3D visualization increases sales

Do you remember WordPerfect in the early nineties? You edited documents in a text editor that showed commands like [Center] in clear text. Today, no one would dream of using a word processer without WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get.

This trend is now coming widely to CPQ. You have probably seen it already in tailormade configurators for consumer products like cars, furniture, or villas. The same trend now comes to B2B markets. Customers expect to see what they will get as they pick among the product’s options.

Seeing is believing

There is wisdom in the old saying that “seeing is believing”. When a customer can see the final product, it increases confidence and trust, and the result is improved online conversion rates. Or as Forbes states in an article from 2019, “visual configurators are revolutionizing CPQ”.

How do you succeed with a visual configurator?

A common mistake is trying to wrap a solution around existing CAD models. The result will likely be a slow web page that requires plug-ins, a high band width and will not run on all platforms.

Needless to say, 3D visualization inside a sales tool should run smoothly over the internet, on any device and even with limited bandwidth. For this you need the speed and power of the HTML5 web standard.

Clever brains have figured out ways of getting 3D performance for games inside a web browser and this is also the right option for visualization.

But recognizing JavaScript engines as the right choice for 3D visualization has often led to tailormade configurators that were difficult and costly to maintain. No more!

Go with a standard solution

Combinum has an out-of-the box solution for embedding and driving 3D models.

Any change in the configuration is immediately sent to the visualization that is updated. The communication is via a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) string that is modelled in Combinum Architect. The visualization can also send commands back to Combinum.

This solution gives the lightweight, high performing visualization you need for a state-of-the-art sales tool.

About the author

CEO of In-process Sweden AB