What do helmets, couches and watches all have in common? Not much except that all are part of an explosive trend in digital commerce: online 3D Product Configuration. While the manufacturers of these products are leading the way, before long, most products will inevitably be sold this way and most customers will come to expect it as a natural part of their e-commerce experience. Sure, selecting colors and textures has been a mainstay of product customization for a while now, but the new trend is to offer customers hundreds of options and to enable the consumers to see them come to life in intricate, exquisite detail.

What is the state of augmented reality (AR) on the web in 2019? Well, it is a complex story for now because the underlying technology for AR on the web is not yet mature.

Today, eCommerce is a $3.5 trillion business and is projected to be worth $4.9 trillion by 2021. If you sell products online, you have a lot of competitors in your space. If you want to sell more products while competition-proofing your business, the key is to improve the customer’s visual experience.

E-Commerce of the Past  Do you remember what it was like to use the internet 20 years ago? We sure do. You would boot up your machine, open AOL, and then sit back and spin a few times in the swivel chair, all while the dusty modem revs up and transforms a dial tone into that robotic clang that tells you that you’re finally in. What is even more painful is remembering what e-commerce pages looked like 20 years ago - at this point it feels a bit like digging through archaeological ruins.  

People come into contact with 3D rendered images every day. Whether you’re watching animated cartoons, flipping through a magazine, viewing billboards on your morning commute, or scrolling through social media on your phone, 3D rendered images are an important form of visual content for marketers, advertisers, and content producers.

ThreeKit was a sponsor at Oracle Modern CX last week. Not only was our team excited to get out Chicago and spend time in Las Vegas, but we were also excited to spend time with the inspiring people at Oracle Modern CX. While at the event we heard from impactful speakers like Mark Hurd and Magic Johnson and got the opportunity to hear from Oracle about the future of technology. Here are our takeaways:

A 3D product configurator is a way to let your customers to personalize a product they want to buy. The added bonus of the 3D element is that it allows your customers tointeract with your products online the way they would in store. Plus, they can select custom options and watch them transform in real time even if you don't have those options ready to be manufactured. In other words, 3D configurators supercharge e-commerce through immersive visualization. But it’s not just the ability to see various colors, components, and styles—3D configurators can also provide dynamic pricing for chosen configurations.

This week our team was in Las Vegas for the annual Shoptalk event. We met with thousands of retail leaders, industry experts, analysts, partners, and technologists. We attended fantastic sessions and loved meeting face-to-face with prospects and partners at the round table discussions. Most importantly, we learned what’s trending from the industry leaders: 

ThreeKit is a sponsor at Shoptalk 2019 next week in Las Vegas and we can’t wait to see what Shoptalk is all about! As we are getting ready for the big event, we spent some time thinking about what gets our team so excited to attend events like Shoptalk. Here is what we came up with!