Orbital Vision is a creative design agency based in Long Eaton, Derbyshire – the UK centre of quality upholstery and manufacturing. Orbital’s “unreal team of creatives” specialises in CGI for the furniture and interiors industry. With years of specialised knowledge and experience in the field, the agency is known for producing an exceptional array of photorealistic imagery for its clients …
Over the past year, Orbital has taken a different approach to working with its clients, by offering additional support in marketing and ecommerce strategies – the agency works closely with clients to understand their business needs, and offers advice on what can be achieved when making the most of CGI.
Orbital prides itself on being a one-stop-shop for the furniture industry, supplying clients with everything they need to sell a product online (apart from the physical product itself). With online shopping more popular than ever, customer expectations are only growing, says Orbital Vision’s director, Rob Walker, and showing a piece of furniture in all available fabrics is no longer enough to secure a sale: “Customers want to experience an online try-before-you-buy shopping approach, and if businesses aren’t keeping up with tech trends, customers will find somewhere else to shop.
“After talking with our clients about what we can do to help them further improve their ecommerce capabilities, we discovered that most were all missing the same thing – a product configurator.”
In timely fashion, Orbital Vision is about to launch its own product configurator, enVision, which comes with an array of features ready to be plugged into any website – whether a site is built in WordPress, Magento, Shopify or any other platform, Orbital can integrate it.
enVision allows customers to fully customise, rotate, zoom in or out, and view products on any web or mobile browser, on any device. Sellers will also be able fully customise their product with running costs, and will have access to many more useful features, such as adding product dimensions or animating each product to open and close.
To top it off, enVision will also allow customers to view products in their own home, with the built-in, app-less AR viewer (see our discussion on p54). All of this runs as a website plug-in, meaning set-up is quick and easy, with added CSS to make sure the customiser fits with the client’s individual branding – and the add-to-basket feature means enVision can be seamlessly integrated into existing online stores.
Benefits to retailers include offering an upgraded shopping experience, increased sales, reduced returns, an increase in new and returning customers, and an improved overall customer-business relationship, due to better management of customer expectations.
Manufacturers can also expect to see an increase in sales, as they will be able to supply their retailers with exceptional digital assets. In the same way as online shoppers want to experience more online, manufacturers should expect to see an increase in customer uptake, as they will have more to offer retailers than their competitors, says Rob.
With big benefits and small costs, enVision allows customers to have a more personalised and interactive shopping experience, as well as making them feel more involved in the design process (according to Forbes, brands using configurators reduced their online return rates by -80%).
“The possibilities of CGI are endless,” says Rob. “Once you have a furniture model built in CGI, you can use it endlessly to bring an upgraded ecommerce experience to your customers.” If Orbital already has a retailer’s product built for the manufacturer, it’s a quick switch-on process for the team to put it live on a site.
Orbital’s focus on delivering imagery of unrivalled quality means the team is also able to supply clients with lifestyle imagery to sit alongside enVision. “With traditional photography becoming increasingly expensive and difficult (not to mention the environmental impact), CGI allows you to create endless shots, styled to your preference,” states Rob. “So, as the seasons change, in hand with the trends, these digital assets become a vital tool needed for an unsurpassed speed to market.
“Not only this, but Orbital can also animate the room to bring your products to life – all at a fraction of the cost of a photography or video shoot.
“It’s time to get ready for change. Contact our unreal team of creatives today!”
