Top frustrations when shopping for the home

It’s always fun to plan that dream bedroom, and fantasise about that perfect living room, endlessly browsing Pinterest and pouring over interior design magazines, but shopping for interiors can be a frustrating time.

Research commissioned by Manchester tech start-up, DigitalBridge has found that disagreeing with a partner and not being able to picture what new furniture, wallpaper or flooring will look like at home are among the biggest frustrations experienced by consumers when shopping for home interior products.

An inability to visualise products, styles and colours in a particular room is causing problems for consumers. Nearly one in three homeowners (28%) have struggled to make a decision about upgrading their home in the past year. 51% of consumers surveyed said that they got particularly annoyed when not being able to picture new paint or wallpaper in a room, which subsequently put them off making a purchase.

While it may seem like a good thing to have such a huge range of interior products and styles to choose from, it seems that this is another aspect of the home design process that is leaving millions of Brits annoyed, with a quarter of shoppers saying they feel overwhelmed by choice when shopping for their home.

Nearly one in five consumers (18%) often hesitated on making a final decision because they were nervous about making the wrong decision. The research has found that retailers are losing as much as £1bn a year because of the imagination gap, when consumers walk away from purchases because they can’t imagine what products will look like once they get home.

DigitalBridge is a room visualisation tool that allows consumers to “try on” home décor products before buying them. David Levine, CEO of DigitalBridge says: “With so much choice when it comes to taking on a home improvement project it is no surprise that millions of homeowners are becoming frustrated.

“Buying new furniture, putting up new wallpaper, or installing a new floor can be costly and time consuming and not being entirely sure what these things will look like until they’ve been purchased can be a cause of stress, or at least concern for consumers.

“In the past, this was a problem retailers were unable to help with, but new technologies like computer vision, augmented and mixed reality are now bridging the imagination gap, enabling retailers to let consumers preview products in their own rooms before they have to buy anything.”