Virtual try-on
Virtual try-on is technology that shows a shopper how a product would look on their own body or face before they buy. It exists to close the gap ecommerce has always had: shoppers can see the product, but not the product on them. Two approaches dominate — AI image generation from an uploaded photo, and augmented reality overlays on a live camera feed — and both now run directly in the browser on a product page.
How it works in practice
A shopper on a product page taps a try-on button, then either uploads a photo of themselves or grants camera access, depending on the approach. The system maps the product onto them and returns a result — a generated image, or a live overlay that moves with them. Modern implementations run in the browser, so shoppers do not install anything or create an account to use them.
Why online stores use it
The decision point in ecommerce is imagination: the shopper has to picture the product on themselves from a photo of someone else. Virtual try-on replaces that guess with a personal preview at the moment of decision. It suits products worn on the body — clothing, eyewear, jewellery — and it is a poor fit for stores whose products are not worn at all. Looksy publishes no conversion or returns benchmarks; the honest way to judge the effect is to measure it on your own store.
Virtual try-on on Shopify
On Shopify, virtual try-on arrives as an app rather than a custom build. Looksy, for example, installs as a theme app extension — no theme code to edit, and it uninstalls cleanly. Its photo flow asks the shopper for one photo and shows the result on the product page in the browser, with no app download, account creation or live camera permission. Photo try-on is available on every plan, including the free one; realtime video try-on is a Scale-plan feature.
Sources: the public Shopify App Store listing for Looksy. Last checked 27 July 2026.
Install free. Unlimited try-ons on your own catalog.
The Free plan gives you unlimited try-ons and needs no card. Run Looksy on your own products and judge the output yourself.
Install free on Shopify