With ongoing consumer interest in personalizing home furnishings and using technology to help make purchasing decisions, Norwalk Furniture, a leader in custom upholstered seating, has launched a state-of-the-art new website to aid its customers with browsing, designing and placing orders of its extensive customizable product line. The enhanced site includes a host of new features including 3D product visualization, streamlined navigation and a rich assortment of multi-media content including additional product imagery, video assets and home design trend resources.
Driven by an innovative new visualization platform – dubbed the "Norwalk 360 Design Tool" – the new website makes it easy for Norwalk customers to shop the company’s numerous upholstery styles – some of which include “Build Your Own” programs that offer a selection of arms, cushions, back pillows and bases. Once the silhouette has been designed, it can be draped – digitally – in a wide variety of fabrics, and leathers and rotated 360-degrees, allowing users to preview the designs prior to placing an order.
“Not only is the new site a great tool for consumers to use at home to help with designing a personalized upholstery piece with the dimensions, textiles and design details that can be customized to meet their individual design aesthetic, it’s also a great resource for our retail and design partners as they work with consumers and clients on the retail floor or during design consultations,” said Sheila Buckingham, vice president of marketing at Norwalk Furniture. “Because the site is synced to our ERP system, once a product is customized, a specification sheet is generated outlining the details a retailer or designer needs to place a custom order for the item, helping take some of the uncertainty out of designing a customized piece for a consumer.”
In addition to the 3D product visualization tools, the new mobile-friendly site includes an assortment of multi-media content including additional room scene photography – embedded with hotspots that direct users to the item and cover for each piece – a virtual tour of the company’s High Point Market showroom, an inspiration gallery filled with additional product imagery, color trends and fabric details as well as videos showcasing Norwalk’s hand-crafted production processes. Additional resources include a rich history of the company’s more than one hundred years of producing quality custom upholstery in the U.S.
“The new design is crisp, clean and easy to navigate via “mega” drop down toolbars with images that illustrate each item category,” said Buckingham. “Our social media buttons also make it convenient for consumers to post products they like to Facebook, Pinterest and other platforms that they enjoy using. In addition, a “favorite” button makes it simple for customers to save their favorites in their personal user account and our Store Locator search function makes it easy for consumers to find the retailer nearest them.”
Along with the new site design, the company’s recently launched mobile app includes a new “See at Home” feature. An augmented reality viewer for interior spaces, it supplements the 360 Design Tool on the website, allowing users to view the customized item in a room setting using a smart device. It is available on the website and can be downloaded through the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Designed to be scalable, the company will be implementing additional new strategies for the site throughout 2021.