Tailor your products to consumers by: personalization Can increase engagement and improve retention. 2024 Deloitte research Research has found that about 75% of consumers prefer brands that provide personalized service, and they spend nearly 40% more on these brands.
You can encourage additional spending by offering customers the opportunity to participate in the design process. Offering customization options and a high-quality product configurator invites consumers to tell you what they want so you can meet individual expectations and gather valuable consumer intelligence. Here’s what product configurators are, how they benefit businesses, and five features to look for yourself.
What is a product configurator?
A product configurator is a software tool that customers can use to modify products during the online ordering process. The tool displays customization options, calculates final product costs, and produces a visual representation of the finished product, allowing customers to experiment with designs and purchase personalized products.
Product Configurator Key Features
Not all product configurators are the same, and the best option for your business depends on your product type, budget, and business needs. Here are the features to look for as you evaluate your options:
User friendly interface
An intuitive product configurator can help customers build trust in your company and encourage them to explore your product catalog. Bulky tools can harm your brand’s reputation. Even the most motivated customers can be turned away by a confusing configuration process.
Looking for a tool that outlines customization options, makes it easy to apply or change selections, and helps customers produce a high-quality final design. For particularly complex products, consider using tools to step customers through the product customization process and filter available options based on compatibility with the customer’s previous selections.
Price calculation function
The product configurator calculates the total product price based on the customer’s selections. Choose between dynamic and static options: dynamic tools instantly update project costs, and static tools provide quotes as the final step in the customization process.
If you want customers to understand how their choices affect the final product price, consider dynamic pricing. For example, the price of a custom-made armchair may jump from $800 to $1,400 when a customer opts for leather upholstery, but may drop to $1,100 when they forego the included footrest.
Static pricing, on the other hand, hides the relationship between individual choices and total price, and is often used by retailers for more complex pricing structures. Holding offers until the end of the process can help businesses avoid confusing consumers with counterintuitive price fluctuations.
Product visualization tools
A good online product configurator can help customers visualize what they want to buy. Your needs depend on what you sell: a service-based business might use illustrations to represent selected add-ons, while a high-end jeweler might invest in 3D product model and augmented reality Opinion.
If appearance is your product’s main selling point, look for tools that support dynamic visualization. Rather than producing final preview images, these tools instantly update basic product mockups, encouraging customers to experiment with styles and allowing them to integrate visual feedback into the design process.
Integrate
Choose product configurator software that integrates with your online store and checkout system. For example, apps like Customized product generator and kick flip Allows Shopify stores to provide simple customization options and tools, such as three piece set Provide complete 3D and AR visual customization. Find tools that are compatible with multiple platform types, including inventory and supply chain management systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tools and ERP systems.
These integrations can reduce administrative labor, optimize inventory management, and store information about customer preferences to help you fulfill customer orders efficiently and improve future sales and marketing efforts.
Design verification
The product configurator guides customers toward compatible customizations and ensures you can produce your customers’ designs. You can establish configuration rules when setting up the tool. For example, you can specify that a stool can have three or four legs, but not more or less, or both.
Some advanced configurators also use product data to generate performance predictions, such as how much power a customized line will use in a year or how many tons of product a warehouse racking system can support.
Benefits of using product configurator
Here are some of the ways product configurators can benefit businesses and their customers:
Lower barriers to purchase
Product configurators provide transparent pricing and help customers visualize customized products—both factors that lower barriers to purchase. Advanced visualization techniques like 3D product modeling and AR can be particularly useful if you sell products that are space-specific, charge higher prices, or don’t accept returns.
For example, a jeweler might use 3D modeling to let a bride or groom-to-be take a closer look at a custom engagement ring from all angles, while a home furnishings retailer might use AR to let shoppers view custom furniture in their home.
Higher customer satisfaction
Research shows Customers expect a personalized experience, reward the companies that serve them with their purchases, and become frustrated when these expectations are not met. Product configurators can increase customer satisfaction by providing an efficient, user-friendly customization process and ensuring customers understand what they are receiving. They also provide valuable data about customer needs and preferences, which you can use to personalize future marketing strategies.
Shorten delivery time
Configurators speed up the procurement process for customized products, helping you close more sales and deliver finished products efficiently. Manual processes require customers to wait for a quote from the sales department before placing a custom order. Quotes can take days, which is enough to turn customers off or choose a competitor that moves faster.
The product configurator provides instant quotes, allowing customers to process orders immediately. Design verification and automated order creation can also speed up the production process. These reduce the risk of human error during the design process and ensure that new customer orders enter the production queue immediately, helping you avoid costly mistakes.
Improve operational efficiency
Configurators save time and reduce costs, helping you further expand your business resources. Instead of constantly working on quotes, sales reps can focus on larger business and marketing goals, such as winning more top-of-funnel leads, developing existing customers, or pursuing higher-value prospects. You can also use integrations to reduce administrative effort and optimize Inventory management and marketing processes.
Improve customer engagement
It’s fun to create new designs. That’s why we have Legos, paper dolls, and a seemingly infinite number of Fortress Heroes skins. Enabling customers to experiment with designs adds entertainment value to the customer experience, encouraging them to engage with your products and brand.
Providing an engaging shopping experience also encourages recommendations and word of mouth marketing. Prospects don’t need to be active buyers to develop a positive association with your brand, leading to sales later. Some companies also invite customers to share their finished designs on social media, which can further increase your brand awareness.
Example of a valid product configurator
Many e-commerce businesses use configurators to customize or customize products. Here are two product configurator examples:
scout design studio
Headquartered in Texas scout design studio The 18,500-square-foot warehouse in the Dallas Design District sells new and vintage furniture, art and lighting. Its online product configurator uses 3D modeling and dynamic visualization to allow customers to configure products from its customized product line, Scout Bespoke. Configurator offers multiple product views and high-quality images for more than 20,000 Product changes.
venita blinds
Australian blinds retailers venita blinds Provide customized window accessories, allowing customers to customize elements such as materials, colors, accessory types and control mechanisms. It offers five blind types and sizes based on buyers’ specifications, using a multi-step product configurator to help navigate billions of product variations –744 billion To be precise, based on product type.
The configurator provides basic product visualization and guides customers through the nine-step decision-making process by displaying relevant customization options at each step. The configurator displays pricing information twice – once up front outlining the minimum cost for each blind type, and again at the final stage after the customer has entered precise height and width specifications.
Product Configurator FAQ
What is the difference between product customization and configuration?
Some companies distinguish between customization and configuration, calling products with pre-existing customization options configurable and products built to customer specifications as customizable. E-commerce businesses can use website product configurators to sell configurable products, but the sales process for fully customized products typically involves direct communication with a sales representative.
What is an example of configure-to-order products?
Many furniture retailers sell configurable products. scout design studioFor example, it sells configurable desks, beds, tables, chairs and home décor items that allow customers to customize sizes, colors and finishes.
Which industries use product configurators?
Product configurators are popular in industries with rich product variations, including furniture, automotive, and fashion.
