How Big Sellers can Benefit from 3D eCommerce in 2024

The eCommerce industry has grown exponentially in recent years, leading to a shift in the retail space towards digitization with more customers choosing to shop online than ever before. As a result, brands need to adopt new technology to stay ahead of the game, and 3D content is becoming an essential part of eCommerce selling strategies. By using 3D content in eCommerce, brands can enhance the customer experience by providing an immersive view of products, increasing engagement, improving sales and reducing return rates.

If you’re an eCommerce brand looking to improve your visual content, let’s explore the benefits of 3D content creation and how you can incorporate it into your eCommerce selling strategy.

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eCommerce Seller? Meet 3D Tech

Over the past few years eCommerce selling has continued to grow and evolve significantly. With the closure of physical stores during the Covid-19 pandemic and the increased demand for online shopping, eCommerce has experienced a massive boom. Many traditional brick-and-mortar retailers have had to pivot to an online-only model to survive, while established online marketplaces and brands with a pre-existing online storefront have seen record sales.

This eCommerce boom shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. In this crowded selling arena, brands have to find new and inventive ways to stand out from their competitors and showcase their products. Customers rely heavily on product imagery to make informed purchasing decisions. According to Retail Technology Review, 75% of online shoppers rely on ecommerce product photography to make a purchasing decision. New technology such as 3D renderings, product configurators, and augmented and virtual reality has enhanced the online shopping experience, allowing customers to visualize products before making a purchase.

With the newfound shift towards digitization of the retail space, 3D content is becoming an essential part of the eCommerce selling strategy. Brands should focus on adopting 3D technology to ensure their eCommerce product catalog is stocked with stunning visual content; some that can only be created with a 3D content platform like imagine.io.

First, let’s dive deeper into exactly what 3D content creation is.

imagine.io 3D bedroom template with striped textiles and grey bedding wooden accent table and grey rug

What Is 3D Content Creation?

3D content creation involves the use of specialized software and tools to create three-dimensional models and environments that can be used in various mediums. Unlike traditional 2D content, which is typically captured using cameras, 3D content is built from scratch using software operated by skilled 3D graphic artists. Solutions like imagine.io have simplified this so you no longer have to have any 3D skills to achieve the same outcome.. This allows for greater creative control and the ability to manipulate and modify the content in ways that would be impossible with content captured traditionally.

This content can be viewed and interacted with from different angles, providing a more immersive experience for your online shopper. While 2D content such as studio photography or smartphone images can capture real-world objects and environments, 3D content enables the creation of entirely new and imaginative product images and scenes, making it a powerful tool for storytelling and visual communication when selling.

3D stone jewelry holders made in imagine.io

Benefits of 3D Content for eCommerce Sellers

The use of 3D content in eCommerce selling has numerous benefits, including, improving the customer experience through features such as:

While also increasing engagement and reducing return rates. In addition, 3D content can help eCommerce retailers stand out in a crowded market and simplify the process of creating high-quality product visualizations.
With access to a team of skilled 3D graphic artists and digital stylists who model products and style settings/templates, eCommerce retailers can save both time and money compared to traditional studio photography.

3D content enhances the customer experience by providing a more immersive view of products. By presenting products in 3D, you're building trust with your customers by:

Allowing them to view products from all angles to get a better sense of their size, shape, and design.
Providing greater detail to help customers make more informed purchasing decisions and get a better understanding of the product's features and benefits.
Making the overall shopping experience more engaging and memorable. Customers now have the ability to interact with products in a way that feels more real, building stronger connections between the customer and your brand.

This increased trust also reduces the rate of returns during the online shopping process.

Importantly, 3D technology saves online retailers time and money. 3D platform's such as imagine.io are a cost-effective alternative to traditional studio photography as it allows users to customize products to their desired specifications before manufacturing and for those products to be continuously adapted regardless of season or collection. Rendering your product catalog with a platform like imagine.io has the potential to save your brand 90% in costs and 80% in time compared to traditional photography.

Time of 3D versus traditional photography

Cost of 3D versus traditional photography

The Why and How of Incorporating 3D Content Into Your eCommerce Strategy

The online shopping space is crowded, retailers who are slow to incorporate innovative technology like 3D into their visual content strategy to showcase and sell their products risk falling behind. If you’re struggling to see the results you want when selling online, 3D is your answer.

You now know how 3D content enhances the shopping experience for your customer but how do you add this content to your eCommerce selling strategy?

3D silo of a lamp made in imagine.io

There is a variety of 3D content you can include in your strategy, here are the core types that can be created using imagine.io:

Incorporating these types of imagery provides your customer with a highly detailed and comprehensive understanding of your product from start to finish. This content can be used in a number of ways to boost online sales such as imagery throughout your website, on your social media, in your paid ad creative and more.

eCommerce Selling With 3D Content: Simpli Home's Success Story

Simpli Home, a major eCommerce D2C retailer, leveraged imagine.io’s 3D platform to reduce production hours, lower costs, and appeal to a younger audience of consumers. Since shoppers cannot walk into a store to touch and feel the product they are interested in, the option to see it using augmented reality appealed to the retailer. Additionally, studio photography was not an option for a brand like Simpli Home due to the sheer volume of products released annually. Therefore, rendering their imagery in a self-serve platform like imagine.io was a no brainer.

Incorporating 3D into their eCommerce selling strategy has allowed Simpli Home to let customers easily visualize products in their space, across all styles and locations including: urban, suburban, and vacation, while maintaining brand consistency.