In the furniture industry, seeing is believing. That was the primary purpose of showrooms. However, as the internet became popular and online retailing boomed, traditional furniture retail businesses faced tremendous competition from e-commerce players, in a way breaking that notion.

Looking at it from the furniture businesses’ perspective, they may have felt reluctant to bet on e-commerce due to the traditional belief that ‘seeing-is-believing’ in the furniture industry. With Augmented Reality, however, a lot of that has changed and many players are already enjoying the benefits of making the move to AR.

Why Is A Showroom So Crucial In Furniture Retailing?

To give you an idea of what AR can do for a furniture business, we will briefly look at reasons showrooms are so regarded in the industry. Interestingly, it largely addresses the concern traditional furniture retailers have faced in adopting eCommerce channels — that is: Seeing is believing.

The major problem many furniture buyers face is that they do not know exactly how the items they are going to buy will fit in their homes. In interior decoration, it is important to purchase items that combine to make living areas appealing and doing this without seeing the products physically can be complicated.

In traditional physical showrooms, sellers display their products in the manner they are likely to be placed in the homes of buyers. By seeing the items, and being able to visualize in full-scale how they can be arranged, it is easier for buyers to take mental pictures of how the items will fit into their homes.

Next, Online Shopping Emerged

The rise of the internet has changed the way we do things, including shopping. Retailing has taken a massive turn as online stores are getting more patronage from the tech-savvy generation. As a furniture seller, you would have noticed that moving your business online is not as simple as it is for people in other industries. Customers still prefer to have a feel of how a product will fit in their room before make a decision of buying it.

Enter: Augmented Reality

If you have been following the trend, you would have noticed that Augmented Reality has been the buzz in the furniture industry for some time now. It started with IKEA, and others have followed. This is not only a trend but a significant shift in marketing method that everyone that wants to survive in the industry must adopt.

With Augmented Reality, You Can Take Your Showroom To Your Buyer’s Home

What the technology does that makes a significant difference to the shopping experience is that it allows buyers to scan the actual floors or living spaces, then search through the seller’s online catalog to find furniture pieces that would fit in the room, and make the purchase online. Any selected object can be moved around until it fits. The items are represented in full-scale through Augmented Reality against real spaces, so the buyer can change the item’s position, try different color combinations, upholstery, finish and so on, until they are satisfied with the final product before buying. This means that the buyers can see the furniture in their homes before they purchase. The experience is even more satisfying than what is obtainable in the traditional showroom.

If you truly desire to succeed in the furniture business in this century, investing in Augmented Reality is a necessity. It is a way of taking your showroom to your buyers’ homes. It is more convenient and will benefit you and your buyers.