Creating a 24/7 Virtual Kitchen Showroom With 3D Capture

It's always easier to envision a kitchen renovation project when you're walking through a showroom, seeing all your options laid out in front of you. But how can a company offer this showroom experience to a whole country simultaneously? That was the challenge facing DIY Kitchens, the largest online kitchen retailer in the U.K. The company's two giant showrooms can serve a large number of people, but it was thinking even bigger. It wanted a digital space where customers could browse from home, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

To see how 3D capture technology turned this vision into reality, we spoke with DIY Kitchens Marketing Manager Chris Blackham. He described DIY Kitchens' philosophy around its showroom and explained how the 3D tour came together.

What inspired the 3D capture of this space? 

We recently developed what is one of the largest kitchen showrooms in the U.K. However, with only one location at the time (two in total now), we wanted to provide customers who were unable to travel to the showroom with an immersive and engaging way of viewing the showroom.

What are the “must-sees” you want visitors to explore and why?

With over 60 displays to view in the showroom, there are not really any "must-sees" as such, as this will depend upon the style of kitchen the viewer wants to see. We want customers to explore and be inspired across the whole space, taking their time to explore and perhaps see something they weren’t expecting!

What’s the one thing you want visitors to take away after exploring your 3D tour?

Inspiration. Our customers design their own kitchens, therefore, we want the displays — and the 3D tour — to inspire them, whether this is unit layout, color choices, or a unique feature that they want to replicate in their own kitchen.

What are the benefits of Matterport digital twins? 

From our point of view, it’s accessibility. We have two showrooms (exactly the same layout) that cover the whole of the U.K..Having a digital twin with the high-quality scans that Matterport provides is essential to provide access to any potential customer in the U.K.

Our showrooms are open from 9 am to 7 pm, Mon - Sun; the digital twin is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year!

Our approach within the live showroom is to provide a stress-free experience without any pushy sales tactics, with showroom advisors on hand when visitors need them. Matterport replicates this experience virtually, with the use of tags and videos for each display providing the "showroom advisor" function when the visitor needs further information.

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