How Kelim Lets Dutch Rug Shoppers See a Handknotted Rug in Their Own Room

Kelim: a room visualizer that feeds the home viewing

Kelim (kelim.nl) is the online store of Galerie Hamming van Seventer, a Dutch family business with Armenian roots that specialises in handknotted Persian rugs and kelims. It was founded in Groningen in 1994 and now runs three galleries, in Groningen, Amstelveen and Hilversum, with more than 3,000 unique rugs in stock. Prices run from about €150 for small pieces to €65,000 for museum-grade rugs.

Every rug is one of a kind, so a shopper cannot order a second copy if the first one is wrong. Kelim has always solved that in person. Its free home viewing service, Gratis thuisbezichtiging, brings a selection of rugs to the shopper's home anywhere in the Netherlands, at no cost and with no obligation.

The challenge: a shortlist before the van leaves

A home viewing works, but it is expensive to run. Kelim's rugs are spread across three galleries, so the team first gathers the chosen pieces in one place, which can take a few days. The better the shopper's shortlist, the more useful that visit is. That is where a room visualizer helps: shoppers can judge colour, pattern and size against their own room before they ask for a visit.

What Kelim deployed

Kelim runs Imersian's Room Visualizer on its Shopify store, in Dutch. Its product pages carry a Bekijk in je woonkamer (see it in your living room) button below the home viewing and cart buttons, and collection pages carry a Bekijk in je kamer button on each rug card.

Inside the Visualizer, the shopper can:

• Upload a photo of their own room ("Upload je kamer") or start from a template room
• Place the rug at true scale, then swap through similar rugs from Kelim's catalogue
• Clear the floor with Magic Eraser, removing the rug, the coffee table or all the furniture already in the photo
• View the rug in AR on a phone ("Bekijk in AR")
• Save or download the design, or add the rug to the cart
• Ask for a home viewing: Kelim's own "Gratis thuisbezichtiging" button sits in the Visualizer toolbar

Kelim also publishes a dedicated Dutch page for the tool, "Vloerkleed visualizer: zie een tapijt in uw eigen kamer". In a Google Netherlands check on 4 November 2026, that page ranked #3 for "vloerkleed visualizer" (rug visualizer), alongside other Dutch retailers' own tools.

What shoppers did with it

Imersian looked at Kelim's Visualizer sessions. Shoppers came mainly from the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Internal test sessions were excluded.

• 38% of Visualizer sessions include a photo of the shopper's own room ("Upload je kamer")
• 8.3 minutes average session length for those own-room sessions
• 16.7 interactions per session on average for the same own-room sessions
• Free home viewings can be requested straight from the Visualizer through Kelim's own "Gratis thuisbezichtiging" button

The feature use shows shoppers working through a real room. Magic Eraser is the most-used tool: shoppers clear an existing rug or coffee table before placing a Kelim rug, and some clear all the furniture. Downloading or saving a design, viewing a rug in AR and opening product details are used less often. A session can appear in more than one of these.

Not every visit is a deep one. Many shoppers open the Visualizer and leave quickly. The averages above are driven by engaged sessions, and that is the group that matters: shoppers who bring their own room and stay.

The lesson: put the visualizer and the showroom in one journey

Kelim did not use the Visualizer to replace its home viewing. It placed its own call to action inside the tool, so a shopper who has seen a rug in their room can ask to see it on their floor in one click. Shoppers can request a free home viewing straight from the Visualizer; the button starts a request, not a booked viewing, and Imersian does not see Kelim's orders. It shows the path Kelim designed: see it in your own room online, then see it at home in person.

For any retailer selling high-value, one-off pieces, the pattern carries over. Give shoppers a way to test the piece against their own room first, and make the next step, whether a home visit, a showroom appointment or a cart, available from the same screen.