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Dive Brief:
Following initial in-store tests of Lowe’s Style Studio on Apple Vision Pro, the retailer expanded a pilot program to select stores in Northern California on Saturday, according to a company press release.
Over the next three months, customers at Lowe’s Bay Area locations in Sunnyvale, Concord, Dublin, East San Jose and South San Jose will be able to utilize the service. The retailer last month rolled out tests of the technology in five Austin, Texas-area locations, also for three months.
Customers can book free appointments to use Lowe’s Style Studio, which allows them to visualize and redesign a kitchen’s features, including appliances, cabinet colors, countertops, styles and other fixtures, before actually renovating their space.
Dive Insight:
Lowe’s, which launched its Style Studio app designed for Apple Vision Pro in February of 2024, first brought the tech into select stores in June last year for a weekend-long test experience. Since then, the retailer has updated the in-store experience, adding a companion app that allows friends and family to design together, and a transport feature that makes it easy to move around the room, per a company spokesperson.
Lowe’s Style Studio is an immersive, 3D experience that allows customers to design their kitchen using Apple Vision Pro technology. The tech combines spacial computing with home improvement, so shoppers can change the colors, styles and features around them in real time.
“We try on clothes, sample paint colors, and test drive cars to help us decide before we buy,” Chandhu Nair, Lowe’s senior vice president of data, AI and innovation, said in a statement. “Customers deserve that same confidence when it comes to home renovation. With Lowe’s Style Studio, consumers don’t have to guess what their new kitchen could look like — they can step into it and experience their style choices together as if they are actually there.”
Other home retailers are dabbling in technology as a way to help shoppers visualize their choices. Furniture retailer Joybird brought its own version of tech-inspired visualization to mobile devices in January, noting that 70% of its traffic comes from mobile devices.
Through its product visualization tools Decorify and Muse, Wayfair allows shoppers to find product recommendations based on images. Decorify does so through user-uploaded images, while Muse uses AI-generated images of home interiors to motivate consumers and give them ideas for purchasing.
“Home improvement projects are often large, complex and highly personal, making tech adoption uniquely important,” said Nair. “Because of this, technology is a key part of our total home strategy. We’ve been exploring and investing in AI for a decade, and we have consistently been the first home improvement retailer to test and bring to market technology including a store digital twin, the first retail app for Apple Vision Pro, and Mylow, our customer-facing AI-powered virtual assistant.”
A spokesperson confirmed that Lowe’s has officially rebranded its digital home platform to MyLowe’s Home, and also said it will open a new store on Friday in East Asheville, North Carolina.
Lowe’s reported net sales for fiscal 2024 of $83.7 billion, a 3% decline from 2023. Operating income fell 9.4% to $10.5 billion and net income declined 10% to $7 billion year over year.
Earlier this month, the company announced that it would acquire Artisan Design Group for $1.3 billion.