IKEA is introducing a new application that aims to bring its famous store experience to customers’ homes.
The app, set to launch initially in France and the Netherlands, will allow customers to visualise products within their own home.
Alongside new capabilities the app will feature a new design, upgraded content and an improved user experience. It will also be able to offer customers product recommendations, ratings and reviews.
IKEA is not currently disclosing the name of the new app, which it plans to introduce in its other “top” markets by the end of 2019.
An IKEA spokesperson said, “We want to contribute to a better everyday life for the many people by introducing a new app which allows people to shop from the comfort of their own home.
“The app comes as a series of moves that look to strengthen IKEA’s position to become more accessible, affordable and sustainable for customers.”
IKEA was an early pioneer of augmented reality, developing its own IKEA Place application and releasing it in autumn 2017. Consumers can place scale models of (already assembled) furniture from IKEA’s product range in their own home. The dedicated application was an update to the interactive furniture experience released in 2013 as part of the IKEA Catalogue app.
British retailer Argos is another company that has launched the capability, building AR into its existing sales app. The company capitalised on a potential surge in demand for televisions ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Customers were able to tap the ’countdown to kick off’ section on the Argos app, then simply click ’summer of football’ – from which they were transported to a list of different TVs. Shoppers could then view a TV in their home using AR with just one tap on ’view in AR’.
In April online electricals store AO.com launched cutting-edge augmented reality so that customers can see what a product will look like and if it will fit in their homes. AR, which is being introduced on product pages across AO.com, means customers can check whether a product will fit in their home.
