Maybe you have heard the term “product configurator” or “product customizer” before, but what is a it actually? Because product customizers are often confused with composite products or bundled products. Although they come close to product configurators, there are some clear differences between composite products and product customizers. By the end of this post you will know everything there is to know about product customizers! What is a product customizer? There has been a shift in shopping behaviour lately. More and more customers are looking for customized products that can be adapted to their specific needs. That raises the need for product configurators and customizers. These tools have a very distinct and clear function. The product configurator enables you to put a product together based on available steps and options. Customers can create their desired product by changing the color, material, shape, measurements, characteristics and even functions! The beautiful thing about the Staggs product configurator is that you can view the product from all sides and that the product can be beautifully set in scene. Add stunning background images to enhance the user experience. To define a product customizer: it is a piece of software used by manufacturers to allow their customers to put products together to their needs. Product configuration is a process where the users chooses their preferred features of a product, which are being validated by the configurator. The product configurator makes it easy for the customer to put their desired product together and simultaneously hides the complexity behind the configurator with all the logic and rules that drive the configurator. When is a product “configurable”? In order to successfully utilize a product configurator, you should have configurable products. But what do we mean by configurable? A product is configurable if it is capable of being customized. To configure simply means to design or adapt to form a specific combination of features for a specific purpose. Simply put: if you have a product with multiple colors and sizes, you have a configurable product. This product can be put together by the customer by selecting a color and a size. Are there other names for a product customizer? The term “product configurator” or “product customizer” is not familiar to everyone, but is gradually coming into use. The term often becomes understandable if one mentions the example of a car configurator. Most of the big car companies offer you to customize a new car to your needs using their car configurator. A popular example is the car configurator from Tesla. That also depends on the industry you are in. In the car industry it has long been known to design the car according to one’s own wishes. But this is not the case for all industries. Some industries even have a different name for this tool, like a variation configurator, online store configurator, ERP configurator or offer configurator. But within the WordPress industry, these tools are mostly referred to as product configurators or product customizers. Otherwise you might have to use a third-party tool or software where you can manage your products that will be synced to your webshop.
What are the possible applications? A product configurator is interesting for all companies that sell configurable products. These can be divided into two areas: consumer and capital goods. Consumer goods This is the most common type of product used for product configurators, because there are (almost) no limits. Almost every type of consumer product can be put into a product configurator and make it somewhat customizable. When you walk through your living area and take a closer look at the items, you will quickly notice that all products can be customized. Be it kitchen appliances, doors, windows, chairs, sofa’s, plants, and so much more! Capital goods There are also numerous possible applications for capital goods, like customizable machines, factory appliances or transport systems can benefit from the use of a product configurator. The advantages of a product customizer There are a lot of advantages actually. That is also why it is so popular in the car industry for example. We will cover the four main advantages that a product configurator has to offer. 1) Performance enhancement First and foremost, it reduces the return rate drastically because your customers have a better understanding of what they are ordering! Second, the use of product configurators has been proved to increase sales and conversion rates by up to 20%! Overall you will have more sales and less returns. Do we need to say more? 2) Simplification Some products have countless options. Often you cannot display all options because that would result in a complete mess. But with a product configurator you can clearly display all available options. Maybe not at once, but take the user on a journey. One step at a time. That way the user will not get overwhelmed by all the available options. The Staggs Product Configurator comes with support for conditional display. If configured correctly, the product configurator only show the steps that the customer needs to see, based on the given options that the customer has already selected. 3) Efficiency Most customers believe that what the product configurator offers is also available. So if the configurator does not offer an option, it will likely not be available. That reduces a lot of dumb customer inquires, like “does this fit together?” or “is this element compatible?”. Those questions will be answered through the product configurator. Also, time in the sales process is optimized as the customer deals with the product in advance. You don’t have to explain all the available options. 4) Customer satisfaction Due to the time spent with the product in advance, customers will create a strong emotional bond with the product. That will increase customer satisfaction, especially when the product configurator is carefully put together. This increased satisfaction will help to drive sales and boost conversion rates! The Staggs Product Configurator allows you to transform your WooCommerce single product page into a fully functional product configurator! Try it free today Why would I need a product customizer? Because mass customization is on the rise and likely here to stay. There is an ongoing shift from cheap products in mass production to more expensive products for mass customization. Customers are willing to pay a little extra for a customized product The advancing digitalization and automation of manufacturing processes, new technologies and the trend away from cheap mass products towards customized products support the spread of mass customization. A term that is on everyone’s lips in connection with configurators and is gaining more and more importance. This is also referred to as visual commerce.
How is a product customizer created? Creating a product customizer is mostly an on-going process where you will gather insights from the configurator and use that knowledge to further improve and optimize the product customizer to your target audience’s needs. When creating your first product configurator, you have to define your target audience. Next, you have to identify what parts of your products should be customized. Everything clear? Good! Now you can start creating images that represent parts of your products. Next, you have to create meaningful options and implement the options in the product configurator. With all options in place, your first product customizer can be launched! Now you have to keep tracking orders and see what gets ordered the most. When you can identify that, you can also choose to select these options by default, making the customization process even faster! If you need more help setting up your product configurator you should also read our post covering 5 tips that help create a product configurator. What types of product customizers are available? Depending on the nature of the product, a distinction can be made between three main types: cosmetic, functional and parametric product configuration. It is a fundamental difference whether the product consists of static components that are individually arranged by the customer or whether the product itself can be parameterized and the dimensions of the product can be freely selected. Cosmetic configuration The finished product already exists and is customized, for example, with an imprint or embroidery. Functional configuration The product consists of static components that can be arranged individually by customers. A typical application would be the product configuration of a bicycle. The customer can choose wheels, saddle, gears, … himself. That is the exact use case for the Staggs Product Configurator! Try a demo or start using today. Parametric configuration This is the case of customized products where the dimensions are completely free to choose, such as the walls of a wooden house. Staggs Product Configurator does support custom dimensions that are controllable by the customer when using the Pro version! What does a product customizer look like? Product customizers usually quite look the same. They all contain a (3D) representation of the product. And a list of configurable options.
Important: keep it simple Creating a product customizer can be very easy when you have a few options for each product that can be customized. But if you have loads of options that are somewhat related to each other, it can become a serious challenge. You have to clearly identify all the possible options and try to make it as user friendly as possible. Because in the product configurator industry there is also a thing called “paradox of choice” That simply means that a user becomes overwhelmed by the amount of options that are available, that he does not make a decision at all! And that blocks the amount of sales you are getting, which is something you really want to prevent when launching a product customizer. But no worries! The Staggs Product Configurator comes with some neat functions like conditional display that will hide all the options that are not relevant to the customer at this moment. That results the product customizer more clear. To make it even cleaner we have also hidden away the extensive product explanations. There will just be an ‘info’ icon that will open up a new panel where all the details can be explained. This keeps the main customizer screen nice and clean. Not a composite or bundled product With a product customizer you will customize the actual product options and features, a photo camera for example. When using composite or bundled products, you will edit the products in the bundle. Not the features of the individual products. You can choose a different type of camera, but you cannot change the color or lens for example. That is the main difference between composite products and product customizers. Use the product customizer as your salesman Companies that offer configurators are a dime a dozen. What really counts is their performance. A nice product presentation is not enough, what matters is whether the product configurator sells and makes your sales go through the roof. Are you ready for your product customizer project? Download Staggs Product Configurator today!