Why 3D Product Image Technology is the Future of E-Commerce

Fueled by the collective effort of dozens of new luxury-specific technology solutions in the market, the online shopping experience continues to evolve, adopting the best features of brick-and-mortar stores. Unfortunately, in the click vs. brick war, digital retail is still the weaker competitor as it’s tough to bring the emotions and engagement of physical retail into the digital world. Enter 3D product imaging.

With 3D imaging, a retailer can provide consumers with a graphical 3D product representation that's also interactive. In addition, the consumer gets to choose what part of the object they would like to see. They can zoom in or out, rotate the object, and view it in motion. In short, 3D could truly revolutionize the market for retailers and e-commerce at large. In fact, according to recent research, 95 percent of respondents prefer an interactive 3D representation to video playback.

With 3D product imaging, TSUM, one of the largest luxury goods department stores in Eastern Europe, increased its conversion rate by almost 40 percent for products in the shoes and bags categories. TSUM is the first company to have digitized over 40,000 products in 3D, proving that it's possible to visualize large numbers of SKUs in a reasonable timeframe.

Thanks to recent advancements, creating a 3D view of any product is now a simple three-step process: shoot the chosen object with a digital camera; upload the result into the processing platform to get a 3D view; and, once it’s ready, embed it into anything you wish, be it a website (desktop or mobile version) or 3D/augmented reality/virtual reality application. Now it’s also possible to create 3D images of objects that previously presented obstacles, such as those that are black, glossy or shiny.

For instance, luggage retailer Samsonite is now making online product displays as realistic as possible with 3D product imaging. In fact, online retailers of larger, tactile items (such as luggage) are turning to 3D visualization tools to help online shoppers get a better sense of a product’s physical dimensions, shape and materials.

Smaller, more delicate products can also be successfully digitized in 3D. A great example is American Greetings, a creator and manufacturer of social expression products and the leader in e-greetings. American Greetings looked at every visualization option and, in addition to high-quality photos, now also presents site visitors with 3D images. Lingerie can also be 3D-digitized as proven by F3 Studio, the European fashion brand that offers products ranging from enticing yet practical to full out provocative. Judging by the results, neither delicate trims nor chantilly lace pose a challenge to 3D imaging technology.

Jewelry brands make sure not to be left behind when it comes to 3D imaging technology. Guérin Joaillerie, a premium jewelry brand in Europe, turned to 3D visualization to capture product features that make jewelry difficult for other solutions to portray, including the sparkle of gems and glitter of metal, transparency, reflections of light, and unusual design.

As business decision making becomes steadily more data-driven, the demand for measurable metrics is higher than ever. Conversion rate, website traffic and customer engagement levels are essential guides for marketers in all industries, yet some don’t even realize they need previously nonexistent data that's now available.

Artificial intelligence analytics tools of 2019 will be able to track the way potential customers interact with product imagery embedded into retailers’ websites, and present the most important metrics on a heat map. Apart from dwell time, the tool will highlight points of customer interest and the best angles for thumbnail product positioning as well as predict the probability of the purchase based on the patterns in customer behavior.

Kosta Popov is CEO and founder of Cappasity, a company providing an easy and scalable platform for creation, embedding and analysis of 3D and AR/VR content.