Ikea’s AR app looks to change how we shop for furniture

Ikea announced the launch of "the world’s first" AR shopping app, called Ikea Place. ”We are reinventing furniture shopping. Physical and digital worlds are now meeting in a new and natural way. [Ikea Place] will elevate the [shopping] experience and inspire our many customers, and make it easier for them to find exactly the right product,” says Michael Valdsgaard, Leader of Digital Transformation at Inter Ikea, the furniture giant’s business development and technology unit. Ikea Place enables shoppers to see through their iPhone or iPad how sofas, chairs, bookshelves and other furniture fit into their homes. Ikea hopes the app will not just reinvent hundreds of millions of shoppers’ buying experience, but also boost sales to an extent that will help it reach new revenue and profit records. Ikea Place, which has been developed using Apple ARKit technology, will initially feature some 2000 products, and supports in-app purchases. Valdsgaard lauds Apple's advanced AR-technology, which has "finally caught up with our ambitions." Ikea cites the app's "98 percent accuracy", enabling users to view furniture in its exact scale, “see a fabric’s structure, and experience how light and shadows are reproduced around the [objects].”