The former Senior VP of Digital Transformation at IKEA has announced the launch of new tech firm offering ‘augmented commerce’ to online retailers.
Headquartered in the capital with offices in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, London Dynamics offers a platform which renders 3D mock-ups of real products, complete with true-to-life textures and lighting.
The 3D models can be augmented into the real world through a smartphone camera or spun around and inspected via a web-browser. The solution is platform agnostic, meaning it is available on almost all modern devices.
Michael Valdsgaard, CEO and President of the firm, brings over two and a half decades in retail technology and customer experience to this latest venture.
In 2017 under his leadership, IKEA and Apple joined forces to develop IKEA Place, which could showcase Apple’s new augmented reality capabilities and IKEA’s furniture.
Valdsgaard now hopes to take these learnings to market with his new venture.
In an announcement he said he hopes to “bring online shopping back into the physical world by enabling that long awaited augmented reality revolution.”
“The evidence of massive disruption buffeting retailers in the UK can’t be denied,” he said.
“The Office of National Statistics reported that as much as 21 per cent of retail sales were made online in December 2019, an increase of six per cent, while over 10 thousand in-store retail jobs were cut in the first weeks of 2020 alone.”
“Without a shadow of a doubt, AR has the potential to entirely overturn the way we look for, buy, and sell things online.”
On his decision to headquarter the firm in the UK, he said it “presents huge opportunity for retailers, and technologists like us.
“With access to the right talent, infrastructure and a digitally fluent and urban customer base, London has real potential to become the global launchpad for the most ambitious and exciting retail experiences in the world.”