Ohio -- Virtual reality is one of the hottest technologies today and big businesses are taking notice.

Macy's department store is one company utilizing this technology to create a more enjoyable customer experience and increase sales.

  • Hot new tech aids in shopping
  • Virtual Reality helping customers make furniture selection easier
  • You can virtually change the color of the paint on your walls

“It is just a very unique experience and we are excited to have it. All of my colleagues love it. Our customers love it and it is just a really, really unique experience for everyone,” Robert Davis said.

Davis is Macy's Big Ticket Sales Manager. He described some of the challenges customers face when purchasing furniture.

“They don't know if it will fit. They don't know what the color will look like and if it will match their existing home,” he said.

The company hopes VR will aid in fixing these types of inconveniences.  Assisted by a Macy's representative, you can draw your room based on its dimensions, doors, windows and other elements on a tablet. Once your room is drawn to your specifications you can drag and drop items where you want them to go.

When you put on the VR headset you become a part of that virtual world. You're standing inside the room you've designed and you can see how and where each piece of furniture fits in your space.

“We can change the paint on the wall if you're thinking about repainting your wall to match the new furniture, so it gives you a lot of flexibility in a really short amount of time,” Matt Fowler said.

 

 

 Fowler is the Director of Product at Marxent, the company that designed this technology for Macy's.

“One of the really cool things that we found is that around like rugs and other accessories that people aren't necessarily thinking about when they come in to shop furniture, but when they are in the room you can show them what a rug will look like and then is generally a really big up-sell,” he said.

Macy's told Spectrum News 1 that virtual reality has reduced return rates to two percent and sales attributed to virtual reality are up by 60 percent.

Macy's plans on adding 20 additional VR locations in 2019. The company is also using augmented reality within their mobile app.