Online furniture firms turn to tech to woo buyers

HYDERABAD: Companies in the furniture and decor space are spending heavily on technology and end-to-end solutions to help clients visualize the finished products. The target segment here is the upper middle class segment, where people are willing to invest Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2.5 crore on a property.
While players such as FabFurnish and Urban Ladder in the online furniture space recreate their offerings in three-dimensional settings to help users find the right fit, new entrants in decor and design, such as LivSpace, HomeLane and JBR Interio's Renderlogy, are selling customized looks for an entire unit.
"On an average, spend in technology for online decor and furniture players is on par with e-commerce ventures at 8-10% of their annual revenues. The need to invest more comes from emphasis on customer visualization and various combinations possible," said Ankur Bisen, senior vice-president (retail) at Technopak Advisors. "Unlike apparels or electronics, it is a three-dimensional play and the specifications are not uniform."
Vikram Chopra, co-founder of Fab-Furnish, said, "We would look at spending close to Rs 10 crore this year developing and growing our technology and manpower. We are working on augmented reality (AR), which lets you visualize what the product looks like in three dimensional space, as well as image recognition to search and match the customer's needs better."
FabFurnish is looking to expand its technology team to 150 from 50 now in the next fiscal year. The company will also look at acqui-hiring companies in visualization tools after closing a subsequent round of funding to the tune of $60-70 million.
AR has been utilized by Steadview Capital and Ratan Tata-backed furniture e-tailer Urban Ladder in its offerings under the UL Labs initiative, which collaborates with other startups to develop visualization tools for its SKUs. The company launched its Urban Storage and Living Spaces apps last year and has seen high traction from it. Next on offer is a head-mounted virtual reality display, though not for the masses.
"We are working with Oculus Virtual Reality which would help users interact with a product. Opening a chest of drawers will also produce a sound akin to real life and the interactive will include hand movement and experiencing how a product functions," said Rajiv Srivatsa, co-founder of Urban Ladder. Breaking into the space, design and decor companies are creating a niche by laying emphasis on customization, creating a look for the customer and selling a unit as a whole for the new homeowner, or those looking to re-do their houses.
"The primary spend is on design and technology in software development and front-end. We plan to expand our team over next quarter," said Rama Kant Sharma, co-founder of home design startup, LivSpace.
Follow TOI Tech on Twitter >>> @toi_tech
And like us on Facebook >>> TOI_tech