Amazon has launched a new augmented reality shopping tool – Room Decorator. It lets you view the furniture and other home decor items in your home before you buy them.
The e-commerce giant has already experimented with AR tools in the past, but what sets the Room Decorator apart from others is its ability to add multiple products to the room simultaneously virtually. In addition, you can store photos of your home to use the feature remotely and save room layouts if you are not ready to make a decision.
The company first launched a simpler version of the AR shopping tool back in 2017 with something called “AR View” in its Amazon iOS app built using ARKit. Like many other AR shopping tools to date, AR View allowed buyers to view 3D images of furniture in their homes to check how the product matched their existing decor. However buyers could only view one product at a time.
With room Decorator, you can view multiple products together and use this feature when you are away from home, saving AR images of your room for later work.
Built by Amazon’s visual search team, the Room Decorator shopping app needs an iOS device or desktop browser to access it. It works with thousands of decor products on Amazon, including third-party items. A “View in your room” button in the Amazon shopping app will appear below the eligible products. Saved layouts will appear in your Amazon account’s “Your Rooms” section, and the company will email you a link to the saved room for easy access.
These features are part of a growing suite of AR capabilities offered by technology companies, including video games, design tools, and shopping. Retailers such as Wayfair and Ikea also offer AR tools that help better visualize the size and shape of products before the customer purchases them, reducing the number of returns. Buying furniture online using these tools can be especially helpful for people who want to avoid stores during the coronavirus pandemic.
Room Decorator is being rolled out to selected Amazon customers in the U.S. Over the next few weeks; the feature will be available to all U.S. buyers on iOS, the company said.
