If you’re reading this, you probably already know how important e-commerce has become to your business. In the space of just a decade, e-comm giants like Amazon have completely revolutionized the way we do everything from shopping for groceries to buying our cars to picking up our medications. Consider that most businesses, of all sizes and across all industries, are now performing online transactions – and even the smallest business can reach customer around the world with just a few clicks.

The growth of e-commerce has been phenomenal, especially in b2b. And for certain verticals, like OEM manufacturers, digital technology has already completely revolutionized the way they engage with customers. And e-commerce is just getting started. The coming advances in technology, like widescale 5G implementation, will soon make it easily possible to provide experiences that sound like science fiction today, like virtual showrooms or personalized augmented reality (AR) catalogs.

Of course, with all these new opportunities come challenges. You already know that your competitors are scaling up their e-comm programs. How can you make yours stand out? In this blog post, we go over 3 easy steps for improving your business-to-business ecommerce with visualization configuration solutions:

1. Allow your customers to configure products visually.

   Think about how many of your customers are experiencing your company, your products and your brands solely through digital. The online customer experience is now one of the most important parts of your business strategy – perhaps as important as designing a logo, opening a store or hiring staff. Research has shown that a good digital customer experience will translate into sales – and a poor one into lost revenue. Adding a visual product configurator to your online experience is one of the most surefire ways to improve your online shopping experience, since it allows your customers to interact virtually with the product, almost as if they were experiencing it firsthand.

   For b-to-b manufacturers a visual configurator can be a true point of differentiation – and it opens the door to a much more robust CPQ offering. Visual configurators allow your shoppers to customize, create and spec out their very own products. They feel more comfortable with the product they have created, helping improve your sales funnel and your brand loyalty. You can easily customize your configurator to adhere to product rules, so they can’t be used to create something that’s not possible to build. You’ll also cut down on returns, since customers are better able to understand the part they are ordering. And you can make this offering even more powerful by seamlessly adding the ability to…

2. Offer your customers complimentary downloads, like CAD models and 3D drawings.
   

   Downloadable 3D drawings and CAD models can help your e-commerce platform both by attracting new customers and increasing the satisfaction and loyalty of your existing customers. Many of your customers, especially engineers, will feel more comfortable working from downloadable drawings – and for other customers the ability to download specs will be required.

   In terms of recruiting new customers, downloads create endless opportunity to gather leads – and can even be used in new business pitches or marketing or advertising campaigns. By appearing in searches for downloadable 3D drawings and CAD models, you’ll also attract new visitors to your site. The best part? Offering these downloads is far easier than you might think, since many visual configuration solutions have the ability built in.

3. Lower operating costs with cost effective product images
   

   Product imagery and video can be expensive. For many b-to-b manufacturers, SKU lists can run into the thousands – and specialized parts, like extra-small or extra-large items, can require specialized cameras and studio equipment to capture properly. Managing these image libraries, as you might already know, can also be incredibly difficult. Plus, product photography doesn’t always produce the type of fidelity you need – improper lighting can produce poor color reproduction, leading to high returns or customer complaints.

   But you can solve many of these problems quickly and easily with a digital image library. You can easily add photorealistic images, to your website or to a digital catalog or even to a third-party platform like Shopify, by creating imagery from CAD models, drawings and more.

Ready to get started improving your e-commerce? Simply reach out to us at CDS Visual or try one of our free demos to see how simple using our technology can be.