Popular online retailer makes major change including its ‘in-store’ styling
James Austin
Published Sep 13, 2026
A POPULAR online furniture chain is making a major change to its in-store experience with a new digital component.
The retailer, which has suffered poor sales recently, hopes the new feature will give customers “greater confidence and satisfaction.”
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Wayfair is piloting a new digital shopping experience at its AllModern store in Dedham, Massachusetts.
Named Digital Design Studio, this kiosk uses a large interactive board on which shoppers can place cards representing furniture items.
This virtual room is then recreated on a large screen, showing how the customer’s selections would look in real life.
The high-tech feature even allows shoppers to adjust furniture layouts and finishes, and see different camera angles of the rooms.
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Users can experiment with different room styles and even change the time of day.
Wayfair hopes this new feature will help customers better integrate their online and in-person shopping experiences.
Fiona Tan, chief technology officer at Wayfair, said in a statement that the store “strongly believes in meeting our customers where they want to shop, whether online or in-person.
“The Digital Design Studio helps us execute on this omnichannel experience,” she said, “by making it easier for customers to find what they are looking for and ultimately have greater confidence and satisfaction in their purchase.”
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Launched as a pilot at just one store on May 2, Wayfair does not have plans to roll out these kiosks nationwide.
The e-commerce chain has struggled with sales in recent years.
Its active customer base has fallen 19 percent since last year, a fourth-quarter earnings report in February revealed.
Meanwhile, net revenue fell by 11 percent.
A GREAT I-KEA
The move from Wayfair comes following an announcement for similar plans from competitor Ikea.
The Swedish self-assembly superpower is opening nine new stores in U.S. cities under a new Plan & Order format.
Rather than stock the whole inventory like typical Ikea flagship locations, these stores will serve as touchpoints for customers to plan their home designs and make purchases for delivery.
Ikea is also further integrating its digital and in-store shopping experiences, meaning customers will have more advanced digital shopping technologies available in-store.
Both Ikea and Wayfair will be hoping to avoid the same fate as Bed Bath and Beyond, which filed for bankruptcy last month.
The store previously tried out a digital design service, which ran from 2017 to 2022.
But this feature never became an integral part of the shopping experience for most Bed Bath and Beyond customers.
Things ultimately went south for the store as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy April 23 and announced plans to close all 360 remaining stores.
Meanwhile, sister store buybuyBaby has plans to close all of its 120 nationwide locations.
