Amazon App, customers can simply press down on any product image to fling it to the bottom of their screen.

Interesting Finds: Interesting Finds, available at amazon.com/stream, is an endless stream of beautiful products that inspires customers daily. There are a number of categories that customers can scroll through including “holiday toy list,” “gadgets,” “workspace” and even quirky customer-curated collections of products like “Nautical or Nice,” “Talk Nerdy To Me,” “Dog Gone Cute Dresses,” “Rock Your Socks Off” and “Happy Glamping.” Customers can ‘heart’ products they love and we’ll get better at showing them more items like those. Customers can access Interesting Finds via the banner above the search bar on Amazon.com and in the ‘Programs and Features’ section of the Amazon App.

Free Shipping + Convenient Delivery
All Amazon customers can choose from more than one hundred million items that are eligible for free shipping this holiday and all year long. This includes eligible orders of $25 or more shipped by Amazon, as well as free shipping offers from the millions of small business and entrepreneurs selling on Amazon. For customers who prefer to pick up their packages when it’s convenient for them, Amazon Locker is a safe and secure way to receive Amazon packages. Available in more than 50 cities across the U.S., Amazon Lockers are strategically located near offices, major convenience stores, grocery stores, apartment buildings and malls across the country. To learn more about Amazon Locker, visit amazon.com/locker or to find the nearest Locker visit amazon.com/findalocker.

Fast Shipping, Deals and More with Prime
Prime is designed to make your life better every day including the convenience of fast, free shipping and great entertainment. Prime members can shop thousands of Lightning Deals with 30-minute early access and, with the Amazon Prime credit card, members will earn even bigger rewards this holiday season. Members can also enjoy Free Two-Day Shipping with Amazon Prime, as well as Prime FREE One-Day Shippingand Prime FREE Same-Day Delivery on more than one million items in orders of $35 or more available to members in over 5,000 cities and towns. And, with Prime Now, Prime Members in more than 30 U.S. cities can benefit from one-and-two hour delivery. In addition, starting on November 8, Prime members in 37 cities and surrounding areas across the U.S. will have access to Amazon Key, the new service that radically improves the convenience of receiving deliveries. Amazon Key will allow Prime members to have eligible packages securely delivered inside their homes without having to be there.

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

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Avatar for Trevor Daugherty Trevor Daugherty

Trevor Daugherty is the Senior Editor of 9to5Toys. Since joining in 2014, he’s specialized in product reviews, exclusive discounts and 9to5’s New Toy of the Day. Contact him direct at trevor@9to5mac.com.