Has coronavirus enhanced the role of product configurators?

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Many people, having no choice during the subsequent lockdowns, have moved their shopping to the web. Those who were previously reluctant to shop online have been persuaded to do so, and today - despite the opening of stationary stores - are still eager to buy through this route.

Along with this phenomenon, we could see tens of percent increases in the number of online stores opening. I don't think we've ever experienced before how profitable it was to sell online. Many companies survived precisely because they already had their stores online or were able to get them up and running quickly.

In many businesses, such a store could not function without a product configurator. They were the ones that allowed customers who moved online to satisfy their expectations about a product just as they had previously done with a salesperson or sales representative.

What are product configurators?

We are already used to the fact that when ordering a product or service online, we can give individual parameters of our expectations and tailor the offer to ourselves. Ordering a table for the kitchen? We can choose the dimensions and color, and sometimes the species of wood or material for the legs. When we order a desk, we will be asked about even more preferences, such as the number of drawers, the type of handles or the place for cable feedthroughs. If we are planning a vacation, the system will ask us about the time and length of our stay, the number of people, preferred food, additional excursions or insurance. We are so used to being able to individually select the features of a product or service that we don't think about the fact that a specially selected information system makes it possible. It is the product configurator.

Why are companies reaching for configurators?

Product configurators are a response to the growing need for individualization on the customer side. Today, customers are not content to buy the same tables and desks as others. They want to be able to select a product according to their own taste and capabilities. Often, they also even want to accentuate their unconventionality and creativity. It can be said that, in a way, we are going back to the starting point, when before the industrial era craftsmen made unique products to individual customer orders.

But today, thanks to product configurators and collaborative manufacturing systems, this can happen on a much larger scale. And bring powerful profits to companies! Why? Because a custom-cut product has a higher value in the eyes of the customer than a standard one pulled off a store shelf. The customer is also willing to pay much more for it. In addition, it is difficult for him to compare the offers of many suppliers, when only a few of them offer product customization, and even then the level of sophistication in the selection of solutions varies.

We have become so accustomed to being able to customize the features of a product or service that we don't think about the fact that this is made possible by a specially selected information system.

Is castomization a necessity?

Many specialists are asking themselves whether product individualization (i.e., so-called castomization or product personalization) is still an added value today or already a necessity. Many companies have been offering it since the beginning of their operations, many of those that have produced industrial quantities of goods (such as jeans or furniture manufacturers) have been giving such an option to their customers for thirty years. Thus, it can be said that most of today's customers with the greatest purchasing potential from the Millenials generation onward, grew up in a world that allowed them to tailor solutions to their individual needs. Bespoke shoes, pizza according to your own composition, 3D printing your own ornamental designs for your home. This is the reality for many of us. And while this is the case, the inability to customize the offerings of one supplier or another can cause surprise or even irritation. So if your company's customers have such expectations, and your competitors are already using product configurators, you may find that investing in them is simply a necessity.