Even if your brand is well-established and your products are known for their quality, your large business can benefit by implementing a product configurator.
Enabling customers to create their own custom products with a 3D product configurator offers numerous advantages. You can continually optimize the customer experience and get the most from your marketing and other efforts.
What is a product configurator?
Product configurators allow customers to use a digital solution to create custom configured products. These could include anywhere from simple items with a few customizable options to more complex products with many configurable components.
Once customers choose the options they want and view the finished product design, they can then use the configurator to order the item. The configurator can even guide users through the customization process to help prevent them from choosing incompatible or unavailable options.
A user-friendly product configurator with top-quality interactive product visualizations can essentially replicate in-store shopping experiences. Configurators with 3D visualization are particularly helpful in connecting with shoppers and boosting sales.
Five key benefits of an enterprise product configurator
If you're wondering what the specific benefits of a product configurator are, the following are some of the main advantages of implementing an enterprise product configurator.
1. Increase customer confidence
When shopping online, customers want to know that the product they believe they're getting is what they're actually buying. If a customer is unable to see the product in its entirety and with accurate representation, they may not commit to their order.
Using a reliable 3D product configuration solution, you can present realistic 3D visualizations of products that effectively showcase them and their options. If customers clearly see the product and can interact with it, they'll be far more likely to follow through with their purchase.
In addition to showing how products look, you can further instill confidence in buyers by displaying product functionality.
For example, complex electronic products might come with certain specs and other details that customers will want to see. You can visualize this in an educational guided product configurator.
Another way to increase confidence is through transparent pricing. Your configurator's configure price quote (CPQ) solution could show a base price and dynamic pricing as people choose different options. This would eliminate doubts regarding affordability as customers know what they'll end up spending before getting to the checkout page.
Another critical technology that can show customers what they're getting is augmented reality (AR). This solution could connect directly to your configurator, enabling customers to view virtual objects in the real world in real time through mobile devices.
This is invaluable for selling products such as furniture that aren't as easy to sample before buying. Customers would be able to see the size, shape and look of a furniture piece to make sure it's right for the designated space.
2. Get the order right the first time
With product configuration software, you can make sure your customers get the right product at the right time.
When customers complete the configuration and order their product, the configurator can generate an instant and accurate bill of materials for manufacturing companies. Manufacturing teams will then see exactly what's needed to manufacture the product to the customer's specifications.
This level of automation in your workflows allows for increased efficiency. It also minimizes the risk of error during order processing and the production process.
Additionally, on-premise sales teams could use a sales configurator to walk customers through product selection. This visualization would help ensure both your salesperson and customer are on the same page.
By making sure customers get precisely what they want and when they want it, you'll increase overall customer satisfaction.
3. Reduced lead times
Enterprise product configurators also make the sales process more efficient. Customers can easily build new products according to specific configuration rules and options. Sales staff can also see what the customer wants and make the sale.
This means that your sales teams are actually able to sell products as opposed to merely recording details. Based on customer requirements and the new design, sales reps can provide accurate quotes faster.
4. Integrations with many types of software
Today's product configuration tools can integrate with nearly any third-party software, including CRMs, ERPs and MRPs from eCommerce platforms like Shopify or sales software such as Salesforce.
This gives you full control over your enterprise product configurator, enabling you to track orders, collect data about how people use your configurator and identify new sales opportunities.
This ability to seamlessly integrate across systems also improves product lifecycle management (PLM). You'll be able to manage all customizable products from initial design to retirement.
5. Only sell what's in stock
The automation capabilities of a good enterprise product configurator will also prevent you from inadvertently selling items that aren't available. Customers will know what they can and can't buy with configurators that optimize the configuration process and inventory management.
For example, when a customer creates a custom product, certain options may not be available. In this case, the configurator can omit or gray out these options. The configurator will also be able to connect to inventory management systems to register when items are sold out automatically.
Again, this will prevent headaches on your end while keeping customers happier by letting them know what's available.
Connect with customers through a reliable enterprise product configurator
If you want to build strong relationships with your customers as a large enterprise, you'll benefit from using an enterprise product configurator. The right solution will help improve business processes and establish a better connection with customers.
At Threekit, we offer a comprehensive product configuration platform that includes everything you need. Our product configurator uses virtual photography to capture all products and create in-depth, interactive visuals.
Customers can then use the configurator to view and generate product variants of all types. AR technology also enables customers to see the product in real-world environments before buying.
If you would like to find out more about what our product configurator can do to help your business grow even more, get in touch with us today.
