Interactive 3D for ecommerce
White Paper Addressing the Key Challenges and Improving Your ecommerce Portal
Executive Summary
This white paper outlines four major challenges in improving your ecommerce portal:
1. Increasing online sales 2. Creating a customer buying experience 3. Demand for product configurability 4. Enabling better mobile experience
The white paper then covers how web 3D visualisation technology can help you resolve the challenges you face. The paper will also explain how easy it is to move from pictures to a full 3D viewing and interactive experience on your ecommerce portal.
ThreeKit for ecommerce Addressing the Key Challenges and Improving Your ecommerce Portal
Challenge #1: Increasing online sales
Best practices in ecommerce tell us that emulating the in-store experience increases buyer confidence and generates higher online basket conversion rates. Traditional showrooms give customers the opportunity to pick up and examine a product. Recreating this ‘hands - on’ experience online supports informed decision-making that leads to the highest likelihood of buyer satisfaction.
Providing a better online shopping experience also has an immediate impact on product returns — a major grievance for many ecommerce merchants. Nearly one-third1 of all online sales are returned, causing frustration for both business owners and customers alike.
Online products that can be explored from multiple angles have a nearly 30% higher conversion rate than with still images2.
Turning browsing into buying
Personal interactions with products instill buyer confidence and reduce the uncertainty of online shopping, increasing customer satisfaction by as much as 50%3.
Improved customer satisfaction also has a positive impact on support teams and call centers as better online purchasing experiences result in a 24% reduction in the number of calls made prior to purchase.
1 Kurt Salmon, 2012 2 Internet Retailer, 2011 3 Snap36, 2014 Page 1
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Challenge #2: Creating a customer buying experience
Customers feel more engaged by interacting with products they want to purchase. Interactive virtual products invite customers to feel the item, explore intricate details, and discover key features — the activities that were once restricted to in-store interactions. The buying experience becomes even more realistic when the 3D models are rendered using advanced visual techniques, similar to the visual effects used in movies.
3D visualisation allows the consumer to take control of the product. It’s the closest thing to handling the product in-store.
Turn the purchasing process into an experience
We’re all naturally curious creatures, but traditional flat product images give little reason to interact and discover more. Imagine being able to spin a product and zoom in on intricate details, the very same way we naturally do in-store. Virtual products put power in the hands of customers, stimulating engagement and positive response.
3D products become a sophisticated selling tool, arming customers with the right information to make an informed purchase. Offering a unique, compelling experience is essential for brand survival in today’s market. It helps to mesh the brand’s story with the ecommerce experience.
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Challenge #3: Demand for product configurability
Customers demand the ability to customize the products they want to buy as a form of creative expression4. New technologies give manufacturers the ability to display a deep assortment of product configurations using individual customer preferences. Product customization allows for a better connection with the customer — instead of saying “here is what we have for you”, ecommerce sites with product configurators can ask: “what would you like?”.
More than 36% of all consumers surveyed have interest in buying a personalized product5.
Listen to customers and earn higher price points
Consumers value personalization and flock to companies that embrace the technology that simplifies customization. Product configuration offers retailers a number of advantages: increased spending, conversion rate, and revisits to the site. Product configurability increases the average selling price of the product by up to 30%6 by offering premium options. The conversion rate of customized or configured products is doubled compared to non-customized products.
4 Loewy, 2013 5 Deloitte - Consumer business mass personalisation 6 Bain & Company, 2013 Page 3
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Challenge #4: Enabling a better mobile experience
Mobile shopping is becoming a significant portion of the ecommerce business. Three-quarters of today’s digitally-enabled consumers rely on online resources to begin the buying process7. Over the coming years, more and more customers will rely on mobile devices to shop, explore, and make online purchases.
Savvy ecommerce merchants continually look for ways to ensure their online platform offers the best possible mobile shopping experience. Web site developers must find a difficult balance between data transfer limitation and displaying high resolution images on the mobile device.
42% of respondents say that a ‘360-degree spin of a product’ is the visual feature that would most likely increase their likelihood to purchase a product via a mobile device8.
Most mobile devices have constraints on the size of the screen. In a recent UPS survey, 38% of people stated that the inability to have a clear picture of a product was the a main reason for not making purchases on a mobile device9. Over half of people surveyed also had issues with not having access to a keyboard or mouse.
7 Deloitte Digital, 2015 8 Adobe Mobile Consumer Survey, 2013 9 UPS, 2015 Page 4
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Solution: Using 3D models for the ultimate shopping experience
3D technology is a staple in the creation of complex video games and the amazing visual effects we see in theatres. Thanks to the emergence of Virtual Reality and new immersive experiences, 3D is finding a new home in the marketplace.
Beyond gaming, movies, and VR, 3D technology is now used for web and app-based ecommerce via desktop and mobile. 3D viewing capabilities recreate the in-store experience by enabling consumers to explore and feel products online. Virtual interactive products grab the attention of your customers and lets them engage with your products to increase sales both online and in-store.
IKEA's content for the web is highly computer generated. With a bank of about 25,000 3D models, IKEA can show products separately or build a 3D room10.
The concept is simple: Information, particularly visual information, is the most powerful tool to empower your customers. Visually-compelling products enlighten, engage, and inform customers, while supporting confident decision-making. Customers leave the shopping experience making better- informed decisions that lead to the highest likelihood of satisfaction and the lowest likelihood of product returns.
10 CGSociety — Building 3D with Ikea, 2014 Page 5
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How to integrate 3D models into your ecommerce portal Today’s technology makes it incredibly easy to enable a website with 3D models and viewing capabilities. To begin, you gather your pre-existing CAD models created in any popular tool such as SolidWorks, AutoCAD, Catia, or Onshape. It is recommended to export the model, material information or animations using standard file formats such as STEP or IGES.
The next step is to prepare your CAD model for online ecommerce. There are many tools out there to help accomplish this, such as Clara.io — a full-featured online 3D editor integrated with ThreeKit. You can set up your products in your own software and import into Clara.io or simply use Clara.io to make it look as photo realistic as possible. This includes optimizing the 3D model for interactive manipulation; and fine-tuning the visual look of the product, including materials and visual effects. Once the 3D model has been prepared, it can be integrated into a product configurator or product database for your website, using the 3D viewing technology built into ThreeKit.
Once you are set up with one product, the process can be repeated for your entire product portfolio to be sold online. This is an efficient way to create your product visualization as it does not require any special photo studios or dedicated space for 360-degree photography. After a product is set up, new product colors or configurations can be added without needing to redo everything from scratch.
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About Clara.io
Clara.io is a web-based application that allows users to create, animate and render 3D content on any compatible device. Since it is based in your browser there is no need to download any software on your device, Clara.io automatically saves all scenes changes to the server.
Users have access to many powerful features including creating and animating objects through the web.
Clara.io is developed by Exocortex, a company founded by visual effects veterans. The same technology found in Clara.io powers many of the special effects seen in movies including: Jurassic World, Titanic, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, and Iron Man 3.
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www.threekit.com ThreeKit for ecommerce Addressing the Key Challenges and Improving Your ecommerce Portal
About ThreeKit
ThreeKit is an online tool that delivers beautiful, interactive, and fast 3D models right in your ecommerce website with no plugins. Seamlessly blend a rich, server-side API and a full-featured online editor into your online store and deliver virtual products that engage customers and personalize the shopping experience.
We are your partners in increasing your ecommerce sales and profits. We can provide you with a full service and complete solution, or we can give you the tools and training to do it yourself, or any solution in- between. Some of the service solutions we provide include:
Custom ecommerce Integration 3D Modeling, Material and Scene Setup Configurator Setups and Templates Establishing Best Practices for your Product Configurator Product
Our platform is trusted by more than a dozen partners, including Steelcase, Microsoft, Pinshape, Onshape, KBMax and Three.JS.
You’re in good company!
Contact info:
ThreeKit — Interactive 3D for ecommerce
[email protected] www.threekit.com
(613) 762-4113
Ottawa, ON Canada
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