John Lewis trials virtual reality room experience

John Lewis will trial a new in-store virtual reality experience to help customers purchasing furniture and homewares.

The Visualise Your Space service will be piloted in the Kingston, Cambridge and Horsham department stores from late June to early July.

Guided by staff, customers will be able to enter the dimensions, doors and windows of a room on an iPad via the app, then drop in John Lewis products to see how they look in their home. They will also be able to change the colour of the walls and floors.

Users will then be able to view their designed room on either an iPad as a 3D room in augmented reality, or via virtual reality headset to ‘walk around’ in it. They will then be emailed a copy of the room they created, with shoppable links.

Caitlin Price, head of buying for furniture and flooring at John Lewis, said: “This new technology will enable customers to be braver in their choices, and test technology that architects and interior designers have been using to visualise their designs.”

The technology has been developed by the US-based design and 3D visualisation company Marxent.

Meanwhile, John Lewis has announced that Ofcom chief executive Sharon White will replace Charlie Mayfield as its new chairman.

Mayfield revealed back in November that he will be stepping down as chairman in 2020.

White will be paid a £990,000 salary, compared to her current £275,000 salary at Ofcom, where she has worked since 2015.

She had been seen as a leading contender to become the next governor for the Bank of England.

“Sharon White has had a stellar career in a number of senior strategic and executive roles and during a thorough, wide-ranging and extremely competitive search she stood out as an exceptional candidate,” Mayfield said. “I believe she has the vision, leadership, drive and flair to steer the partnership through its next phase.”

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