What Makes a Product Configurator Essential for Promotional Product Software

Everyone likes to see exactly what they’re going to get before they buy it -- size, color, design, price. It’s true for virtually all of ecommerce.

But it is perhaps nowhere more true -- and essential -- than in promotional products, an industry where volume, variety, and customization are inseparable from the aims of the industry and the people it serves.

In a field that moves $20 billion worth of customized, mostly small items every year, it’s critical for promotional products ecommerce software to let buyers, piece by piece, see what they’re getting.

"Twenty billion dollars,” said Ron Cahill, vice president for promotional product business management software and commerce solution provider Essent. "That’s a lot of money.  That’s $55 million per day, over $2 million per hour, $38,000 per minute. That’s a lot of promotional items and with average order size well under $500, that’s a lot of orders. And every order is different."

But a visual product configurator allows a buyer to see their product change as they customize it, ensuring accuracy.

"That’s why the best promotional product software suite needs visual product configuration,” adds Bryan Sheaffer, Essent VP of Sales and Promotional Product Industry Specialist. "A buyer is faced with an enormous variety of products. With a visual product configurator, the buyer can physically see the customization happen right before their own eyes -- all with accurate pricing for the product, quantity price breaks, and selected options.”

Good for individuals, good for industry

Product configurators like those built into Essent promotional product software aren’t just good for individual distributors and sellers. They’re good for the whole industry.

Incomplete and erroneous sales/purchase orders sap untold money and productivity from the promotional products industry, a topic that recently caught the attention of Promotional Products Association International. Multiple suppliers say the majority of orders they receive have errors attached, and one supplier estimated that bad orders cost his company $13,000 a day.

Visual product configurators that let buyers see all the variables are important tools to ensure orders are correct -- to ensure that time and money aren’t wasted.

The Essent solution

Essent promotional products software offers the only integrated visual product configurator in the industry. It allows users -- including distributors, decorators, suppliers, and end customers -- to completely and accurately custom-configure and price a promotional product in real time.

Promotional product ecommerce websites are special.

"In the age of customer self service, websites for the promotional products industry need to allow buyers to precisely configure products and create well-formed orders with accurate prices, shipping, and tax.” states Eric Alessi, Essent President and CEO. Well-formed is the term Essent coined to represent orders that are clearly specified for the buyer, distributor, decorator, and supplier -- and is essential to modern business.