3D product configuration has become a common wishlist item for brands and marketers across industries, with consumers frequently voicing the desire for better, more complete shopping experiences. Brands not only hear the calls from consumers, but have seen the strong results generated by brands, and often competitors, after deploying 3D and augmented reality in ecommerce. Some of the well documented and compelling benefits of product visualization and visual configurators include:
4X time spent with products on-site
94% higher conversions on products enabled with 3D
35% reduction in ecommerce returns
In today’s competitive market, results such as these are impossible to ignore. However, when it comes to implementing a 3D strategy, many struggle with where to begin and how to bring their products to life through product visualization. When looking to add product visualization or visual configuration to an ecommerce website, following several tips will save time, effort, and dollars.
Choose A Scalable Platform
3D configurators offer a lot of benefits to brands, starting with backend management and reaching through to front end business results. When building a product configurator, there are options ranging from a custom build from scratch, to plug-ins offered by other tech vendors. While a built from scratch solution offers a lot of customization, it comes with a high time and resource cost, as well as considerations for how to maintain and update the solution down the road. Plug-in solutions are generally easy to implement, but are limited in their offerings and level of customization. They also may come with scale limitations.
To get the best of both worlds, choose a product visualization platform designed to offer customized service and design with the capabilities to scale and grow with the brand. Dopple offers a seamless process for integrating tailored solutions built to serve the needs of brands today, and handle the growth and expansion of 3D ecommerce experiences in the future.
Product Configurators Should Be Front & Center
One of the most common mistakes in implementing a 3D visual configurator is not making the experience highly visible. Don’t hide the configurator on the third slide of a carousel or below the fold of a page; ensure the experience is visible and compelling from the start by making the configurator primary product image and driving visitors to explore and engage with the model.
Clients implementing 3D product configurators are seeing 71% of buyers configuring a product, and 4x time spent on page, leading to higher conversion rates.
Include Gesture Clues & Guides
In addition to placing the product configurator front and center, providing visitors with cues and guides on how to experience the product in 3D and configure options. Many brands choose to enable an auto-rotate feature, which adds movement to the model if a visitor does not engage with the experience within a certain amount of time. Animation is another commonly enabled feature, allowing shoppers to see the function as well as the form of a product. Annotated hot spots may be added to educate shoppers on unique selling points, product features, and even additional products that may be purchased alongside the product being viewed.
Adding a 3D product configurator to an ecommerce site is an investment in the experience being delivered to consumers. Research shows 80% of consumers already believe the buying experience is as important as the product; as they become more critical of the products and brands they choose to engage with, the power of a compelling experience will be further highlighted.
Learn more about adding a visual configurator for ecommerce in these resources.
