Calling every furniture company looking to reduce waste and cut costs. There are three key advantages to deploying a visual configurator that you’ll want to know about. Firstly, it reduces return rates. Secondly, it prevents waste in the manufacturing process. Last but not least, it helps you cut carbon emissions.
For most consumers, the ability to configure and/or customize products before making a purchase – especially big-ticket items like furniture – has become the norm. A visual configurator helps them to picture the final product, increasing their confidence to buy, and reducing the odds of dissatisfaction when it arrives. When customers get the product they expect, they don’t need to return it, and you haven’t wasted time and resources manufacturing an unwanted item. Returns time-consuming are costly – especially for items like sofas – and they don’t do your carbon footprint any favors either.
Not only does a visual configurator help boost buyer confidence – and the likelihood of making a sale – it also means people are more likely to get the right product at the first time of ordering. All of this is great news for you as a furniture manufacturer, because it adds genuine value to your environmental efforts.
So what exactly is ‘visual configuration’, and how exactly could a visual configurator help you reduce waste and cut costs?
What does ‘visual configuration’ mean?
Visual configuration is the process of customizing and configuring products using visual tools or interfaces. It involves interactive software or apps that enable users to visually select and adjust the various attributes of a product, personalizing it according to their preferences.
Visual configuration allows users to see how different choices impact the final appearance and specifications of a product in real-time. By exploring previews and giving feedback, customers can make informed decisions, experimenting with different options until they achieve their desired configuration.
It’s commonly used in industries such as home decor and furniture, where product customization and/or configuration is essential for meeting a wide range of customer needs and preferences. If you produce and/or sell configurable furniture, why not explore the features of iONE360’s visual configurator? Explore now.
What is a visual configurator for furniture brands?
A visual configurator for furniture brands enables users to customize and visualize pieces of furniture before making a purchase. It allows your salespeople and/or customers to configure different aspects of a furniture product, such as fabric, material, size, and even accessories.
3D rendering technology provides your users with realistic representations of configured furniture in a virtual environment. They can interact with the furniture model, rotating it, zooming in, and examining it from different angles to get a comprehensive view of how the final product will look.
To uncover creative ideas for successfully deploying a visual configurator, take a look at our blog Winning With Your 3D Configurator.
Visual configuration software – such as iONE360 – provides a user interface that allows your customers to combine various options to create their desired product configuration. Here are some of the main features:
How can a visual configurator reduce waste?
1. Reduce return rates
As a furniture manufacturer, you can reduce return rates by using a visual configurator to allow your customers to customize and visualize their purchases in a realistic and interactive manner before making a final purchasing decision.
A visual configurator enables your customers to see how different furniture pieces will look in their own spaces (using AR or a Room Planner) adjust colors, materials, and dimensions to match their preferences, and ensure the chosen items fit their aesthetic and functional needs.
By providing a clearer understanding of the final product, visual configurators minimize the likelihood of dissatisfaction and subsequent returns of your products, because your customers are more likely to receive items that align with their expectations.
2. Avoid order errors
Implementing a visual configurator based on clear business rules can help you, as a configurable furniture manufacturer, to avoid receiving orders that cannot be made or orders where there is a miscommunication in order details between the customer and salesperson.
By embedding your manufacturing constraints and options directly into the configurator, you ensure that customers can only select combinations that are feasible to produce. This reduces the risk of receiving orders for products that cannot be made and minimizes errors in the configuration process.
Additionally, by providing a precise and interactive platform for customization, the configurator ensures that both the customer and the salesperson have a shared and accurate understanding of the order details, significantly reducing the chance of miscommunication and resulting in a smoother production process and enhanced customer satisfaction.
3. Cut carbon emissions
As a configurable furniture manufacturer, using a visual configurator can significantly help you reduce your carbon footprint. By allowing customers to visualize and customize their orders accurately, you can reduce return rates, which in turn lowers the emissions associated with shipping and handling returned items.
A visual configurator’s ability to enforce clear business rules ensures that orders are accurate and viable, minimizing waste and errors in production. On top of that, by facilitating the creation of personalized, high-quality furniture that meets customers’ exact specifications, you contribute to a shift away from fast furniture towards durable, long-lasting products, reducing the frequency of replacements and the associated environmental impact.
Of course, there are also many other benefits to implementing a visual configurator for your furniture products, including increased customer engagement and a more streamlined sales process. You can discover more about these benefits in our blog posts:
Visualizing success – a customer success story
The furniture brands Xooon and Henders & Hazel had a problem. In some stores, order mistakes were costing the equivalent of 5% in annual turnover. To put that into perspective, a store turning over €10 million a year could lose around €500,000 due to mistakes with orders. Something needed to be done.
So the furniture brands invested in a dedicated visual configurator built on a single platform from iONE360. The difference? Not only were more orders right first time, but customer engagement and loyalty increased, as did the conversion rates and average order value.
In fact, in some stores, order mistakes dropped from 5% to below 1% – essentially funding the visual configurator project many times over. Want to know more? Take a closer look at our customer success story: From Costly Mistakes To Seamless Sales.
A greener future for furniture production with iONE360
With over four decades of experience in the furniture industry, the team at iONE360 – powered by Colijn IT – understands the unique challenges that come with selling furniture, reducing waste, and cutting carbon emissions.
Recognized by Gartner as a leading provider of adaptable visual configuration solutions, iONE360 serves some of the globe’s premier furniture brands. Our solution simplifies the integration of a visual configurator across websites and physical premises to help reduce your environmental impact.
What’s more, the platform itself is specifically tailored to meet the demands of customizable furniture and home decor brands, providing a versatile solution for enhancing customer engagement and driving sales.