When you thought you can finally relax on your newly purchased Tyssedal bed, the Swedish giant strikes again, with a somewhat pleasantly labeled augmented reality app – “IKEA Place”. Say bye to driving to the shop, and hello to the AppStore. Download “IKEA Place” and prepare to spend the next few hours arguing over which coffee table really fits the curtains.
So what is the new app really? In collaboration with Apple’s ARKit, IKEA developed an AR-app in which you can take their furniture for a test drive without ever having to get lost in their massive stores. “IKEA Place” allows you to swipe through currently around 2,000 different products, choose the objects you like and place them -virtually- around your room. You can move around and experiment how it will look from multiple angles, including peeking under the table! Don’t worry about dimensions as the app automatically scales objects based on your room’s dimension at a 98% accuracy. Also, you will be able to see representations of your digital sofa’s texture and fabric and how your room’s natural lighting affects those. The app can also virtually replace the current furniture in your room with IKEA substitutes, hinting at the interesting capabilities of AR on iPhone 8 and the usefulness of AR in general. Given the rather low adoption rate of AR on smartphones, apps like this could be frontrunners, encouraging more developers to embed AR in their app-projects.
While arranging digital armchairs might not be everyone’s evening activity, this AR functionality might have a great impact on how people will experience shopping. What used to be time-consuming, emotionally draining and just overall tiring, is transforming. Once you find the right fit for your room, you can click on the object and it will redirect you to the website listing – ready to shop?
The app designed especially for iOS 11 is soon to be released for free in the UK; Netherlands stay tuned.
P.S: You still have to put the furniture together yourself once it arrives.
Sources:
Chang L. (2017) ‘See how that couch would look in your living room in AR with IKEA Place’, Digital Trends, accessed online at: https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/ikea-place-ar/
Pardes A. (2017) ‘IKEA’s new app flaunts what you’ll love most about AR’, WIRED, accessed online at: https://www.wired.com/story/ikea-place-ar-kit-augmented-reality/
Stillman J. (2017) ‘IKEA’s new app ensures you’ll never buy the wrong piece of furniture again’ Inc, accessed online at: https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/ikea-just-released-an-app-that-will-transform-how-people-buy-furniture-everything-else.html
IKEA is taking an interesting approach to augmented reality, which will likely become a trend for other furniture retailers as it saves customers from having to take a trip all the way to the store. In a way, I think this could competitively negatively impact IKEA in the long run if all furniture stores start using AR, which could be reducing the need for customers to actually travel to furniture stores. This would help smaller niche furniture stores, as they no longer need to cover the same costs of warehousing and producing the furniture until they know there is demand for it, taking away IKEAs economies of scale advantage. Nonetheless, i think IKEA has a unique position within the furniture business, as they are attracting a segment that wants low-cost furniture. Customers that want high-end furniture will most likely shop at other places than IKEA.
Hi Alex, Interesting to hear about the new developments at IKEA, thanks for sharing! Regarding, the comment of Shaffy Roell; I have to disagree. Assuming that AR is moving forward, and more customers chose to order furniture online, the need for actual stores would decrease. However, I do not necessarily see this as a negative aspect. Ikea has huge warehousing costs, as they need to store all the items in their shops. AR could help them, reducing those fixed costs and furthermore allow them to ship products directly from the factory to the customer. Indeed, Ikea would need to adapt their business model in the future. But with such a high market share, they could also tap into the niche markets, by for instance offering customizable products or creating sub-brands.
Hi Alexandra,
Interesting article! I think AR is a technology that is really going to shape our daily lives in the future.
Glasses.. clothes.. furnitures.
At first, I thought about a possible contradiction in strategies between physical stores and this new app. But after thinking about it better, the two fit. The way Ikea stores are designed is rather unique. The purpose is to get clients to go through all parts of the store, to increase the number of product sold. I believe the app would compliment this strategy well, as you might also tend to buy more than you intended to at first, thanks to the simplicity of navigation in the app. Also, you will not have the constraint of having to carry all purchased items, but would get them delivered home. Not being a fan of Ikea trips myself, I would definitely be interested in using such a technology.
(sorry Köttbullar, next time!)