ARTICLE
Generally, online shops used to be quite plain – to the point that they did not have anything of value to offer. Because of this, users often got fed up with them and stopped using them. Rightfully so, what good is operating a website if it is not offering anything in return. This is where product configurators stepped in and changed the game.
With this relatively new technology, companies now have the luxury to offer their customers with tons and tons of customizations. Whether the company offers a single product or multiple – a configurator always comes in handy as it adds the element of scalability that simple applications and websites do not have. That being said, designing a configurator, especially a highly customized one, can take up a lot of your company’s resources and time. However, once it is ready, it could increase your brand’s value by tenfold if it is indeed designed to make selection processes and various other functions simpler for online shoppers.
Nevertheless, designing a configurator, or getting someone to design it for you, is one thing; integrating it is a completely different challenge. An configurator will do you no favors if you fail to integrate it with your e-commerce site. If you happen to be someone who is looking to integrate their product configurator to their brand’s website, mentioned below is everything that you need to know about it. It will help you to execute the configuration without any hiccups.
As we were discussing earlier, getting hold of a configurator always proves to be a wise choice if your company sells multiple products with variable features. For this particular case, variable means allowing the customer to make certain configurations to your product according to their ideas and wishes. A large number of industries that have incorporated product configurators to their ecommerce sites have greatly benefited from it. From gear manufacturers, automobiles manufacturers, to furniture shops – a product configurator is useable for almost every type of industry
Some manufacturers, who only specialize in a single product, often choose to sell their product through an online shop on their website. This doesn’t mean in any way that these single product brands cannot benefit from a configurator. In fact, a properly customized version could prove to be more practical than an online shop.
There are plenty of ways to integrate a configurator on an ecommerce site or any other type of website for that matter. JavaScript, IFrame, and a direct link are considered to be the best tools to do the job, however. Integration through the link is quite simple; once the developer you enlisted completes designing and developing your configurator, they will send you a link. This link will easily integrate your company’s configurator with its website. This means that once the customer goes to your website, a link or a button will send them to a configurator, which will be present on a different tab.
JavaScript integration is quite different and has a bit of an interactive side to it. In these kinds of cases, your configurator will be entered after it gets a call-up. An easy alternative to this is integrating your product configurator on your company’s website. The reasoning behind this is simple –it makes for a fixed place that provides the configurator enough room to be used and seen.
There is also another alternative which is, third party interfaces like merchandise management systems or other content management systems. A merchandise management system, in particular, will take your business’ inventory into consideration and simplify the internal processes and product maintenance. It exchanges the information automatically. An individual exit and entry of data are not needed in this case.
Let’s say, for instance, that your company creates separate beds. Your shopper tries to make adjustments to that bed using the configurator but is unable to find a particular type of headrest. Maybe that headrest is unavailable, or maybe it is but not in the style that the customer wants. This will prompt the configurator to draw out data automatically from the merchandise management system. It learns that the product is not available anymore, and once it registers it, the configurator will inform you about it. This will allow you to stay up to date with your stock requirements without wasting too much time.
As soon as you have a fully developed interface according to your business requirements, not only will you be able to offer the shoppers with immediate solutions, but you will get quick results as well. In cases like these, the configurator is completely adapted to your company requirements. Of course, you can also opt to get your interface developed individually, and there would be no harm in that.
You do not necessarily need to have an interface in your content management system for your configurator to provide data maintenance for your products. A product configurator’s backend shares quite a lot of visual similarities with excel files. It is full of images, product descriptions, prices, 3D models, and numbers. This means that adaptation and maintenance with marketing campaigns would not be a problem either. You will not require any outside help for product data maintenance. Product configurators are independent, which means that they can adapt to product range changes with ease.
There is no fixed cost for integration. Usually, if companies already have an interface, they do not have to worry about programming costs. Reprogramming, however, has some added costs associated with it. Make sure that you analyze the needs of your business before you take any step for programming and integrating the configurator.
Usually, the developers provide a thorough breakdown of the duties they perform, but once again – it varies for every case.
Before you proceed with the embedding, make sure that you have a functional ecommerce website in your hands. It will provide for swift integration and make the tool run smoothly for you and your customers.
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