How Augmented Reality is Changing the Way We Shop for Furniture IKEA's decision to build an AR app with Apple's ARkit has given a boost to the segment

The mania of Augmented Reality has taken over the world, with almost every other company in the hardware or manufacturing space too trying it out to make their processes a tad-bit easier. The furniture segment too wasn't far behind. Imagine visualising a piece of furniture in your room, even before you have bought it. From placement to co-ordinating the colour, you can see the furniture in your room, thanks to Augmented Reality (AR).

And the whole campaign got a bigger boost when one of the world's largest online retail store IKEA announced its decision to build an AR app with Apple's ARkit. Given the number of people who visit IKEA stores and spend hours there figuring out the perfect piece of furniture, this app would make the selection process a whole lot easier and convenient.

India, too has been building its own AR space. Entrepreneur India takes a look at the different ways in which AR start-ups are set to revolutionise the furniture space.

Try It Out

The biggest use of AR in the furniture segment is to try the furniture out before you buy it. Indian apps in the segment like Urban Ladder lets you select sofas and try it out in your room by projecting the same through your phone's camera. You can even change colours to check which one works out for your room. These apps also allow one to resize the furniture and change its positioning to see where it looks best in your home.

Bringing back e-commerce

With the problem of people not trusting e-commerce websites especially to buy furniture, as they do not have the confidence on the product, had also led to the ecommerce segment seeing a dull phase. It had also resulted in online stores like PepperFry launching offline stores for people to try and test the product. But with these AR apps one will soon be able to detect the quality of the product too. Urban Ladder is even said to be working on features where according to different lighting you can view the product.

Customise it from your phone

Many a times, people prefer to get customised furniture for their rooms. Be it to match the existing furniture in the room or the colour or pattern of the room, customising these pieces also makes it more homely. After all, the furniture is a long-term investment. Bringing about a balance of augmented reality and a marketplace for furniture, Indian startup woodBOX helps one with a curated catalogue of furniture pieces. Currently, the platform has over 8,000 products, with a Made to Order concept.