Imagine this: Brian and Elizabeth just bought their first apartment. Naturally, they want to turn it into a home by adding the furniture they need- a bed, a couch, a center-table, a dining space, the whole shebang.
They go online to check out their favorite brands’ offerings, only to end up feeling hesitant and confused. They realize they need to measure their space and find products that would fit. On top of that, they need to imagine how each product would look and whether they’d match their interiors.
They are left with no option but to visit a physical store and see the products for themselves. Even then, they would still have to imagine how each would look, feel and fit in their beloved home.
Fact is: there are Brians and Elizabeths everywhere- consumers that want to buy furniture online but lack buying confidence and feel the need to go down to a physical outlet.
Having said that, this complex purchase path has for long highlighted the need for a better way for furniture brands to sell online. A way that empowers shoppers to buy furniture online with complete confidence.
Enter Augmented Reality.
How Augmented Reality (AR) is Boosting Online Sales
When it comes to the notable adopters of augmented reality try-ons and visualizations, we’ve seen brands in every product category- from apparel and makeup to footwear and automobiles. However, if there’s one industry where this immersive technology has proven to be a game-changing online sales booster, it is furniture.
Let’s have a look at why AR is boosting online furniture sales:
1. AR empowers online shoppers to virtually place-visualize-buy furniture
One of the biggest challenges of buying furniture online is trying to imagine how a product would look in one’s space.
With AR however, online shoppers get a see-it-in-your-room experience where they can simply point their phones or tablets to their real-life surroundings and place and visualize any product they want. What’s more? Shoppers can zoom in and out to view texture, material or pattern and rotate to examine from every angle.
With AR enabled shopping, furniture brands essentially take out the guesswork by addressing key buying questions which most often lead to purchase indecisions. Questions like- “how will this sofa look in my space? Will this bed fit? Will this dining table set match and go with the look and feel of my room?”
All in all, AR try-ons allow customers to make decisions based on what they see and what aligns with their taste and expectations improving the chances of purchase completion.
2. AR try-ons drastically simplifies the path to purchase by turning the phone into a measuring device
As mentioned earlier, the furniture path to purchase is riddled with tasks that make it more complicated than it needs to be. Yes, we’re referring to breaking out the measuring tape to calculate the dimensions of a given space.
With AR, as online shoppers use their phone or tablet for the virtual shopping experience, the cameras automatically take the form of a measuring device. All that one needs to do is point their device to a space where they want to place a furniture and the rest is taken care of behind-the-scenes.
Doesn’t get more convenient than that, does it?
2. AR helps furniture brands display their entire inventory, uplift brand value and boost customer satisfaction
With a physical store and its space constraints, brands can only display a limited number of furniture items. But with AR enabled online, they can practically showcase their entire inventory- giving shoppers many choices to virtually try on and pick from.
Additionally, AR adds to a brands’ perceived value as they stand out from the competition that is still using conventional ways to sell their furniture online.
How to adopt and implement AR on your furniture shopping website?
Contrary to common misconception, you don’t need to have a multi-million dollar budget to reap the benefits of AR furniture shopping.
Here at Designhubz, we offer an end-to-end AR suite that is currently being used by some of the largest names in the retail and ecommerce space.
While everyone has a different approach, at Designhubz we’ve taken a quick and scalable route. We offer 3 kinds of digitization techniques- one if you already have existing 3d product files, second if you want to convert HD product images into immersive AR, and third if you want to convert your actual physical inventory into 3D and AR product views.
No matter where you are at your 3D & AR journey, we’d love to help you get started.
