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The street furniture and urban design industry is constantly evolving, with companies looking for innovative solutions to attract customers, enhance the buying experience and drive greater sales. In this post, we’ll explain the top 10 benefits for street furniture companies to integrate an outdoor bench configurator into their website.
With up to 75% of customers browsing online to explore products, your website is a channel that can’t be ignored. Online sales are predicted to increase 11% each year over the next decade and this could reach $10 trillion by 2027.
The most successful street furniture companies will be looking to gain competitive advantage and provide innovative experiences that engage customers and sell their products in the best possible way.
This is where Modular Configurators come into play, allowing outdoor furniture and benches to be easily configured in 3D. A modular configurator enables furniture to be customised with any material or product option and visualised via Augmented Reality in a customer’s outdoor space.
What are 3D bench configuration apps and how exactly do furniture companies benefit from them? Let’s find out.
What is an Outdoor Bench Configurator?
Outdoor bench configurators allow customers to personalise the design of their benches via a Modular Configurator. They can use drag & drop to create a custom bench layout, see an accurate parts list and visualise materials to match their requirements. All of this is achieved via an intuitive web-based interface that can be seamlessly integrated into your company’s website.
Does Your Company Need a Bench Builder?
If you are an outdoor furniture manufacturer or retailer that sells customisable benches or furniture, the answer would be yes. A bench builder allows customers to select from many different options, materials and pre-configured layouts. If your product has hundreds of combinations, it would not be possible to display every configuration via an image.
A bench builder enables customers to design their perfect bench in ultra-realistic 3D, see materials with the tap of a button and connect related parts via drag & drop. Part logic and business rules can be setup so that only the available configurations can be built and ordered.
How Will a Bench Builder Increase Sales?
A modular bench builder can transform your sales process in the following ways:
- Customers will be able to quickly visualise the capabilities of your modular bench system. This increases project confidence and fast track the sales process.
- A 3D bench builder will allow customers to interact with your product, understand compatible modules and create their ideal layout. No special skills or technology are required and they can use your modular configurator on desktop, tablet or mobile devices.
- It frees up your staff, allowing them to focus on converting sales. Your sales team can use the bench configurator to easily demonstrate product options and layouts for customers, share images and create accurate part lists.
- A 3D bench configurator saves money and resources by removing the need for your team to create custom 3D renders for prospects. Customers can build any configuration in high quality 3D and download images.
Implementing a modular configurator can be one of the best business decisions your company can make to enhance your product reach.
To understand how beneficial a bench builder can be, you can look to the success achieved by retail company that launches a 3D configurator. The same base business principles apply in that a modular configurator will improve your customer’s buying experience, boost product engagement and convert your websie into a powerful sales tool.
Let’s take a look at the top 10 benefits of an outdoor bench configurator.
True-to-life 3D Product Visualisation
Modular bench configurators leverage advanced 3D technology to provide a realistic representation of your products. True-to-life digital products can showcase accurate materials, allow customers to explore different variations of finishes, arms, legs and product sizing. Your product range could consist of thousands of options and a 3D Configurator can display every one of them.
Allowing customers to see realistic 3D models of products with customised options, will boost purchase confidence and speed up the decision making process. When paired with Augmented Reality, customers can try these products in their real environment, creating an experience that stands out from your competitors.
A More Interactive Shopping Experience
By adding a 3D bench configurator to your website, you can create a stronger connection with your customers and better utilitse the sales capability of your website.
A drag & drop bench builder gives your customers the power to interact and explore any configuration. They can visualise every option to find the perfect layout. This results in a higher quality sales lead, a customer that better understands your product and you can see the exact configuration that a customer would like to purchase.
Increased Customer Engagement & Satisfaction
For any business, an increase in customer satisfaction will improve business growth. In the street furniture industry, customers are specifically looking for solutions that can be tailored for their needs. They will become more engaged with your products if they can easily understand the options and visualise the final result.
Architects and designers will also be able to leverage a 3D bench configurator to create a layout, download render-like images and see part lists.
Augmented Reality adds additional value to the planning process, allowing customers to try a bench or multi-product layout in real time, on location. They can swap materials to see which style best suits their environment, visualise if the configuration fits in their space and adjust accordingly.
Reduced Complexity & Improved Conversion Rates
Modular bench products can consist of thousands of styling options, modules and layouts. Every configuration may be unique and feature specifications and parts that staff need to manually check. When dealing with many prospects, the specifications process can become time consuming and result in errors. A modular bench configurator reduces this complexity and will automatically generate a part list based on customer selections. This ensures specifications are 100% accurate and both the customer and staff can see the final layout in high quality 3D.
A modular bench configurator also helps to organise and display bench options via intuitive categories. This makes it much faster for customers to understand options and reduces the overall complexity. Parts can hey can be ordered by size, shape, type and dragged into place in full 3D. Bench modules can be further customised with individual attributes such as custom legs, arms and materials.
Companies can increase conversions and generate new leads, when customers create a bench layout and save their design. This can send a copy of the design to sales staff and help them better assist customer enquiries.
User Statistics, Customer Insights & Integration
A 3D bench configurator can gather valuable customer insights about product options and industry trends. This data is highly beneficial for product design, marketing and enabling your sales team to understand their target audience. Data insights also assist inventory management, production processes and marketing campaigns.
Similar to Google Analytics, 3D bench configurator statistics can tell you which products are most popular, materials and options that are commonly selected, modules which are frequently combined and conversions for important actions. These insights can be further integrated with CRM software, to enable sales staff to gauge interest and select the appropriate strategy.
Time & Cost Savings
Outdoor bench configurators save time and cost by eliminating process errors, reducing manual work and streamlining business processes. This can result in significant savings for your business, freeing up staff to focus on important tasks.
A 3D configurator reduces the need for staff to create 3D renders, as products can be customised and images downloaded instantly. Staff do not need software training as a modular configurator is easy to use. Complex layouts can be designed in minutes. When pricing is integrated, it can be easily updated via your website and automatically synced to the bench configurator.
Finally, it reduces the need to create traditional print brochures, which can be expensive to maintain and quickly become out of date. In contrast, a 3D bench configurator is easily updated with new products so customers always see the latest range.
Seamless Integration With CMS & Ecommerce Platforms
3D bench configurators can be integrated with any website or ecommerce platform. This facilitates an efficient ordering process that is fully automated. The interface can be fully customised to align with your website and create a seamless sales process.
Built-in forms allow customers to make direct inquiries, with their bench layout and parts listed. This can be further integrated with CRM software, to generate detailed customer profiles for your sales team.
Creative Marketing & Social Media Campaigns
A 3D bench configurator can create endless marketing opportunities. This can range from promotional videos showcasing popular layouts to exciting social media campaigns featuring Augmented Reality products. It opens the door to highly creative marketing campaigns that enable companies to truly engage their audience.
With 64% of customers saying they prefer to buy from brands that offer customisable products, configuration can be easily demonstrated by videos and marketing collateral. A 3D bench builder will also export high resolution product images which can be regularly shared on social media and used in marketing campaigns.
According to Statista, more than 5 billion people worldwide (around 65% of the population) use social media and this may expand to 6 billion by 2030. A 3D bench builder opens the door to highly creative marketing campaigns and customer engagement that would not be possible with other technology.
Connecting Physical & Virtual Worlds
Augmented Reality has revolutionised the way customers interact with products. Adding AR to a modular bench configurator allows customers to easily visualise physical attributes and scale. It enables them to realistically see how a configuration fits on site and the materials that best match the environment.
Customers can rotate a bench layout, swap materials and move it’s position. The ability to move a large modular layout would not be feasible in real life, but can be achieved digitally with ease.
The Augmented Reality experience connects physical and virtual products, increasing project confidence and bringing the showroom to customers who may not be able to see a real product.
Future Proof Technology
A modular bench configurator can realistically showcase your products in 3D with high quality materials. Once your range has been onboarded, it is a futureproof solution that accurately represents your offering and can be customised to align with any business process.
Your products are displayed via high quality 3D models and this allows customers to zoom in and out to see detail, explore a configuration from any perspective and connect related components. Every layout that a customer builds will align with your product rules and this results in fully accuracy in the design and part list.
Once integrated with your website, your modular bench builder will become an important sales tool for staff that they can take on the road to a meeting, or easily share a link with customers.
Summing Up
3D product configurators and outdoor bench configurators will transform your existing sales and marketing process. They help customers order and purchase complex products, enabling them to build and visualise any layout.
A modular configurator is also a futureproof solution, that will save costs, speed up processes and give you competitive advantage.
To learn more about how to create a modular bench configurator contact our team or book a demo.
