3D Model Configurator:
What It Is And How To Use It For Ecommerce
By 2040, 95% of purchases will be made through eCommerce, according to Nasdaq. This growth is expected, given our daily reliance on online shopping. However, challenges like consumer trust and product returns persist.
Static product images don’t offer the same examination experience as physical stores. Even 360-degree views are limited to basic rotation and zoom functions. To bridge this gap, leading brands use 3D model configurators—a cutting-edge tool that allows shoppers to customize products in real time by adjusting colors, textures, and details before purchasing.
Beyond enhancing customer experience, 3D configurators help retailers shorten sales cycles, understand their audience, and reduce stock costs. As a 3D modeling studio, we’ve seen businesses thrive using this technology. Here are five ways our clients have leveraged 3D visualization—read on!
#1. Provide Convenient Customization
The most important advantage of the 3D configurator for advertising is that it allows consumers to completely customize the product as they want. Using a 3D visualizer, buyers can assemble a furniture piece that will ideally match their interior in both aesthetic aspects and proportions. For instance, with the help of a 3D table configurator, they can personalize an item starting from the color of the legs and finishing with selecting a glass or wooden tabletop.
After a buyer has created the desired design, they can save the PDF file with the result and send it to a manufacturer. The latter, in turn, will provide an accurate invoice and assemble the model in the exact configuration.
#2. Demonstrate Products from All Angles
A 3D model configurator shows a product in 360° view, and users can easily rotate a 3D object using the mouse, touchpad or by touching the screen, depending on the device. Also, in the 3D configurator, you can zoom in on the object to see its smallest details. To create 3D imagery for the configurator, 3D artists use a highly detailed 3D model so that each element can be showcased and carefully examined.
As a result, buyers have an impression of holding the item in their hands as they would in a brick-and-mortar store. With a 3D model visualizer, they are able to evaluate the object properly without even additional photos. Thus, a well-made 3D model configurator is enough for listing to successfully sell the item.
#3. Show a Furniture Piece in Various Contexts
In addition to customizing individual parts and textures of the item in a 3D model configurator, buyers can also select any roomset for the product to understand which interior style it fits. After all, one of the common problems with buying furniture online is that the purchased piece looked good in the listing, but in real life, it simply doesn’t match the home environment by style or color. Moreover, often, photos don’t represent the actual proportions of the item. And, as a result, it appears to be too large or small for the interior in real life.
Using a 3D model configurator, consumers can put the object into photoreal lifestyle pictures to understand its true parameters and style and make a conscious purchase. They can select different roomsets from the collection of backgrounds to see what style and color scheme complements the product the most.
Such a digital tool perfectly emphasizes the versatility of the model and proves that the same item works with different interior styles. Needless to say this type of customer experience could be provided only by a 3D model configurator that takes product examination to a whole new level.
#4. Give Full Product Info Before Purchase to Reduce Goods Return
One of the biggest risks of online commerce is product returns. Therefore, sellers do everything to reduce them — provide more photos and videos, and add an extensive text description with the parameters of the item. However, all this doesn’t give buyers a holistic vision of the object.
Only by interacting with an online 3D model configurator, a customer can study the furniture piece with maximum accuracy before buying it. Once they tailored the design for themselves, clearly envisioned the parameters of the object and saw how it looks in different interiors, consumers can be more confident about the purchase. After all, the chances they will send back the product they assembled themselves are very small.
#5. Enhance the Shopping Experience with VR and AR Interactive Apps
A 3D model configurator works perfectly with VR and AR shopping apps. For example, one of the most advanced eCommerce giants, IKEA, has been using such apps for a long time in their brick-and-mortar stores.
Using a VR headset and hand controllers, a buyer can create an entire interior from scratch and fill it with customized objects and decor. In short, it’s like building your ideal home but virtually.
No surprise, consumers get emotionally involved in the process of creating their own world in a 3D configurator. As a result, a buyer is 100% satisfied with the scene and is ready to purchase all the items to recreate the look in reality. All they have to do is to pay one bill to get their dream in a box.
Download CGIFURNITURE price guide and learn the costs of top-tier 3D visualization projects of different scales!
The 3D model configurator gives shoppers a unique opportunity to creatively customize the furniture piece as they want. This engaging tool increases their awareness of a product and, hence, reduces goods returns. In addition, an interactive 3D configurator helps marketers study the true needs and tastes of buyers in order to produce only popular models in the future.
Want to provide your customers with an exclusive and interactive shopping experience? Order our 3D modeling services and get a 3D model configurator that will boost audience engagement and your sales!
