The recent surge in home upgrades during lockdown has demanded big changes from the bathroom industry.

In 2020 alone, almost half of all US homeowners opted to change the layout of their master bathroom as part of renovations for the year. The critical questions for bathroom retailers now are: How can they capitalize on this surge? How can they capture a bigger market share by making their bathrooms appealing to a broader audience of inspired buyers? 

In tandem with their increasing confidence in e-commerce, the needs of customers are changing. They now demand greater involvement and prefer a more collaborative approach to design. But bathroom design and installation need an exceptionally high level of detailed planning. 

How can you accommodate the preferences of your buyers to enable a smooth, error-free shopping experience? 

And how can you incorporate those personalized touches that make all the difference?

Hold your customers’ attention throughout the sales process with an immersive, omnichannel 3D planning solution that provides hyper-detailed, sales-ready designs in minutes.

Cater to what your buyers want

Getting the customer experience right is about more than great personal connection. It’s also about ensuring you are optimizing your online and in-store sales channels to their fullest potential to provide a quick and frictionless service. 

In this era of new sales journeys, tailoring your customer service is especially useful. Thanks to familiarity with online design tools and e-commerce, there has been an upsurge in what we call Do-It-With-Me (DIWM) buyers. These buyers seek to strike a balance between pure Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) processes. They are looking for ownership over their designs whilst at the same time requiring the reassurance provided by expert designers where needed. 

This is precisely the type of situation in which powerful, fast, and feature-rich 3D design solutions that integrate with CRM systems, such as HomeByMe for Bathroom Retailers, are most valuable. They allow customers to have the guided DIY experience they demand while providing expert support whenever needed.

Use the HomeByMe for Bathroom Retailers 3D planning solution to deliver a standout customer experience and accelerate the sales journey in the following three ways.

1. Qualify more customers with instant wow factor

Across any sales channel, retailers have just minutes to capture a shopper’s attention. They can make those minutes count with inspiring designs and a wow-factor user experience. Whether online or in-store, retailers need an omnichannel 3D planning solution that can deliver the most detail in the shortest time frame, enabled by responsive graphics and a high-quality, straightforward process. This level of accessibility also provides an easy opportunity to encourage tentative browsers to ‘give it a go’. This way, you can make way for more potential conversions. 

One way to convey detailed, inspirational bathroom design ideas is by creating pre-built product sets within the 3D planner. This way, if customers see a bathroom they like, just one click will take them to a detailed 3D floor plan. Utilizing pre-built product sets from a retailer’s catalog within the solution is all about speed. From there, it’s simple for consumers to make this room their own, amending the room shape, floors, walls, and sloping ceilings with ease.

Pre-built product sets from your catalog also emphasize livability. Retailers can include personal touches – like towels on the towel rail, diffusers and candles, or artwork on the walls. These things all serve to transform a design into a bathroom matching the consumer’s aspiration. The design becomes a true reflection of their dream bathroom: one they can see themselves using within their own homes. 

2. Empower customers to create sales-ready plans online

You’ve piqued interest with your product sets. Now it’s time to delve deeper. Whether browsers are engaging online or in-store at this point, this is where you’ll need a detailed omnichannel solution that will cater to different shopping preferences. It can even provide a completely autonomous buy – if that’s what your customer wants. 

For a standout user experience, the platform must be fast, powerful, and multi-featured. This includes the ability to input exact room dimensions, fittings, and fixtures with millimeter precision. Such accuracy is essential when consumers are often unsure about the practical functionality of their designs due to a lack of technical experience. 

A solution with inbuilt design rules ensures users are alerted to potential errors in real-time, even if they are designing autonomously. This further enhances confidence while shortening and simplifying the design journey. 

For sales professionals, building autonomy into the design process also frees up valuable time for their most complex or high-ticket projects or for those customers preferring to have projects managed for them.

3. Inspire confidence to close the sale

Now, let’s look at the most significant barriers to closing in bathroom design.

One of the biggest reasons that customers abandon their designs is bill shock. They want upfront pricing that updates in real-time as their design evolves. Therefore, a solution that offers real-time pricing delivers the most stress-free experience. 

Another barrier is stockouts; when a consumer has designed a space with a product only to find out that it is unavailable at the last minute. With an omnichannel 3D planning solution, you can create handy alerts to alternative products. By adding and promoting complementary product sets, opportunities also arise to cross-sell and upsell, whether in-store or online. This helps buyers pick other items that will “complete the look”.

A final barrier – validation from trusted friends. With a 3D planning solution, retailers can provide realistic 3D renders that can be shared with friends and family via social media platforms for their thoughts before moving to installation.

Design differently for a standout retail experience 

Bathroom retailers require a solution that is powerful enough to generate detailed, sales-ready designs fast if they are to capture and retain the attention of today’s time-poor customer. 

A feature-rich 3D planning solution, like HomeByMe for Bathroom Retailers, can help cater to consumers’ preferences by providing true omnichannel design experiences. Whether they want to shop in-store, online, or a combination of the two, the solution has every buyer’s needs covered. Interested to find out more about the HomeByMe for Bathroom Retailers 3D planning solution? Contact us today to organize a platform demonstration with one of our experts.