
Macy’s has announced it will use virtual reality (VR) as a sales tool for furniture in 50 stores by this summer.
Stores will be set up for customers to lay out a room with furniture using a tablet and then demo the design using a VR headset.
This enables the company to showcase a wider range of products without needing to have a large dedicated space in each store. It will also ease customer’s concerns regarding furniture fitting and matching the aesthetic of a room.
During his keynote presentation at the retail conference ShopTalk, Jeff Gennette, CEO of Macy’s, commented: “Furniture is a business we love. It’s high margin, it’s a high touch business for Macy’s. We want to do this in as many stores as possible.”
Gennette added: “By putting the VR experience in our stores as a sales aid, we can offer a full range of furniture in a dramatically smaller space.
“We’re scaling this technology to 50 stores this summer, and if we choose to, we will have the ability to put furniture in virtually every Macy’s building.”