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DFS in-browser AR brings the lounge to life

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DFS, a leading UK upholstery retailer, is upping its online and mobile experience with the addition of AR, which places furniture in the room virtually, giving shoppers and idea of who things fit.

With 40% of the upholstery industry’s web traffic to its name, DFS worked with global eCommerce consultancy Salmon, a Wunderman Commerce company, to implement the new feature.

The AR functionality – which uses the latest iOS 12 software update introduced last week by Apple – allows iPhone and iPad users to place a piece of furniture in their home and visualise how it looks and fits.

Users can point the device at any space in the lounge using the camera function, where the piece can be moved around the room in real-time and to scale.

The technology is the first of its kind to automatically detect room space and work purely in a browser, without the need for a “marker” object to determine room dimensions or a separate downloadable app, making it even simpler for customers to use.

DFS has a proven track record of growing sales through eCommerce. Salmon led the project, consulting with DFS to develop the prototype and enable the new functionality. All 3D-rendered model assets needed to support the launch were created by Viutek.

“We wanted to offer something truly unique to our customers that was not only aesthetically pleasing, but intuitive and practical too,” explains James Vernon, Head of Online at DFS. “Choosing a new piece of furniture is never an easy task – particularly online – but the new AR-enabled feature will help improve the online shopping experience and make the purchasing decision much easier. Salmon and Viutek have worked tirelessly to drive this innovative solution and we’re all extremely proud to be the first sofa retailer to truly take advantage of this new technology.”

“This new augmented reality feature is a fantastic example of a company truly pushing the boundaries of innovation and doing eCommerce well,” adds Naji El-Arifi, Head of Innovation at Salmon. “As well as greater expectations around price and delivery, consumers are also demanding more interesting ways to shop both in-store and online. The ability for users to recreate their perfect living space in the touch of a few buttons could well be the future of furniture shopping online.”

DFS has enabled this feature for 10 products, with plans to roll out every product on the site in the near future. Salmon is currently building the prototypes for Chrome and Firefox for when the feature becomes available on Android.

To view a demo of how the functionality works, please view the video here.

Or test it out on DFS using your mobile device here.

Images: DFS

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