Both online and in-store, forward-thinking retailers and product manufacturers are catching on to the business benefits of 3D visualization.
CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) systems enable manufacturers to generate accurate pricing for configurable products like furniture, and streamline the quoting process. Visual CPQ takes this one step further, enhancing these processes by adding a visual layer to the user interface.
By simplifying complex configuration processes using visual CPQ, furniture manufacturers can improve sales efficiency, deliver a better customer experience, and ultimately increase revenue and profitability. Here’s a guide to the benefits of visual CPQ and how furniture manufacturers can implement it.
What is visual CPQ?
Visual CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) uses software to streamline the sales process by providing a visual interface for configuring products. It simplifies complex pricing calculations, speeds up quote generation, and prevents order mistakes.
Grounded in product catalogs, business and pricing rules, and visualization tools, Visual CPQ empowers sales teams, designers, and customers to collaboratively create furniture pieces in real-time. It lets users select various options – such as materials, finishes, dimensions, and accessories – instantly visualizing the changes.
CPQ vs visual CPQ - see the difference
If you’re a furniture manufacturer with an existing CPQ system, you might be wondering why you should switch to a ‘visual’ CPQ solution. Here’s a comparison table:
Configuration
Customer Experience
Product previews
Text-based configuration options
Mostly used by sales reps rather than consumers
Text descriptions or static images that do not reflect selected configurations
Visual 3D representations of every possible product configuration
Interactive and immersive customization experience
2D and 3D visualizations with interactive previews
How visual CPQ benefits furniture manufacturers
Visual CPQ offers furniture brands a myriad of new competitive advantages and opportunities compared with standard CPQ solutions. Thanks to accurate visual representations of configured products, along with real time pricing and a guided selling process, it enhances the customer experience. This immersive approach instills buyer confidence, giving them faith in their own decision-making, and the confidence needed to complete an order.
1. Enhance customers experience
Visual CPQ allows customers to visualize and customize furniture products in real-time, providing them with a personalized and engaging shopping experience. This interactive approach increases customer satisfaction and confidence in their purchasing decisions.
2. Bridge the imagination gap
Visual CPQ tools enable customers to see real-time visualizations of their customized furniture designs. This immersive experience helps them to make informed decisions, and reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings or dissatisfaction with the final product.
3. Create up selling opportunities
With the ability to showcase different customization options through life-like renders, visual CPQ allows furniture manufacturers to show the quality of their products. This helps salespeople upsell features such as more expensive fabrics and finishes, increasing the average order value and maximizing revenue.
4. Streamline sales process
Visual CPQ software simplifies the sales process by automating configuration, pricing, and quoting tasks. This reduces manual effort and allows sales teams to focus on customer interactions and closing deals.
5. Speed up quote generation
Visual CPQ solutions facilitate accurate pricing by incorporating pricing rules, discounts, and promotions into the quoting process. This reduces errors and discrepancies in pricing, leading to higher profit margins and greater customer trust.
6. Ensure accurate pricing
Visual CPQ solutions facilitate accurate pricing by incorporating pricing rules, discounts, and promotions into the quoting process. This reduces errors and discrepancies in pricing, leading to higher profit margins and greater customer trust.
7. Improve production planning
Visual CPQ systems integrate with manufacturing and inventory management systems, providing valuable insights into demand trends and production requirements. This helps manufacturers optimize production schedules, minimize waste, and improve inventory management.
8. Reduce costs
By streamlining processes and reducing errors, visual CPQ helps furniture manufacturers lower the operational costs associated with sales, quoting, and production. It also minimizes the need for manual intervention, freeing up resources to focus on more strategic initiatives.
9. Reduce errors
By automating configuration and pricing calculations, CPQ minimizes the risk of human error in the quoting process. This results in more accurate quotes and reduces the likelihood of costly mistakes or discrepancies.
10. Drive product engagement
Visual CPQ fosters collaboration between brands, retailers, and customers. By letting customers personalize products to their liking in a visually immersive way, it sparks creativity and increases their personal investment in the product.
How to choose the right visual CPQ provider
When selecting a software provider, you need to make sure it meets your specific business needs and objectives as a furniture brand or retailer. These 5 features are important:
1. User Interface (UI)
A clean and intuitive UI enhances user experience, flattens the learning curve, and encourages engagement with the platform. The visual CPQ platform should offer an easy-to-navigate interface for both sales representatives and customers, turning even the most complex furniture pieces into easy-to-understand products.
2. Interactive 3D view
A fully interactive 3D view enhances your customers’ understanding of the product, helping them make informed decisions. Look for a visual CPQ solution that provides an interactive view of furniture products, allowing users to examine the product from all angles, and enabling a more detailed and immersive exploration of the customization options.
3. Complex customization capabilities
The ability to customize products extensively enhances customer satisfaction and increases the likelihood of successful sales. A visual CPQ platform should be able to support a wide range of customization options, including materials, finishes, layouts, and accessories. It should also allow users to personalize the product according to their preferences and requirements.
4. Business rules
Business rules enable customization of the product and quoting process to align with your specific production options, requirements, and pricing strategies. This feature allows you to define pricing rules, product dependencies, and other business logic within the system. For example: ‘If layout X is selected, limit the right armrest options to only include option Y’. Or: ‘If a customer selects a leather upholstery option, an additional charge of $50 is applied’.
5. Integration Features
A visual CPQ provider should offer integration features tailored to streamline your sales and operational processes. It should function as a headless supply chain solution that integrates with your existing ERP systems and extends throughout your entire dealer network, whilst remaining e-commerce-friendly. Besides a visually appealing front-end interface, it is even more important that it can generate actionable orders at the back end.
Visually enhance your CPQ system with iONE360
iONE360’s dedicated platform for furniture companies is an all-in-one solution for all your product visualization tools and 3D models – from product configurators and room planners to Augmented Reality (AR) apps.
The platform enables furniture manufacturers to embed an immersive and user-friendly visual configurator on the front end, whilst producing actionable orders in the back end. It’s the core technology for any furniture brand’s 3D commerce strategy.
iONE360 makes it quick and easy for customers or salespeople to configure a furniture item to their specific needs. Not only that, it’s possible to produce a downloadable quote in seconds, time after time. So when a customer changes their mind, you can have the revised figures, and product visualization, ready in seconds.