Giving buyers an immersive visual buying experience boosts conversion rates and reduces support costs. An excellent product configurator also delivers significant business benefits:
Visual CPQ solutions prevent pricing errors, delivering quotes that are accurate and transparent. They also help sales reps to upsell and cross-sell by demonstrating complementary products or features in the visual model.
Increased Sales and Customer Loyalty
A visual configurator for CPQ enables customers to easily configure products by interacting with 2D or 3D models. They can select from various options and instantly see the results in real time. They make a confident buying decision crucial for customers to avoid buyer’s remorse. B2C customers, in particular, want to avoid buyer’s remorse – they only purchase 58% of the items they put in their cart each year.
The online buying experience has changed. More is needed to convince customers with persuasive text or static images. Instead, customers demand an immersive and intuitive user experience similar to the IKEA effect. It is where a visual configuration tool like a CPQ Configurator comes in.
In addition to providing an aesthetically appealing interactive interface, visual product configurators are also very efficient. They help you avoid costly errors and save on resources by automatically generating quotes that reflect the correct product and pricing. They also minimize engineering costs and increase quoting speed.
For example, a visual product configurator allows sales reps to include a detailed 3D rendering of the final product in their quotes. It enables them to upsell and cross-sell with confidence. In addition, a visual configurator can show customers how the configuration of their chosen components will impact the final price. It is crucial to provide buyers with a clear understanding of the manufacturing cost of their product.
Reduced Errors and Efforts
A visual product configurator removes many errors from the process. It ensures the right products are being sold to customers, reduces the number of quotation requests that must be reworked, and allows for more accurate quoting. Achieving this will result in quicker sales cycles, generate more substantial revenue, and lead to higher conversion rates.
For example, when selling a phone booth, an AI-driven visual product configurator will help a customer choose soundproofing levels, booth colors, door mechanisms, integrated tech features, and more. It will demonstrate how the product will function in different settings to ensure customers’ needs are met. By implementing this approach, product returns can be reduced, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and loyalty in the long run.
When B2B buyers purchase a product for their business, they want to know that it will meet their needs and be worth the price. By letting them see a 3D visualization of the final product, it helps them feel confident about their purchase and reassures them that they are making an intelligent decision.
Using a visual product configurator to streamline your CPQ workflow also helps you eliminate costly engineering mistakes and miscommunication between your sales reps and engineers. Your CPQ tool contains predefined rules determining viable product assemblies and optimizes every configuration for engineering efficiency, profitability, and customer satisfaction. Moreover, it automatically recalculates pricing based on changes in raw material costs, inventory levels, promotional offers, and competitor pricing.
Increased Conversion Rates
In an age of digital marketing, a visual product configurator is the new way to drive sales. With 2D and 3D models, your customers can design their perfect product and get a feel for it before they commit to the purchase. They can even view their creation in augmented reality and request a quote. It is a more practical approach than traditional drop-down menus and checkboxes, resulting in a much higher conversion rate.
With visual configuration software, your engineering, sales, and production departments can work from the same platform using the product model as the single source of truth. To reduce ambiguity and confusion, it is crucial to minimize errors and enhance lead times.
Additionally, visual CPQ automatically applies rules based on your manufacturing capabilities and product design limitations. It prevents customers and salespeople from inadvertently designing a product that cannot be created. It also helps prevent pricing errors by displaying the impact of each selection on the final price.
Once a customer has selected their options, visual CPQ software can generate an accurate quote and display it within the product model. This process ensures transparent pricing and eliminates miscommunication, providing a seamless buying experience and increasing customer satisfaction. Additionally, it decreases the number of return orders by showing buyers precisely what they will receive.
Increased Product Knowledge
For both B2B and B2C, visual product configuration tools allow customers to create and visualize a complete custom product before purchasing. It is a great way to avoid buyer’s remorse and make customers feel more confident about their purchase, which can result in higher conversion rates and more repeat business.
With a 3D configurator, customers can see what their products will look like based on their selected options. This method is more effective than explaining the product via phone or email. It also reduces misunderstandings and miscommunication between salespeople and engineering teams.
In addition to enabling customers to configure products, visual CPQ solutions also show the impact of their selected options on the final price. Eliminating pricing errors and ensuring accurate, fair, and consistent quotes, this process helps to maintain the quality of service and customer satisfaction.
A critical factor in a successful product configurator is its ability to scale from Assemble-To-Order (ATO) and Engineer-To-Order (ETO). It should be able to translate a given product’s attributes and options into the work instructions and bill of materials that production uses in their ERP systems. It allows for real-time collaboration among engineering, manufacturing, and sales teams to ensure the feasibility of customer configurations, resulting in a consistent experience, error prevention, and time-saving.