The interior design market hit $134.22 billion in 2023, driven by rising demand for sustainable, wellness-focused, and personalized interiors. That’s when the way we design spaces is changing significantly, and furniture configurators are leading this revolution.
These product configurators let customers directly interact with their design in real time, which helps boost their shopping experience and reduce the manual design process. Undoubtedly, we can make it easier than ever to create tailor-to-personalization spaces.
Right now, let’s discover how configurators merge technology and interior design!
What are Furniture Configurators?
Furniture configurators are digital software that simplifies the furniture design process. Customers can utilize them to build, customize, and visualize their dream designs through material, color, style, and dimension variants. One of the crucial goals for the adoption of these configurators is to bridge the gap between imagination and reality.
While 2D configurators offer flat and static furniture visuals, 3D product configurators ensure dynamic visualizations and lifelike renderings. That’s exactly what to expect during office building construction or similar complex projects where precision and detail are critical. This also makes 3D product configurations commonly preferred in interior design.
The Role of 3D Product Configuration in Furniture Design
This section will clarify how 3D furniture configurators are transforming the furniture industry by leveling up advanced technologies and interior design. Let’s check!
Increased realistic interior designs
Traditional design methods—they rely solely on imagination or static visuals—fail to capture the finer details of furniture, layouts, and materials, leaving room for uncertainty. That’s when 3D furniture configurators can create more immersive feelings. They allow for hyper-realistic 3D interior renderings and accurate variant customization.
Montana, a renowned company selling cabinets in North Europe, leverages VividWorks’ 3D Configurator to bring designs to life. Customers and salespeople can interact with their shelving in varied combinations, dimensions, and colours in real time. This realism not only increases customer confidence but also makes the design process more interactive.
Reduced design and sales processes
Gone are the days of going back and forth with customers to finalize furniture designs. Everything today can be well-performed within a 3D product configurator. Configuration, pricing, and quotes are automated based on real-time customizations and combinations. This helps both customers and salespeople clarify exactly what happens and displays on their designs, leading to fast design decisions, effort savings, and reduced sales processes.
Enhanced shopping experience and conversion rates
The nature of 3D product configuration software makes for an engaging shopping journey. True-to-life interior visualisations, which show how the furniture fits into their own space, make buyers feel more satisfied when experiencing products online, even for the first time.
Undoubtedly, satisfaction translates into higher trust in your brand and reduced hesitation. This encourages customers to be willing to pay to own high-quality, personalized furniture, leading to improved conversion rates on your site and business sales performance.
Minimized returns and errors
Last but not least, furniture configurators are doing well in reducing returns and errors. Customers and salespeople haven’t worked together through manual steps like before; instead, everything will be automated, logical, and accurate for each change and choice. Additionally, the feature empowers users to know what their chosen furniture will look like, eliminating misunderstandings or mismatched expectations in pre- and post-purchase.
7 Key Features to Look For in 3D Furniture Configurators
Carefully considering the features of 3D furniture configurators is key to achieving the best sales results and delivering a superior furniture-shopping experience. Below are the 7 outstanding points that can level up your product configurator today:
- 3D visualizations
One of the most critical features of any 3D product configurator is real-time 3D visualization. This means that customers can build and interact with designs 360 degrees while making instant changes to elements like dimensions, styles, and colours. It’s best to minimize the guesswork from online shopping, especially for complex items like furniture.
- Rule-based configuration
This feature ensures that customers can only create products within feasible design and manufacturing parameters. If a design is incompatible, the software will automatically guide customers to comply with specific rules for the best-finalized product. As a result, furniture businesses can minimize errors and back-and-forth communication with buyers.
- 3D planning room
Another standout feature of the advanced furniture configurator is the ability to plan the entire room in 3D. You can freely place your ready furniture into virtual layouts that mimic their actual spaces, ensuring the pieces fit perfectly in terms of size and functionality. Undoubtedly, this is ideal for leveling up buyers’ and interior designers’ experiences.
- AR & VR
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) can take customization to the next level. With AR, customers can project furniture into their living/ working space, while VR brings immersive experiences where customers can “walk through” a fully-designed room. All of these help enhance confidence in purchasing and foster a cutting-edge experience.
- Seamless integration (CRM, ERP, eCommerce)
A well-structured furniture configurator should work well with essential business systems, such as e-commerce platforms, CRM, and ERP. This is because you need to ensure smooth operations by synchronizing customer data, inventory levels, and pricing across platforms. As a result, you can save a lot of time and effort and achieve quick and efficient control.
- Visual CPQ
Visual Configure, Price, Quote (Visual CPQ) involves creating 3D product configurations with dynamic pricing and quoting functionalities. While customers can see accurate, real-time price updates for each combination, the sales team can benefit from automated processes. This feature is essential when offering highly customizable or modular furniture.
- Mobile compatibility
Optimizing the 3D furniture configurator for smartphones and tablets is important today. The demand for mobile shopping has been increasing, requiring businesses to be properly adaptable to enhance customers’ accessibility and convenience at all times. That’s why a user-friendly interface that is highly compatible with mobile devices is great.
Conclusion
Furniture configurators have been revolutionizing the interior design and furniture industries. They empower customers to customize and visualize their furniture while also simplifying and optimizing business design and sales processes. Ready to embrace the future of personalized furniture design and become the leader? Let’s get started today!