Matterport digital twins for immersive retail

  • January 6, 2022
  • William Payne

Spatial data specialist Matterport reports that retailers are creating virtual showrooms, curating shoppable digital experiences with e-commerce integration, and making store operations more efficient with the company’s Capture Services On-Demand, Pro2 cameras, or Smartphone app. Customers of the Sunnyvale software developer include London’s Harrods store and Texas based Openhaus, a virtual interior design app for designers and influencers.

Using Matterport Capture Services, a platform for enterprise customers to connect with Matterport Capture Technicians to scan spaces, Harrods created a virtual showroom showcasing its new home and furniture department. The immersive experience provides personal shopping consultations and allows customers to view products so they can better plan an in-store visit, if desired. For Harrods, Matterport offered the solution needed to create a more immersive virtual shopping experience than traditional online shopping. 

“Whilst travel may still be impossible for some of our customers, we wanted to find a creative solution for them to visit the department from the comfort of their home, no matter where in the world that may be,” said Annalise Fard, Director of Interiors, Beauty, Fine Watches and Jewelry at Harrods. “We also thought Matterport would be a great tool for customers who would rather shop from home through our personal shopping services or for those customers that would like to peruse the showroom ahead of visiting Harrods to help them better plan their visit.”

Carson Clement, co-founder of Openhaus and a Matterport Pro2 owner, was inspired by the camera’s ability to create digital twins. The technology inspired him to launch Openhaus – a shoppable, virtual home tour experience that invites consumers to shop the homes of influencers, designers, and tastemakers. With Matterport’s smartphone app available for iPhone and Android, these influencers create a digital twin of their physical space, and use Mattertags within these spaces allowing shoppers to view their homes, and interact with and purchase household items featured through these digital twins. 

“Brands spend a lot of money making their retail spaces beautiful, but those are limited by physical geography constraints,” said Clement. “We can capitalise on those investments with gorgeous, immersive online shopping experiences in 3D. For companies that want consumers to spend more time engaging with their brands in a memorable way, Openhaus is an ideal solution,” said Clement.

“Our retail customers use Matterport technology in a variety of different ways, whether that’s creating a virtual showroom where consumers can shop for holiday gifts or using digital twins to remotely manage store design and operations,” said Conway Chen, Vice President of Business Development of Matterport. “Even for consumers who may be locked down in their own country due to the pandemic, they can still visit their favourite store virtually and see merchandise presented in a real space, as if they were walking through an actual showroom. Our technology is also allowing influencers and designers to merchandise their products directly to their followers. Matterport technology is improving the shopping experience for both retailers and consumers.”