The 3D world of showcasing products online Growth story of 3DPhy…Enhancing e-commerce business with realism…

It has been less than a year since 3DPhy came into existence as a registered company, but the underlining idea behind it has taken roots over the past couple of years. Unlike usual startup firms in India that are business enabled, 3DPhy was ideated and conceived by tech-freaks in college dorm rooms, making it one amongst the few blue-blooded technology enabled startups in India.

Being a technology-enabled firm has its perks. You already have a technology at your disposal; you just need to find an application. Despite of having core competency in the field of computer-vision, 3D Virtual and augmented reality, the notion of enabling e-commerce business was a long shot to say the least. The idea was to enhance customer confidence through better showcasing of products online. And what could be more realistic than actual 3D model of products.

As 3DPhy graduated from power-point slides and whiteboards to an actual registered company, it was high time to validate the idea. The very first positive re-enforcement came in the form of a pilot project for FabFurnish.com, an online furniture retailing company. It was a great learning experience and bolstered the belief of the team in its product.

This project enabled the stream-lining of the product even further. Following this, in December 2014, 3DPhy set up its first office. Saying that completing the pilot project with just a handful of members was a mammoth task would be an understatement. The team was running in a boot-strap mode, stretching the men and machine to its limits. And adding to that, cruel winters of Delhi, the cocktail of hardships were almost unbearable.

Relief came in the month of February 2015, when 3DPhy bagged its first angel investment to the tune of Rs 13 million. This financial booster shot was followed by the team moving to a dedicated office space in Gurgaon, much more structured product development, product delivery and business development mechanisms.

The re-structuring drive bore fruits fairly quickly with development of a parallel product for real-estate. Few other achievements were 3DPhy Openspace and one more major client in the form of Urban-ladder. The following months bore witness to the flexibility and adaptability of the product. All forms of online-businesses were slowly discovering the usefulness of the showcasing tools provided by 3DPhy.

3DPhy has primarily two products. One focused towards e-commerce businesses and the other towards real-estate and hospitality. 3DPhy Basic focuses primarily towards solving the biggest possible issue that today's e-tailing businesses are facing on a daily basis—returned products. The extent to which the products are being returned back, points out to simply one thing, lack of proper showcasing of the products on the web.

The customers find it hard to believe that the product that they have received is the same thing they saw on the website. Simple images fail to convey the sense of aesthetics, scale and realistic texture. All this contributes towards a decreased customer confidence. 3DPhy Basic is a product that has come to the rescue of both e-tailing companies and the end users. It enables the end user to see the objects in 3D on the web. They can flip it, rotate it, and analyze its material and size, all in the same interface without any complications.

3DPhy Openspace is a revolutionary product for real-estate and hospitality businesses. The aim here again is to increase buyer confidence and to provide a showcasing tool that is both intuitive and intriguing. 3DPhy Openspace is, like all its siblings, web-enabled. This lets the business to use the product without any device limitations and saves the end-users from installing bulky software.

With 3DPhy Openspace, you can view any property with the utmost realism from anywhere in the world, thereby, virtually making a property portable! 3DPhy Openspace has found wide acceptance amongst major projects in Delhi-NCR region, the primary market in focus at the moment.

Both the market segments present unique sets of challenges. But the common challenge is to web-enable both the products. Web-enabling not only means that it should run on all devices with internet irrespective of software installed, but also, bandwidth consumed should be kept at a minimum.

Also, for both the segments, data collection has always been a tough nut to crack. All these challenges have been met with technological developments and process innovations. 3D showcasing will definitely boost business in the e-commerce sector in the right way by winning customer confidence in the times to come.

With inputs from Amit Shekhar, Co-founder, 3DPhy.com