Design of an open framework for a 3D product configurator software system, used for development of virtual shopping. Applications in the fashion retail sector

In today’s technological era, it is evident how intrinsic digital technologies are in every aspect of our lives. The Fashion Retail industry is no exception. The border between physical and digital in retail is currently in a blurred state. Brands can leverage this blurred state, by utilising the best values from both Physical and Digital for the brand offer: the realistic, tangible perception of products from the Physical side and optimisation, experience enhancement and speed-up of delivery from the Digital side. Fashion Retailers provide customers with a wide array of products and experiences but this abundance of products and experiences still leaves room for customers to not be 100% satisfied. It is not easy for customers to find products that absolutely correspond to their requirements and that match with the ‘ideal’ product that they have visualised prior to going shopping. They may find something similar to what they have in mind, but still not a perfect product for them. By providing customisable products, brands have the power to get closer to fully satisfying their customers. New technologies and methods of manufacturing have made it possible for brands to reconsider the traditional approach of producing products and then convincing customers to buy them. By incorporating these new technologies and methods, brands can offer customisable products where they first receive input from the customer regarding the product configuration that they want, and only after that, begin the production process of that particular customised product. However, unique pieces that incorporate the individual customer’s input, do not fit in with brands’ traditional, large scale production approach, forcing them to find a trade off between the traditional production of pre-designed/predefined products and the use of new technologies and additive manufacturing of unique, complex made-to-order products. ‘Hybrid’ products are the result of this trade off, where traditional methods of production are used for principal parts and a mix of additive and other new technologies are used for the production of the rest. Additive manufacturing is suitable for the production of a large variety of options of product parts with the possibility to customise particular details on each of them. The hybrid product allows the customer to reach this point of 100% satisfaction. It also allows the brands to have an agile, made-to-order supply chain, powered by the best new technologies and processes, owing to which it is possible to configure the product not only in terms of its appearance but in terms of size as well. And so, guaranteeing what till now was only possible to achieve using an artisanal, slow, tailor made production approach. From this opportunity arises the need for brands to consider the appropriate formats in which to represent these ‘virtual’, ‘hybrid’ products, that still do not exist, but need to be shown to the customers in a realistic way. It is important for the brands to demonstrate how the customisable elements would enhance the products and to provide a visual explanation of how the product will fit and look on the customer, based on their unique measurements and body shape. The virtual experience of the simulation of fitting and viewing the virtual products should ideally recreate the feelings of physical interaction, but in a digital way. Owing to the digital nature of the interaction, the experience can be spread easily at a large scale and an unlimited number of people can interact with the virtual products in different ways, all at the same time. The wide choice of options for customisation can also be considered as a risk as the customer may get lost and overwhelmed by the amount of choice and different levels of complexity. Therefore, the brand’s proposal of product configuration needs to be systematised and presented to the customer in an easily understandable format. This necessity is highlighted by the high competition on the market. Customers don’t want to spend extra time and energy to understand how to interact with offers, even if they are potentially interesting. The brand’s new proposals need to be communicated in the language of their customers, otherwise they may easily go to the brand’s competitors. By evaluating the values provided by previously existent experiences and the opportunities that arise from the currently adopted technologies, I have developed a framework for the configuration of virtual products.