mirrAR: Revolutionizing Retail with Augmented Reality and Virtual Try-Ons

January 4, 2026 10 min read

Shopping for high-value items like jewelry or designer eyewear has traditionally been an intimate, high-friction physical experience. Customers want to know exactly how a heavy diamond necklace or a specific frame shape will look on them before they commit. But in a world of endless digital catalogs and physical inventory constraints, that's easier said than done. This is the problem Meghna Saraogi is solving with mirrAR.

A graphic designer by profession, Meghna transitioned from designing annual reports to leading one of India’s most innovative fashion-tech startups. Today, mirrAR provides a seamless Augmented Reality (AR) platform that allows millions of users to virtually "try on" jewelry, makeup, and watches across the globe. By bridging the gap between the screen and the skin, Meghna is not just making shopping "cool"—she's delivering massive ROI for global brands like Tanishq, Kalyan, and De Beers.

The Pivot: From Style Advice to AR Powerhouse

Meghna's journey began with a personal pain point. Coming from a Tier-2 city (Indore), she often felt underconfident about her style sense. This led to the creation of StyleDotMe, a platform for instant fashion advice. While the vision was grand, the growth was ahead of its time. "The growth was too slow... it was too ahead of its time," Meghna recalls. "Five years back, a styling advice service wasn't as popular."

The "Aha!" moment came through a simple interaction with a Snapchat filter. Meghna realized that if technology could put dog ears on a face intuitively, it could also put a gold earring or a shade of lipstick on a shopper. This insight led to the birth of **mirrAR**.

The mirrAR Impact

Millions: Monthly virtual try-ons conducted globally.
45+ Brands: Global giants like Cygnet, De Beers, Tanishq, and Kalyan trust the platform.
ROI Driven: Significant increase in add-to-cart rates and a reduction in product return rates.
Omnichannel: Integration across iPads in-store, web browsers, and mobile apps.

Finding Product-Market Fit

Like many successful pivots, mirrAR didn't find its perfect form immediately. The team initially deployed iPads in retail stores, only to realize that sales staff weren't incentivized to use them. In January 2020, they launched a web-integrated version, allowing customers to try products from the comfort of their homes.

This was the breakthrough. Tanishq was one of their first major clients, and the exponential growth that followed proved that they had found a real solution to a real problem. "Return rates are very high in fashion... because you're not able to see how it looks on you," Meghna explains. "If you can virtually see it before buying, return rates go down and sales go up."

The Evolution of the Try-On

Jewelry Focus: Scaling with high-value items where "look" is everything.
Category Expansion: Moving to makeup, eyewear, and watches—anything from the neck up or on the wrist.
Environmental AR: Allowing users to see how a bag or a glass looks in their real-world environment.
SaaS Democratization: Launching on Shopify to allow smaller brands to integrate AR with a simple drag-and-drop.

The Non-Tech Founder’s Advantage

Starting a tech company without a technical background or a tech co-founder was Meghna’s greatest challenge. She admit to many "hits and misses" early on. However, her design background gave her a unique advantage in understanding user experience (UX) and the "flow" of digital interaction.

"Coming from a non-tech background, you don't know where to start," she says. "But I had the flow and the design in my head. I even made a whole blueprint out of it." Meghna educated herself on the necessary tech stacks and focused on hiring people who believed in her long-term vision. Today, she navigates complex technical discussions with the same ease as her design blueprints.

"Entrepreneurship is about taking that step where you're not sure if you will succeed or fail, but giving it your best shot anyway. Until you ask, the answer is always no. Never shy away from asking for help."

— Meghna Saraogi, Founder, mirrAR

Staying Motivated in a Lonely Journey

Meghna candidly shares the struggles of the "pre-mirrAR" days—times when she couldn't pay rent or salaries. "I had sleepless nights, but I realized that if I get demotivated, my team will too. I had to stand stronger."

She advocates for building a support network of fellow entrepreneurs who can relate to the unique pressures of the journey. Whether it's watching videos of mentors like Steve Jobs or Sanjeev Bikhchandani (who became her mentor early on), or sharing feelings with friends who have "been there, done that," Meghna believes transparency is the antidote to the loneliness of leadership.

Vision for the Future

mirrAR is no longer just a jewelry try-on tool; it’s an Agentic AI platform. As their machine learning models process millions of monthly try-ons, the technology becomes smarter and more precise every day. Meghna’s vision is to build a company that survives for decades, fundamentally changing the global shopping experience across every category.

For Meghna Saraogi, entrepreneurship isn't just about building a product; it’s about proving a point—to her skeptics, her industry, and herself—that a designer with enough zeal can indeed revolutionize the world of tech.

About the Guest

Meghna Saraogi is the Founder and CEO of mirrAR (a StyleDotMe company). A graphic designer by training, she has become a pioneer in the Augmented Reality space in India. Meghna is an alumna of some of India’s top design institutes and is recognized for her role in bridging the gap between retail and technology. She has been mentored by industry icons like Sanjeev Bikhchandani and has successfully led mirrAR to partner with over 50 of the world's most prestigious luxury brands.