In this interview article, Caroline, project manager at SmartPixels, talks about her 3D web product configurator collaboration with Camille Fournet.
Camille Fournet is a luxury leather goods company based in France, known for its exceptional craftsmanship and attention to detail. In recent years, the company has embarked on a digital transformation journey, aiming to enhance the customer experience through the use of technology.
One of their notable initiatives is the implementation of a web product configurator system, which allows customers to customize their leather goods online in a highly realistic and interactive way. In this interview, Caroline, project manager at SmartPixels, will dive into the details of this project, exploring its challenges, benefits, and impact on the company’s business model.
The prior customizer was limited in its design, only featuring drawings and photos, making it impossible to visualize the appearance of the watch strap after assembly.
That’s why they wanted to be more connected to their former customer, who already have good knowledge about the watch straps. They also wanted to attract new customers who will be able to see what their product look will like with this buckle or this tip, for example.
That was really a way to be more connected to their customer.
In order to propose an adequate solution to Camille Fournet we had to deep dive into their fabrication method. That’s why we went to visit:
– their manufacture in the north of France
– their store in Paris
We also talked with a lot of people working for the brand such as the product development team and the artistic direction. This was especially important to be aligned with the brand image.
We began the process of transforming watch straps into a digital format. We then continued with the belts, and plan to move on to smaller leather items and purses.
The watch strap configurator is currently online on Camille Fournet’s website and the amount of configurations that are made monthly by customers is impressive. It definitely helped increase sales.
As it’s a very engaging and interactive experience where customers can really picture how their product will look in the end, thanks to our photorealistic visuals. Customers can really visualize, for example, the patina of a material or the shininess, the brightness of every material.
It really pictures the refinement of every detail of the product and there is no surprise when you receive your personalized product.
The nice thing about the configurator of Camille Fournet is that at the end of the configuration, you can visualise your product staged inside a still-life scene and you can share it with your friends on social media or save it in your account.
It’s really a differentiating way to engage your audience and convey the brand identity.
A watch strap is way more complex than we could think.
You have a lot of different customization options for product personalization, and you can, for example, change your tip, your buckle, your lugs, leathers of course and colours, and stitching. You even have different stitching methods from which you can choose. So there is a bevvy of combinations that are possible.
On the configurator, you can interact with the products in real-time: turn around it, check out different views, zoom in, zoom out, share the visuals with your friends and family and save your first selection of product configuration in your account and continue the experience later on.
As for every project, we start by digitizing the product in 3D. This process starts by scanning the product and scanning the materials.
We then start the 3D modeling phase, which is very important because it’s when we capture the shape of the product, which is the foundation of our work.
Then we move on to the rendering phase, which is also for the customer, pretty much the most important because this is what you will really see. You will see the materials, the colours, and how they shine. And this is where we also must transpose the craftsmanship savoir-faire of Camille Fournet with our savoir-faire, which is more digital. In fact, our expertise is in generating 3D photorealistic product visuals in the end.
In parallel, we design a tailor-made user experience (UX).
We schedule some mockup workshops, closely followed by the validation phase and the implementation phase. Once validated, we take care of the integration of this UX on the 3D product configurator.
SmartPixels 3D product configurator integrates with Camille Fournet’s e-commerce platform, Prestashop. Thus, the watchstraps prices are automatically computed thanks to a web service, and they are then displayed in real-time on the configurator based on the choices made by the consumers. We also deal with the language and the currency of the websites.
We also define with the client the desired consumer journey and optimal product experience. In the case of Camille Fournet, the starting SKU can be different, as you can launch the product personalization with the configurator from a Product Description Page or from a menu link.
We are the brand’s 3D visual factory, we equip the brand with photorealistic 3D product images, still-life 3D scenes with products in them, the linked description of the product, as well as the URLs for the still-life 3D scenes that you can share with your friends.
Another structural part of Camille Fournet’s project was to help them codify these watch straps. We walked them through the codification of every step so that we were able to speak the same language.
We usually use what we call the long code, and they have a short code. So we also developed a device that will transpose the long code into this shortcode and vice versa.
Regarding planning, we used the agile method. We had sprints of one month, sprint release, sprint retrospective, and everything related and we had daily meetings. We also spent some time building the relationship with the client by listening to what they wanted first, and what would they like to implement later.
This way, we really built a relationship based on trust and transparency.
A special touch about the project is that we developed full 3D scenes that we call still life, and these still-life scenes are used for two purposes.
The first one is at the end of the configuration, you can see your configured product inside these 3D scenes and you can share it on social media.
And the second purpose is actually to provide some marketing and communication visual content for Camille Fournet. They then used it on their social media where you can see different watch straps turning at 360° and changing the scenes and configurations.
There are many benefits of this product customization solution.
I would say the first advantage is for the manufacturer as it helps reduce manufacturing errors. In fact, we send all the data to produce the watch straps or any products so that they know exactly what they should produce. This way, it also leads to less product returns from the clients.
The second one is that it’s providing a very engaging and interactive experience for the customer. Customers can play with the 3D products, can visualize products in the tiniest detail, and can relate to their unique personalized products.
Least but not last, it’s also a great marketing tool providing a lot of visual content with perfect consistency with the brand identity guidelines. It’s a very helpful 3D solution leading customers to spend more time on your website or in-store.
Finally, as consumers identify with the brands’ products since they just co-created their personal products from the brand, it increases brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.
In conclusion, SmartPixels successfully completed the 3D product configuration project for Camille Fournet by providing an engaging and interactive configurator to its customers. SmartPixels digitized the products in 3D and worked closely with Camille Fournet’s product development team and artistic direction to align with the brand image. Overall, the project was a success, and the configurator helped increase sales while enhancing the customer experience.
