John Lewis to trial virtual reality experience

Department store John Lewis has announced that it is to help its customers trial new home shopping products with its new virtual reality experience, ‘Visualise Your Space’.

The virtual reality experience will enable customers to visualise the products in their homes before they buy and will be trialled in three shops, Kingston, Cambridge and Horsham.

Customers will be able to put the dimensions, doors and windows of the room they want to update into an iPad via an app, and then drop in John Lewis products to see how their interior ideas would look in their home. They will also be able to change the colour of the walls and floors to create a complete look.

Users will be able to view their designed room on either an iPad, as a 3D room set in augmented reality, or wear a virtual reality headset to ‘walk around’ the room. Afterwards, customers will be e-mailed a copy of the room they created with shoppable links.

Caitlin Price, John Lewis Partner and head of buying for furniture and flooring said in a statement: “Designing a new look for a room can be a lot of fun and a chance to express our personalities. However, customers tell us that uncertainty about what new products will look like in their home can make the decision making hard, and in many cases, people revert to the safer tones of grey or beige furnishings.

“This new technology will enable customers to be braver in their choices, and test technology that architects and interior designers have been using to visualise their designs.”

The technology has been developed by the US-based, design and 3D visualisation company Marxent.

Chief executive and co-founder of Marxent, Beck Besecker added: “John Lewis understands how important inspiration is to modern furniture shoppers and has an impressive history of innovation. We’re proud to be partnering with them to test this technology in the UK.”

The trial will begin at John Lewis & Partners’ Kingston shop on June 26, in Cambridge on June, 28 and in Horsham on July 2.

Image: courtesy of John Lewis and Partners