Want to sell more online? Go configure

Which model would you like? In what configuration? And what colour? Product configurators are playing an increasingly important role in the furniture shopping journey, both online and in-store, and this month Furniture News quizzes the people making personalised purchases a reality …

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) continues to gain ground in furniture marketing, offering flexible, interactive alternatives to traditional photography that has the potential to evolve in line with the changing ecommerce landscape.

Beyond straightforward imagery, one of the principal applications of CGI in ecommerce is the product configurator, a visual tool that enables users to customise a product’s size, materials, features and colours to their taste (a digital application that lets shoppers pick and choose what their chosen piece of furniture will look like).

With retail footprint coming at a premium, configurators provide an opportunity to showcase an infinitely larger range of SKUs than could ever be presented physically on the shop floor. Rather than being limited to the physical selection on display, shoppers are able to browse the many variants offered by manufacturers, and select what is right for their needs, without compromise – which, in turn, reduce the chances of that purchase being returned.

As technology becomes more integral to the shopping experience, configurators are becoming more powerful and intuitive. With early adopters of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) finding ways to take the configuration experience beyond the touchscreen and into people’s homes, it seems likely that configurators will only become even more commonplace in furniture shopping. www.chillipepperdesigns.co.uk www.cylindo.com www.ione360.com www.orbital.vision www.envisioncgi.co.uk

In this month’s CGI Marketing feature, Furniture News asks several of the sector’s specialists to outline the benefits of product configurators, the technology’s likely directions, and examples of their own solutions in use.

Thanks to: Neil Buckley-Jensen, founder, Chilli Pepper Designs; Jostein Pedersen, VP of product, Cylindo; David Colijn, CMO, iONE360; Rob Walker, MD, Orbital Vision; and Adam Briscoe, MD, Envision CGI.

HOW IMPORTANT ARE PRODUCT CONFIGURATORS TO THE SHOPPER'S ECOMMERCE EXPERIENCE?

Neil Buckley-Jensen: We have found that product configurators are imperative to increasing customer sales. It allows customers to visualise and virtually interact with products before purchasing. Augmented Reality (AR) experiences are 200% more engaging than traditional imagery, with 61% of customers saying they prefer to shop with retailers who use AR within their websites.

Technology has become so advanced that customers are now able to virtually place items in their home using their smartphone camera, giving people a ‘try-before-you-buy’ experience –which is proven to decrease product return rates.

Jostein Pedersen: Product configurators are a valuable tool in enhancing the ecommerce experience for both shoppers and businesses. They not only facilitate personalisation, visualisation and informed decision-making, but also contribute to improved inventory management, reduced returns, and increased customer engagement. As online shopping continues to evolve, the importance of product configurators will likely grow further.

David Colijn: To answer that question, let’s consider what shoppers are doing on your ecommerce platform in the first place. They are either browsing for inspiration, considering a purchase, or making a purchase, right?

It’s important to keep in mind that they can only browse or purchase what you have published, which automatically implies that parts of your catalogue/product variants that you haven’t published cannot be browsed or bought. Have you considered how many of your products have options that you haven’t been able to publish or visualise online?

This is where product configurators come in. They play a crucial role in helping endcustomers understand your products. By enabling your customers to visualise and understand which options are available, you’re providing answers to questions that would otherwise lead to doubts, and could potentially prevent them making a purchase online or from visiting your physical store. In other words, product configurators can help eliminate barriers to purchase, enhance customer experience, and drive sales.

Rob Walker: Product configurators are becoming an essential feature for selling a product, both online and off. There are pros and cons to both 2D and 3D product configurators, but the limitations that come with using still 2D images often outweigh the benefits.

Our 3D configurator, Envision, allows our clients to bring an upgraded shopping experience to their customers. Not only are customers now able to see a product as a 360° , 3D model, they can create their perfect product by being able to change/customise anything and everything.

The customer feels more involved in the creative process, their expectations are better managed, and with our app-less AR feature, customers can view a product in their own home (completely size accurate), to see if it suits their space. All of this helps increase sales and reduce return rates.

Envision isn’t only for online, it can be used in-store too – it works great on mobile and tablet, allowing sales reps to use this on the road, and in-store to secure a sale.

Adam Briscoe: Product configurators can become a retailer’s biggest asset when selling products with multiple options. Products such as sofas or tables with interchangeable frames benefit massively by using configurators to let the customer see the exact combination they are going to get. It makes the buying experience feel more bespoke for the customer.

With our CGI services we are able to create configurators for products that have a large number of options without having to manufacture a sample of each option. This becomes extremely cost effective for sofa manufacturers, as they are able to create a more personal buying experience for the customer by showing a huge amount of fabric options, but without the expense of making any of them. The more niche fabrics normally get missed, and the customer must rely on a small sample swatch to make what is normally their most expensive furniture purchase. CGI configurators give them peace of mind, by showing what the fabric looks like on that specific product, and helps get the sale over the line quicker.

WHAT WORK ARE YOU DOING IN THE FIELD, AND WHAT ARE THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS?

Neil Buckley-Jensen: Chilli Pepper Designs are always adapting to technological advances and continuously furthering our knowledge and experience within these fields. We have partnered and developed AR software which allows customers to virtually place furniture into their homes, with accurately scaled products based on the room dimensions. Our software also enables customers to rotate furniture in immersive 360° animations, letting them see the furniture from every angle and envision what it would look like in any location, from the comfort of their own smartphone.

Jostein Pedersen: We are continuously developing and improving our product configurator offerings in order to provide the best possible solutions for our customers. I’m excited to share that besides our tighter integration into the Chaos Product Suite (V-Ray, Corona, Enscape, etc) we’ve been working on some very exciting solutions for the product visualisation and configurations field, namely: Cylindo Studio, which enables customers to create lifestyle images at scale – by leveraging advanced 3D visualisation technology, we make it easy for businesses to generate realistic and visually appealing product images that help customers better understand the look and feel of their potential purchases;

We’ve recently released a dimension shot solution that simplifies the process of generating dimension imagery for all your products – this allows for easy creation of detailed and accurate product dimensions, helping customers make informed decisions regarding product fit and compatibility; we’ve also ensured that all materials used on products can be visualised as separate material swatches, allowing our customers to more easily present material options to end consumers; next, I’m excited to announce the upcoming launch of Cylindo Curator, a revolutionary content management solution that will streamline the way you manage content on your ecommerce store – this platform will make it easier to organise, optimise and update product content, ensuring a consistent and engaging shopping experience for the end-consumer; and we also plan to introduce new AI-powered content creation tools that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of ecommerce businesses –these tools will leverage machine learning and AI to generate content at scale, optimise product imagery, and enhance the overall shopping experience, and we can’t wait to tell you more about it!

David Colijn: At iONE360, we view our visual product configurator as a vital component of the sales, marketing and logistics processes – not just within individual companies, but throughout the supply chain. We believe that failing to consider these processes can result in a product configurator that looks impressive but is disconnected from your operation, leaving you with a costly gadget with limited usefulness. Therefore, we focus on efficiency and integration of 3D visual configuration technologies.

One example of this is our ability to automatically generate CGI of products and all options using our configurator. We can do this completely automatically, at just cents per image, making it feasible for the furniture industry to have product images of each and every variant available.

We have also developed versatile solutions that enable us to publish configurable products to multiple channels, including AR and room planners, with no extra effort required. Additionally, we facilitate integrations within the supply chain by supporting manufacturers in providing this technology to their dealers, enabling them to use it to boost sales both online and in physical stores. This means that retailers no longer have to build their own libraries, and investments can be shared.

Over the next few years, we expect two main developments: firstly, the creation of assets will speed up, driving down investments and convincing more companies to adopt this technology; secondly, the quality of visuals will increase significantly, as well as the ways to access the 3D layer on top of our reality (the metaverse, for example), leading to widespread adoption.

Rob Walker: Envision has been live since last year, and we are constantly developing new and exciting features to deliver an upgraded user experience, including a 3D modular configurator, and the ability to pull still images (named to SKUs and with tags for Google Shopping) from the platform, with both features launching later this year.

Users can already completely customise a product, put it in their own home with our appless AR feature, view dimensions and view a running total – so it’s only getting better! Clients who are signed up to Envision will also reap the benefits of discounted rates across our other services, making lifestyle imagery and animation even more accessible.

Adam Briscoe: We are currently developing our own configurator system that works for both single pieces of furniture and entire roomsets. With the advances in 3D technology, we are able to create immersive environments in which the customer is able to move around the space and try different colour options within it.

It allows a retailer to show multiple products in a roomset and create a virtual showroom that customers can experience from the comfort of their own home. You will be able to sell a product in the same way you do in a showroom, but without having to have a traditional bricks-andmortar approach.

CAN YOU SHARE ANY EXAMPLES OF FURNITURE RETAILERS/ MANUFACTURERS YOU'VE WORKED WITH TO DELIVER A NEW CONFIGURATOR SOLUTION?

Neil Buckley-Jensen: We work with our sister company Indesign Furniture when experimenting with our configurator systems, and I think this contributed significantly to our drastic increase in furniture sales with our partnered wholesalers and end-consumers. Outside of our organisation, Chilli Pepper Designs prefer to keep our regular furniture clients anonymous, as we respect our clients’ wishes in disclosing partnerships regarding CGI and AR.

Jostein Pedersen: We’ve partnered with multiple brands and retailers to help them deliver immersive shopping experiences across multiple channels. One collaboration we’re truly proud of is the partnership with EQ3, one of Canada’s biggest retailers. Throughout the years, EQ3 has become an absolute Cylindo power user, implementing the Cylindo solution in a variety of innovative ways, online and in-store. In return, working and growing with a trusted partner like that guides our thinking and facilitates future product development.

David Colijn: One of our most notable collaborations has been with Habufa, a Dutch manufacturer of popular brands such as Henders & Hazel, Xooon and Coco Maison, which are sold in over 300 stores across Western Europe.

Habufa understands the importance of supporting its dealers, and has embraced our technology to do just that. They’ve fully digitised their catalogue, and now offer product configuration and visualisation on each product through their online channels. In addition, they provide their dealers with access to our room-planning software in their stores, which is considered the ultimate sales tool for their reps. With this tool, sales reps can combine multiple products to demonstrate how they work together, and, since everything is configurable, they can explore different ideas with the customer.

Because that process answers another set of those potentially sales-blocking questions your end-customers might have, Habufa has achieved fantastic results, with stores reporting conversion rates of up to 80%. Additionally, upselling and cross-selling opportunities have led to significantly higher AOVs than before.

Rob Walker: Tetrad, one of the UK’s largest manufacturers, are online with almost 400 models built, and over 250 fabrics ready for customers to apply to their products. Tetrad stockists can use these models on their own websites through Envision, or they can come to us for exceptional lifestyles and animations

– it’s all about making the most of your digital assets. Tetrad have implemented touchscreens up and down the UK in their stockists’ stores, for customers and sales reps to use during the buying cycle. We’ve had excellent feedback, with stockists being able to sell products that they don’t actually have on the shop floor.

Wood Bros is another fantastic example. The retailer has all upholstery products live on Envision. From here, they’ve seen an average increase of around +30% in their sales since joining the platform.

After seeing great results up and down the country, and across the waters in Ireland with Diamond Furniture, we cannot wait to see how the platform grows over the next few months.

Adam Briscoe: Although it isn’t a furniture retailer, I’m currently working with a property developer to provide a conservatory configurator. This shows that it isn’t just single products that can be shown anymore. The technology has advanced considerably over the last few years – there is now a much broader scope of what is possible, and the applications of configurators is constantly growing.

CYLINDO'S JOSTEIN PEDERSEN ON WHY PRODUCT CONFIGURATORS ARE IMPORTANT FOR ECOMMERCE ...

Personalisation - Configurators allow customers to create a unique and personalised product according to their preferences. This level of customisation can lead to higher customer satisfaction and increased brand loyalty

Visualisation - 3D product configurators provide a realistic representation of the product, allowing customers to visualise how the final product will look with their chosen options. This helps reduce uncertainty and can lead to increased conversions

Informed decisions - By giving customers the ability to explore various options and combinations, product configurators facilitate better decision-making. Customers feel more confident about their purchase when they have the necessary information at their fingertips

Reduced returns - With a clear understanding of the product they are purchasing, customers are less likely to return items due to dissatisfaction or incorrect expectations. This can lead to reduced return rates and improved customer satisfaction

Streamlined inventory management - Businesses can benefit from product configurators by offering a wide range of product combinations without the need to stock all variants physically. This can lead to improved inventory management and reduced operational costs

Increased engagement - Interactive and immersive product configurators can keep customers engaged for longer periods, increasing the chances of conversion and repeat purchases

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