area30 2026: SHD showcases the connected customer journey in kitchen retail and presents the SHD AI Presenter

Andernach, 29 September 2026 – How can kitchen studios free up more time for their customers despite skills shortages and time pressure? At area30 in Löhne, SHD used the motto "One Connected Journey" to show how digital solutions connect every step from the first online contact through planning and ordering to installation and customer retention. The focus was on the SHD AI Presenter, which automates time-consuming presentation tasks in kitchen sales.

More time for advice: the SHD AI Presenter

In kitchen sales, preparing designs for the customer meeting takes a great deal of time. The SHD AI Presenter was shown to a trade audience for the first time at area30 and takes over exactly these tasks. It turns a design in KPS.MAX or KPS.MAX web into near-photorealistic room scenes with suitable lighting and furnishings in a short time. According to SHD, this reduces the effort required for visualisation by up to 80 per cent. Sales advisers can present design variants vividly in the very first meeting and gain time for what matters most in sales: the customer.

"We use AI where kitchen sales lose the most time today. The SHD AI Presenter does not replace advice, it creates room for it. Our conversations at the stand showed that this is exactly where retailers want to start," says Philip Kaiser, Product Owner SHD AI Presenter.

One continuous process instead of isolated solutions

SHD demonstrated how its solutions work together along a typical kitchen order. Consumers find inspiration and plan online with KPS.MAX web. Their enquiry flows as a lead directly into professional planning with KPS.MAX. There, the design is finalised and passed on as a quotation and order to the ERP system: SHD Connect for small and medium-sized kitchen and bathroom businesses, or SHD ECORO for larger retail organisations. hey.kitchen then manages delivery, installation and complaints digitally. This eliminates duplicate data entry and gaps between process steps.

Outlook: bathroom planning and automated customer communication

The preview of bathroom planning in KPS.MAX web, which extends SHD's digital customer engagement to the bathroom segment, attracted considerable interest. With habino, SHD also showed how personalised, automated communication keeps customers connected to their retailer after the purchase.

"area30 confirmed what we hear from retailers: they are not looking for more stand-alone solutions, but for processes that work together from first contact to installation. That is what we are developing together with our customers, and the feedback from the stand feeds directly into our further development," says Nina Jonker-Völker, CCO of the SHD Group.