Snapchat has branched out into the retail market with its new Augmented Reality (AR) try-on experiences for fashion brands.

The messaging platform also revealed that users will be able to place orders directly from its app.

Snapchat is best known for its AR ‘lenses’ on phones, which overlay art on selfies or change live images.

The company is introducing API-enabled lenses, which will enable retailers to automatically feature real-time content in AR.

Through the new feature, Farftech is providing an immersive shopping experience using 3D Body Mesh and voice-enabled controls, which will enable Snapchatters to say what items they’re looking to browse and try on via AR.

Prada is using new gesture recognition capabilities that let shoppers signal to the camera when they want to try on another item.

Snapchat said through it’s partnership with Perfect Corp, the Estée Lauder companies will be among the first use its AR Shopping platform tools.

By integrating their product catalogue through Snap’s API in Business Manager, brands including MAC Cosmetics can now create lenses from new AR Shopping templates and publish them to Snapchat, based on real-time product inventory.

The company is also introducing Screenshop, a shopping recommendation feature.

“Screenshop gives shopping recommendations from hundreds of brands when Snapchatters Scan a friend’s outfit, and Snapchatters can also select photos from Memories to Scan with Screenshop,” said Snapchat in a statement.

Snapchat’s move into e-commerce follows Facebook and Tik Tok, who both have online shopping integrated into their platforms.

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