Israel’s Hexa partners with Microsoft to leverage Snap’s tech for 3D retail shopping

3D visualization platform Hexa has announced that it is unveiling ‘a new shopping experience’ using tools from Microsoft and Snap Inc. to bring 360-degree shopping and virtual try-on experiences using augmented reality. The company can provide customers with an online shopping trip from anywhere in the world and its latest release offers the opportunity to ‘try on’ the jerseys and sports clothing of the LA Lakers.

Hexa is extending its 3D commerce experience to shoppers on Snapchat through its AR technology called Lenses. There, Snapchatters can ‘try on’ and buy clothing associated with the LA Lakers and share it with their friends. The Lenses were built using Lens Studio, Snap’s AR creation tool.

“Current industry solutions miss the mark of online buyer experiences and expectations,” said Yehiel Atias, CEO at Hexa. “At Hexa, we’re committed to equipping brands with a 3D visualization platform that will drive customer satisfaction and confidence.”

According to the National Retail Federation, the cost of returned products by consumers in the U.S. was $428 billion in 2020, 10.6% of total sales. This number was in no doubt partly due to the pandemic’s lockdowns and the explosion of online retail across the country and the world. Foresight Factory predicts that AR shopping will only increase as the years go on, making Hexa’s AR platform useful for retailers that want to create, manage, display, and sell their 3D assets online and reduce return rates for their products.

Hexa, which was founded in 2019, is a member of the Microsoft for Startups community. "Hexa is on a mission to bring a variety of immersive, 3D commerce experiences to brands and retailers worldwide,” added Shish Shridhar, Global Retail Lead, Microsoft for Startups, Microsoft. “We are pleased to support Hexa with Azure cloud infrastructure to deliver a best-in-class experience of 3D/AR and virtually try-on solutions to our joint clients.”

While the company is technically in its third year, Hexa started in 2015 as a virtual dressing platform and was focused on automating the process of 3D content creation by taking partial data sets and turning them into 3D models. Today, Hexa has an entire infrastructure that can support data needed to create and distribute 3D models, 360-degree experiences, and AR at scale.