Innovation in Manufacturing: How the Product Configurator Can Improve Your Business

Digital transformation, supported by the PNRR, becomes an essential necessity in the industrial world. Predictions indicate that in 2024 there will be an increase of 4.3% in investment in digital, which is well above the economy’s average growth rate of 2.4%.

In the manufacturing field, in particular, the competition is increasingly fierce. Companies must find new ways to stand out from their competitors and meet the increasingly specific needs of customers.

Between most relevant innovations, stand out product configurators, tools that allow consumers to customize their purchases in a unique and tailor-made way, revolutionizing the manufacturing landscape. It follows an increase from the customer loyalty and a major relevance of the company in the competitive market.

Being guided in analyzing applications and benefits of the implementation of a configurator is the basis of understanding the crucial role that these technological tools play in the contemporary manufacturing industry.

The Key Role of product configurators

The corporate manufacturing sector was the scene of an epochal transformation, particularly in recent years. The advent of digital technologies, the Internet of Things (IoT), global interconnection, and changing consumer expectations have pushed businesses to review their strategy, looking for solutions to guarantee a competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive and dynamic market. In this context, the product configurators have established themselves as a key tool, offering a bridge between the mass production of the past and the growing demand for customized products and tailor-made solutions.

How much does Customization impact the Manufacturing Sector?

Personalizing means innovating, innovating means differentiating. The use of technology, for example through a product configurator, allows companies to have a better differentiation from competitors, showing themselves as innovative and cutting edge. Gaining market share in a fragmented sector allows you to grow much faster than others.

Customers are increasingly demanding and wanting niche products that reflect their individuality. Personalization is a trend increasing in the manufacturing field to satisfy these needs.

The greater customer satisfaction in receiving a personalized product makes him more loyal to the brand and inclined to make repeat purchases.This follows in an increase in sales, as the customization helps companies expand their product catalog, increasing quality, as it offers customers a more engaging and attractive shopping experience.

What is a Product Configurator?

Product configurators are software tools that allow consumers to customize products according to your preferences. Whether it’s custom-made shoes, customized cars or made-to-order furniture, configurators deliver full range of options that customers can select from a catalog to create a unique product. These options can include colors, sizes, materials, additional features and much more.

We find various technological solutions on the market introduced by big companies, such as IKEA or McDonald, which bring to the customer a setup experience of a product at a higher level.

Application Sectors

The impact of product configurators extends across a variety of manufacturing sectors, each of which experiments unique advantages in the implementation of this technology, let’s see some of them:

• Automotive: in the automotive industry, product configurators enable customers to transform the car buying process into a highly personalized experience. The choice of color, interior, safety and entertainment features becomes a tailor-made decision, allowing consumers to define the car of their dreams.
• Fashion and clothing: in the world of fashion, configurators enable consumers to express their conception of style, selecting fabrics, cuts and details that reflect their personality. This personalized approach not only increases customer satisfaction but can also reduce waste of production associated with the creation of unsold garments.
• Furniture: in the furniture industry, configurators transform the way people conceive of their own spaces. The ability to customize furniture and furnishing objects allows customers to create unique environments that reflect their philosophy of life and their aesthetic preferences.
• Electronics: the product configurators in the electronics industry allow consumers to customize technological devices according to their specific needs. From configuring technical specifications to choosing screen size, this tailored approach offers a new dimension in purchasing electronic devices.
• Customized Footwear: in the footwear industry, configurators offer the possibility of creating tailor-made shoes. Customers can select materials, colors and designs, resulting in a comfortable product which fits perfectly to your daily uses and preferences.

Introducing a product configurator into the company is a profitable investment with a large margin of return, which allows you to offer customers the customization of their products quickly and easily. Generating offers in just a few clicks and increasing sales allows salespeople to be more effective and efficient.

Advantages of Product Configurators

Product configurators bring with them a series of advantages that increase business dynamics and consumer perception of the brand. Among the most significant benefits, the following emerge:

1. Customer-centric personalization: the consumers are no longer bound to predefined options, they can create products that perfectly reflect their tastes and needs. This personalized approach increases the satisfaction of the customer and helps to build an emotional connection with the brand.
2. Greater customer loyalty: the product configurators have been proven to increase customer loyalty. When consumers are involved in the product creation process, they develop a stronger link with the brand. A survey revealed that the 68% of customers who used a product configurator to choose customizations have returned to acquire from the same brand several subsequent times.
3. Reduction of unnecessary production: before the advent of product configurators, companies were often forced to mass produce, predicting which combination of features would appeal to customers. This led to an excessive production of products that remained unsold. With configurators, companies can adapt production based on actual demand, reducing waste, optimizing resources and directly integrating data with management software.
4. Improved customer experience: the customer experience is the subject of increasingly in-depth studies, and is now a crucial element for the success of any company. Product configurators significantly improve the customer experience by offering an engaging purchasing customized process. Customers appreciate the ability to contribute actively to the creation of their own product, creating a closer bond with the brand.

Strategic Revolution

The development of technology has made accessible excellent quality configurators to companies of all sizes. Furthermore, given the ease of use, whoever within the company can take advantage of these tools. Not only this strategic transformation optimizes production processes, but also offers a new paradigm in which flexibility and adaptability become the keys to success in the growth in the manufacturing sector.

The implementation of product configurators is easy and fast, allowing companies that have adopted one to obtain extraordinary results. Integrations with existing systems, managing the complexity of the options offered and staff training are just some of the possibilities offered by this technology. Going into detail we can analyze that:

1. The integration of product configurators into existing company systems can significantly facilitate the exchange of data to optimize production. Many successful companies have put this configurator feature first to increase production efficiency.
2. Managing the complexity of customizations comes facilitated through one intuitive dashboard in which to insert the variants of the products in the catalog. A dashboard that is supplied together with the configurator must always be taken into account.
3. The transition towards the use of product configurators doesn’t require staff training. The ease of use allows every employee to quickly learn how to use the configurator, whatever their level of digital experience.

Use cases

Many manufacturing companies have already experimented with the success through the implementation of product configurators. The research conducted by Epsilon shows the remarkable increase in sales and customer satisfaction after the introduction of a product configurator. These success stories are testament to the tangible transformation this technology can bring to the manufacturing environment.

Some examples of companies that have decided to innovate their way of selling by implementing a product configurator:

• A furniture company has introduced a configurator to allow customers to choose the colors, material, size and finish of the furniture they want.
• A forklift company has chosen a configurator to allow customers to choose models with the features and specifications necessary for their business.
• A bed company has made tablets available to its salespeople with a configurator to show customers in real time the variations in texture, size and characteristics of the bed they have chosen, automatically generating a final digital offer.

Conclusion

The product configurator is a technological solution that can help manufacturing companies maximize the customization of their products, overcome the challenges of the sector and achieve new levels of success. Personalization is not just a trend, but a tangible necessity. Through proper implementation and a focus on customer-centered personalization, the product configurator becomes the driver of innovation and business growth in the manufacturing sector.

Among the numerous advantages we mention:

• Better shopping experience: the product configurator makes the shopping experience more engaging and personalized for the customer.
• Increased conversions: product configurators can help businesses convert more leads into paying customers.
• Cost reduction: the product configurator can help companies reduce production and sales costs.

Find out more about product configurator personalized and how it can transform your business manufacturing. Set up your path to innovation today!