Habitat taps Hullabalook tech for Room Creator launch
Habitat, a homewares brand within the Sainsbury’s group, has launched a new digital shopping experience entitled Room Creator and created by Hullabalook.
“The Room Creator experience enables shoppers to visualise products in their ideal room setting before they buy,” Hullabalook said in a LinkedIn post.
“It's also the perfect de-risking tool for online furniture shoppers. And an engaging way to encourage shoppers to explore more of a product catalogue.”
The company’s tech is now live with six of the top UK furniture retailers.
2021 RTIH Innovation Awards
Sofology and Hullabalook are among the nominees in the Technology implementation of the year (UK) category at the 2021 RTIH Innovation Awards.
This award recognises UK retail technology project excellence, both in delivery and outcomes.
Implementation should have been completed between November 2020 and November 2021.
Judges will be looking for clear project objectives, effective and innovative implementation and tangible and demonstrable results.
Shortlist as follows:
B&Q/Marxent
B&Q has gone from offering a siloed in-store kitchen planning service, to an all-new omnichannel approach to creating customers’ dream homes.
It has deployed a cloud-based 3D Kitchen Planner that enables retail staff to work in-person or virtually with shoppers looking to remodel or design a kitchen.
Clarks/Wunderkind
Clarks has worked with Wunderkind to help identify website visitors and capture higher volumes of consumer opt-in data, enabling the retailer to send personalised, effective communications via email and other channels.
Jigsaw/Clekt
In 2021 Jigsaw took the decision to re-platform and streamline its online business on to Shopify Plus, in short time-scales and to tight budgets.
The aim was to become ‘digital first’ as the previous website experience wasn’t where it needed to be for the customer offer now, or in the future.
Jigsaw also saw the opportunity to rethink its systems architecture, putting data at the heart of its technology ecosystem to position the business to become data first.
Working with Clekt and its Enterprise Data Hub, it has been able to implement a powerful data engine without extending its web re-platform timescales or budgets.
L.K. Bennett/Retail247
In 2021, Retail247 completed a PIM deployment with L.K. Bennett.
The project was successfully deployed to time and budget and Retail247 now manages the product data needs of 10 internal and external trading channels.
Sofology/Hullabalook
Hullabalook worked with Sofology to build ‘Create Your Look’, a 2D room builder which lets customers explore the retailer’s full product range in one place, and create exciting product combinations in room settings to help really visualise what products will look best in their homes.
Sports Direct/inurface media
inurface media has been able to develop and implement the technology behind the new Sports Direct Flagship concept space on Oxford Street, London.
Occupying 50,000 sq. ft., the store boasts innovative, intelligent technology for the benefit of both customers and staff.
What’s next?
We will now ask our judging panel to cast their votes and provide their feedback. The winner will be revealed on 8th December at a roundtable discussion/networking event in central London.
Our thanks to the following retail leaders for offering their assistance and expertise this year.
Mike Cadden, IT Director (Sales, Marketing and Customer Services), Office Depot
Hayley Meenan-Wilkin, E-Commerce Manager, Fishpools
Martin Newman, Founder, The Customer First Group
Paula Bobbett, E-Commerce Director, Boots UK
Tiffany Lung, Retail Analyst
Nadine Neatrour, Marketing Director, Selfridges
Simon Curtis, Sales and Marketing Director, PMC Retail
Christine Russo, Digital and Physical Retail Consultant
Gerald Dawson, Business Consultant and Finance Director, The iOutlet and HANX
Sharon Peters, Head Of Technology - Marks and Spencer, HR, Finance, Corporate Services and M&S Bank
Luke Phillips, Head of IT Delivery, Studio Retail
Matt Taylor, Technology Transformation Leader at EY, Retail and Consumer Products
Third time around
Now into their third year, the awards are sponsored by PMC, StoreSpace, Critizr, Marxent, QVALON and Selazar.
“PMC is delighted to again support the RTIH Innovation Awards as headline sponsor. These unique awards recognise achievements across a wide range of retailers and retail categories, from global players to startups,” says Simon Curtis, Sales and Marketing Director, PMC.
“Post-2020, innovation in retail is more critical than ever, with consumers looking for the same personalised, engaging and safe shopping experience in-store as they enjoy online.”
He adds: “Innovation and technology together play a critical role in the success of retailing and we look forward to recognising standout examples though these RTIH Awards.”
