Ethan Allen recently launched over one hundred fully interactive “shop the room” experiences, providing users with a fully furnished and decorated room that is completely interactive. Customers can see what how an item looks in the context of a room, or other items, while getting decorating inspiration. Customers can click on items they like to active a quickview, accessing product details and allowing them to easily add to cart without leaving the ‘room’. And every room comes with a helpful description to guide customers through. What makes this sort of experience so successful is the way it navigates the challenges of furniture eCommerce. It’s difficult to imagine what a bed frame will look like in your own bedroom. It’s such a large and expensive purchase that if it’s not just right, returning it could be more trouble than it’s worth. Enter shop-the-rooms, offering customers a glimpse into the possibility of each piece. Now you can see how that bed frame looks within the context of an actual bedroom, bringing you one step closer to the buy.
These experiences deliver inspiration as well. Every room is carefully decorated, portraying how each piece would best be positioned and styled. Customers can explore the rooms without ever leaving their own home. Shop the rooms provide a great opportunity for upsells, providing a collection of products that just so happen to go together perfectly. So now that you’ve found the perfect bed frame, look at how great this duvet looks with it, or this nightstand, or this mirror… It’s an easy and non-salesy way to suggest products to your customer, all while guiding them down the path to purchase.