CORT takes shopping for online furniture rental to new heights with 3D & AR

INTRODUCTION

CORT is the nation’s leading provider of furniture rental and transition services company, believing firmly in the continuous sustainability of their business model. 

With more than 100 locations, including offices, distribution centers, rental showrooms, and retail furniture outlets across the United States, operations in the United Kingdom, and partners in more than 80 countries worldwide, no other furniture rental company can match CORT’s breadth of services and commitment to making a house a home. Once a rental piece has run its course, CORT takes the product that has been rented several times and then sells it in their furniture outlet stores as recycled or reused, finding it a forever home. This was an attractive quality that made them part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

THE CHALLENGE

Many CORT customers need furniture for a space that’s new to them. Furniture rental is a great solution for those who are relocating for work, students living off-campus for the first time, military families, or those who are in a time of transition and looking to own less. CORT’s focus on customer experience and innovation pushed them to help their customers understand spatial constraints for furniture placing beyond their relocation and apartment search assistance. They wanted to do more for their customers to provide peace of mind during the stressful process of moving – often with little notice – to be supportive at all stages of the experience. 

The CORT team was aware of AR but wanted to understand the full picture. With innovation in their DNA, they engaged with Vertebrae to learn more about 3D & AR capabilities and to build a roadmap to support future innovation to provide their customers a complete eCommerce experience and promote confidence in their furniture selections.

Overall results 

THE SOLUTION

With competition in the furniture rental space growing in the last few years, CORT has to think outside the box to meet the customer where they are and delight them at every step of the journey. “With the majority of B2C customers choosing cort.com as their preferred shopping channel, innovating for both desktop and mobile is central to our customer experience,” said Ben Clark, senior manager of online business development. 

Knowing the challenges of renting furniture online, they knew that bringing 3D & AR to their website would help solve customer concerns that can’t be solved by looking at a screen. For example, how will it fit in my space? Will it fit at all? Will it match my style? It would also bring transformation to the online customer experience – something the competition hadn’t done yet.

To showcase the power of AR, the Vertebrae sales team introduced CORT’s Mindy Oliver, executive director of online business, media, & analytics, to Google animals as an example of what she could do with furniture placement in a real space. Little did the Vertebrae team know that Mindy loves llamas – so immediately she was sold on the concept. 

Together, CORT and Vertebrae launched 150 products in 3D & AR, including furniture and home accessory products. These immersive experiences could be placed in customers’ homes to see the exact dimensions of a product, color, style, and details without stepping into an actual CORT furniture showroom. 

The web-based experiences are now available to shoppers on mobile and desktop, ensuring a smooth and frictionless experience without leaving the CORT site or purchase path. Should a question arise from customers about using 3D & AR for a product, the CORT sales and support team can shop alongside customers virtually, making the AR transition even more effective.

THE RESULTS

Customers can now view over 150 furniture and home accessory products from every angle, and virtually assess how a piece of furniture will look and fit in their own space. Since launching in mid-January, CORT has seen a 108% lift in conversion rates for this set of products among users who interacted with 3D features, with beds and sofas receiving the most interaction. In addition to doubling conversion rates from customers engaging with 3D, CORT has seen a 95% increase in revenue per visit associated with this product set for both desktop and mobile users.  

NEXT STEPS

CORT is always looking to the future with creative ideas and new ways to wow and delight customers. They’re expanding their product portfolio, along with use cases for their outlet, events, party rental, and office businesses. They suggest making it easy for shoppers to find what they’re looking for on your site. CORT highlighted the immersive experience in the navigation on their site to make it easy for customers to find the 3D & AR products.

Oh, and remember Mindy’s love of llama’s? We’re hoping they add some fun marketing including a llama on a sofa in a field…one day.

Try it for yourself

Select any of the images below to launch a DFS immersive commerce experience.