Table of Contents

Augmented Reality

Transforming Customer Experience: Success Story of India's Largest Furniture Marketplace

Team Avataar
Team Avataar
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June 26, 2023
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0
minutes read
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The excitement of embarking on furniture shopping, exploring countless options, and envisioning your dream space… as a retailer, you understand the thrill customers experience when browsing through your online furniture store. However, there's a common frustration that often arises: the limitations of online shopping. Customers yearn for the tactile experience of touching, feeling, and experiencing furniture firsthand before making a purchase. Unfortunately, this inherent limitation often leads to lost sales and missed opportunities for retailers. At Avataar, we recognized this challenge and set out to bridge the gap between digital and physical shopping experiences, empowering furniture marketplaces and retailers to engage customers in new and innovative ways.

Capturing spatial depth through generative AI:

In the evolving landscape of online furniture retail, creating a connection with customers goes beyond showcasing 2D images and product descriptions. Spatial depth plays a vital role in helping customers visualize furniture in their homes. It's that feeling and ability to place a sofa in the living room or arrange a dining table in the perfect spot that bring a sense of certainty and confidence to a shopper’s buying decision.

At Avataar, we set out to solve this challenge by harnessing the power of cutting-edge 3D modeling and augmented reality (AR) technology. Early on in our journey, we partnered with a leading furniture marketplace, empowering them to offer an immersive and interactive shopping experience to their customers without the limitations of online shopping.

Transforming the Customer Experience

Through our AI/ML-based platform, we created high-quality 3D models for the furniture from our client’s catalog at scale. By upgrading existing 2D catalogs into visually stunning and photo-realistic 3D representations, we ensured that customers could explore furniture from every angle, spin, zoom, and truly understand the product before making the purchase.

Integrating our plug-and-play 3D renderer, we introduced visual commerce. The solution allowed customers to engage with furniture through a 3D AR configurator, complete with animations and interactive features. They could place furniture in their own space, move it around, assess its functionality and design, and interact with features like open and close in the case of a cabinet or recliner. It was the online equivalent of stepping into a physical showroom and experiencing the furniture firsthand.

Addressing Challenges and Enhancing Engagement:

To ensure seamless integration and widespread user adoption, our team at Avataar collaborated closely with our client to develop intuitive UI/UX designs. We strategically showcased the 3D AR experiences on the product description page, capturing the attention of shoppers right where they make their purchasing decisions.

With visually appealing graphics and clear instructions, we guided users on how to leverage the in-camera AR feature to its fullest potential. We wanted customers to feel empowered to explore the 3D models and effortlessly place them in their own environments, all with the convenience of using just their phone camera. The technology allowed shoppers to transcend the limitations of online shopping, enabling them to visualize furniture in their own space and make more confident purchasing decisions.

By incorporating these interactive and immersive 3D AR experiences seamlessly into the shopping journey, we empowered customers to engage with the products on a whole new level. It was no longer a passive browsing experience but an active and personalized exploration, replicating the joy of physically examining furniture and placing it in their own homes.

The Results: Success and Growth

The integration of Avataar's platform brought remarkable outcomes for the brand. In its first year of implementation, the furniture marketplace witnessed a staggering 260% increase in sales conversions compared to 2D content. The adoption of the 3D AR configurator also resulted in a significant boost, with over a 60% increase in PDP-to-cart visits. Furthermore, the average engagement time on the platform skyrocketed, with users spending an impressive 4-7 minutes per session. This increase indicated a higher level of customer interest, interaction, and exploration. 

Conclusion

The collaboration proved to be a game-changer, transforming the furniture marketplace's customer experience through interactive 3D and AR technology. By addressing scalability, photo-realism, configurability, and UI/UX challenges, the brand reinvented its catalog and elevated consumer engagement. Avataar's innovative solutions, including generative AI-led 3D/AR features, propelled the brand into the realm of visual commerce, catering to the changing preferences of Indian consumers.

Embracing 3D/AR solutions has become a necessity for the evolving furniture industry. By leveraging these technologies, furniture retailers can enhance the customer experience and stay ahead in the ever-changing landscape of online furniture retail.

Read more about how you can transform your consumers' shopping experiences here.  

Frequently asked questions

How Brands can Use Augmented Reality?

Augmented reality can be used across various industries to give customers a first-hand experience of the product or service. Here are a few examples how businesses can benefit from Augmented Reality. Ecommerce retailers can help customers visualize the product in the intended environment for a better shopping experience. Tourism businesses can use Augmented Reality to give clients a virtual tour of the destination before they even reach there. Retail stores can use AR to create infinite product aisles with no limitation of physical space or use Hologram-based sales assistants for product demos. Restaurants can use augmented reality to let diners see their dish virtually on the table before placing an order. Using AR in this respect can help diners decide what to order and how much to order, eliminating the element of surprise and complaints. Museums can display the same artifacts in augmented reality across multiple locations.

Are there advantages to using augmented reality?

Augmented reality allows buyers to make informed purchasing decisions by allowing them to evaluate products in real size in their own environment using their phone camera. According to reports, stores with augmented reality see 94% higher conversion and 40% lower returns.

How Augmented Reality Can Help Your Brand boost sales?

There are several ways AR can help your brand increase sales and acquire new customers. By providing an immersive shopping experience, AR helps eliminate indecisiveness and encourage customers to hit the ‘Buy’ button right away. With AR integrated into your product catalog, customers can try out your products in the intended environment and see if it meets their expectations. Such experiences are far more likely to convert a lead than conventional ways of online selling.

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