Crate and Barrel Launches 3D Room Designer

June 24, 2012  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Furniture Retailing on June 25, 2012

Lifestyle home furnishings retailer Crate and Barrel will unveil its 3D Room Designer developed in partnership with NedSense in its stores this week.

The retailer plans to roll out consumer Web and iPad versions at a later date.

The Crate and Barrel 3D Room Designer-winner of the Moxie Award for Best Corporate Digital Innovation-is a furniture and design tool that converts a customer-supplied digital photo of a room into a 3D room model-eliminating the step of recreating a floor plan. It allows customers to transform their space using 3D models of Crate and Barrel merchandise, trying out different products, materials and colors, pairing them with current furnishings, and ensuring the products will work for them and their space prior to purchase.

"At Crate and Barrel we continue to invest in the latest technical tools that enhance the overall shopping experience," said John Seebeck, vice president of ecommerce for Crate and Barrel. "Through the 3D Room Designer our customers can discover and explore the many decoration solutions Crate and Barrel offers for their home." 

Customers can bring in or e-mail room photos to the store and with only two measurements-height of the room and the width of an object on the wall-the Crate and Barrel 3D Room Designer will transform the image into a 3D environment. With the help of store personnel, and with just the touch of a mouse, customers will be able to see product in their room, remove objects from it, play with fabric and color options, and change their room's layout. Store associates are then able to export photos of the designed rooms and e-mail them to the customer.

More than 2,000 Crate and Barrel products are incorporated into the 3D Room Designer, including items from the current furniture collections and key furniture accessories, viewable in all materials and fabrics available.

To further enhance the customer shopping experience, Crate and Barrel 3D Room Designer will be incorporated into the Crate and Barrel Web site this fall and added to the company's iPad version in early 2013.