Hippo Homes, an omnichannel home building, renovation and interior retailer, opened its third Indian store — a 10,000 sq ft outlet in the Grand Venice Mall, Greater Noida — in July 2024 with a virtual reality experience built into the shop floor.
The experience was developed by immersive 3D specialist Metadome.ai. It gives shoppers a virtual library of home improvement products rendered real-to-scale in 3D: customers can see how products fit in a realistic space and experiment with colours, patterns and customisations before committing, with in-store specialists on hand to guide the session. Metadome.ai says its proprietary pipeline integrates with both Unreal Engine and Unity to keep graphics photorealistic and loading times short.
The VR was in place when the store was inaugurated in July 2024, and by the end of that month Hippo Homes MD and CEO Arvind Mediratta reported an "overwhelming response" from customers who had used it. Metadome.ai frames the aim as removing guesswork from home decor choices and driving in-store sales.
