Like Lowe’s and IKEA before it, Target is tapping the magic of augmented reality to bypass one pesky law of physics that can make buying home goods a real headache.
While two objects (or sofas) cannot occupy the same space at the same time in the real world, they can in AR’s parallel universe.
Target’s new “See It In Your Space,” virtual reality perk enables shoppers to see how the retailer’s home products would look in their home.Target
Target shoppers can now see how a new love seat would look in their very own living room without having to budge that seen-better-days settee.
The cheap-chic discounter launched “See It In Your Space,” a new augmented reality feature on its mobile website, whereby shoppers place three-dimensional versions of Target home products onto photos of actual rooms in their home. Items can be moved around at accurate scale, enabling shoppers to envision how they would look — all before buying the product.
“See It In Your Space” takes on the inherent challenges of buying home goods, which, by nature, are bulky and shoppers can’t try out in their intended environment: the home.
Items can be moved around at accurate scale.Target
Retailers from Lowe’s to IKEA have also been working to take the guesswork out of buying big-ticket goods like furniture and appliances, pricey, high-consideration purchases that largely preclude testing-and-returning, and often end up being bought as an act of faith. You can’t really know how those new kitchen cabinets or Persian rug will look in your home until it’s really there.
Lowe’s tested the Microsoft HoloLens in a handful of stores. By looking into a mixed-reality headset, shoppers would view a full-sized holographic kitchen, for example, that they could (virtually) customize, able to swap out cabinet styles, colors and scale before making a decision.
The concept, which was hatched in Lowe’s Innovation Labs, one of many innovation labs formed in recent years from retailers like Target, Sephora and Kohl’s, is no longer in stores, but the home improvement chain is working on another iteration of the project, a Lowe’s spokesperson said.
It’s one of Lowe’s many AR/VR projects, such as Holoroom How To, which uses virtual reality to help customers learn the skills they need to complete home improvement projects. A second version of Holoroom How To debuts later this year.
In a different twist, IKEA bowed a VR experience for shoppers to browse and interact with its kitchen assortments. Customers can open drawers, view visuals of a variety material finishes and even experience the rooms from a kid’s point of view.
The AR/VR push comes as home retailers, like all types of merchants these days, play the solutions-and-services card to compete in a fiercely competitive retail landscape.
They’re looking for ways to reinvent the wheel by offering answers to longtime shopper pain points, from buying furniture to checking out without waiting in line, and by adding on services, like new “interior decorating crews” at Williams-Sonoma.
Brick-and-mortar retailers of all stripes are grappling with how to boost waning shopper foot traffic. But Target’s “See It In Your Space” perk could unwittingly have the opposite effect, said Kelly Jo Sands, executive vice president of marketing technology for Ansira, a technology marketing solutions provider with clients such as New Balance and North Face.
“One pitfall of implementing AR for home furnishings is that Target might see less foot traffic in its brick and mortar stores for this category,” she said.
“Traditionally, even in the age of e-commerce, consumers have been hesitant to buy investment pieces, like furniture, without viewing them in person. Now with AR, consumers never have to leave their homes to view the furniture and see its real dimensions.”