Extended reality, XR, is an umbrella term for technologies that blend digital content with the physical world or replace it entirely (Figure 1). Augmented reality (AR) layers digital content on top of what your camera sees. Virtual reality (VR) places you inside a fully digital environment. Mixed reality (MR) lies somewhere in between. Spatial AR means digital content projected directly onto physical surfaces or delivered through large screens and interactive displays, with no personal device needed at all.
XR may be a projection mapped onto a building façade, an interactive LED display in a shop window, or a motion-triggered screen that responds as you walk past. All of them are increasingly accessible to businesses of any size, including yours.
XR is increasingly discussed less as a futuristic gadget and more as a practical layer in customer journeys, workplace learning, and service delivery. For small businesses, the real question is not whether XR is ‘the future’ but where it can measurably reduce uncertainty, effort, or cost in real situations like choosing a product, understanding a space, or learning a procedure.
That shift matters because XR lies at the intersection of customer experience design, e-commerce conversion, and skills development; in areas where small improvements can compound quickly in competitive markets. Academic work is also maturing beyond novelty effects, as evidenced by systematic reviews of AR marketing and retail use, and meta-analytic evidence on VR training outcomes (Du et al. 2022; Lavoye et al. 2021; Howard et al. 2021).
What can it do for small businesses?
Some of the most practical applications, for which you need no technical background, include:
- Show your product in context. Let customers preview scale, fit, and style in their own environment before buying, which directly targets uncertainty, one of the biggest causes of hesitation in e-commerce. Research on augmented reality in marketing and retail links AR experiences to stronger engagement and product understanding, especially when the experience is easy to access and clearly useful (Du et al. 2022; Lavoye et al. 2021). Industry metrics point in the same direction: IKEA Place pioneered this in 2017, and the same principle now applies to many furniture makers, home decor shops and flooring companies. A US furniture and interiors platform reported (Houzz 2017) that people who engaged with its AR feature were 11 times more likely to purchase and spent 2.7 times more time in the app, and Shopify reported that shoppers were 44% more likely to add an item to their cart after interacting with it in 3D (Shopify 2022). For a small business, the takeaway is simple: AR has the highest payoff when it helps the customer answer a real question fast, such as ‘will this fit here?’ or ‘what does it look like in my space?’
- Give people a virtual look inside. Hotels, restaurants, event venues, gyms, and holiday rental owners can offer a virtual tour so that potential customers can explore the space before committing. Marriott Hotels was an early adopter, giving guests an immersive preview of rooms and amenities before booking, reducing hesitation and increasing conversion. A 360° camera and platforms like Matterport (2026) make this achievable for any business with a physical space.
- Make your packaging or signage interactive. A label or a sticker can trigger a digital experience, for example, a story, product demo, or how-to guide. 19 Crimes wine is a well-known case: scanning the bottle brings the historical figure on the label to life with a first-person story. The same principle is easily applicable to a local food brand or a craft producer. When the experience is genuinely surprising, people record it and post it, turning a single interaction into organic social reach.
- Turn your shopfront into an experience. Interactive screens, AR mirrors, and projection mapping let you bring digital content into physical space, without requiring anyone to take out their phone. Zara famously replaced its window mannequins with AR models: its windows were left completely empty, and customers who pointed the Zara app at them saw top models wearing the collection instead. Tommy Hilfiger and Coach have installed AR mirrors by Zero10 in their European stores, letting shoppers try on outfits just by standing in front of a screen. Sephora’s in-store AR stations let customers try on makeup without touching a single product (Figure 3). Beyond fashion, projection mapping is being used to turn walls, floors, and entire building façades into dynamic brand experiences, at product launches, events, and flagship openings. For a smaller business, even a single well-placed interactive screen or AR window can set you apart from every other shopfront on the street.
- Build a social media moment. AR filters on Instagram and Snapchat are not just for entertainment; they are a legitimate marketing channel (see Figure 4). Studies on AR filters on social media link perceived entertainment and interactivity to stronger ‘playability’ and electronic word-of-mouth intentions, while research on face filters highlights motivations such as creative content curation and social interaction as significant drivers of use (Ibáñez-Sánchez et al. 2022). Meta has reported that more than 600 million people use AR across Facebook and Instagram each month, suggesting large-scale audience familiarity with AR formats (Meta 2020). Major brands like Gucci and Boss have used a Snapchat AR try-on for their eyewear and saw measurable improvements in engagement and sales. For a small business, even a simple branded filter can earn genuine reach without paid media.
- Train your team without real-world risk. VR can be a practical training environment for customer scenarios, safety procedures, and complex processes because it allows repetition, feedback, and exposure to realistic situations without disrupting operations. Evidence has also strengthened in recent years: a meta-analysis of controlled studies found VR training programmes generally produce better outcomes than tested alternatives (Howard et al. 2021). From a business perspective, the case improves further at scale. PwC reports that VR training achieved cost parity with classroom learning at 375 learners, cost parity with e-learning at 1,950 learners, and became 52% more cost-effective than classroom training at 3,000 learners (PwC 2022). For small businesses, the most realistic entry point is targeted micro-scenarios, i.e. short, repeatable modules that teach one high-impact situation well.
- Stand out at trade fairs and events. An interactive AR or VR demo at your booth draws a crowd, gives visitors something to film and share, and stays memorable long after the fair ends. FlyAR’s The Node demo shows how a construction project can be turned into a trade fair magnet: a physical scale model is augmented with AR so visitors can walk around it and see the building visualised in context (Figure 5). It works well because it is easy to understand, interactive without requiring long explanations, and naturally encourages people to film and share, while using the same 3D assets you can later reuse on the web or in sales materials.
The future already runs on your phone
The biggest friction point with XR today is the device, as pulling out your phone takes effort. The good news is that today’s smartphones already support high-quality AR through Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore, with no app download required via WebAR. The form factor is also evolving fast: Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, as well as other pioneering brands (see Figure 6) already layer audio and visual information into everyday eyewear. More advanced spatial platforms like Apple Vision Pro and headsets from Finnish company Varjo show where professional-grade XR is heading. As devices become lighter and more natural to wear, the friction disappears, and what feels niche today becomes part of everyday life.
XR is also scaling economically, not just technologically. Industry tracking suggests rapid growth in near-term adoption: IDC projected that worldwide shipments of AR/VR headsets combined with display-less smart glasses would grow 39.2% in 2025 to 14.3 million units (IDC 2025). Market-sizing reports also forecast strong growth in the value of AR-driven services and tools, although estimates vary. One estimate projects the AR market reaching over USD 1 trillion by 2033 (Grand View Research 2025).
Although projections produced by commercial market intelligence firms should be read through a critical lens, they provide forecasts based on market data rarely accessible to academic research. For small businesses, the practical meaning of these projections is not to buy expensive hardware, but that better tools, lower costs, and more standardised workflows tend to arrive as markets scale. It strengthens the case for low-risk experimentation now, using formats that are easy to access and maintain.
The elephant in the room – is XR just a gimmick?
Sometimes it is, but that is a design problem, not a technology problem. AR experiences that do not work usually have one thing in common: they were not built around actual customer behaviour. A simple way to check an XR idea before investing is to treat it like any other service feature and define the basics up front:
- User job to be done: What uncertainty or friction does XR remove?
- Context of use: Where will it be used (in-store, at home, on mobile data, in bright daylight)?
- Adoption friction: Does it require an app download, account creation, or staff support, and is the payoff worth it?
- Success metric: Decide one primary metric (add-to-cart, bookings, returns, time-to-competency, fewer support questions).
- Maintenance risk: Will this depend on a third-party platform that could change?
A few principles that separate effective XR from forgettable XR:
- Anchor it to something physical. A sticker, a product, a business card, a shop window. Digital experiences that are triggered by something the customer is already holding are more likely to be tried. Ones that exist in a vacuum do not.
- Make the action obvious. If people do not know they can scan something, they will not. A clear visual prompt or recognisable marker on the physical object makes all the difference.
- Solve a real problem first. Avoid asking ‘how can we use AR?’ Instead, ask ‘what does our customer wish they could see or do that they currently cannot?’ Then build toward that.
- Respect that not everyone will participate. A thoughtful XR experience rewards those who engage, but it never requires everyone to pull out their phone to access basic information.
Getting started does not have to cost a fortune
One of the most common misconceptions about XR is that it requires a significant upfront investment. In reality, you can start experimenting with XR for your business for free, and scale up only when you know what works. The tools available today fall into four practical categories, each with accessible entry points (see Figure 7 for the categories).
For social media AR filters, Snapchat’s Easy Lens lets you create a branded AR experience from a text prompt with no code and low production cost, and Snapchat’s Lens Web Builder offers another no-code route for simple branded lenses. This matters because Snapchat’s community reached 477 million daily active users in Q3 2025 (Snap Inc. 2025). TikTok’s Effect House offers a similar free creation tool for TikTok’s nearly 1.6 billion active users in 2024 (Business of Apps 2026). These tools are ideal for testing, as they cost nothing to start, require no coding, and are easy to learn.
For product visualisation, Overly integrates directly with Shopify and lets customers view products in their own space via the browser, with no app download. Shopify also supports product AR as part of its ecosystem, which makes it a low-friction option if you are already running your shop there (Shopify 2022).
For browser-based WebAR, where the experience is triggered by a QR code, packaging label, poster, or business card, ZapWorks Designer and Hololink offer no-code drag-and-drop editors. They are typically paid tools but they keep production lightweight and repeatable, especially for campaigns, events, or interactive packaging.
For 360° virtual tours of a physical space, Kuula is an accessible entry point with low-cost plans. For more advanced immersive 3D walkthroughs, Matterport is often treated as an industry standard, and can be created with consumer devices such as an iPhone Pro (Maragkoudakis 2023; Matterport 2026). This kind of self-serve experimentation is an ideal starting point: low risk, quick to launch, and effective for testing whether XR resonates with your customers.
These are only examples of widely used tools, and the landscape changes quickly, so it is worth doing a quick independent check of the latest options before committing. Once you have a feel for what works, what people engage with, what drives conversions, and what generates organic sharing, you can move to more tailored implementations by working with dedicated XR studios. Depending on scope, professional XR production can start from a few hundred euros for a simple prototype and scale with ambition and budget.
XR risks for small businesses
XR is not risk-free, especially for small businesses with limited time to maintain digital assets. One risk is platform obsolescence: Meta, for example, announced it would shut down Meta Spark, its third-party AR creation platform, which changed how brands plan and maintain social AR effects (Meta 2024). Beyond shutdowns, XR also faces device fragmentation and reliability challenges: an experience that works well on one phone or browser may fail on another, and real-world conditions like poor connectivity, bright lighting, or crowded event spaces can break tracking.
There are also ongoing maintenance costs, such as updating assets, retesting or hosting, and practical adoption barriers if users need to download an app or learn unfamiliar interactions. Finally, XR can introduce privacy and rights-management considerations, because camera-based experiences and 3D content often require clearer consent, careful analytics choices, and attention to licensing when assets are reused across channels.
Where to start and who can help?
Getting started is often easier with a local partner who can help you scope the right level of XR and avoid overbuilding. In Finland, support can come from university-based testbeds and development projects, industry networks, and specialist studios. For example, Helsinki XR Center at Metropolia UAS supports companies in exploring and piloting XR concepts and can help connect organisations with implementation partners when a specific application is needed, including Finnish studios such as FlyAR and VReal and established XR specialists such as Stereoscape and Younite. Whether you are looking for a small prototype or a full-scale production, local expertise is available at every level.
This article has been produced as part of AIStart Incubator which is an EU co-funded programme led by Haaga Helia UAS with Metropolia UAS (Helsinki XR Center) and the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa as partners. It helps SMEs in the capital region adopt emergent technologies such as XR and AI through hands-on support, tailored training, and access to diverse testing platforms, and forms part of the wider HEVinnovations programme to strengthen regional innovation.
References
19 Crimes 2026. 19 Crimes. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Business of Apps 2026. TikTok revenue and usage statistics 2026. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Du, Z., Liu, X. et al. 2022. Augmented reality marketing: a systematic literature review. Frontiers in Psychology 13, 925963.
FlyAR 2026. AR construction: Node skyscraper. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Grand View Research 2025. Augmented reality market size, share and trends analysis report, 2033. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Houzz 2017. Houzz app upgrades 3D augmented reality tool with ARKit to help you design and shop. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Howard, M. C., Gutworth, M. B. & Jacobs, R. R. 2021. A meta-analysis of virtual reality training programs. Computers in Human Behavior 121, 106808.
Ibáñez-Sánchez, S., Orús, C. & Flavián, C. 2022. Augmented reality filters on social media: Analyzing the drivers of playability based on uses and gratifications theory. Psychology & Marketing 39(3), 559–578.
IDC 2025. AR & VR headsets market insights. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Kivisense 2024. AR filters: how to unlock the future of brand engagement. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Lavoye, V., Mero, J., & Tarkiainen, A. 2021. Consumer behavior with augmented reality in retail: a review and research agenda. International Journal of Advertising.
Maragkoudakis, M. 2023. Exploring the world of Matterport virtual tours. Vivestia website. Updated 28.12.2023. Accessed 9 March 2026.
Meta 2020. Facebook Connect: The road to AR glasses. Tech at Meta 16 September 2020. Accessed 9 March 2026.
Meta 2024. A Meta Spark update. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Mukherjee, D. 2022. Digital signage for retail: types, examples and benefits. Shopify website. Published 18.8.2022. Accessed 9 March 2026.
PwC 2022. How virtual reality is redefining soft skills training. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Queppelin 2026. AR glasses for navigation. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Shopify 2022. The ROI on AR: how augmented reality is boosting conversion. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Snap Inc. 2025. Snap Inc. announces third quarter 2025 financial results. Accessed 3.3.2026.
Author
-
Janset Shawash
XR Expert and Project Lead, Metropolia UAS/HXRCJanset is an XR expert and researcher working on XR for cities, heritage, and creative industries, with a focus on accessibility and adoption.
About the author