What to Put on Your Store: Photo Room Preview Compared With AR Furniture Apps

“AR,” “3D,” and “room visualization” are still collapsed into a single product by retail blogs. They are separate installs on a furniture Shopify store, each carrying its own costs and drop-off curves.

photo room preview is what we ship: the shopper uploads a still of their room, and inside the browser we composite your catalog JPEG into that image. How this stacks up against phone AR apps is laid out below — aimed at CTOs and ecommerce leads who are picking what belongs on the PDP.

The job to be done, rather than acronyms

• Walk around a piece in empty space → the feel of live AR can be stronger.
• Match product to my real walls, floor, and existing sofa → honesty often comes from a photo of that room.
• Convert a cold paid click on mobile web → keep installs and permissions to a minimum.

A decision table (the PDP in practice)

Question	Photo preview (AI Furniture)	Phone AR
Does it run in mobile Safari/Chrome with no app?	Yes	Often no
Are the shopper’s actual room surfaces used?	Yes (from their photo)	Live camera / scan
Input from the catalog	Product photos already on hand	3D assets in most cases
Setup for merchants	A Shopify app or a single script (~5 minutes)	Custom app work in many cases
The billing model we offer	10p per preview, £0 setup	Spreads over a wide range

Cases where AR still comes out ahead

Showrooms with staff, empty rooms in new builds, and PR demos whose point is novelty. If analytics indicate mobile web dominates, avoid making AR the only online path.

Cases where photo preview comes out ahead

PDPs supplied by Meta/Google shopping traffic; catalogs that lack a 3D pipeline; merchants who require a measurable cost per preview. The Mirage demo is available, as is /custom-furniture.

Claims we will not make

“IKEA grew 60% because of visualization” will not be published as our result. Their own stacks are what public brands run. Copying mechanisms (reduce fit anxiety on the PDP) is what mid-market stores should do, rather than invented case-study numbers. For deeper retail AR context see AR in retail. For build-vs-buy see outsource vs build.

Frequently asked questions

For furniture stores, is AR the pick, or photo preview?

Begin with browser photo preview whenever most sales originate on mobile web PDPs. Once that PDP path converts, apply AR on showroom tablets or flagship SKUs.

Are 3D models required for photo preview?

With AI Furniture’s model, no: existing catalog photos are what we use. Polished live AR typically requires full 3D libraries.

Does this piece count as an IKEA case study?

No. Public AR programs from large retailers are published by those retailers. Industry patterns are all we reference — a customer claim that IKEA uses AI Furniture is not being made.