In-store customers can use mixed reality to visualise the pieces in their own homes
Elly Yates-Roberts |
Italian retailer Natuzzi is transforming furniture shopping by allowing customers to use Microsoft HoloLens to visualise the pieces in their own homes, all while in store.
Visitors to Natuzzi’s shop in Tottenham Court Road in London, UK can use the Microsoft HoloLens 2 headset to see a life-size hologram of a room in their house and place a piece of furniture in it. They can then change the colour, material and finish of the object, walk around it, rotate it and move it to a different area in the virtual room.
“The Natuzzi Augmented Store is a revolution in interior design and decoration,” said Pasquale Jr. Natuzzi, creative director and stylist at Natuzzi. “We have worked with Microsoft and Hevolus Innovation on a new customer journey to give consumers an idea of their homes in a way that makes them fall in love. We let them walk around their home virtually, showing our collection without boundaries. The mixed reality system gives us an incredible opportunity to lower the stock and the inventory in our stores and increase the sales per square foot.”
Before customers leave the store, they will receive a 360-degree rendering of their furniture layout, which they can show friends and family via their smartphone or a virtual reality headset.
“Providing a unique customer experience is critical in today’s competitive retail environment,” said Leila Martine, UK product marketing director of mixed reality at Microsoft. “At the same time, retailers are looking for ways to reimagine their physical store and maximise sales. Natuzzi’s new augmented store is a perfect example of how retailers can leverage mixed reality environments with Microsoft HoloLens to reimagine the in-store experience.”
Natuzzi has launched the new service in its London store but plans to start rolling it out globally by 2020.