Online home furnishing retailer Wayfair is releasing a new virtual reality app that lets users explore and shop for pieces from an interactive virtual showroom.

The new app is called IdeaSpace and is Wayfair’s second app. IdeaSpace will be available on Google’s Daydream VR platform.

“As an e-commerce company, we harness virtual and augmented reality technologies to help our customers better visualize our products,” said Shrenik Sadalgi, lead engineer at Wayfair Next. “By providing an immersive experience for our shoppers, users can explore 3-D models and virtual spaces in an inspirational setting, and discover a variety of new designs and styles.”

Virtual reality
Wayfair is banking on the power of VR as a tool for letting consumers explore pre-made rooms as a way of driving traffic, helping consumers make informed decisions and incentivizing purchases.

Wayfair customers can use the IdeaSpace app to explore rooms that have been custom designed by Wayfair. Consumers can cycle through a variety of rooms and explore each one and the pieces contained within.

Once consumers are finished exploring rooms, all of the pieces they have seen can then be purchased directly from the app. In this way, Wayfair is smoothing out the interruptions in interaction between the brand and the consumer by making the jump from browsing to purchasing much smaller.

IdeaSpace can be viewed through Google’s new Daydream VR platform. Any smartphone that is compatible with Daydream will also work with IdeaSpace.

While viewing a room in IdeaSpace, consumers can use the Daydream controller to move through the rooms. Once they have found a piece they like, consumers can point their cursor at the piece and see additional details around it, including price, colors and other options.

Consumers can also use Daydream to see a 360 degree view of a specific piece, allowing them to spin it around and catch it from all angles.

If they like they piece, consumers can save it for later through the apps list-making feature. Once a piece has been decided on, consumers can be taken to a checkout screen to make the final purchase.

“Current VR experiences are powered by custom hardware – i.e a headset and a high end computer, which requires a significant investment,” Mr. Sadalgi said. “This is a potential barrier for someone who wants to just try out the technology.

“However, Mobile VR platforms, such as Google Daydream and Samsung Gear VR, have made it easier for users to experience VR due to its form factor. Additionally, UX in VR is still evolving, as the technology is still young.”

IdeaSpace
Home furnishing has proven to be a prime area for mobile to shine in the worlds of virtual and augmented reality, so it is no surprise that Wayfair is heading that direction as well.

Earlier this week, Lowe’s announced Lowe’s Vision, an augmented reality app that lets users digitally project home furnishings through their phone’s camera in real time into their homes (see story).

This feature worked very similarly, allowing consumers to gauge how an item actually looks in a way that a static image cannot do. Like Wayfair, Lowe’s also used this app as a window into purchasing as well.

Wayfair is riding the wave of virtual reality-enabled apps in the hopes that Google Daydream will help rein in a whole new set of customers.

“IdeaSpace takes the inspirational content our customers have come to expect from us to an entirely new level, allowing them to browse beautifully styled spaces and products in a completely immersive experience,” Mr. Saldagi said. “Discovery is an essential part of the Wayfair shopping experience.”