Macy’s is using VR instead of AR to sell furniture

Macy’s is planning to use VR experiences to sell furniture to customers in 50 stores by this summer, becoming the latest company to jump on the bandwagon (brandwagon?) of using virtual reality to sell products, via VentureBeat.

Unlike Amazon, Ikea, or Target — all of which have some sort of augmented reality furniture experience so users can see how a table or chair might look in their living room — Macy’s is using actual VR, headset and all, to demo furniture to customers. As FurnitureToday reports, customers in Macy’s stores will be able to lay out a room with furniture using a tablet and then test the design by actually “entering” the space in VR.

Macy’s views the technology as enabling the company to demo a wider range furniture without devoting as much physical space to displaying it in its stores. Jeff Gennette, Macy’s CEO, also claims that the VR demos have led to fewer concerns from customers about furniture fitting, as well as increases in sales — particularly of items that weren’t even physically in a store.

Macy’s plans to roll out the VR demos to 50 stores by this summer, but if successful, it could show up in more Macy’s stores in the near future.