Taeillo, a Nigerian furniture brand from the country’s capital Lagos, has implemented virtual and augmented reality tools to change how individuals shop for their furniture online.
The brand is aiming to offer something quite different from the usual walk-in experience in physical stores. Users are able to gain access to a showroom virtually where they are able to swipe through both practical and artistic furniture pieces from their smart devices.
Solomon Akinsanya, head of Marketing, Taeillo, remarked that the company has an objective of catering to the demands of audience groups that are on the lookout for tech-powered solutions for shopping in the post-pandemic period. The trend of digital shopping has become quite popular in recent times as more and more people around the world are working from home and are more reliant on quality furniture. As they miss the experience of shopping in stores, AR and VR have stepped up to help them visualise how a piece of furniture would look in their interiors.
The introduction of such technology in the customer experience process has facilitated more advanced interactions with products, and also led to reduced costs on part of the company that doesn’t need to maintain a physical store.
Akinsanya spoke about the development during the AfricaNXT conference, saying that the Taiello website offers an augmented reality feature allowing users to browse through collections of furniture in AR and superimpose those into their living spaces. This lets them get a glimpse into what a particular piece would look like and if it will match the overall look. Wearing a VR headset takes the shopping experience to the next level, as users find themselves within a virtual store.
Taeillo’s session included discussions related to how technologies such as virtual and augmented reality can be used to make content that helps brands grow and expand their user bases. This is not a trend only being seen in Africa. Many brands across industries have leveraged advanced technology solutions to provide digital experiences to their user bases. This has helped them enhance their branding and boost revenues at a time when footfall is low in retail locations.
Akinsanya elaborated that using immersive technologies have helped Taeillo establish better connections with their target customers regardless of geographical boundaries. He believes that the expanded reach would not have been achieved without using mixed reality technology. Taeillo intends to get further into the immersive rabbit hole, as it harbours plans to get Metaverse properties to reach more people.
Other companies in Africa have also been able to gain some degree of success in terms of servicing customers digitally. In a way, the pandemic has opened up doors to businesses across sectors by forcing them to turn to technology for delivering services and improving experiences.
According to Hammed Arowosegbe, Chapter President of the VR AR Association, Nigeria, highlighted that the influx of virtual reality solutions has broadened the horizons for digital commerce. He touched on the topics of Web 3.0, the Metaverse and NFTs and how they can possibly impact the strategies of brands, acknowledging the efforts being made by Taeillo.
