Visualization and Customization: Why They’re Important to Your Dealership

Article Highlights:
- Customers want to see every detail of the product they're buying.
- The more customization options, the more unique a product is to a customer.
How many times have you gone in to buy a phone, and you think you have a pretty good idea of what you’re buying? You think about the different features, the storage, the size, the color, the type of case. Then when you actually arrive at the store, the picture in your head doesn’t match the final product. The color of the phone was brighter than you expected, the case is bulkier than what you wanted, or you’re wondering why the phone has three different cameras to take one picture. Many consumers have had similar thoughts and experiences like this, and it’s caused companies to put more focus on product visualization and customization.
Product Visualization
Product visualization is using images or renderings of a product to virtually display the possible features to customers. This has become very important to consumers because they like to be informed. In fact, a study done by Namagoo found that about 87% of consumers believe product imagery is very important to the shopping experience. Customers don’t just want to look at stock photos anymore. They want to be able to see the product from different angles and know different aspects about the product in order to feel comfortable with their purchase.
Product Customization
Product visualization lends itself easily to allowing for more customization. Customization is important for a customer to take more ownership of the product. A good example of this is with sneakers. Nowadays, people can customize every area of the shoe with different colors and textures, and even add text to certain areas. Even though it costs more to do this, people are still willing to pay for it because it makes the shoe more unique to them. Offering customization features in this visual format may also lead the customer to add more components to their purchase than they were originally planning to do.
Using Visualization and Customization to Your Advantage
So now the question is, why is product visualization and customization important to your dealership? Most customers know what car they’re interested in buying looks like before they walk into your dealership. However, that’s without any added accessories. Accessories can be a tough subject to bring up, but introducing product visualization could help change that.
Giving customers the ability to see what their vehicle could look like with different accessories added with an interactive model could change their perspective. It takes them out of the “I’m being sold” mode, and puts them into the shopping mode. When your customer can visualize the different angles with the accessories attached, it will help fill in any gaps they may not have been able to picture before and ease their concerns about what the accessories might look like.
An accessory visualization tool could also be a great draw for customers waiting in your lounge to passively see what their vehicle might look like with a new spoiler or rims. This has the potential to draw in accessory sales you might otherwise have missed. Having a solution that allows customers to see accessories on their car could be the perfect tool to take advantage of the growing importance on customization and product visualization.
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