The 3d product configurator improves the sale of modular furniture

The BLU stores chain is a market leader in the bathroom equipment industry in Poland. The company offers i.a. bathroom furniture, ceramic tiles, fittings and sanitary ceramics. The advantage of the brand is professional advice and flexibility in the design and equipment of bathrooms.

Products are sold in 64 stores across the country, but customers also have the opportunity to see the offer and book products online. Two complementary sales channels were an effective solution for the company. Or at least it was until BLU produced a line of modular bathroom furniture.

The advantage of the modules is the ability to easily adjust the product to the individual needs of the customer and its interiors. However…

An obstacle to sales turned out to be the inability to visualize the product in different variants in real time. Presenting individual cabinet modules online with the support of presets was not an effective sales tool. The customer in the stationary salon could only see sample settings, so the only thing left was imagination or a pencil and a sheet of paper. This lengthened the sales process and discouraged customers.

The main potential of the product, i.e. the flexibility of modular furniture personalization, has not been used.

The BLU brand needed a simple tool for the sales team in showrooms, which would enable any configuration of the bathroom set and real-time visualization of the entire product in 3D.

Additionally, the tool was to be available to online customers, where they could independently configure and order products online.

As a solution, the AR-range team proposed:

• Development of a 3D modular configurator based on the Sketchfab platform, offering excellent quality 3D display and dynamic shading. During the implementation, the client's 3D models were used.
• According to the assumption, the application is to work on a simple principle of building blocks. From the available modules, user can modify the layout, combination, size, washbasin and color of all elements.
• Due to its usefulness for the end customer, the team decided to divide the configurator into 2 stages. The first one guides the new user step by step through the first configuration steps, such as choosing a countertop, sink or cabinet height. The sales team can skip these steps and go to the main tool that allows you to configure all elements.
• Product data and prices are pulled directly from the store.
• The final stage of configuration is a summary with a list of selected products and an order transferring the user to the shopping cart in BLU ecommerce.

In the preparatory phase, the team planned in detail the logic of the configurator, which turned out to be much more complicated than initially assumed.

The dependencies between modules and washbasins turned out to be a challenge. The logic of arranging the cabinets had to be well matched to the siphons located under the washbasin. The problem appeared in the case of 2 washbasins and countertop washbasins, which required additional rules for inserting modules cabinets (which can be added, moved, etc). The design logic was refined through two iterations.

The result of nearly 3 months of team work is the 3D modular configurator, which turned a set of individual elements with hundreds of combinations into one coherent product.

The creation of a new BLU tool with real-time online visualization and pricing enabled:

• accelerating and easing the work of the sales team
• automating the sale of modular furniture to online customers
• raising the customer experience standard

Conclusion

The new 3D modular configurator not only streamlined the sales process for BLU's team but also enhanced the online shopping experience, leading to faster sales and higher customer satisfaction.