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While visualisation tools via 3D and Augmented Reality (AR) have emerged in many home product industries in the last decade, the window furnishings industry has lagged behind.
However, that is changing fast thanks to the emergence of Artifical Intelligence (AI), according to one industry leader.
Edward Sedgley, CEO of Viewa Ltd, says the visualisation of products prior to purchase or installation has been important for decades but came increasingly to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Consumer behaviour saw a large shift with more people than ever buying items online, over 62% of people buying on their phones and 81% of people doing research,” he told WFA.
“Retailers were starting to realise that the better their online experience and the longer they could keep potential customers on their website, higher engagement would ultimately lead to higher conversions.”
“This saw the emergence of visualisation via 3D and Augmented Reality (AR) in a variety of home product industries, from pools to furniture to paint. In particular, visualisers for flooring products like carpet are now quite common amongst the larger retailers.”
However, Sedgley says, to date, the technology has never taken off in the window furnishings industry.
“Although a few tech companies have tried, the end result was generally unrealistic and not user friendly.”
“Generally, this was due to difficulties in aligning the products accurately with the windows, maintaining true-to-life product integrity virtually and ensuring a strong level of realism.”
“Together, these made it unviable; ultimately it is a selling tool and customers need to both aspire to the virtual blinds and then gain an accurate representation of them when they are installed.”
Sedgley said the emergence of AI has now changed the game.
“Visualisation software like that offered by Viewa leverages cutting-edge AI models which can be used to accurately identify and measure the windows and hence place products properly on them.”
“In addition, it can be trained on window products and materials to accurately show them visually in stunning realism.”
Sedgley is in no doubt about the change that solutions like Viewa are bringing to the window furnishings sector. “A new era of visualisation for the industry has now begun,” he said.
