Furniture is the #1 category that consumers in the US want to shop with augmented reality (60% of those surveyed). This is because they want to get a better idea of how the furniture will look in the home before they buy it. The furniture industry has been one of the slowest to develop a presence on the internet. In ‘Try Before You Buy’ shopping customers get to see how a piece of furniture will fit in their area. They can even match their home design by looking at it online. In fact, the larger the item or the higher the price tag, the less likely the customer is to make the purchase online. Especially when they can physically view the thing at a store. 

AR Technology simplifies the buying process 

With the lack of quality assurance, the need for a technology that can make more people do their furniture shopping online is becoming more and more apparent. With the ability to actually see the product at hand, customers will be more confident about their purchase decisions and be more likely to purchase it online. 

Using augmented reality, Ikea, IKEA and West Elm are delivering a highly engaging customer experience and enabling shoppers to virtually try out their furniture and home accessories before they buy them. Furniture brands are embracing augmented reality in their ecommerce websites as a way to deliver a try-before-you-buy shopping experience. In simple terms, augmented reality allows furniture brands to deliver a try-before-you-buy shopping experience with realistic product visualizations. How is it possible? With augmented reality, shoppers can now point their devices to any space in their home or office and choose the item they want to place there. 

This is a huge breakthrough for furniture brands, big and small. Instead of just being a fascinating new technology to experiment with, AR addresses key objections customers face when trying to shop for furniture online, as opposed to in person. Wayfair‘s popular android app, helps shoppers visualize products in their home. A realistic 3D version of the item is them superimposed into their real-life surrounding- where they can play around with its colors and patterns or move it around to gauge style, fit and size. 

Why Are Furniture Brands Adopting Augmented Reality (And You Should Too)? 

While most earlier adopters of augmented reality focused on the gaming and entertainment space, brands like IKEA, Wayfair, Target and Houzz showed us all that online furniture shopping stands to benefit equally, if not more from this disruptive technology. 

IKEA’s Place app allows shoppers to preview products in their room. The number of downloads, engagement and sales can be attributed to the fact that both apps create a “virtual environment” for users to explore in relation to their real-world surroundings. This is where the “View in my room” and “Place” features become important. IKEA’s AR-enabled app Place is officially the second most popular app built on Apple’s ARkit based on downloads and revenue from the app. No wonder, they’re headstrong about hitting $5.9 billion in 2020 as in-app sales, rising from $1.4 billion in 2016. 

1. Boosts buying confidence 

AR Furniture Shopping is the way of the future! We have seen a rise in the number of people shopping for furniture online. The biggest reason for this is the fact that it is less expensive and less time consuming. However, for many customers, buying furniture online is a bit of a gamble because they are not able to see the product in person. This is where AR Furniture Shopping comes in. We give online shoppers the ability to place a 3d model of a piece of furniture in their virtual home. Then, they can buy the furniture with confidence. 

2. AR allows furniture manufacturers to reach a larger audience. 

With AR technology, furniture manufacturers can now access new target audiences – those who would not visit a store, due to distance. These are the people who do not have the time to come in, but may still make an order for home delivery. Distance becomes pointless. Now, they can try out goods from the comfort of their own home. 

3. Reduces returns, increases repeat purchases 

With AR furniture shopping, furniture brands can reduce return rates by 100%! With AR, customers can try out furniture in the real world, making sure they get exactly what they want the first time around. This leads to a higher number of repeat customers who are happy with the products they have received. 

4. The WOW factor 

As an extension of the virtual shopping experience, augmented reality (AR) promises to create a whole new online shopping experience. With AR, furniture shoppers can now visualize the furniture they want to buy in their own living rooms and kitchens. AR allows them to change the color, size, or other features of the furniture they want. Thus, AR helps furniture brands stand out from the competition in the online furniture market. 

It’s incredibly easy to implement an AR-enabled shopping experience on your website or app. 

Currently, there are two ways to create and deliver augmented reality shopping:

In-house development 

Out of the two, in-house development is more expensive and time-consuming. Typically, they begin with a 3D rendering of your product and work on overlaying the ARkit or ARcore engines to make it more realistic. With the growing trend of technological advancement which has made augmented reality (AR) more mainstream, it is the most effective and advanced way to achieve your vision. 

Choose a ready-to-use AR commerce platform 

What would be a better way to make a first impression than showcasing your products in 3D? Our 3D and AR e-commerce platform is ready to use and can be up and running in two weeks! Upload your products and they will be automatically transformed into 3D in less than a minute. Your customers will get more information than they can imagine. It’s so easy to use, anyone can do it! 

Reach Out To The Experts 

In conclusion, it is our opinion that augmented reality has a bright future as an online commerce medium. The potential of this disruptive technology is widespread and everyday more and more brands are adopting it to grab attention and grow online. Do you agree with us or can’t help but disagree? 

Are you looking for a way to create a captivating and immersive shopping experience for your customers? If yes, then Augmented Reality is your answer! An AR-enabled experience on your furniture shopping website can help you gain more customers than ever before. It can also help you stand out from the crowd of competitors. But before that, you need to know how to do it. 

Tulfa creates immersive experiences that capture rich, brilliant colors and details that captivate your eyes. To stand out from the crowd, our clients require high-quality imagery and striking graphics. We provide the most engaging augmented reality experience to our big number of clients by utilizing the processing capacity of our workers’ thoughts. 

Are you as excited about AR as we are? Contact Tulfa at hello@tulfa.com for more information on how our AR experience may help your online furniture company.