Ecommerce is skyrocketing at new heights. Reports predict that the industry is going to reach a whopping 6.5 trillion dollars in revenue by 2023.
As the market continues to grow, however, you can expect your competition to increase as well.
Outbeating your competitors consists of adapting and meeting your customers’ demands. It’s the reason why we’re introducing one of the most cutting edge technologies out there: the 3D viewer.
The thing is, if your goal is to increase sales and brand loyalty, a standard customer experience and 2D pictures are not enough anymore. 61% of customers would rather shop on an eCommerce website with AR and 3D visualization technology.
In this blog post, we’ll dive into exactly what a 3D viewer is, along with the benefits for your store and how you can get started yourself.
A 3D viewer is a tool that allows you to showcase interactive 3D models on your website. In the context of eCommerce, it enables customers to “tour” your product, turn it around, and look at it from all angles before purchasing — just like they could in real life.
If the customer hesitates during their choice, they can spin the product around to inspect it and assess its quality and features better. Not being able to physically touch and see a product can slow down or stop a customer’s buying journey. Providing more options to evaluate the product creates confidence. And, as a result, reduces buyer’s remorse, making it less likely for them to return the item.
You can easily share or embed your 3D model into your eCommerce website. Customers can look at your 3D product through a 3D viewer from their mobile devices, tablet, and desktop.
Here’s an example how that looks like in action:
Thanks to AR technology, the customer can check out how the product will look on them or in their homes.
3D technology for eCommerce is here to stay. While the technology is still new, its popularity will only grow from here: by 2022, more than 120,000 stores will already use 3D imaging and AR to engage customers.
If you’re not using 3D visualization as part of your eCommerce strategy, you’re missing out. Let’s dive into the benefits that come with adopting 3D viewer on your product pages:
If you want to win against the growing competition, you need to find ways to make your brand stand out. One way to differentiate yourself is to deliver a unique product experience.
That’s where 3D product modeling comes in.
3D visualization adds a touch of realism during the customer’s purchase. It builds a bridge between the online and offline experience, making customers more likely to pull the trigger as a result.
On top of improving your product experience, it’s going to help your store adapt and thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic. With 3D visualization, customers will be able to look through and explore your product just like in real-life, except this time in the comfort of their own homes.
As you improve your product experience, you’ll naturally see better marketing results. It’s common for stores that adopt 3D visualization to see an increase in sales and conversions.
Let’s take a look at a case study from Rebecca Minkoff, a high-couture fashion brand. The company searched for new ways to get ahead and improve the customer experience with the latest technology.
To bring more life to their online products, they decided to add a 3D viewer feature to engage customers. Customers could get a better feel of their product’s texture, structure, and other important details:
The result? After interacting with the 3D model, customers were 44% more likely to add an item to their cart and 27% more likely to place an order. Customers who viewed in VR were 65% more likely to purchase a product.
Nothing is more frustrating than a customer purchasing from you, only to return the item later.
Experts estimate that consumers return around 20% of their items in the eCommerce industry, double the return rate of brick and mortar stores. That’s almost one-fourth of your sales that go out the window!
Thankfully, 3D visualization helps eCommerce stores minimize their customer return rate. Studies prove that including 3D models on a website leads to a 50% decrease in product returns.
The reasoning is simple: thanks to 3D viewer and AR, the customer gets a better idea of the product's size, quality, materials and other important details that help to determine if the product meets their expectations. This way, they are able to make better informed purchase decisions, which leads to reduced product return rates.
Another major headache in eCommerce is the industry’s average bounce rate, which hovers around 45.68%. The fact that the human attention span is now lower than a goldfish doesn’t help either.
That’s where 3D imaging comes to the rescue. According to a study by EyeKandy, 50% of users spend more than 2 minutes on pages with 3D visualization. It’s an excellent way to catch the customer’s attention and get them to continue browsing through your products.
As you can see, implementing 3D visualization technology to your eCommerce website comes with countless benefits. It can skyrocket your ROI, help to deliver a better customer experience and reduce your return rate.
However, using 3D modeling can seem intimidating if it’s your first time. Thankfully, it’s actually much easier than you think — here’s how you can create your first 3D product model in five simple steps:
Take a look at your portfolio and identify which products you’d like to turn into 3D models. Is it your entire product collection or your newest products that you’d like to convert or just a couple of items? The most returned products or items that repeatedly make the most-asked about list would be a great place to start as you can quickly measure the impact of 3D technology and change in consumer behaviour.
The next step is to reach out to a dedicated team of experts so that your 3D models are in the right hands. You should look for a team that not only has experience but whose services come with a well-defined and automated 3D model creation workflow that allows to deliver large quantities of 3D models at once (scalability), offer real-time quality assurance and affordable pricing.
For example, at CGTrader, we have a decade’s worth of experience in the industry and offer competitive pricing for a high value product. Some of our previous clients include top brands such as Nike, Staples, and Made.com.
Once you pick a 3D modeling expert team, you proceed to send your product images in different 2D file formats. They’ll then do all the hard work for you by converting them into 3D models that correspond to your product’s dimensions, structure, and more details.
When CGTrader takes care of your 3D assets, we make sure that our product meets high-quality standards. Each of our models goes through a rigorous QA procedure to deliver the best aesthetics and make sure that our product looks as realistic as possible.
Here comes the moment that everyone is waiting for. Once the model is complete and compliant with QA procedures, you can grab the file and embed it to your eCommerce site.
With CGTrader, you can easily manage thousands of your 3D files through our digital asset management system in real time. From there, you can easily embed your 3D solutions on your Shopify, Magento, Wix, or WooCommerce website.
If you have any questions about implementing 3D solutions in your eCommerce store, feel free to reach out. We’d be more than happy to share our expertise, advise you on the type of models you might need or answer any of your questions. Contact us today to learn more.
Haidi Kelly is the CMO at Modelry. Formerly at WeWork, Haidi loves the challenges the B2B space brings. Excited about the transformative power of digital assets and content in eCommerce, Haidi helps individuals, teams, and companies reach their full potential. In her downtime, she is also a foodie, world traveler, and enjoys live music.
