eCommerce Product Configurators: A Guide for 2024

In recent years, we have made a huge leap forward in our ability to create a world-class product configurator experience on the web, and we should leverage these advancements to their fullest potential. The performance and capabilities of software have significantly improved, enabling merchants to build more robust, visually appealing, and efficient configurators than ever before.

In this blog post, we'll explore the must-have features for a great product configurator, common pitfalls to avoid, the significant value it brings to your eCommerce business, and the technical aspects you need to consider. Whether you're looking to enhance your existing configurator or planning to build one from scratch, this comprehensive guide will provide you with the insights and knowledge you need to succeed.

An eCommerce product configurator is a sophisticated design tool that allows users to customize products according to their preferences by selecting from a variety of configuration options. These options typically include changes in color, print, text, images, textures, and other design elements that make the shopping experience more interactive and engaging. For example, customers can select a bag’s color, choose a shoe’s material, or decide on the type of leather for a luxury sofa.

A well-designed product configurator can be a game changer for online businesses. It bridges the gap between what customers want and what they purchase to increase satisfaction and drive sales. However, creating an effective product configurator is not an easy task. It demands a keen understanding of customer needs, technical know-how, and a strategic approach to design and functionality.

An instant preview feature is crucial for a great product configurator. It allows customers to see the changes they make in real time by providing immediate visual feedback on their selections. It also adds an element of interactivity and engagement by making the configuration process more enjoyable and user-friendly.

When it comes to the preview, there are a couple of strategies:

• With 3D: This method utilizes 3D models to provide an immersive and interactive visualization of the product configuration.
• With product images: This approach uses high-quality product images to deliver an almost photorealistic preview of the configured product.
• Hybrid model: This combines both 3D models and high-quality images.

An important factor is how quickly the model loads and how quickly it changes when a potential customer is making adjustments. A slow 3D model makes the user lose attention and makes them want to leave the process of interaction.

Source: https://liftfoils.com/products/lift4

Mobile-First Design

We all hear about the “mobile-first” design approach, and we can’t ignore the data. An overwhelming majority of people browse the internet through their phones, so designing for mobile is essential. Starting with a desktop design and trying to adapt it for mobile is challenging and often results in a subpar experience. However, if you approach it as a mobile app and prioritize the mobile experience first, then continue with the desktop design based on that, you’re far ahead. This simple shift in mindset can significantly enhance the usability and appeal of your product configurator and ensure that it performs seamlessly on all devices.

Guidance

A well-executed product configurator should guide customers seamlessly through the decision-making process. Anytime customers might get stuck, the configurator should provide contextual hints and guides to navigate them toward the best decisions. Those hints must be integrated within the configurator itself to ensure users remain immersed in the configuration experience. Redirecting users to separate articles or pages can disrupt their journey and cause them to lose their progress.

Keeping all guidance within the configurator ensures that users never lose context and stay engaged throughout the process. Additionally, this approach presents opportunities for upselling. For example, in fashion, the configurator can suggest accessories, like ties for shirts or socks for shoes. In the case of an eBike, it might recommend upgrades, like a better battery, custom paint, a helmet, or insurance.

Financing Options

For higher-priced items, like cars or eBikes, having clear and accessible financing options is crucial. A great product configurator should include real-time calculations of installments based on the selected options to provide price transparency throughout the configuration process. This feature allows customers to understand the financial implications of their choices immediately, making it easier for them to commit to a purchase. Reducing the barrier to entry for expensive items can increase the likelihood of conversion.

Source: https://tesla.com/model3/design

There are some businesses where having a product configurator is not just an added feature but a core aspect of their business model. For instance, in the automotive industry, configurators allow customers to choose from a multitude of options and personalize their vehicles to meet specific needs and preferences. Similarly, in the electronics sector, companies like Lift Foils (our client) and eBike manufacturers leverage configurators to let customers tailor their products with various features and specifications.

Fashion brands are also increasingly relying on configurators to enhance customer experience and drive sales. Eton Shirts, for example, allows customers to personalize their shirts while Son of a Tailor offers a unique feature that measures and adjusts garments to fit specific body sizes. In fashion, configurators can also help in completing the look by assembling a cohesive outfit from multiple products. This provides a financial incentive for brands to sell entire looks rather than single items.

Let’s dive into the different benefits that businesses might get:

Reduced Return Rate

One of the most significant benefits of implementing a robust product configurator is the reduction in return rates. When customers can personalize and configure products to their exact specifications, they are more likely to be satisfied with their purchases. This customization process ensures that the product meets their specific needs and preferences to reduce the chances of dissatisfaction that often leads to returns.

For example, in fashion, allowing customers to tailor clothing to their measurements or assemble complete looks can drastically decrease returns due to fit or style issues. By minimizing returns, businesses not only save on the costs associated with processing and restocking returned items but also enhance overall customer satisfaction and loyalty. This leads to a more positive brand reputation and increased profitability.

Selling More, Increased AOV

A well-designed product configurator can significantly boost sales and increase the average order value (AOV). When customers can easily match items, such as tops and bottoms, in a fun and interactive way, they are more likely to purchase complete sets. This engaging experience encourages exploration and adding complementary products to the cart.

There are also financial incentives to buy more without relying on traditional sales or discounts. Offering bundles or suggesting complementary items at a discounted rate can increase the perceived value without devaluing the brand.

For example, Suitsupply allows customers to visualize and assemble full outfits effortlessly based on different images. But what’s unique is that, after configuring a suit, they suggest additional items, like belts, bowties, ties, socks, and studs, to enhance the overall look and drive further sales.

Source: https://suitsupply.com/en-us/men/suits/light-blue-relaxed-fit-roma-suit/P6824.html

Increased Loyalty

When customers can personalize their purchases to match their exact preferences and needs, they feel a stronger connection to the brand. This sense of ownership and satisfaction with their customized product encourages repeat business.

Brands that go the extra mile to cater to their specific desires gain trust and a positive perception. This trust translates into loyalty because customers are more likely to return to a brand they feel understands and values their unique preferences.

Data Collection

A product configurator is not only a tool for enhancing customer experience but also a powerful tool for collecting valuable data. Even if a customer does not make a final purchase, the interactions they have with the configurator provide precious insights that can be used to make more informed business decisions.

Understanding what options customers are selecting, which features are most popular, and identifying geographical preferences can offer a bird's-eye view of your audience's behavior and preferences. These insights are crucial for optimizing product offerings, tailoring marketing strategies, and improving overall customer satisfaction.

Additionally, analyzing this data from a zero-party data perspective allows brands to gather information directly from customers through their interactions with the configurator. This data can be used to prepare tailored offers and personalized recommendations that enhance the customer experience and increase the likelihood of conversion. Once a customer signs in, the data collected can be linked to their profile to enable a much more personalized shopping experience.

In a world without cookies and one that is focused on privacy, these direct insights become even more powerful. By collecting and utilizing this data responsibly, brands can offer meaningful personalizations and maintain a competitive edge in the evolving digital landscape.

Social, Playful, Fun

The advancements in technology, particularly in smartphone performance and augmented reality (AR), have revolutionized the way we interact with product configurators. These days, we can do much more than in the past.

AR technology, now readily accessible through built-in features on Apple and Android devices, enables customers to visualize products in their real-life context. For instance, customers can see a piece of furniture in their living room at its actual size, view it from every angle, and even place a 3D model on the floor to better understand its fit and appearance.

The playful element of using AR to customize and visualize products adds a layer of fun that traditional shopping lacks. Customers can experiment with different configurations, colors, and styles in a gamified manner to make the experience both entertaining and informative.

On top of that, the ability to save and share configurations enhances the social aspect of shopping. Customers can share their customized products with friends and family for feedback to create a collaborative and social shopping experience. This feature not only boosts engagement but also acts as a word-of-mouth marketing tool because shared configurations can attract new customers to explore the configurator themselves.

Source: https://www.ikea.com/global/en/newsroom/innovation/ikea-launches-ikea-place-a-new-app-that-allows-people-to-virtually-place-furniture-in-their-home-170912/

Offloading Customer Support

A well-executed eCommerce product configurator can significantly offload customer support by guiding clients through the decision-making process independently. When designed effectively, configurators serve as interactive self-service tools that provide customers with all the necessary information to make informed choices.

For example, Rivian's drive system configurator allows customers to explore and compare different drive system options comprehensively. With built-in informational models and comparison features, customers can understand the differences between each option without needing to contact customer support

By incorporating detailed descriptions, FAQs, and comparison tools within the configurator, businesses can address common customer queries in advance. This empowers customers to find answers on their own and increases their confidence and satisfaction with the shopping experience.

When your customer support team is offloaded from basic questions, they can focus on more complex or unique inquiries.

Source: https://rivian.com/r2

We sat down with Michael, our co-founder and CTO, to discuss some complexities around building a product configurator. We outlined a few aspects that are worth considering when building a product configurator.

There are a couple of different layers of complexity:

1. UI/UX Excellence

Product configurators often consist of multiple steps that make user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) excellence crucial. Unlike buying a simple product where you make a single decision, like selecting a size, and adding it to the cart, configuring a complex product involves multiple decisions; each step essentially becomes a separate product decision. All this information needs to be seamlessly condensed into one product detail page (PDP).

Consider configuring a car: you choose the engine, color, paint, wheels, interior, and additional packages. It's a lot to handle, and the experience must remain smooth and intuitive. On wide desktop screens, this might be easier to design, but the challenge intensifies for smaller screens, like an iPhone 13 Mini with a 5.4” display. Make sure that every step is clear, navigable, and visually appealing across all devices.

2. Showcasing a Product With Multiple Options

The best product configurators dynamically showcase the selected options within their appropriate context. For example, in a car configurator, when you choose a color, you should see the entire car in that color. If you change the interior, the view should shift to the inside of the car. Similarly, when selecting rims, the focus should zoom in on the wheels. This contextual visualization is crucial for helping customers understand and appreciate the impact of their choices.

3. Limitations Around the Platform

eCommerce platform limitations or enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration present significant challenges. You often have to either conform to what the platform offers, potentially sacrificing part of your UI/UX or business model, or find ways to work around these limitations. Typically, there are two approaches to product configurators:

A Single Product with Multiple Options

• For very complex products with many different options, you might have one product with multiple configurable options. For example, if you choose a board, that’s one option; if you choose a wing, that’s another; and color is yet another option. Platforms like Shopify struggle with the number of available options, typically offering only three options and 100 variants. (Update: Shopify announced that a 2,000 variants limit is coming. However, no news on when it will arrive. Source). Colors (red, blue, orange) would be variants under the color option. Similarly, sizes (small, medium, large) are variants under the size option. To calculate the total number of variants, you multiply each option by its variants. For example, five colors x five sizes x five materials = 125 variants, which exceeds Shopify’s original limit (though now it allows up to 1,000 variants).
• Other eCommerce platforms, like Centra, allow for building more complex structures that are often designed with one parent product in mind. This ultimately falls into a business logic of selling configured products rather than a set of individual products. This approach simplifies back-office management and integration with systems like Facebook Marketplace, Google Search Feed, or ERP systems.

Each Option as a Separate Product

• Another approach is to treat each option as a separate product. For instance, in the case of Lift Foils, a mast, color, and board can each be separate products. These are combined visually on a PDP to show them as one product. However, this method has its own challenges.
• For example, showing the final price of the combined product or applying discounts can become complex. When discounting, you need to remember that each option is a separate product, so the whole bundle needs to be discounted. This is where a headless content management system (CMS) can help build this logic or you might need a custom Shopify application.
• While you can control the layout of the PDP and visually present it as a single product, adding it to the cart can reveal the individual products instead of one cohesive product. This can potentially confuse the user.

In both approaches, careful consideration and potentially custom development are needed to create a seamless, user-friendly experience that aligns with your business logic and platform capabilities.

4. Integrations

When building a product configurator, considering how each option integrates with your overall system architecture is crucial. If you treat each option as a separate product, or simply want to work around platform limitations, there are several integration challenges to keep in mind:

• A single source of truth: If your eCommerce platform serves as the single source of truth, controlling and managing the configurator is more straightforward. However, integrating with external systems, like Google or Facebook, presents challenges. For instance, you have to maintain a “presentable” product that will be synchronized with Facebook or Google Feeds and exclude products that only serve as configurator parts from those feeds.
• ERP system compatibility: Your existing ERP system might not align with the structure of your configurable products. For example, if your business logic requires shipping multiple items as a package, like a mast and a board in one package and a wing and engine in another, standard integrations might not handle that. Custom integration solutions are often necessary to ensure that the configured products are processed and shipped correctly, adding a layer of complexity to the system.
• Marketing platforms: Standard marketing flows, like abandoned cart or checkout, post-purchase upsell, or back in stock, will have to be adjusted and properly configured in order to support a multi-product configurator. It’s not a one-time effort and future development will have to take that architecture into consideration

5. Analytics

Product configurators present additional challenges in analytics. At the same time, a thoughtful analytics architecture is a necessity for a successful product configurator.

Accommodating your standard analytics structure to handle more complex products is crucial, especially if configured products are not the only items you sell through your site and you want to cross-reference the data. Suppose you are selling a configured product while also offering each part individually. To obtain a comprehensive view of the performance of, say, a new extension part, you must be able to compare data from both the configured product and individual part sales.

If your configurator is a multi-product one and results in a cart composed of various products, you must ensure that the analytics data accurately reflects the connection between these parts in a meaningful way.

Additionally, because a user must take more actions than with a standard product, there are additional potential dropout points. It is vital to monitor each step of the configurator to optimize conversion rates effectively.

Keep in mind that an appropriate analytics setup for product configurators will likely require additional effort and custom development.

Building an eCommerce product configurator is a strategic move for brands offering products with multiple variables or personalization options. Recent technological advancements have significantly enhanced our ability to create sophisticated, user-friendly product configurators that are both visually appealing and highly functional.

Product configurators are powerful tools for reducing return rates, boosting sales and average order value, collecting valuable data, gaining insights into customer preferences and behaviors, and enhancing the social and playful aspects of shopping through interactive features, like AR.

We hope this comprehensive guide provides the insights and knowledge you need to succeed in building a truly great product configurator.

If you have any challenges to discuss, feel free to book a free consultation!P.S. We also highlighted "The 5 Best Product Configurator Experiences With Examples." Take a look at those examples to gain some inspiration.