King Living has built an engaging new way for customers to shop for its high-end furniture online in less time than it takes some people to select a new sofa.
The retailer captured its entire Annandale showroom with a high-definition professional camera, tagged each product with additional information and hyperlinks to its e-commerce website and uploaded the content to its website, where customers can explore the space on their computer or mobile device, zoom in on individual products and see them from all angles.
The virtual showroom, which went live on Monday, is intended to replicate the experience of visiting a King Living showroom. Unlike a standard e-commerce site, which presents products individually, often against a white background with no sense of scale or movement, the virtual showroom is an immersive and interactive environment. For instance, shoppers are able to “open” storage seating. The move comes after a large shift towards online by companies around the globe, amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We just felt that the website was quite a static interaction, and to build and design that [virtual showroom] interface was a great initiative to be able to continue to offer that real life experience, but in virtual reality,” Natalie Culina, King Living’s head of global brand
“We’re always looking at new and innovative concepts,” she said. “I think the current time has just forced us to innovate more than we normally would, which has been great for us and great for our customers.”
