For those in the furniture industry, I’d love to hear your thoughts. With so many sales happening online, how are you personalizing the customer experience, handling returns, and building trust?
I recently bought a piece of furniture that seemed like the right size based on the measurements, but once it was delivered, it didn’t fit the space at all. On top of that, the color didn’t match the photos. Now I have to return it, and the whole process has been a hassle, especially after it was carried upstairs and assembled. Situations like this are frustrating on both sides.
It got me thinking about how these issues could be avoided while saving time and money. Tools like AR seem like they could help customers better understand scale, color, and placement before buying.
Have you found AR helpful for product visualization, or are there other approaches that work better? Curious to hear your experience.
I can definitely see AR being helpful here, especially for larger furniture where a return is expensive and inconvenient for everyone involved. Being able to see the approximate scale of a sofa, table, or chair in the actual room could help customers rule out obvious size issues before ordering.
That said, I don’t think AR alone solves everything. The colour issue you mentioned is a good example. Lighting, screen settings, and materials can all make a product look different in real life. I’ve found that a combination of accurate measurements, lifestyle photos, close-up material shots, customer photos, and, where practical, fabric or finish samples can give customers much more confidence.
Another area that seems important is helping customers understand exactly what they’re configuring before they buy. For furniture with choices like fabric, wood finish, leg style, or additional features, showing those options visually can make a big difference compared with a simple dropdown. For example, I’ve used Easify Custom Product Options for setups where customers need to choose from visual options such as colors or materials, since image and color swatches can make the selection process clearer.
For more complex or custom furniture, I think the ideal experience would be a combination of visual product options + detailed dimensions + real-world photos/video, with AR as an additional tool rather than the only solution.
I’d also be interested to hear whether anyone using AR has actually seen a measurable reduction in returns, because that’s probably the most useful metric here rather than simply whether customers find it interesting to use.
