The department store chain will trial a new virtual reality experience to enable customers to visualise new products in their homes before they buy

The new retail experience, dubbed ‘Visualise Your Space’ is designed to help customers determine what home products will look like in their space, with trials set to begin at John Lewis & Partners’ Kingston branch on June 26, in Cambridge on June 28, and in Horsham on July 2.

Guided by John Lewis Partners in three trial shops, customers will be able to put the dimensions, doors and windows of the room they want to update into an iPad via an app, and then drop in John Lewis products to see how their interior ideas would look in their home. They will also be able to change the colour of the walls and floors to create a complete look.

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

John Lewis head of buying for furniture and flooring Caitlin Price said: “Designing a new look for a room can be a lot of fun and a chance to express our personalities. However, customers tell us that uncertainty about what new products will look like in their home can make the decision making hard, and in many cases people revert to the safer tones of grey or beige furnishings.

“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. Marxent CEO and co-founder Beck Besecker said: “John Lewis understands how important inspiration is to modern furniture shoppers and has an impressive history of innovation. We’re proud to be partnering with them to test this technology in the UK.”