Godrej
furniture retail unit is already taking advantage of 3D visuals, Augmented
Reality and Virtual Reality to serve their customers thus saving time and
increasing the ticket size.
Unorganized communities of carpenters and
interior designers cater to a substantial portion of the furniture market,
whereas branded furniture players play the product game.
Recognizing the gaps and the customer pain
points, Godrej’s U&US Home Design Studio started innovating the furniture
retail space.
“Nowadays customers explore a lot and
finalize. They have a few ideas of what they want to do. The experience given
by the interior designers and the carpenter community was less in terms of the
options and choices offered to the customer.
So we wanted to offer limitless options to
our consumers. The customer at Godrej U & US design home studio gets a real
tech-driven experience and in a digital studio it is a small set up and yet we
can show the world to the customer in terms of options and choices offered,”
said Manoj Rathi, Associate Vice President & Head Retail Operations, Godrej
Interio Division.
The next pain point of the customer is to
choose materials, colors and then visualising the final product which is not
offered by carpenters or interior designers. They use images to put it in the
minds of customers about how the look and feel of the product will be. This is
where U & US, a Home Design Studio by Godrej worked very closely with
graphics and our consumers and to solve this pain of the consumer, the studio
created a unique technology with the in-house team
The company created a color visualiser. The
3D visuals can be tested or played with different colors to suit customers’
demand and wants. And it is not only the color of furniture but polish shades,
flooring, fabric or even the wall can be played with.
“The entire journey with U & US is
an experience co-creation journey using technology in a big way. Right from the
start of the discussion of layout which happens on a table which is a large
touch screen programmed well in terms of showcasing instant 3D visuals to the
customer. It’s like a PlayStation where the customer is on his own and the
designer is just guiding him and they can configure the home they wanted. Once
the design, layout, colors and fabrics are finalised, the last and final
walkthrough happens via VR sets to give a lifelike experience to the customer,”
Rathi further explained.
The company employs a library of products
built expressly for the United States and the United Kingdom, which are
componentized to allow for a high level of decentralised manufacturing at the
workshops. For the colour visualizer, they use RFID tags and a QR coding
system.
In addition, a second platform aids in the
conversion of the complete sketch into actual VR walkthroughs.
Godrej U & US intended to give
customers a variety of options in terms of materials and colours, making the
studio a one-stop shop for them from design to completion. He also stated that
U & US is India’s first studio to acquire trademark certification for these
technologies.
This saves the consumer a lot of time
because Godrej can display them instant 3D graphics and the real colours they
want one after the other, allowing them to make quick decisions.
When customers see a virtual setup, they
keep on adding the things to see what looks best and then the ticket size also
moves up which helps the business grow. Moving ahead, the Home Design Studio is
working on a real-time change-over in VR setup including the dimensions of
sounds. For example, if you were to move a sofa in the walkthrough, you will
hear the sound of moving the sofa to make the experience lifelike.
Technologies that Godrej U & US is
using now will be integrated with the larger interio business of Godrej. Since
they have tested it, piloted it, and have been able to run successful
operations for the last 3-4 years now, it is now ready for Godrej & Boyce
to adopt.
“There is a lot happening in the domain of
Metaverse. A lot of platforms are getting built. We have been looking at it
very closely. First is obviously social media which will be redefined with meta
and then the second will be fashion and furniture. So right now we are at a
stage where we are looking at the developments very closely. And we will be
participating either through the larger platform developments which are
happening or we may have our own universe,” Rathi concluded. Courtesy: www.cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com
