Creating Lifestyle Content for Furniture Isn't as Easy as It Sounds
Online furniture shopping is challenging for both retailers and consumers. And when you consider the high cost of returns and mispurchases, it’s clear why furniture retailers are looking for new ways to transform the customer experience.
But creating lifestyle content isn’t as easy as it sounds. You need a studio to showcase the products, a photographer, and a team to process and upload the photos. And even then, this type of static lifestyle content isn’t interactive.
So, what options do furniture retailers have in the age of interactive shopping? Read on to learn more about how Tangiblee can help you maximize existing catalog imagery to create a truly interactive, context-rich shopping experience.
The problem with online furniture shopping
We already covered some of the biggest issues online furniture retailers face in our blog on Tangiblee RoomView. Still, there are a few key things we want to cover.
There’s no denying how much online shopping has changed the way we purchase everyday things. But there’s one major problem: online shopping doesn’t always provide the clarity we need to make the right decision.
And when it comes to furniture shopping, a lack of clarity makes it even more challenging to make the right decision. It’s not uncommon for shoppers to abandon their carts because of this. We already know that 2.17 percent of e-commerce website visits convert into purchases. Additionally, today’s consumers expect a highly visual experience, with shoppers 18-24 and 35-44 expecting 8 images and 4-5 videos for each product.
But there is still hope.
3D product images have been shown to increase conversions by up to 250 percent, which is why product photography and lifestyle imagery are so critical when it comes to providing clarity and context.
Think about it like this: would you purchase a new dresser without knowing if it fits in your room? What if it doesn’t look good besides other furniture in your bedroom?
Online furniture retailers face a lot of customer doubt and uncertainty when considering items for their own homes. It’s one thing to know how an item fits the aesthetic of a space, but it’s another to picture how the furniture of a particular size might scale in a home.
This is the exact problem lifestyle shopping experiences solve.
How lifestyle content helps solves the confidence problem
The evolution of technology has improved the online shopping experience for furniture shoppers across the globe.
RoomView and photo gallery features have made way for shoppers to place items they are shopping for in the relevant context needed to help them envision how the items they want to purchase will look in different settings. This is a great source of inspiration, not only for homeowners but also for interior designers and industry professionals in the home and hardware space.
Furniture retailers put forth a lot of effort to make this process more convenient for their consumers. For example, they plan photoshoots to inspire customers with versatile visuals of staged sets—a costly route.
Unfortunately, scaling lifestyle imagery isn’t always possible. The high cost of producing this type of content is often a significant barrier.
How Tangiblee uses lifestyle content to provide a better customer experience
Tangiblee allows online shoppers to see products in multiple settings and colors. With a slide and drop, they can quickly change the mood of a room, according to holidays, seasonality, or other factors, inspiring customers with the context they need to make a purchase.
Take these scenarios for instance:
1. An online shopper is looking to purchase a chair that is versatile for both indoor and outdoor use. They use the Tangiblee feature to visualize this chair near a fireplace in the winter and near a sunny pool in the summer.
2. An online shopper is looking for a versatile planter and uses the Tangiblee feature directly online to see how it looks inside in the winter and outside in the summer.
3. An online shopper is looking for a dresser or dining table for their home. They use the Tangiblee feature to visualize how these items look next to their Christmas tree during the holiday season. Alternatively, they pair these items with a chair and a turkey to mimic their thanksgiving setup for the fall.
Tangiblee’s Product Detail Page (PDP) software is integrated into the retailer’s online shop interface, providing a cohesive experience for all shoppers. For example, when an online customer is looking for home items during the holiday season, they are likely to find those that accompany the Christmas theme and will be aligned with a Christmas RoomView, or a Christmas-themed lifestyle image of the room they are scaling items in while shopping.
This way, the online shopping experience aligns seamlessly with the offline shopping experience. Online room views and lifestyle images are updated as often as storefronts in malls as seasons change. This makes for a cohesive shopping journey for customers, as well as a relevant marketing campaign for retailers who use PDP lifestyle images for their advertisements.
How Tangiblee’s solution helps retailers offer inspirational lifestyle content at scale
By extracting a retailer’s existing product content from a PDP, Tangiblee can place any furniture or home decor item within a lifestyle image—at scale.
Our experience platform delivers lifestyle content for every product without the need for additional photoshoots or staging efforts. Online shoppers can select an unlimited range of content to display in a virtual reality RoomView—whether this content is from a retailer’s existing library of lifestyle content or Tangiblee’s own library of lifestyle content.
Shoppers can quickly replace lifestyle images with ease, varying in season, size, and scenery.
See how Tangiblee can scale your lifestyle imagery across furniture, home decor, lighting, and more. Schedule a 15-min live demo today.