3D technology can help bring people back into the store - Furniture Today

Alex Schiff

ARLINGTON, Texas — Brick-and-mortar furniture retailers can take advantage of technology such as 3D scanning and visualization to bring customers into the store.

Alex Schiff, product manager for Occipital, a company that creates mobile computer vision software and hardware, pointed out at the NEXT Conference here how retailers can leverage their physical space in the local community to give them a leg up over e-commerce-only companies.

“Local retailers have the advantage of proximity to the customer where they can provider higher touch face-to-face service,” said Schiff. “They can do this by offering design services using 3D scanning.”

Retailers can use the 3D models of their customer’s home to create looks that inspire them, according to Schiff. With the rapid advancement in 3D technologies, it can take about 30 minutes per room to put a very high-quality 3D rendering together — so designers can create several virtual options for the consumer, or even create them together.

“We find its best to schedule an in-store review when you are in the customer’s home. They love watching the cool 3D tech happen and want to see what will be done with room,” Schiff said. “Then, with a shopper who is in the physical store, it’s important to walk them over to the chairs, sofas and tables to show them the products in order to connect the virtual and physical worlds.”

Another advantage to the new technology, according to Schiff, is the opportunity to upsell additional rooms and turn a small project into a big project.

“When one of our customers started asking their clients if they were planning any other home projects in the next 18 months, 95% of them said yes, and 32% of people converted into a totally new design project,” added Schiff. “It takes only one or two minutes to scan an extra room, so it’s easy to go from a one-room project to a three-room project.”

Schiff said technology also allows for hyper-personalized selling where retailers can reach out to let consumers know, for example, that they have a new line arriving next week that would go well with the consumer’s current décor and room layout and send them a 3D rendering of the room with the new options included.

Anne covers the evolving landscape among retailers and manufacturers in the bedding, technology, e-commerce and disruptive retail segments.

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