What Happened
Hutch, a Los Angeles-based startup, is taking a mobile-native approach to disrupt the interior design and online furniture retail market. The Hutch app, available on both iOS and Android starting today, allows users to submit a picture of their living room or bedroom and receive virtual makeovers by swiping through a variety of decor themes, ranging from Boho to Urban Industrial. The company developed a technology can automatically recognize the scale of the room and populate it with furniture items that are available for purchase directly from the app. Users can also submit a photo and wait a day to receive a customized decor plan from human interior designers.
What Brands Need To Do
This new app provides yet another example of the ongoing shift in designing mobile user experience, where the camera becomes a prominent input source that enables virtual product sampling. This also facilitate new business models where free virtual sampling and consultations function as the gateway for customer acquisition. Another recent example in this regard is the Dressing Room app that Gap officially launched earlier this week after previewing it at this year’s CES. The AR-enabled app lets online shoppers generate a virtual 3D based on their own measurements and try on different outfits. If they like how certain items look on the virtual mannequin, they can purchase them directly from the app. These two examples should provide some inspiration to brands looking to update their digital user experience to be more intuitive and convenient for mobile users.
Source: TechCrunch
