Ericka Podesta McCoy

Is there really such a thing as a B2B buyer anymore? The knee-jerk response to this question, particularly in B2B circles, might be, “Well, of course.” But in light of the tremendous societal upheaval of the past three years, we would be remiss to dismiss this question outright.

The blurring of the line between the B2B and B2C marketing worlds has been greatly accelerated in recent years. B2B organizations that haven’t transformed their marketing approaches accordingly—particularly as it relates to their data practices—are rapidly falling behind. Moreover, they’re missing out on opportunities to unlock deeper, more valuable relationships with their customers and prospects.

So what does it take to bridge the B2B-B2C divide in today’s complex marketing landscape? Let’s take a look at three key concepts that need to be baked into the core of modern B2B marketing organizations.

Reframe the B2B Buyer Through a Consumer Lens

For many B2B marketing organizations, the first step toward addressing the blurring of the B2B-B2C marketing worlds has to do with mindset. It’s easy to get caught up in the mindset of selling to businesses rather than individual people. However, it’s important to remember that businesses are made up of humans, and these humans are ultimately the ones making the buying decisions. That’s the mindset and understanding that B2B marketing teams need to put at the forefront of everything they do.

When we reframe B2B buyers through a consumer lens, we unlock a much deeper appreciation for how they operate. In some cases, we need look no further than our own experiences to appreciate how effective a new approach can be. As our work and personal lives have become increasingly fluid, the devices, platforms and content we interact with are now being employed for both purposes — sometimes simultaneously.

For example, our phones might have our personal chats on them, but they also have our office Slack, and we might be switching back and forth from conversations in each in the same session. For people making purchases on behalf of their companies, this blended way of engaging in work and personal matters has significant implications for when and how they process information that shapes their B2B buying decisions.

Technology (Including AI) and Data Are Your Friends

The modern world of marketing is awash with data and technology, and it’s crucial for businesses to leverage these tools to their advantage. This is especially true when it comes to bridging the B2B-B2C marketing chasm.

Historically, B2B marketers have built customer personas based on what they know about their customers from a professional standpoint. However, such personas have increasingly limited utility in the blended B2B-B2C world. From a data standpoint, there are platforms available to help B2B marketers put a consumer lens on their personas.

B2B marketers should also consider tapping into channels that they’ve traditionally considered to be consumer channels. Today’s consumer is more receptive than ever to business messaging while consuming personal content. B2B marketers who harness best practices for B2C messaging in these channels, but with a business twist, will see the best results.

Make Testing an Always-On Effort

Particularly as B2B marketers begin to shift the way in which they operate, it’s essential to embrace an agile approach and always be testing. Agile methodologies aren’t just for software developers. Marketers need to live and breathe this philosophy. The worst thing you can do in a dynamic market is to not test, try new things and incorporate learnings. That’s how companies get left behind — and that is exactly what B2B marketing organizations are trying to avoid.

Above all, reframing the B2B buyer through a consumer lens also means taking a step back and considering the emotional and personal motivations behind the purchasing decisions of individuals within a business. By focusing on the human side of B2B marketing (i.e., what drives a person’s decisions not just as an employee but also as a person), companies can create more authentic and engaging messaging that resonates with buyers on a deeper level. This can lead to stronger relationships and ultimately greater revenue.

Ericka Podesta McCoy is the chief marketing officer of Resonate, a consumer intelligence company. As a global marketing executive, she has experience in the high-tech, telecom, manufacturing, energy and hospitality sectors across North America, Europe and Asia.

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Subscriptions and automatic renewals

Subscriptions have long been promising territory for ecommerce retailers hoping to build a returning customer base. The global subscription box market reached $26.9 billion in 2022, according to Expert Market Research. The firm expects the subscription box market to reach $74.2 billion by 2028.

However, the legality of automatic subscription renewals can be difficult to navigate, according to Freund. Subscriptions and cancellations are governed by many laws across the U.S. The 2010 Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) requires retailers to provide “simple mechanisms for a consumer to stop recurring charges.” In 2021, The Federal Trade Commission issued a statement warning companies about employing “illegal dark patterns” to keep customers from canceling memberships.

Because the federal law is somewhat vague, many states have adopted their own, stricter laws. The combination of federal laws, FTC enforcement, and differing state laws result in a “patchwork of laws across the country” that are sometimes inconsistent, Freund says. “If you want to comply with every law in every state, it’s very difficult if not technically impossible.”

Chatbots

Chatbots are ubiquitous in ecommerce for customer service and support. They’ve also been the subject of a wave of class action lawsuits in California over recent months, Freund says.

Since July 2019, retailers using chatbots in California must identify them to consumers under the Bot Disclosure Act. The law defines a bot as “an automated online account where all or substantially all of the actions or posts of that account are not the result of a person,” operating on “any public-facing Internet Web site, Web application, or digital application, including a social network or publication.” Failure to disclose use of a bot can result in a fine of $2,500 per violation.

One law firm is proposing a more novel case that chatbots violate California’s wiretapping laws, Freund says. Chatbots often record conversations, and according to that case it’s illegal unless a consumer gives consent. Courts haven’t ruled on the issue because it’s so new, Freund said, but it could have major implications for any brand using a chatbot.

Fake sales 

Fake sale class action lawsuits are not new, Freund says, but they’re a perennial issue for retailers. They’re also known as deceptive pricing or false pricing. Retailers can be successfully sued when they misrepresent the value of an offer, such as by portraying it as a 50% discount when the product was never for sale at the original inflated price.

Plaintiffs have filed similar lawsuits for at least 10 years, and “brands continue to get this wrong,” he told Digital Commerce 360. Macy’s (No. 17 in the Top 1000), J.C. Penney (No. 41), Sears (No. 59), Kohl’s (No. 23), and other retailers have all faced these lawsuits. Once one is successful, other plaintiffs’ lawyers can see it as “blood in the water,” Freund says, and find further cases. The Top 1000 is Digital Commerce 360’s database of the largest North American online retailers.

Retailers continually find themselves in this situation because of an awareness problem, according to Freund. Some retailers feel they have “safety in numbers,” because their competitors are doing the same thing, he says. Others aren’t willing to sacrifice the potential conversion on the chance of being sued. 

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Digital Commerce 360 and Vizit will join forces for an interactive discussion. They will begin by highlighting consumer survey research around imagery including its importance to the online shopper and its ability to impact the all-important conversion numbers.

Vizit will also share case studies that showcase how optimized product images enhance both the customer experience and the bottom line on one’s own website and online marketplaces.

Whether you are a retailer or a brand, understanding the critical role of imagery and the power of AI is a discussion you won’t want to miss.

Takeaways will include:

– Customer expectations around product imagery and the role visuals play in the ecommerce journey
– Why traditional audience research methods don’t work in today’s ecommerce landscape
– The benefits AI platforms can bring to your traffic, sales, and conversions
– How brands and retailers apply AI-based predictive analytics into their creative process

ALL attendees will receive a 2022 Digital Commerce 360 research report — the 2022 Leading Vendors to the Top 1000 Retailers (a $399 value). Note, only retailers, consumer brands, manufacturers and distributors are eligible for the complimentary report and subject to approval.

Sponsored by:

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The marketplace, which serves buyers and sellers at global pharmaceutical and academic organizations, received the funds from Biospring Partners, with participation from existing investors Senator Investment Group, B Capital Group, and Glasswing Ventures. The latest funding brings the total amount raised since inception to $30 million, the company says.

The money will be used for “to expand its global footprint and launch new and complementary product lines,” the company says.

Access to more than 15 million products

With Labviva, a single software interface  provides life sciences buyers with access to thousands of suppliers and more than 15 million products, the company says. The marketplace supports purchasing approval structures and notifications for custom users, departments and locations; it also provides tracking and reporting tools integrated with a buyer’s internal and third-party software for real-time visibility into spending activity.

“Labviva helps manage a company’s spending, giving customers back control, with real-time purchasing insights to realize significant hard-cost savings while providing the scientific and technical staff with the product content and scientific insight to improve the speed and quality of their product-selection process,” says co-founder and CEO Siamak Baharloo. “By aggregating hundreds of product catalogs for a seamless search, discovery and shopping experience, our platform integrates with existing procurement systems, to empower the purchasing departments to take control of their spend, provide greater visibility of purchasing trends and increase compliance with procurement processes within a comprehensive and customized internal marketplace.”

Boston-based Labviva claims to be the largest life sciences digital marketplace that connects researchers with suppliers of reagents, chemicals, and instrumentation.

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Josh Fischer

In our rapidly changing digital economy, retailers and B2B ecommerce companies face many challenges, including maintaining inventory, intense online competition, and concerns with market uncertainty and rising inflation. Additionally, a leading challenge that is rarely discussed is employee recruitment, staffing, and retention.

Consider that 47 million people quit their jobs last year, resulting in a severe staffing shortage for businesses across industries. Nearly 60% of job openings in both the wholesale and retail sector and durable goods manufacturing were left unfilled, per data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The data showed the wholesale and retail industry also experienced a “quit rate” of 3.3% in 2022, while durable goods manufacturing saw 2.1%.

The labor market’s complexities have left business leaders seeking ways to maintain and improve their operations while dealing with reduced staff. After all, you can’t hire employees that don’t desire to fill open positions.

Fortunately for merchants, another option is available. Intelligent business management software and automated technologies are helping drive retail success, enabling more modern workflows and agile business operations.

How Automation Helps Merchants Navigate Labor Shortages

Businesses are leveraging automated technologies, such as cloud ERP solutions, helping them manage accounting, finances, and projects and navigate today’s market challenges. A survey commissioned by software company UiPath found that nearly 80% of responding companies affected by labor shortages will invest in automation to offset the lack of workers.

By automating processes, companies can do more with less. For instance, implementing automated processes can allow B2B manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers to streamline tasks such as product data entry, fulfilling customer orders, inventory synchronization, and returns management without making additional hires. Automating these workflows helps increase efficiency by eliminating error-prone manual methods.

In addition, business management software and cloud ERP solutions enhance collaboration across the organization. By implementing intelligent business management software, businesses can gather and sync data from every department into a centralized database that delivers real-time data. As a result, the business can streamline workflows, automate business processes, and integrate disparate systems. Ultimately, companies can enable their existing talent to boost efficiency.

While automation requires fewer associates, it empowers and fulfills the experience of existing employees by equipping them with better tools and information. In other words, it’s an investment in your existing talent. Providing them with better tools allows employees to have satisfying workplace and customer interactions, enhance their workplace experience, and boost morale.

However, to be effective, business management software must engage the frontline workers and be easy for employees to understand, especially given the current high pace of turnover. Simply put, you don’t want to spend too much time training employees to utilize a complex automated technology if the industry turnover rate indicates a limited span of engagement.

Adapt to the Changing Industry with a Business Management Platform

Not only are retail companies facing a complex labor market, but they’re also dealing with an ever-evolving industry.

We regularly hear the word “disruption” when discussing the many industries that have been impacted by new technology. But no industry has been impacted quite like retail and B2B commerce.

What used to be a brick-and-motor industry is now an online-first industry. Shoppers scour the internet for the best deals and prices. Buying online and picking up in-store has become so common it received its own acronym: BOPIS. This new norm has deviated far from the historic definition of “retail,” and it’s not unique to B2C retailers.

B2B companies are realizing their buyers want the same online experiences when buying business-oriented goods. They want online resources and product information, self-service purchasing tools, customer pricing, and personalized experiences. Not to mention the rapid adoption of B2B companies (especially manufacturers) selling direct-to-consumer (D2C).

Customers expect merchants to keep pace with these breakneck-speed changes. How is it possible for these merchants to grow when faced with so much chaos? The answer for merchants is multi-faceted, yet simple:

1. Create outstanding customer experiences throughout every form of engagement
2. Maximize the number of channels in which your products can be found
3. Build a community around your buyers and convert your customers into loyal fans
4. Optimize and automate your back-office tasks (e.g., customer engagement, order fulfillment, returns, inventory management, and timely replenishments)
5. Continue to recruit new buyers while you draw existing customers back for recurring purchases

Digital natives have led the charge in adopting and utilizing new tools such as Shopify and BigCommerce to elevate customer engagement and experiences. However, this new generation of commerce leaders don’t have experience in supply chain and inventory management. Rather, they are community builders who identify the products that their audience desires, then use modern tools to connect the two.

Often, smaller merchants begin by selling products out of their garage or spare bedroom; but as they build their customer base, they experience an increase in sales across a range of channels. As a result, merchants must determine how to organize their business in a way that enables them to scale and manage higher volumes of orders, transactions, and customers.

Enter a business management platform.

With a business management platform, merchants can organize, automate, and efficiently operate their back-office operations. More specifically, these systems balance back-office workflow management (e.g., inventory, accounting, order fulfillments, etc.) with front-office tasks like customer experience. Merchants gain a better understanding of the supply chain and distribution process through data and analytics, enabling them to reach more customers.

Retail and B2B commerce will continue to be redefined. In the coming years, we’ll see technology like VR and AR change digital and physical purchasing experiences. We’ll see AI guide buyers through their purchasing decisions for appliances and help them purchase replacement parts and supplies autonomously. We’ll see the metaverse change what we think of as “retail stores.” Due to the newfound commoditization of online shopping, in-person stores will likely transition into more experience-based locations and distribution centers littered with technology that knows who customers are and what they’re interested in purchasing.

Digital technologies and cloud-based business management solutions will help merchants evolve with the shifting landscape and empower employees with tools and information that enable efficiency. The forward-thinking merchants that dare to implement these technologies will drive commerce success now and in the future.

About the Author:

Josh Fischer is director of product management, retail-commerce, at Acumatica, a provider of cloud-based enterprise resource planning technology. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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The company said its Biometric Checkout Program would let a shopper scan their face using a retailer’s smartphone app and assign their likeness to a bank card stored on file. The technology is comparable to how Apple Inc.’s iPhone uses FaceID to approve payments or unlock a device.

“When the pandemic happened, we saw that everybody went digital and consumers embraced new technologies,” Mastercard Cyber & Intelligence President Ajay Bhalla said in an interview. “Consumers actually all over the world asked us for that for shopping, for their retail experiences.”

International rollout

A pilot program began this week inside five St. Marche supermarkets in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Mastercard said in a statement. The stores will use an app that Brazilian startup Payface developed. It’s one of the small businesses Mastercard promotes as part of its Start Path engagement program.

On the hardware side, Mastercard is working with companies including NEC Corp. and Fujitsu General Ltd. It has plans to roll out internationally soon.

“We’ve got the Middle East and Africa lined up, Asia and Latin America,” Nili Klenoff, a senior vice president of product innovation at Mastercard, said in an interview. “We’re really looking forward to bringing this solution everywhere.”

She said more features that can use this technology are in the works. Age verification for purchasing restricted store items “is one actually that we’re beginning to explore and one that we’re really excited about,” she said.

Facial recognition is just one of many technologies that retailers, banks and payments firms trial to eliminate cash and reduce fraud.

Amazon.com Inc. has a system that uses in-store cameras to track what shoppers put in a basket. It charges them on exiting its physical stores in the United States and United Kingdom. It won interest from Britain’s J Sainsbury Plc., which installed it at a trial store. Starbucks Corp. has a café in New York using it, too.

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The latest step came Thursday when the company announced its acquisition of Target2Sell. Target2Sell is an open, real-time artificial intelligence platform designed to support personalized customer experiences across digital channels. Mirakl did not disclose what it agreed to pay for Target2Sell.

The acquisition will help companies that sell products via Mirakl marketplaces to develop personalized, relevant shopping experiences for their customers. It will also increase conversion rates by as much 15%, Mirakl says. Mirakl also will use Target2Sell’s technology to accelerate new product offerings.

“Target2Sell has developed an innovative, AI-driven suite of products, complemented with deep expertise, that enable ecommerce operators to propose the right products to the right customers at the right time, leading to increased conversions and improved customer satisfaction,” says Mirakl co-CEO and co-founder Adrien Nussenbaum. “With the acquisition of Target2Sell, Mirakl customers will be able to use the power of AI-driven personalization to achieve assortment curation and enhanced product discovery.”

Along with the acquisition of Target2Sell, Mirakl launched Payout, a global payment platform designed to streamline marketplace payment activities to meet the needs of international marketplace operators and sellers.

Mirakl says Payout is designed to simplify the global payout process for marketplace operators by letting them add international sellers without dealing with regulatory compliance bottlenecks and regional licensing. Payout also addresses the challenges of foreign exchange and other variables across international markets, Mirakl says.

The Payout system, which will be integrated into Mirakl’s platform, handles seller-onboarding and customer requirements. It also handles regulated escrow, currency exchange and refund reserve management. And it maintains regulatory compliance regardless of where the marketplace or seller operates, Mirakl says. Payout will be available to Mirakl customers this fall through an early-access program.

“Our economy, and specifically digital commerce, is becoming more global every day. It is also becoming more complex and competitive to sell online,” says Nussenbaum. “Some of the largest hurdles organizations have to overcome when it comes to integrating international sellers are related to financial complexity, regulatory compliance, licensing and foreign exchange.”

Mirakl also has added several new features to its platform intended to drive marketplace growth. Such features include Product Data Mapping AI and Customer Care Intelligence; both products will be available to existing Mirakl customers in May.

Product Data Mapping AI helps sellers cut product catalog data-mapping time by 50% while improving the accuracy of product catalog data for online marketplaces, Mirakl says. In addition, the data-mapping feature is designed to ease product discovery by categorizing products on marketplace front pages and reducing the time and complexity of onboarding third-party sellers’ catalogs. Artificial intelligence detects syntax similarities and defines characteristics from product descriptions. As a result, Mirakl’s platform can automatically map categories and subcategories for sellers while improving speed and accuracy during the seller onboarding process, the company says.

Customer Care Intelligence enables marketplaces to deliver high-quality marketplace shopping experiences at scale. Artificial intelligence algorithms automatically distinguish between positive, negative and neutral sentiments within customer messages. Messages requiring immediate intervention are automatically flagged. This allows online marketplaces to manage a larger seller base and order volume with fewer resources.

“The secret to marketplace success is unlocking the curation of a high-quality assortment and management of sellers and customer care at scale,” Nussenbaum says.

Another new feature on Mirakl’s platform is the extension of marketplace benefits to large corporate buyers through One Creditor, which simplifies vendor management and overall buying experiences to accommodate specialized supplier or client relationships. As a result, businesses can act as the central creditor for all transactions. The solution will be available to Mirakl’s B2B customers in the European Union this fall. General availability will follow at a later date.

The addition of FastTrack Onboarding will enable online marketplaces to quickly add hundreds of relevant third-party sellers to their marketplace. In addition, the solution automates store creation and creates offers for existing products. The solution will become available to B2C customers this fall.

Enhancements to its platform aside, Mirakl earlier this month partnered with Sonepar, a French-based, family-owned distributor of electrical products. The marketplace is launching as part of Sonepar’s omnichannel strategy.

In addition, Sonepar will leverage Mirakl’s one-creditor platform model to provide an expanded assortment of products and a frictionless customer experience through a single vendor.

“The one-creditor platform model enables Sonepar to maintain 1:1 purchasing relationships with their buyers — while unlocking the agility and scale of a marketplace,” Nussenbaum says.

The Sonepar marketplace is scheduled to launch during the fourth quarter of 2022.

Peter Lucas is a Highland Park, Illinois-based freelance journalist covering business and technology.   

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Ketan Panchal

Online visual product configurators offer greater choice and control to the consumer over product features, while integrating seamlessly with software from point of sales to cutting rooms. They make true end-to-end design automation possible for the product manufacturer while making it immensely easy for the customer to visualize all available options in color, material, and features.

Because of the wave of COVID-19, business-to-consumer, business-to-consumer, and manufacturer direct-to-consumer online buying trends have increased for engineer-to-order (ETO) and configure to order (CTO) manufacturing of building components, metal fabrication, and furniture manufacturing. The market now demands granular personalization.

Consequently, product manufacturing firms are struggling to balance the requirements of personalization, quality, and timely delivery. Under such circumstances, visual configurators provide them with the edge they need to deliver product customization, offer a better digital customer experience, and increase sales.

(Gartner predicts that by 2021, early adopter brands that redesign their websites to support visual and voice search will increase digital commerce revenue by 30%.)

While the pressures for mass customization fall upon everyone along the production chain, from sales to shop floor, product designers have to bear the brunt. Product designers not only have to ensure fast delivery of customizations, but they also need to ensure delivery of proper technical documents to other organization verticals like sales, marketing, quality, purchase, and shop floor.

To accelerate design cycles, product designers are fast adopting the latest tools in 3D computer-aided design (CAD) that offer 3D product viewing and custom configuration.

Moreover, 3D visual product configuration holds the key to turning manufacturing systems more productive and competitive. 3D configuration tools like DriveWorks and Tacton allow the whole product manufacturing value chain, including designers, sales and marketing teams, shop floor, and customers to communicate requirements, design concepts, and final quality products seamlessly.

Challenges in developing new customized designs

To deliver a high level of personalized designs, manufacturers must:

• Deliver accurate quotes in real time, so that customer product specifications are met, and margins properly accounted for;
• Provide accurate documents to avoid any delay in redesign and rework across the value chain;
• Manufacture the products at shop floor with a minimum possible loss in lead time or quality, or gain on both counts.

Product design lies at the core of the manufacturing value chain, and the product designer faces challenges and issues from all angles and needs to:

• Quickly understand requirements, generate concepts and designs that meet the customization with available product mix, inventory, and shop floor production capacity;
• Ensure speedy delivery of all technical documents and drawings for sales, purchase, quality, and manufacturing to make and deliver the product the first time right;
• Closely supervise and monitor product development while collaborating with functional teams of sales, manufacturing, vendors, and quality.

Inevitably, to meet the deadlines for time to market, designers need to be more efficient and productive. Barebones use of 3D CAD tools and macros cannot cope with accelerated delivery of customized demands. But with the use of 3D visual configurators, they can tackle these issues.

How visual configurators benefit the designer and manufacturer

With the ability to configure, price, and quote (CPQ) in real-time, 3D visual product configurators change the game for product design engineers and ETO, CTO manufacturers.

Manufacturer’s benefits from visual configurators (for improved customer experience and efficient sales) include:

• Allowing a customer to configure a product using mix-and-match from available options, thus providing greater customization control at the point of sales;
• 360-degree view of products in a realistic environment;
• Providing required product catalogue drawings, images, and use of native 3D CAD files to enhance the product buying decision;
• Real-time design customization allows capturing the need of customers with improved interactions and accurate understanding;
• Quick generation of quotes and closure of deals in a single meeting.

Benefits to the designer (for quick and accurate customized design and documentation) include:

• Allowing simple to complex product offerings from ETO to CTO form;
• Making designs easy to access,Putting all product offering designs on a single 3D visual and common engineering data-based platform with integration on business and CAD platforms;
• Eliminating repetitive error-prone design tasks of design iteration and generating technical documents;
• Designers are able to deliver accurate designs and documents;
• Accelerating the designs from weeks to days;
• Fast generation of error-free technical documents for sales, purchase, quality, and shop floor;
• Improved seamless collaboration among teams across the value chain;
• Improved productivity of the designer;
• Improved quality and customer satisfaction.

How does it work?

3D visual configurators are highly flexible and can turn any kind of product mix customization into configurable options.

User-friendly, interactive, and predictive 3D visual interface

3D visual configurators create an interactive GUI so that customers can make buying decisions quickly. Customers can experience the product on any platform of ecommerce with a high degree of personalization.

The configurators also include pricing rules for instant sales. Manufacturers can include rules to maintain their bottom line and profit margin for each possible product customization. At an advanced level, a 3D configurator can also predict delivery dates based on order quantity, running production, level of inventory, and logistics.

Ready to use design templates and ease of programming

Most 3D visual configurators provide ease of programming with ready-to-use templates so that a designer can embed design rules of many possible combinations for product configuration and select product mix. It permits designers to make configurable 3D CAD-based designs for most product offerings based on predefined engineering rules and product mix. A 3D visual configurator uses centralized design data with the techniques of master modeling and creation of part families that reduces the efforts of product designers by almost 100% in repeat designs of product mix. It also enhances the accuracy of designs and product manufacturing.

Seamless integration with systems in use on a common platform

A 3D visual configurator integrates with most CAD systems like SolidWorks, Creo, Autocad, Inventor, etc., and business databases like ERP, CRM, and MES. New configurator tools allow interoperability with legacy systems still in use in manufacturing organizations. It offers flexibility and a high degree of adaptability among users. It also integrates with cloud-based technology, allowing users to use the same from anywhere anytime.

High degree of automation for communication and collaboration

Due to the use of a common platform and access to common databases of products, related design, cost, inventory, and manufacturing, a 3D visual configurator provides efficient product part search abilities, reusability, and modifications to accelerate new products innovation and offerings. New product design efforts are drastically reduced by almost 40% to 60%. It auto-generates accurate quotes, high-detail renders of 3D product images, and catalog drawings for marketing, BOM, shop drawings and DXFs for manufacturing. The rule-based workflow allows highly collaborative and real-time environments for design reviews and decision making.

Commerce, whether B2B, B2C, or DTC, has made a permanent shift to online markets and transactions. Even in products where transactions take place in-person and in showrooms or brick-and-mortar premises, product research and thus product presence has essentially gone online.

With the increased use of augmented reality and predictive AI analytics, 3D visual configurators have become indispensable for product designers and manufacturers.

Ketan Panchal is a design manager at Hitech CADD Services, a provider of computer-aided design services.

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