Dive Brief:
- Direct-to-consumer home brand Wayfair on Tuesday debuted its Digital Design Studio, an in-store home styling kiosk, according to a company press release.
- Intended to merge digital and physical shopping experiences, the kiosk allows customers to create and interact with various furniture layouts using digital room models. Shoppers can move around furniture cards representing items available in-store or online to change configurations, as well as adjust the camera and furniture finishes.
- The pilot technology is currently available at its Dedham, Massachusetts, AllModern store.
Dive Insight:
Wayfair doesn’t currently have specific plans to expand this pilot technology into more stores, the company told Retail Dive, but it is looking to learn more about how customers use the kiosk and will explore additional features.
"Experimentation and innovation with an eye on improving the customer experience is at the heart of everything we do at Wayfair," Fiona Tan, chief technology officer at Wayfair, said in a statement. "Wayfair strongly believes in meeting our customers where they want to shop, whether online or in-person. The Digital Design Studio helps us execute on this omnichannel experience, by making it easier for customers to find what they are looking for and ultimately have greater confidence and satisfaction in their purchase."
The Digital Design Studio was created by Wayfair’s research and development team, Wayfair Next, which was tasked with examining how consumers will use technology.
The company’s new technology comes at a time when it is struggling with sales. Its fourth-quarter earnings report in February showed net revenue dropped 4.6% year over year to $3.1 billion and its active customer base fell 19%. For the full fiscal year, net revenue fell 11% and net loss increased by $1.2 billion to reach $1.3 billion.
Bed Bath & Beyond — which filed for bankruptcy late last month — once ran a digital design service from its acquisition of Decorist in 2017. The platform — which connected customers with design professionals at different levels of experience — was later shut down in 2022, according to reporting from Business of Home.
