Augmented Reality suits the furniture business perfectly. People want to see virtual interior design ideas in real time, and AR provides them with such ability. The choice of consumers in the furniture industry has started to favor products and brands that can be experienced with "augmented reality" technology. Moreover, it is very easy and effortless to purchase products on the online store by positioning the products from your smartphone to your home or office without going to the store with augmented reality. Let's say you are thinking about buying a new sofa set in your home, you are trying to bring the seat to your sight. Is not it working? Then you need augmented reality (AR) technology. In the era of experience marketing, we all know that consumers do not want to buy furniture without seeing the final version. With augmented reality technology, we can easily say that this anxiety of the consumer is resolved. Consumers can experience the placement of the furniture they want to buy in the living spaces with augmented reality technology. Those who want to buy furniture can decide more easily what type of product they want, with many color and fabric preferences. Thanks to Augmented Reality technology, customers can create furniture alternatives according to their dream world, experience in living spaces and order more comfortable furniture. For example, before AR applications, consumers often had problems when they installed the furniture they bought in real places, because they made purchases based on the size they decided to take. This usually occurred as the size of the furniture did not fit in the space or the colors were incompatible with other furniture. With Augmented Reality (AR) mobile apps, this problem seems to be largely eliminated.
Furniture companies benefits from augmented reality in the following ways:
Trials free of risk: With an AR app, people can place a bookshelf in their rooms in a few taps on a phone. Or see how a sofa would look in brown or red color. The risk of product return and logistical expenses is minimized.
Showcasing: Retailers are able to showcase their products visually and interactively with AR tools. A furniture store may offer customers to see how a table of a bed would look like in their house.
New marketing opportunities: AR offers new ways to promote your brand, to offer product information, to present new products, to offer helpful 3D experiences to customers. And most importantly, to attract more customers.
Experimental Marketing and Sustainability: Younger customers and swag (in a good sense). Augmented reality apps are trending among younger audience so why not use it as a new advertising option? And unlike Virtual Reality apps that require additional equipment, AR is more widely available, and there are literally millions of smartphone owners.
Differentiation / Beat competitors: With such advanced technology as AR, you can compete and easily get ahead of the competition. Offering innovative shopping experiences leads customers your way, no doubt about it.
For furniture retailers, the approach of ‘try before you buy’ is crucial and this option for customers is a winning ticket. Offering this yet futuristic technology of AR is of news value alone, to begin with. The mere fact that a retailer has an AR app instantly gets the attention and potentially increase sales.
According to Centric Digital Augmented reality in retail study on US customers, furniture is the top product people want to shop with AR (60%). Other products include clothing (55%), groceries (39%), shoes (35%) and jewelry (25%).
AR furniture shopping is already a thing known to customers.
As AR agency Nsocial, we went a step further and combined the application-free webGL and usdz formats with browser-based webAR and Google augmented reality search results. Moreover, you are not limited to trying the product, you can order the online information by seeing the product information. Just click here to try it.
For furniture companies:
For furniture retailers, the approach of ‘try before you buy’ is crucial and this option for customers is a winning ticket. Offering this yet futuristic technology of AR is of news value alone, to begin with. The mere fact that a retailer has an AR app instantly gets the attention and potentially increase sales. To prove this point, a good example is GAP chain of stores, that opened up augmented dressing rooms, got big publicity and higher traffic to their website in a result.
1) Engage and retain customers
2) Personalize shopping experiences
3) Be ahead of the competition
4) Entertain and amaze customers
AR is also a fine tool for personalization of customer needs, especially when it comes to furniture. Shoppers really want the ability to see how the items will look at their homes or offices. IKEA was the first AR ice-breaking furniture company introducing the catalog app for these exact needs. A user takes a photo of a place with the app, browses the catalog and tries selected items onto a place.
For customers / potential customers:
1) Try products remotely
2) Easiest way of shopping
3) Effortless
4) No time planning for showroom visiting
5) No travelling costs
6) More informed purchasing decisions
7) Explore brand new ways to shop
8) Combine buying with entertainment
IKEA Place application running on iOS 11's new augmented reality platform ARKit allows you to try thousands of furniture in your home. IKEA Place takes advantage of this and virtualizes the company's nearly 2 thousand products. The products are included as three-dimensional objects in the application. You open the application, select the product you want and turn your iPhone camera to the point of the house. The furniture you choose is displayed on the screen as if it were at home.
IKEA Places
Wayfair
Houzz
There are products in the application in categories such as armchairs, chairs, tables, kitchen furniture, garden furniture. In addition, the IKEA Place app automatically sizes the furniture according to the dimensions of your home. Thus, the process that started in the furniture industry has now become applicable for decoration, white goods, electronic home appliances, cars. In summary, before AR / Augmented Reality / Augmented Reality, consumers could not meet their expectations when they installed the furniture they bought in their real environment, as the consumers completely dreamed and tried to take them to their homes and did not buy them correctly. Or there were problem scenarios such as the dreams and reality did not match, the size of the furniture did not fit or the colors were incompatible with other furniture. Problems with Augmented Reality (AR) disappeared.