First came the still images. Then video. But that was so yesterday.
The state of the art today for online home furnishings shopping is all about augmented reality and the ability to show shoppers how a product will look in their actual home. And if you’re a supplier or retailer in the business, including lighting and home décor, the cost of entry to be a viable online supplier these days is to be able to offer this kind of augmented reality on your site or the site run by your retail customer.
First, perhaps, a little lesson on names and initials … which are sometimes very confusing and seemingly overlapping.
Augmented Reality, or AR, is, according to our friends at Google, the ability to use technology that places a computer-generated image on a user’s view of an actual location, providing a composite view.
Virtual Reality, or VR, is often confused with AR but has more to do with placing a person in a computer generated simulated environment in which they can interact, often with the use of special equipment like headsets, eyewear or gloves.
And both are part of the broader AI, or Artificial Intelligence, heading that encompasses machine learning. (A previous blog post includes helpful information about AI.)
But in the world of retailing home furnishings it’s Augmented Reality that is really taking hold. Here’s how it works. A shopper, using a smartphone with a camera, goes on an e-commerce website. She selects a product and using a feature on the site, often called something like “View in Room,” she holds the camera up to her own home and the lamp appears on the screen, showing how it would look on her table, or near her soft or next to her bed.
Wayfair, the online home furnishings site, is generally credited with being one of the leaders in the AR movement, having offered this service for at least the past year.
But many others have jumped on the AR bandwagon. IKEA has added AR to its repertoire with its new IKEA Place phone app that works similarly, allowing consumers to see the store’s products in their own homes.
Williams Sonoma is also getting in on the action, having just purchased Outward, a tech company that developed augmented reality software. The feature has been added to the Pottery Barn app and one can assume it will be rolled out throughout the Sonoma stable of brands, including West Elm.
Amazon, of course, is also a player in AR, having recently added the feature to its IOS and Android apps. Another recent AR convert is Target, which is testing the technology with the introduction of its Project 62 home furnishings program under the “See It In Your Space” name. And the examples of AR retailers keeps expanding every week.
In just a matter of months, augmented reality has become not just state of the art, but state of the industry for the home furnishings business.
One can only wonder what’s next.