Product Configurators – Individualism for everyone

[authorBox image=”http://uzuner-solutions.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Sajad-Blog.jpg” name=”Sajad Ghawami”]Sajad is our contact person for all questions and concerns regarding e-commerce. When doing research about 3D configurators for furniture, he came across the following application example.[/authorBox]

Where does the Journey go?

It’s no longer a secret that the internet offers us new opportunities every day. One of the areas in constant progress is the world of e-commerce. In the classical sense e-commerce consisted in huge virtual stores offering the customer a broad range of finished products he can have delivered home directly. A few years ago, this was a revolution – what is happening now is the evolution.

According to the motto “Individualism for the masses“, the internet is currently undergoing exactly this development. Today’s customers want more than just ready-made products. They want products which match their desires, their needs and their own, personal taste. By using product configurators, e-commerce increasingly takes account of this trend towards individualization.

An Example

There are many good instances which demonstrate the benefit of such configurators for online shops. One of them is the product configurator by “Meine-Möbelmanufaktur” (“My furniture factory”), which focuses on this aspect of individualism. Meine-Möbelmanufaktur is a well-established company committed to take the plunge into the internet with the help of a 3D product configurator for wardrobes and shelves.

It doesn’t have to be complicated

The configuration procedure follows a very simple principle: First, the customer chooses between a wardrobe, a shelf or other basic elements. In the next step he is guided to the actual configuration mask. There he can make all kinds of adjustments – e.g. to height, width and depths – and have further compartments or shelves added.

Subsequently, the customer can choose different kinds of doors or drawers, the interior design and the materials, which all appear directly in the 3D preview. In order to have an idea what the different materials look like “in reality”, he can request free material samples. All in all, the configurator stands out with the clarity of its user interface as well as valuably support in case things don’t work out as they should.

The configurator detects on its own if a certain selection would lead to construction faults. In this case the customer receives an error message with the necessary adjustments to make the final product still feasible. The configurator is rounded off by smooth and error-free functionalities, which again underlines that such web solutions don’t have to hide any longer behind traditional desktop applications.

This is only one example of applications in which a product configurator can be used. It demonstrates that a configurator can’t only accomplish simple tasks like the configuration of T-shirts, but also allows for far more complex options, which doesn’t necessarily mean that the user-friendliness has to suffer.

Looking to the Future with Courage

I say “thumbs up” for this very nice application in a branch that could only offer such services on the spot before.

Again and again we have made the experience that many companies imagine a customer-friendly shop solution with a product configurator to be a costly mammoth project and don’t recognize its huge potential. But with the right partner at one’s side who understands his job it becomes clear very quickly that the implementation is easier than you would think.

The clavis team hopes that from now on many more companies will discover the benefits of the internet, especially those provided by such configurators, to offer tomorrow’s customer these new possibilities of stress-free and individual shopping.