How to add 3D, AR and virtual try-on to a Shopify store

What Shopify does on its own

Shopify accepts 3D models as product media, in GLB and USDZ, next to your photos and videos. On themes that support it, the model turns in the gallery and a "View in your space" button opens the phone's own AR viewer.

That covers one experience: look at the product in 3D. It does not track a foot or a face through the camera, it does not place a product photo on a shopper's own photo, and it has no configurator, no print designer and no report of what those views did to sales. If your products are bought on fit, size or options, that gap is where an app comes in.

Step 1: Choose the products that go first

Do not start with the whole catalogue. Start with two short lists: the products that already sell well, and the products that come back most often. The first list is where a better page has the most traffic to work on. The second is where a shopper most needed to see something the photos did not show.

Then match each product to the experience that answers its buyer's question:

• Size and space (furniture, rugs, electronics): a 3D viewer with AR, so the product appears in the room at its real size.
• Fit on the body (shoes, glasses, hats, watches, jewelry): virtual try-on, live through the camera or from one photo.
• Options and price (anything built to order): a 3D configurator.
• Personalisation (printed and engraved products): product customization.

Step 2: Prepare the file each experience needs

Not every experience needs a 3D model, and this is the step that decides how fast you can start.

• 3D viewer, AR and camera try-on (shoes, glasses, hats) need a 3D model. GLB is the format to ask for; USDZ works too. Our guide on GLB and USDZ explains the difference.
• Photo try-on (watches, bracelets, rings, earrings) needs only the product photo you already use on the page.
• Customization works on a 3D model or on a flat product photo.

If you have no models, there are three ways to get one: scan the product with the Custivo app on an iPhone, build it from photos or a video, or have our 3D team model it for a price quoted per product. A supplier's CAD or design file is often usable too.

Step 3: Install the app and build the scene

1. Install Custivo from the Shopify App Store. It installs in one click and appears in your Shopify admin.
2. Create a scene for the product and upload its model or photo. Lighting, camera angle and try-on placement come preset, and you adjust them only when a product needs it.
3. Publish the scene to the Shopify product it belongs to, so the product page knows which scene to open.

Step 4: Place it on the product page, without code

On an Online Store 2.0 theme, open the theme editor, go to the product template and add the Custivo app block where you want the button. Its alignment and spacing are settings on the block.

If you would rather not touch the template at all, enable the Custivo app embed instead. The widget then places itself beside the add-to-cart form. Older themes are supported the same way.

Step 5: Check it on a real phone

Open the product page on an iPhone and on an Android phone. AR opens in the viewer built into each system, and try-on runs in the browser, so shoppers never install anything. On a device that cannot run camera try-on, the shopper is offered the photo path instead of an error.

Check the page speed too. The viewer loads only when a shopper asks for it, so the product page itself should load exactly as fast as before.

Step 6: Measure what it sells

Every plan reports views, AR and try-on opens, and adds to cart per product. On Shopify, Custivo can follow a shopper further: a web pixel and the order webhooks connect those views with checkouts started, orders completed and the revenue behind them. That is how you tell a scene that sells from a decorative one. The pricing page shows which plan carries which reports.

Give each product a few weeks before you judge it, and compare it with its own numbers before the scene went live rather than with a different product.

Configurator and customization on Shopify

When a shopper configures or personalises a product, the choice has to reach the order. On Shopify, configured and customized products go into the Shopify cart with every option attached, and a customized order comes with a print-ready file. From the same plan, a Shopify order can be handed to Printful or Printify automatically.