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In today's rapidly evolving digital marketplace, competition among brands selling online has intensified. Many traditional sellers are expanding their omnichannel sales models to capture a share of the growing market. With the housing boom and global urban population growth, there's a significant opportunity to engage customers. The global furniture market size exceeded $545.78 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow to approximately $650.7 billion by 2027. Consequently, furniture brands are investing in new sales tools for online channels, with an emphasis on mobile-first strategies.
Customer expectations for online shopping have changed dynamically in recent years, and most store traffic is now generated by mobile devices.
The range of possibilities is vast, from expensive mobile applications to simple web-based tools that support customers in product presentation, selection, and purchasing. The decision should depend on budget, offer, and key value propositions. However, the primary goal remains the same: to charm the customer with the product and streamline the purchase process.
Scandic Sofa, in collaboration with AR-Range, has implemented several tools in its online store:
All these tools were created mainly based on 3D assets. Thanks to these solutions, the brand's customers can independently adjust the furniture to their needs, seeing a preview in all possible variants.
One of the main distinguishing features of Scandic Sofa is handcrafted furniture with great attention to detail and a wide range of fabrics with product personalization. Since not all of these aspects had been fully utilized in the online tools, we developed changes to highlight them better.
We know that the quality of product visualization significantly impacts sales in furniture e-commerce. Our goal was to create images that delight customers and ensure they make the right choice. We aimed to properly showcase finishes, fabric textures, and wood quality. Additionally, we refined the UI and UX to prioritize a mobile-first approach.
Our first task was to develop a visualization concept. Given the numerous possible configurations, we unified the frames showing the products while refining the lighting settings for each. We conducted a series of test renderings from various angles for the main categories: sofas, corner sofas, and beds. After discarding several dozen samples, we selected three frames for each furniture category with the client. Proper framing and lighting helped highlight the furniture's greatest advantages and details.
Our Automated Visualizer for rendering, generated over 60,000 images of furniture in three different frames and all possible configurations within two days.
Simultaneously, we refreshed the interface to enhance the mobile version of the configurator. We designed and tested prototypes on Figma, the favorite tool of our UI/UX designers.
The next step was coding the new version, disabling the previous configurator, and integrating the new version with the store. This process went smoothly, thanks to our in-depth knowledge of the customer's e-store environment.
Additionally, the Scandic Sofa configurator includes an Augmented Reality (AR) feature. For the client's needs, we developed a way to use web-AR both from a computer desktop, via QR codes, and directly from mobile devices without needing to download any external applications. The web-AR function is extremely useful for companies selling large or difficult-to-deliver and return items, such as furniture brands.
AR allows buyers to place virtual products in their rooms or gardens using a smartphone, enabling customers to see how a product will fit into their environment aesthetically and dimensionally.
The current ScandicSofa.pl configurator allows customers to customize over 60 products, in 13 types of fabrics, 120 colors, and 3 types of legs. All product variants are presented in three frames, highlighting details such as texture, solid or quilting. Each visualization reflects the quality of work performed by designers, cutters, upholsterers, implementers, and other trusted employees of ScandicSofa.pl.
