Amazon Debuts Showroom, a New Home Furnishings Shopping Tool

Amazon has increased its presence in the home furnishing and home design sector with the debut of Amazon Showroom, TechCrunch reports. The virtual design tool allows Amazon shoppers to place furniture into a virtual room, customize the decor of the room, and shop for the look. The new digital tool complements Amazon's recently launched home furniture brands and Pinterest-like recommendation service Scout.

Amazon Showroom is focused on helping shoppers design a living room, TechCrunch reports. The tool allows shopper to make adjustments to the space, choosing different options for the furniture and decor and adjust colors, placement, price, and materials. The options available are heavily weighted toward Amazon's home furnishing brands.

Home furnishing is still an emerging category for online retail, not only because they're hard to visualize, but also because heavy items are expensive to ship. However, major retailers see the potential in this growing market.

Walmart, for example, launched a new home shopping site for furniture and decor last year, which features its own in-house brands and more visual, editorial-style imagery. It has also snapped up other home furnishing and decor retailers including Hayneedle and recently, art.com, and is building its own visual search.