Horsham shoppers to get ‘virtual reality’ tech help at John Lewis

The store is one of three John Lewis shops in the UK where customers can use new technology to visualise changes to their homes while shopping for new home products.

Customers can put the dimensions, doors and windows of the room they want to update into an iPad via an app, guided by John Lewis staff, and then drop in John Lewis products to see how their interior ideas would look in their home.

They will also be able to change the colour of the walls and floors to create a complete look.

Users will be able to view their designed room on either on an iPad as a 3D room set, or wear a virtual reality headset to ‘walk around’ the room. Afterwards, customers will be emailed a copy of the room they created with shoppable links.

John Lewis spokeswoman Caitlin Price said: “Designing a new look for a room can be a lot of fun and a chance to express our personalities. However, customers tell us that uncertainty about what new products will look like in their home can make the decision making hard, and in many cases people revert to the safer tones of grey or beige furnishings.

“This new technology will enable customers to be braver in their choices, and test technology that architects and interior designers have been using to visualise their designs.”

The technology has been developed by the US based design company Marxent. CEO Beck Besecker said; “John Lewis understands how important inspiration is to modern furniture shoppers and has an impressive history of innovation. We’re proud to be partnering with them to test this technology in the UK.”

The trial will begin at John Lewis & Partners’ Horsham shop today (July 2). It is also available in Kingston and in Cambridge.