How to Beat Your Online Competition With 3D Technologies

Online retail is a highly competitive market. To effectively compete, online retailers need to start utilizing substantial advantages, like 3D technologies. These are solutions that bridge the gap between online and offline shopping. 3D technologies for online retail include 3D configurators and interactive 3D visualization of items.

3D Configurators: Customizable Lovesac Furniture

A 3D configurator is a relatively new trend in e-commerce. The technology allows a consumer to choose the item's attributes such as the material, color, and additional accessories. Once the product is customized, the buyer can examine it from all angles in 3D. Since 3D configurators are suitable for demonstrating complex objects, they're most often found in online catalogs of furniture manufacturers.

By embedding a 3D configurator into an online store, brands make the shopping experience more interactive and engaging. A joint project by Lovesac and Threekit confirmed the effectiveness of the technology in online retail. Threekit was the company that provided the solutions for creating 3D configurators. Lovesac is a furniture brand offering highly customizable couches called "Sactionals," which customers can build to their specifications. Thanks to the integration of this feature into Lovesac's online store, the conversion on the brand's website increased by 15 percent.

However, the technology has multiple drawbacks. To create a 3D configurator, you need to use 3D modeling and digitize each product manually. 3D modeling is a time-consuming process, and it takes a lot of time to digitize one item in 3D. This significantly slows down the speed of creating interactive content and is unsuitable for the mass production of 3D content. In addition, creating a high-quality 3D model of one product will cost you at least $500. Accordingly, 3D configurators won’t fit the needs of businesses with a wide range of items and a tight budget.

Interactive 3D Visualization of Items: Saint Laurent and Samsonite's Experience

Interactive 3D visualization provides the online user with an experience that's similar to visiting a real-life shop. By interacting with 3D visualization, consumers can examine the item from all-around and in every tiny detail. Adding 3D visualization to an e-commerce site is an effective way for online retailers to get ahead of the competition. Let's see how 3D visualization makes it possible.

Firstly, interactive 3D content increases a consumer's time on a product page, encouraging them to add items to their cart. Most experts agree that purchase probability is at its highest when a person spends around 50 seconds on a product page. However, according to Google, the average time spent on a product page for online stores varies from 36 seconds to 48 seconds. The additional 15 seconds to 30 seconds that consumers spend interacting with 3D content on the product page helps to bridge this gap. As a result, the average time on the product page reaches the desired 50 seconds to 60 seconds, leading to the highest possible purchase probability.

This hypothesis has been proven in a study conducted by Cappasity in 2020. The average time the participants stayed on the product page that had only photos was 35 seconds. However, participants who browsed the page with the additional 3D view of the product stayed on the page 23 seconds longer. By embedding interactive 3D content into a website, online retailers can increase the time a consumer spends on the product page and boost conversion. For example, Saint Laurent uses interactive Cappasity's 3D visualization solution to showcase products.

Additionally, interactive 3D demonstration of items creates a new customer experience. Improving user experience is one of the most critical tasks for an online store. Fifty-nine percent of customers consider visual information to be the deciding factor in making a purchase. In terms of importance for the buyer, it ranks higher than both product description and price. Yet, 2D photos, no matter how good, offer no interactivity and little engagement. They don't allow the consumer to examine the items like they would offline.

Unlike photos, interactive content in the Cappasity 3D View format is fully interactive, allowing shoppers to get a good look at an item from any angle and zoom in to see the details. This enables them to examine a product as they would in person, truly seeing the quality and details so that they can purchase with confidence. The key metrics obtained after performing the Cappasity customer development prove the point: the client experience becomes 33 percent more efficient, product perception improves by 23 percent, and customers become 29 percent more deliberate about making a purchase.

Samsonite, the worldwide leader in superior travel bags, luggage and accessories, uses Cappasity 3D Views to improve the user experience on its online store. Interactive 3D content helps the brand to share comprehensive information about the items with its customers. Eighty-two percent of visitors who select a product 3D View actively interact with it.

The speed and cost of creating interactive 3D visualizations depend on the applied technology. Some solutions require manual 3D modeling like 3D configurators. However, if the 3D content is made from video files, you can digitize an abundance of items and fit into a modest budget. High-quality 3D modeling of 1,000 items will cost you approximately $200,000 to $500,000. In the case of Cappasity 3D View production, you will need a budget of $6,000 to $10,000, depending on the complexity of the video shooting process.

To sum up, 3D technologies have the power to blur the line between online and offline shopping. By integrating 3D content into a website or mobile app, brands will improve online user experience, see a boost in shoppers’ engagement and, as a result, increase online sales. 3D technology is a perfect tool for companies to stand out and beat the online competition.

Kosta Popov is the CEO and founder of Cappasity, the company providing an easy and scalable platform for creation, embedding and analysis of 3D and AR/VR content.