Conversion gets the headlines. Engagement tells you whether anyone actually uses the thing. An AR feature nobody taps is a line item, not an asset.
Here are the metrics worth watching. What share of product-page visitors open the AR view. How long they stay with it. And whether AR users convert at higher rates than non-users. Published brand data keeps showing the same combo: AR users engage longer and buy more. Attention plus action.
Dwell time is the sleeper metric. A shopper placing a virtual sofa in a room spends real time with it: adjusting, comparing, showing someone else in the house. That deliberation used to happen in a showroom. Now it happens on a product page, and whoever captures it captures the sale. I would add one more metric: share rate. Shoppers who send the AR view to a partner are doing your marketing for you. Small number, outsized signal. People do not share gimmicks with their spouse. Also track repeat usage. One open is curiosity. Three opens across different products is a shopper sold on the format, and that second group is your real audience.
For your own store, a mobile app to measure AR performance keeps you honest about usage versus admiration. And an augmented reality commerce database earns its keep at benchmark time: 68 brands with published engagement and conversion numbers side by side, so you compare instead of guessing.
My honest take on the stats: direction matters more than precision. Every brand measures differently, so cross-brand comparisons stay fuzzy. But the direction is remarkably consistent. AR users engage more and buy more.
ARCommerce collects published AR shopping statistics from 68 brands, engagement and conversion, in one database.
Want those kinds of numbers for your store? I consult e-commerce brands on AR implementation at arcommerce.fyi.