At Google I/O 2017 Google showed the use of AR and VR as part of the whole shopping experience. While not quite what was shown at Google I/O, Ikea have taken the bull by the horns and are launching a VR store in Australia.
When shopping for furniture and house furnishings it is often hard to visualise how they will look once unpacked and built. The technology introduced by Ikea allows customers to “walk” through an Ikea store and browse the products. Certain customers throughout the country will be able to also make purchases through the virtual store on their desktop device or PC.
Malcolm Haylett, Ikea Australia multichannel specialist, said
The Ikea virtual reality store has been developed to support our online shopping service. We know that it’s important for customers to see and experience our home furnishings range. Ikea has recently made a move towards online retailing, but we want to offer the full Ikea store experience to our online shoppers.
The VR experience offers a different and “more immersive” tool for customers to look at products and experience them before pulling the trigger on any purchases. It allows customers to stand in a room-set and see an entire range of products at a single glance. The VR then allows the customer to continue to navigate the store to wherever they want and view whatever products they want.
The VR experience will support the online store that operates from the Canberra store with ten collection points throughout the country. The VR shopping is accessed either from Ikea’s website or through the Matterport VR Cardboard app.
Head over to Ikea and check it out. Anything that prevent you having to navigate Ikea in person can only be a good thing surely?
