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St. Petersburg-based Marxent recently struck a deal with retail giant Macy’s that will see the firm’s virtual reality technology form the backbone of a new interactive way for shoppers to buy furniture.
By the end of the year, Marxent-designed VR displays will be rolled out at 70 Macy’s nationwide, with another 20 stores coming in January.
Beck Besecker, co-founder and CEO of privately held Marxent, tells Coffee Talk the agreement will be a “multimillion-dollar account” for the company, which was founded in 2011 and is backed by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, among others. Though Besecker declines to disclose specific revenue figures for the firm, he projects the Macy’s deal to drive major growth — “200 to 300%,” he says — in 2019.
Wearing an HTC Vive VR headset running Marxent's software, Macy’s customers can fully design and immerse themselves in rooms before they buy furniture. The displays have been tested in three stores already, with promising results: VR-influenced furniture sales increased by more than 60% over traditional furniture sales. Returns, meanwhile, decreased to less than 2% when using the technology.
As consumers, “we are more likely to like our own ideas,” Besecker says, explaining why the technology has slashed the number of returns. “We also have a mobile version of the VR tool, so you can build your own room at home and then go into the store and pull up your project in the full VR experience.”
Macy’s sales staff can also design rooms based on a customer’s preferences and send the designs to the customer via the online tool. That creates what Besecker calls an “omni-channel” experience that drives traffic directly to Macy’s brick-and-mortar stores and keeps customers from shopping around for the best deal.
Thanks to Marxent’s VR technology, Macy’s can also present its full range of furniture options in dramatically smaller spaces — conserving precious retail square footage.
In a release, Macy’s President Hal Lawton lauds Marxent's innovation as “a practical application proven to drive sales and a terrific example of combining technology and the human touch.”
(This story was updated to reflect the correct name of the VR headset that uses Marxent software.)
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