Do you have a mug at home with a dedication from a friend or a calendar with family photos? And can you imagine looking for a new car without configuring it on the manufacturer’s website, if only to check what are the options or what will be the price in the highest version? Exactly! In many industries, configurators are already standard, and they are just reaching others. And very good, because both sides can benefit from them – both the customers and the producers themselves.

Product customization is money

The relationship between personalization and money is best illustrated by these 3 simple equations:

MONEY = TIME
TIME = AUTOMATION
AUTOMATION = PERSONALIZATION

The most valuable currency today, both in life and in business, is time. We convert time into money and vice versa. Every opportunity to save time is a benefit for your company. One of the ways to introduce time savings is to automate processes in the enterprise. Automation in e-commerce is a set of various practices, from production itself, through shipping or handling. One of the possibilities is also the personalization of the product offer and sales, and thus we come to product configurators that provide both.

Think – too many options to choose from in the online store mean chaos in the customer’s mind and the time that he has to spend on browsing the entire product category, reading all descriptions. Nobody likes wasting time, and for many people, shopping is stressful in itself. This may result in lower conversions.

What if you could replace the difficult choice of many options with the configuration of a product tailored to your needs? Maybe it is worth having a tool in your business that will match the order items for the customer, will not make a mistake in calculations and will also tell you what is the inventory of the products?

This is a win-win situation and no one has to compromise.

What is the product configurator?

The configurator is an e-commerce tool that helps to sell non-standard products, i.e. those that the manufacturer prepares to order for a specific customer. It can be a personalized product, such as engraved jewelry or a printed cap, or a product consisting of many elements, such as a piece of furniture.

There are many benefits offered by configurators, but from the entrepreneur’s point of view, two are particularly important – saving and earning, and here we come back to the 3 equations above.

How do product configurators automate sales?

Sales automation through personalization is based on 3 pillars. If you only take care of one, the effects will not be big, but if you approach the matter as a whole – you will quickly feel an increase in work efficiency and a higher conversion.

A. pillar – Automation of communication
It takes place both at the stage preceding the purchase of the product and during the ordering process. Its task is to speed up the exchange of information and lead the customer to a purchase, and not tire him or you as a seller along the way. What does automation of communication give?

– 24h availability – The customer has access to the configurator as well as to the entire online store without interruption – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
– Help with ordering specialized goods, e.g. construction goods – the configurator automatically indicates the necessary components, asks about their dimensions, and also suggests what else is necessary to place a given order. In the case of technical or construction industries, the configurator replaces a qualified advisor and assists the customer during purchases.
– Less human errors – this benefit is especially visible in B2B businesses, e.g. in the construction or furniture industry, where the product consists of many elements and orders are placed by contractors on a regular basis. Until now, in these businesses there was no question of sales automation, and orders were accepted by traders. And as it happens very often, the so-called the human factor was doing its job – there were many very costly mistakes. The implementation of configurators in such companies saves a lot of money, thanks to the fact that the configurator “asks” customers for all the information needed to complete the order. This eliminates understatement, wrong measurements or mistakes. The human factor is also present in B2C online stores – there, thanks to the configuration, we avoid the stage of a long e-mail exchange between the customer and the service, and between the Service Department and, for example, a graphic designer. The configurator allows you to “click” the order yourself.
– Excluding mismatched elements – it is not easy to order an item that consists of many components. Remember to add them all to your basket and make sure they match. The configurator does this for the customer and does not allow you to order incompatible items. No more disappointment and no replacement costs.
– Visualization of the final product in real time – the configurator shows on an ongoing basis how the product changes as a result of adding new parameters. The customer knows exactly what they are ordering and what the goods will ultimately look like.

B. pillar – Automation of the offer and orders
Automating the offer and order allows you to exit the “we always did it manually and it worked” mode. In the past, people only traveled on foot and somehow lived. And although we know the advantages of walking, cars make our lives much easier in everyday life. There are many examples of this type, and the conclusion is one – it is worth using technology that improves life and work. How do configurators accelerate the work of enterprises?

– Wholesale offer updates (photos, descriptions, parameters, price lists) – anyone who has ever had to manually update an offer with thousands of products knows what it entails. It’s a waste of time for the work that the algorithm can do.
– Taking care of availability – in large production companies it is impossible to track the inventory of all products without technology. The real-time configurators “communicate” with the warehouse and update the availability of components and goods. As a result, both the seller and the customer can be sure that the offer only shows available products, and the unavailable ones disappear from the page.
– Product price calculation – configurators calculate the individual product price on an ongoing basis based on component prices or more complex algorithms (e.g. counting volume, length, weight). In the case of B2B, it is also possible to calculate based on individual price lists per customer.

C. pillar – Automation of production and delivery
For the seller, this pillar is as important as the two previous ones, while for the customer it is the most visible part. Therefore, make sure that the customer’s contact with your store is pleasant, convenient and responsive to the needs. On the configurator side, automation means completing the elements needed to complete the order placed by the customer, and these are:

– Components of the configuration and their location in the warehouse – especially important for large production companies, e.g. furniture or construction.
– Generating previews / vectors and files, e.g. PDF for use in production – incredibly useful, but not so obvious functionality. Configurators allow you to generate and then send to the production department a file with the specification of the goods immediately after placing the order. This greatly speeds up the implementation of the entire process.
– Courier service and optimization of delivery costs – configurators also allow you to optimize transport costs, both for customers and for sellers. This is especially true for stores selling large or undersized products that are difficult to transport and therefore expensive.

In which industries is it worth personalizing products?

There are more and more businesses that have decided to introduce product configurators to their e-commerce. They are usually invested by retail stores (B2C) that hear and respond to their customers’ needs. Also, more and more B2B businesses are starting to notice both the demand for product personalization and the availability of technology.

Product configurators support especially those industries that produce goods to order, in accordance with his requirements, tastes or needs, e.g .:
– car,
– home & decor (e.g. blinds and shutters),
– food (e.g. chocolate, muesli),
– digital printing, gadgets,
– fashion (e.g. clothing, jewelry, watches, fashion accessories – handbags, phone cases),
– construction (e.g. gates and garage shelters, modular houses, windows and doors),
– furniture – furniture and interior design elements,
– photovoltaic.

Examples of earning / saving thanks to personalization in e-commerce

Fashion – shoes

Client
Creates a unique shoe pattern that it can identify with. The process of creating itself provides positive emotions – the client becomes a designer. He can see how the shoes change with the addition of new parameters. WOW effect guaranteed.

Producer
Thanks to the implementation of the configurator in its e-commerce, the manufacturer can communicate to customers the uniqueness of its offer (after all, not every shoe brand can boast the option of ordering shoes according to the customer’s design), and thus it is possible to increase prices. Customers are ready to pay more for brand emotions and a unique product.

Fashion – watch

Client
He expresses his individualism and designs a unique watch himself. Customers love personalized fashion accessories. This is one way to express your style and personality, and a higher price is often not an obstacle to buying.

Producer
There is no need to hire a graphic designer to visualize the client’s idea. Thanks to the configurator, the customer independently visualizes his project and then places an order. No unnecessary e-mail exchange, fast and in line with production possibilities.

Gifts – Chocolate Telegram

Client
The configurator manages the availability and stock of letters. The customer can see which letters he can use to create a chocolate message, so that there is no situation in which the customer places an order for an element that is not there. In addition, the configurator visualizes on an ongoing basis what the chocolate telegram looks like after each change.

Producer
Receives from the configurator a summary of all elements of the placed order at the current prices. The configurator also gives you the opportunity to “increase” sales, thanks to additional options, such as:
– offers customers personalization of the packaging by adding their own photo,
– suggests the content of telegrams for selected occasions, which can be ordered immediately or loaded and even modified – for many buyers such predefined content is a great facilitation and acceleration of placing an order.

Printing, prints, advertising gadgets

Client
He evaluates the final product on the visualization in real time and makes an informed purchase. Using the configurator eliminates the unnecessary disappointment of the customer after opening the package (“I did not know it would look like this …”)

Configurator
Automatically generates PDF files and sends them to be printed on the machine. Every minute you save on production is your profit.

Would you like to earn more with personalization?

The answer is obvious – everyone wants to earn more, and everyone who sells wants to develop it. Therefore, at the end, I propose a small test that will allow you to assess whether the product configurators will work for your company:
A. Have your customers ever asked about modifying your products? Maybe they wanted to change their dimensions a bit or add some element?
B. Or maybe you have always made products to order, but you accept them by phone or e-mail and thus waste a lot of time agreeing on details? Are there mistakes and customer dissatisfaction?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, it is a clear signal that either your customers expect personalized products or your business requires automation through configurators.

Live Shopping – how does it work?

Online shopping has been gaining more and more popularity over the years, and the pandemic situation has only accelerated the process of switching customers from brick-and-mortar stores to the web. It is an option that we value for its convenience and time saving, but it cannot be denied that it does not provide shopping emotions similar to those that accompany us when we visit a shopping mall. We are talking here not only about the inability to try on, but also the lack of professional advice, the possibility of obtaining additional information and the feeling that shopping is not a mechanical activity, but a kind of experience.

Therefore, in order to meet the expectations of customers, clothing companies more and more often offer a slightly different, but for many people equally exciting experience of communing with the brand, namely Live Shopping. It is a type of online event that interested people can join via social media platforms to take an active part in presenting the collection. How does it look in practice? The brand organizes an event to which stylists or even influencers are often invited to present products live, discuss trends and provide fashion advice. Models who try on clothes from the collection, combining them according to expert advice, also participate in such meetings. Thanks to this, customers also get an element of inspiration, which in stores appears in the form of stylizations shown on mannequins. During such a presentation, there are often discounts that can only be used during the broadcast.

Live Shopping – the power of interaction

The very idea of presenting products through the media is not new. Already in the 70s of the last century, the first television channels specializing in the sale of live goods appeared in the United States. Recognizable program hosts participated in showing off product features, and as the show grew in popularity, stars recognized from other formats also joined them. The role of recipients, however, was limited only to the possibility of ordering goods over the phone. However, the idea of Live Shopping gives customers much more. Each user has a real influence on the shape of the program: they can ask questions, comment on an ongoing basis and ask for expert advice. Thanks to this, the whole process resembles standard shopping in a gallery, where you can count on the help of a salesman or saleswoman at any time.

An interesting aspect is the ability to interact also with other people who join the online event. Each user can read the opinions of people who have already bought a given item, which in turn gives the so-called social proof, i.e. social proof of rightness. Potential customers don’t have to rely solely on information from people the brand pays for the ad, but have access to user reviews like themselves. An additional attraction for buyers is the presence of influencers who present products, share their experiences and answer users’ questions. Thanks to this, two important mechanisms work: the shopping process turns into a show, and the user has the feeling that the distance between him and the star admired on TV or the Internet is shortening. And who of us would not like to go shopping with his idol as with an old friend?

Live Shopping and benefits for e-commerce

LiveShopping is a solution that is beneficial not only for customers, but also – and perhaps most importantly – for e-commerce sellers. The restrictions related to COVID-19 only accelerated the process that was visible much earlier – customers more and more often prefer comfortable online shopping to visiting stationary stores. For brands looking to adapt to the demands of today’s audience, it was clear long before the pandemic that they needed to find a way to engage their customers and provide them with an amazing online shopping experience, it was only unclear how.

However, social media came to the rescue. This is where the social life of people of the 21st century is more and more often focused and there we most often look for entertainment, advice and inspiration. It is also a natural way of interacting with people – not only friends, but also strangers with whom we share similar interests or life situations. For brands – especially clothing brands – it became clear that this is a response to the needs of a changing market. From the point of view of entrepreneurs, this form of shopping has several basic advantages.

Gives you immediate feedback on products
Live community shopping participants share comments, which allows the brand to gain feedback on its products and learn from them when planning next collections.

It allows you to reach your customers wherever they are
A city center, a cabin in the mountains or a villa on another continent – no matter where your potential customers are, you can engage them and help them make their purchasing decisions. The distance to the nearest shopping mall with a customer advisor is no longer important.

It allows you to use the potential of influencers
Events with recognizable faces always arouse emotions and interest among users. Their involvement increases the attractiveness of products in the eyes of buyers and may contribute to increasing sales.

It gives the possibility of establishing interpersonal contacts
Properly conducted LiveShopping gives the user the impression that they are shopping with friends, even if they do not know the people participating in the event. The feeling of communing with people is an additional bonus, especially in the age of pandemic restrictions.

Introduces the show element
Trying live, creating styles, discussing trends and interacting make online shopping more attractive and provide more excitement, which translates into a greater willingness to buy.

It allows you to better present the product
Photos are not able to show all the details of the product, and even the best text will not replace a live story. Therefore, streams give stores much more opportunities to present the advantages of the product.

It helps to attract new customers
Attractive content with a lot of useful information about the products is an element that attracts new audiences who have not had anything to do with the brand before.

Where does Live Shopping take place?

LiveShopping can be done using various mobile applications – both those dedicated to live purchases and the more versatile ones that we use every day. Currently, the most famous among Internet users are online shopping via Facebook and Instagram. The social giant offers the possibility of creating this type of event to every user with an account on the website, even if it is not a company fanpage. However, creating LiveShopping as a store gives you additional sales support options – you can add links to the goods in question or even distinguish products from the store run by this social platform.

There are even special groups on Facebook, such as Live Broadcasts or Sales Broadcasts, where live broadcasts of various brands are held. What does this mean for sellers? You can benefit from LiveShopping even if we don’t have our own community built around the brand yet.

In addition to Facebook and Instagram, there are also other applications that allow you to sell online. These include, among others:
– ShopShops – one of the first platforms of this type, operating since 2015. Initially, it was popular mainly in China, but now it is also very popular in other parts of the world, including the USA.
– Buywith – an application mainly for influencers who want to promote themselves in this way among Millennials and Generation Z.
– Popshoplive – also an app mainly for teenagers. It acts as an intermediary in payments and shipping, so it works well for teenagers who want to prove themselves in the sales field and appear online. IPhone only application.
– Yeay – the application is also aimed mainly at the clientele in the form of teenagers, but also available on the Play Store.
– WEBLIVEview – a platform created for larger brands that want to increase online sales. Intended primarily for the sale of high-end goods. Rather not for teenagers, but for a more mature clientele.
– Livescale – an application primarily for brands, not beginner influencers. More subdued in overtone, so it can be used to attract customers from higher age groups.

There are naturally many more applications for creating this type of content, and new ones appear on the market all the time.

Who is Live Shopping for?

This shopping model is used today by everyone – from large, recognizable brands, through small boutiques, influencers, to teenagers who want to get rid of unnecessary clothes from their wardrobe. You don’t need professional equipment, lighting or a recording studio to start selling this way. All you need is a smartphone with an application for LiveShopping, a charismatic conductor and basic knowledge of social media and you can join the starting race for the attention of live buyers. Will this trend really revolutionize e-commerce? One thing is certain – LiveShopping becomes louder and louder and is a method of brand promotion that is definitely worth getting to know better these days.