Wayfair launches new AR features to counter the downturn in the US furniture market

Wayfair recently announced that it will add a new AR feature "ViewinRoom3D" to its latest version of the app. At the same time, the US furniture market is in a downturn, and sales of many retailers have declined. Wayfair's new feature is aimed at competing for more customers.

When shopping for home furnishings and furniture online, especially larger pieces of furniture such as sofas, chairs, beds, cabinets and wardrobes, one of the biggest barriers to purchase is the inability to judge how well these pieces of furniture will fit in the room. The emergence of AR/VR technology makes this experience possible.

According to 2021 data, 120 million consumers in the United States have used AR in some form when shopping online. Data shows that applications that provide some kind of AR function have an 11-fold increase in order conversion rate.

Using the "View in Room 3D" feature, users can open their phone camera and point it at the space where they want to place the furniture, then select the items they want to place from Wayfair's product list, and then adjust the scale so that users can see whether the items are suitable for this space.

Wayfair has also integrated similar AR technology into its internal application WayfairSpaces, allowing users to create a virtual interface for an entire room. The benefit of AR technology is that it can handle many products with complex purchase paths and reduce online shopping friction. For example, when consumers shop online for furniture and home furnishings, they usually need to conduct a lot of product research, space measurement, and returns are more complicated.

Today, due to inflation, consumers in the United States and even around the world are reducing their consumption of furniture and home furnishings, so the sales of home furnishings have dropped significantly after the epidemic. Wayfair is considering AR technology as the key to differentiate itself from its competitors in order to increase sales.

According to Yahoo Finance, last week, two furniture retailers in the United States announced a sharp decline in sales year-on-year. Among them, high-end furniture brand RH announced a 19% drop in second-quarter revenue, and Virginia furniture manufacturer Hooker Furnishings, which sells goods through retailers such as Wayfair and Macy's, said that its second-quarter revenue plummeted 36%.

The main reason for this phenomenon is that during the epidemic in 2020 and 2021, American consumers spent more time at home, and their purchases of household goods and furniture also increased. Many consumer demands were brought forward, and sales of home improvement retailers such as Home Depot and Target have also declined in recent quarters.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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