How to Increase B2B Sales With an Online Visual Configurator

Business professionals browsing potential purchases in a visual configurator tool

If you're in a B2B industry, your customers need to trust you before they're ready to make a purchase. B2B customers want to make sure that the products they purchase will help their bottom line. This is where a visual configurator can come into play.

The fact is that B2B buyers spend as much as 27% of their time in the customer journey conducting online research. That's compared to a mere 17% spent actually connecting with prospective suppliers. They spend another 18% of their time researching products offline. 

During this crucial research phase, manufacturers and suppliers need to do what they can to show how they're different from the many competitors out there. An innovative visual product configurator and top-quality 3D visuals can help; companies can drastically increase trust and, subsequently, sales.

The following are some specific ways you can use a visual configurator and configurable sales platform to:

  • Boost conversions
  • Attract more customers

Eliminate Doubt During the Buying Process With 3D Images

When purchasing equipment, building materials, or other products for their business, customers want to ensure they're getting what they expect. Many B2B purchases are big investments that could impact the buyer's business in a significant way. This is why they spend so much time researching compared to B2C shoppers.

In the process, you should be able to present B2B customers with in-depth product images that enable customers to explore every inch of the product. This is particularly necessary for customizable products that feature many configurable components. 

If customers can choose from various colors, material options, and specifications, detailed and even animated product visualizations could show how these options would affect the product's look and functionality. 

To achieve all of this, you should incorporate detailed 3D images that bring your product lines to life in a 3D product configurator. With detailed 3D models of your products in a user-friendly visual configurator, customers can zoom in and rotate the product to see every component.

This would give them a true sense of how the product would appear and work.

For more information about how Threekit's visual configurator solution can effectively visualize your products, click here.

Instill More Confidence in Purchases With AR

Once you've implemented 3D visuals in a visual configuration tool, you can then take your product visuals to the next level with augmented reality (AR) solutions. Virtual reality uses headsets to transport users to another virtual space. But AR brings virtual objects into actual physical space in real time. 

Using AR applications, mobile users can "project" a detailed 3D product model in the real world using smartphones or tablets. The user is then able to walk around and observe the image from every perspective.

Projecting equipment or other products in their workspace and the intended installation area is incredibly useful. B2B customers can get a better feel for how the product would both look and fit — without the need for a physical sample.

Keep in mind that 40% of customers are willing to invest more in products if they can experience them through AR first, which goes for both B2B and B2C customers.

Learn about Threekit's AR capabilities. 

Inform Customers With Product Details and Pricing

Product visuals are invaluable assets for a business, but so are product details. B2B customers interested in new products with which they're unfamiliar might struggle if they don't understand your products.

For instance, when investing in new manufacturing equipment for a production facility, a customer may not be entirely sure how the equipment functions or the purpose of each component. Through a high-quality configurator with interactive product information, users can click on each component during configuration to learn how each part works. 

You can also gray out or remove certain incompatible options based on the existing components and specifications chosen. This can help guide shoppers who may otherwise wind up with an inefficient or even dysfunctional product.

In addition to displaying product details, a visual configurator can build even more trust in customers if it displays accurate pricing. Customers may be able to see base prices for standard models on a website. But the ability to create custom products is likely to impact pricing.

To maintain transparency, product configuration tools could feature a configure price quote (CPQ) add-on. This can update pricing in real time with each customization option. Give customers peace of mind in knowing that a complex product falls within their budget before they get to the shopping cart.

Yes, I want more sales

Equip Your Sales Teams With an Intuitive Configuration Tool

Business owner ordering custom items through a visual configurator

A visual configurator can also be instrumental in streamlining the sales cycle if you integrate it into your sales platforms. When used in conjunction with CRMs and ERPs such as Salesforce, 3D product configuration tools can assist sales staff with intuitive configuration capabilities and accurate pricing. 

For instance, a B2B customer may reach out to you to request a quote for equipment. Based on the options customers want, sales staff could put together an accurate configuration that visualizes the ideal solution.

At the same time, a CPQ feature could make quoting much easier, facilitating automation of the sales process.

Once the custom product is ordered, the 3D product visualization software could instantly create a bill of materials. This will help simplify design and manufacturing processes. 

Use Threekit's Unique Custom Solution to Boost B2B Sales

A reliable visual configurator could mean the difference between loyal customers and missed opportunities. The key is finding the ideal platform to use to convert those B2B prospects to leads. 

Then your team can turn those leads into trusting long-term customers. 

Through the use of Threekit's innovative platform, you can dramatically increase conversion rates and sales with a tool that truly works for you. We can achieve this with three solutions that supercharge your eCommerce and sales platforms.

The first step entails converting your configurable products into detailed photorealistic 3D visuals using our virtual photography solution. From there, we integrate these images into a comprehensive 3D product configurator that optimizes the customer experience. 

Our configurator plugin works with most platforms, including WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, and sales platforms like Salesforce.

To enable customers to view products in their spaces using AR, we can also supercharge your configurator with an AR solution that connects to sales tools and eCommerce sites.

Want to learn more about how our visual configurator can help your company succeed? Reach out to us today to get started on a custom solution.