Augmented reality for products shoppers view it in their own room

The shopper is on a product page on their phone and taps a button, often labelled 'View in your room'. The phone's camera opens. They point it at the floor, the phone finds the surface, and the product appears there. They can walk around it, move it and turn it. This is also called AR product visualisation, or an AR view.

Behind this is one 3D model saved in two formats. The phone's own software does the tracking, which is why no app is needed. Our page on web AR explains the technology and how it compares with building an AR app.

Brands come to AR from three directions. Some want it on every product page and need to understand the set-up, which is web AR. Furniture and decor brands want the 'view in your room' button they have seen on large shopping sites, and AR for furniture covers what is particular to large pieces. Showrooms, catalogues and packaging start from print, and AR QR codes covers that.

AR settles one doubt for a shopper: whether the product will fit and look right in their space. It is most useful where size is the main doubt, as with sofas, beds, tables, rugs, lights and wall art.

It adds little for small items that are easy to picture. It does not show how a fabric feels or how a cushion sits. Trying on clothing, glasses or jewellery is a different kind of AR, and we do not offer it.

AR also depends on the phone. Most recent iPhones and many Android phones support it. On a phone that does not, the page can still show the 3D model for the shopper to turn on screen.

There is no app to build, so there is no app development cost. Augmented reality services of this kind have two parts. The first is the 3D models, quoted per model. The second is the set-up: the AR viewer for your product pages, the QR codes and testing on both kinds of phone. The set-up is quoted once per project.

The number of products matters most. A range of similar pieces shares work, and colour or fabric variants cost less than new shapes. If you already have 3D models, we check whether they can be converted, which reduces the modelling.