How can the digitalization of windows, front doors, and other customizable building components help retailers acquire new customers? This was the question our CEO, Morten Strahl, addressed in a live interview at Fensterbau Frontale, offering exciting insights and approaches to this topic.
The audience followed the opening of the presentation with great interest and enthusiasm as Mr. Strahl discussed the fundamental challenges in the building components trade: the complex, time-consuming, and delayed process of obtaining prices to create quotes for end customers.
Typically, retailers work with multiple suppliers for various products and must calculate prices in different systems or manually gather prices from price lists to compile them into an offer. This process is often labor-intensive, requiring all information and product illustrations to be unified into a visually cohesive proposal. Furthermore, the tools provided by suppliers are often complex to use and require trained staff to operate. When relying on price lists, additional complications arise as the technical feasibility of configurations is often overlooked, only to be identified during a factory review or when non-buildable configurations are flagged.
Manufacturer-Neutral Configurators for Simplified Quotation Creation
This is why we rely on Fenzon Core’s manufacturer-neutral configurators, as explained by Morten Strahl. These enable retailers to not only consolidate their entire product portfolio within a single application and merge it into a cross-product offer but also to ensure that the proposed configurations are technically feasible and can be produced as quoted. Additionally, Fenzon Core allows for automated installation cost calculations across all items based on a customizable set of rules. This prevents manual errors and calculates installation prices at the push of a button.
"With Fenzon Core, retailers can impress customers during consultations with a technically validated, fast, and comprehensive price quote."
Using Product Configurators for Building Components Online
Fenzon Core centralizes all product and pricing information needed for creating quotes. This data also holds significant potential for other applications, such as online lead generation or selling building components via an online shop. With this in mind, we developed a webshop add-on that allows all products to be made available online through a dedicated domain.
The webshop is the first manufacturer-neutral e-commerce solution designed specifically for building components. It features an interactive web design tool that enables the creation of custom online shops with minimal effort and no programming knowledge. Prices and payment methods can be activated or deactivated with just a few clicks, making it possible to generate either leads or orders through the shop system. Incoming inquiries or orders are automatically available in Fenzon Core for further adjustments or for seamlessly initiating orders with suppliers.
"With our webshop solution, we aim to provide all building component retailers with a quick and easy entry into online commerce to benefit from its advantages."
For more extensive web or development projects, we also offer the option to use our SDK (Software Development Kit) to integrate various building component product configurators as a service into other software solutions or shop systems.
The feedback after the presentation was overwhelmingly positive. Many participants shared that they gained valuable new input for their digital strategies, and some even developed specific ideas to advance their online business.
“It was incredibly encouraging to see such a positive reception to my presentation,” said Morten Strahl.
HDC Digital supports building materials retailers in expanding their online presence and digitizing sales processes through e-commerce platforms.
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