Step inside Ikea's first online VR store

The Sweden-based furniture maker's first-ever VR store is accessible via VR goggles or through a desktop computer.

Sweden-based DIY furniture manufacturer Ikea now allows customers to walk through their shop and browse the latest offerings from the comforts of home via a virtual reality store.

Malcolm Hayett, multichannel specialist of Ikea Australia, states: "The Ikea Virtual Reality store has been developed to support our online shopping service. We know that it's important for customers to see and experience our home furnishings range. Ikea has recently made a move towards online retailing, but we want to offer the full Ikea store experience to our online shoppers."

He continued: "Through the innovative tool you can stand in a room-set and visualize it as if you were there in person, and you can for example, see our full range of sofas or beds at a glance. In the Ikea Virtual Reality Store you self-navigate the experience as if you walking an Ikea store."

While a pair of VR goggles will better enhance one's shopping experience, this is not necessary. Customers can easily step inside the 3D store through a desktop computer. The experience is similar to that of navigating roads via Google StreetView.

The store, which officially launched in Townsville in Queensland, Australia, also offers in some regions direct ordering and delivery through an app. For many, however, a click-and-collect setup is available for online purchases. Recently it was announced that the furniture maker will be selling its products through third-party websites, including the retail giant Amazon.

Ikea's first-ever VR store is not the company's first foray into VR, however. Last year it launched a VR kitchen experience that enables customers to walk around a 3D kitchen and do basic tasks such as cooking. A couple months ago Ikea also released the VR Pancake Kitchen, a fifteen-minute game that allows users to create pancakes from scratch in a virtual kitchen loaded with Ikea products.

On the other hand, the VR store marks another milestone in Ikea's venture into online shopping and technological innovations in the hopes of generating larger incomes and foot traffic with smaller stores.