Tailoring your products to consumers via personalization can increase engagement and improve retention. A 2024 Deloitte study found that around 75% of consumers prefer brands that offer personalization, and they spend nearly 40% more with those brands.
You encourage that additional spend by offering customers a chance to participate in the design process. Providing customization options and a high-quality product configurator invites consumers to tell you what they need, so you can deliver on individual expectations and gather valuable consumer intelligence. Here’s what product configurators are, how they benefit businesses, and five features to look for in your own.
What is a product configurator?
A product configurator is a software tool that customers can use to modify products during the online ordering process. The tool displays customization options, calculates final product costs, and generates visual representations of finished products,allowing customers to experiment with designs and purchase personalized products.
Key features of a product configurator
Not all product configurators are the same—and the best option for your business depends on your product type, budget, and business needs. Here are features to look for as you evaluate options:
User-friendly interface
An intuitive product configurator can help customers build trust in your company and encourage them to explore your product catalog. A clunky tool can damage your brand reputation. Even the most motivated customers can be turned away by a confusing configuration process.
Look for a tool that outlines customization options, makes it easy to apply or change selections, and helps customers produce high-quality final designs. For particularly complex products, consider tools that walk customers through the product customization process in steps and filter available options based on their compatibility with a customer’s previous selections.
Price calculation features
Product configuration tools calculate the total product price based on a customer’s choices. Choose between dynamic and static options: Dynamic tools update item cost in real time, and static ones provide a quote as the final step of the customization process.
Consider dynamic pricing if you want customers to see how their choices affect the final product price. For example, a custom armchair might jump from $800 to $1,400 when a customer selects leather upholstery but drop to $1,100 when they pass on the included ottoman.
On the other hand, static pricing conceals the relationship between individual selections and total price, and retailers often use it for more complex pricing structures. Withholding a quote until the end of the process can help businesses avoid confusing consumers with counterintuitive price fluctuations.
Product visualization tools
A good online product configurator helps customers envision what they’re purchasing. Your needs will depend on what you sell: A service-based business might use icons to represent selected add-ons, while a high-end jeweler might invest in 3D product models and augmented reality views.
If appearance is a major selling point for your product, look for a tool that supports dynamic visualization. Instead of generating one final preview image, these tools update a base product model in real time, encouraging customers to experiment with styles and allowing them to integrate visual feedback into the design process.
Integrations
Select product configurator software that integrates with your online store and checkout system. For example, apps like Custom Product Builder and Kickflip allow Shopify stores to provide simple customization options, and tools like Threekit provide full 3D and AR visual customization. Look for tools compatible with multiple platform types, including inventory and supply chain management systems, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, and ERP systems.
These integrations can reduce administrative labor, optimize inventory management, and store information about customer preferences, helping you fulfill customer orders efficiently and improving future sales and marketing efforts.
Design validation
Product configurators guide customers toward compatible customizations and ensure you can produce a customer’s designs. You can create configuration rules when you set up your tool. For example, you might specify that a stool can have three or four legs, but not more or less, and not three and four at once.
Some advanced configurators also use product data to generate performance projections, such as how much electricity a custom range will use in a year or how many tons of product a warehouse shelving system can support.
Benefits of using a product configurator
Here are some of the ways in which a product configurator can benefit a business and its customers:
Reduced barrier to purchase
Product configurators provide transparent pricing and help customers visualize custom products—both factors that can lower the barrier to purchase. Advanced visualization techniques like 3D product modeling and AR can prove particularly beneficial if you sell products intended for certain spaces, charge upmarket prices, or don’t accept returns.
A jeweler might use 3D modeling to let a would-be bride or groom scrutinize a custom engagement ring from all angles, for example, and a home goods retailer might use AR to let shoppers view custom furniture in their homes.
Higher customer satisfaction
Research shows that customers expect personalized experiences, reward companies that offer them by making purchases, and experience frustration when those expectations aren’t met. Product configurators can increase customer satisfaction by providing an efficient, user-friendly customization process and ensuring that customers understand what they’ll receive. They also provide valuable data about customer needs and preferences you can use to personalize future marketing strategies.
Reduced lead time
Configurators can speed up the custom product purchasing process, helping you close more sales and efficiently deliver finished products. A manual process requires customers to wait for quotes from a sales department before placing custom orders. Quotes can take several days—enough time for a customer to lose enthusiasm for a purchase or opt for a faster-moving competitor.
Product configurators provide instant quotes, allowing customers to proceed with orders immediately. Design validation and automatic order creation can also speed up the production process. These help you avoid costly mistakes by reducing the risk of human error during the design process and ensuring that new customer orders immediately enter the production queue.
Increased operational efficiency
Configurators save time and lower costs, helping you stretch your business resources further. Instead of constantly working on quotes, sales reps can focus on larger business and marketing goals, like earning more top-of-funnel leads, developing existing accounts, or pursuing higher-value prospects. You can also use integrations to reduce administrative labor and optimize inventory management and marketing processes.
Increased customer engagement
Creating new designs is fun. That’s why we have LEGO, paper dolls, and seemingly infinite Fortnite skins. Enabling customers to experiment with designs adds entertainment value to the customer experience, encouraging engagement with your products and brand.
Offering an engaging shopping experience can also encourage referrals and word-of-mouth marketing. Prospective customers don’t need to be active buyers to build positive associations with your brand that can lead to sales later. Some companies also invite customers to share their finished designs on social media, which can further increase awareness of your brand.
Effective product configurator examples
Many ecommerce businesses use configurators for custom or made-to-order products. Here are two product configurator examples:
Scout Design Studio
Texas-based Scout Design Studio sells new and vintage furniture, art, and lighting from an 18,500-square-foot warehouse in the Dallas Design District. Its online product configurator uses 3D modeling and dynamic visualization to allow customers to configure products from its custom line, Scout Bespoke. The configurator offers multiple product views and high-quality images for more than 20,000 product variations.
Veneta Blinds
Australian blind and shutter retailer Veneta Blinds offers custom window fittings, allowing customers to customize elements like materials, colors, fit type, and control mechanism. It offers five blind types and sizes to buyer specifications, using a multistep product configurator to help navigate billions of product variations—744 billion per product type, to be precise.
The configurator provides basic product visualizations and guides customers through a nine-step decision-making process by displaying relevant customization options at each step. The configurator displays price information twice—once upfront, listing the minimum cost of each blind type, and again at the final stage after a customer enters exact specifications for height and width.
Product configurator FAQ
What is the difference between product customization and configuration?
Some businesses distinguish between customization and configuration, referring to products with pre existing customization options as configurable and products built to a customer’s specifications as customized. Ecommerce businesses can use website product configurators to sell configurable products, but the sales process for fully custom products typically involves direct communication with a sales rep.
What is an example of a configure-to-order product?
Many furniture retailers sell configurable products. Scout Design Studio, for example, sells configurable desks, beds, tables, chairs, and home accents, allowing customers to customize the size, color, and finishes.
Which industries use product configurators?
Product configurators are popular in industries with variation-rich products, including the furniture industry, automotive industry, and fashion industry.
