Victorinox

Offer online 3D customization

Allow custom graphics application

Generate prodution files

Offering online product customization for corporate gifts

Victorinox has been innovating since 1884 when founder Karl Elsener came up with the revolutionary idea of manufacturing a multifunctional compact knife for the Swiss Army. The company is now the largest manufacturer of pocket tools in the world and continually develops state-of-the-art products to meet ever-evolving consumer needs. Over the years, the company has branched out into other product categories such as household & professional knives, watches and travel gear for both consumer B2C and professional B2B markets.

Product personalization is a key part of the brand’s marketing strategy, both for direct sales and through their large network of partners and distributors. Victorinox invites their clients to add their imagination and personality to the iconic design, quality and functionality that define the brand’s products. For their Corporate Business Service, they were looking to take the online personalization of corporate gifts to the next level. Originally, the company offered a basic service with 2D images that was not easily accessible on their eCommerce website. Given the brand’s premium positioning, Victorinox was looking to develop their customization offer and provide their business customers with an exceptional experience.

Interview with

Laeticia Pougary

Service Owner Customization

We would like to thank the entire Emersya team for their work and support. We appreciate the efficiency and professionalism of your team with whom we will continue to work with pleasure.

Challenges

Develop an interactive and easy-to-use tool for online product personalization

Enable customers to apply and edit logos or custom graphics for printing and engraving

Offer advanced color definition using the pantone color chart

Deliver a final product that is true to the customer’s online creation

Empower distributors and partners to generate sales autonomously

Deliver premium customization experiences across all sales channels

Stand out from the competition

Solution

Emersya's Interactive 3D product customization solution for e-commerce

Victorinox chose to use Emersya’s Interactive 3D technology to offer a state-of-the-art online product personalization experience for the corporate gift market. Corporate customers can now explore any of the products in the corporate gifts range online and discover their features through 3D animations. The 3D product customizer empowers clients to upload custom graphics, logos or text that reflect their corporate identity and apply them directly on the Interactive 3D product preview. They can easily edit the position, size and orientation in real-time and instantly visualize their design from all angles. The online configurator also allows clients to customize the packaging for their corporate gifts in Interactive 3D.

With Emersya, Victorinox was able to push the boundaries of online product customization. Once a custom graphic has been uploaded, the technology detects the number of colors present in the image and indicates the pantone color reference for each one. Customers can edit the colors in the original file by selecting a different reference from the Pantone chart. This allows them to ensure the colors match their company branding and avoid printing errors on the final product.

Benefits for customers

Emersya’s technology makes the customization experience simple, intuitive and enjoyable whilst providing corporate customers with complete autonomy. The photo-realistic real-time 3D previews allow the client to explore the product from all angles during the customization process, providing them with the clearest idea of what they are ordering. Thanks to Emersya 3D viewer’s advanced rendering capabilities, clients can not only visualize what their custom logos will look like printed on their selected product, but also how they will look when engraved on the knife blades!

At any time during the customization process, Victorinox corporate customers can generate, in one click, a unique link to share their custom design in Interactive 3D with their internal teams. This enables them to easily review the design, then go back and incorporate changes, all without the need to request assistance from Victorinox. This feature facilitates the collective decision-making process by allowing the client to create and share multiple design options before selecting the best one.

For the past two years, we’ve been getting very positive feedback from our customers regarding their use of the configurator. They are generally thrilled by the opportunity to select and customize the products on their own, directly on the platform, without waiting for our suggestions. The online configurator saves us time as it enables us to send an offer that perfectly meets the customer’s needs.

Benefits for resellers and distributors

Victorinox works with a large network of distributors who also wish to offer online product personalization. Emersya allows them to share the embeddable link for the Interactive 3D configurator with their distributors so they can easily integrate it into their websites. The benefits are numerous. First of all, it provides distributors with an online catalog that gives an overview of all customizable products, all in one place. If Victorinox wishes to add, remove or update products and options at any time, they can deploy the new version across their sales network at the click of a button. This allows the brand to preserve their premium brand experience and effectively manage their personalization options offered by their distributors across the world.

The online customizer is a sales tool that can be accessed 24/7, anywhere in the world and from any device, providing resellers with a more efficient, automated way of generating sales. The Interactive 3D configurator empowers resellers to prepare their quotations and sales presentations with high quality custom visuals available instantly, without the need to contact Victorinox.

Since its launch in Switzerland in 2021, Victorinox has extended the use of the Interactive 3D product customizer to other European markets (Germany, Austria, France, UK), to Mexico and will be launching it for the US market later this year. More than 100 customizable products are already available on the Emersya platform and Victorinox regularly expands its online assortment to meet the needs of specific markets.

The USA remains the only market that has developed a dedicated online website for corporate gifts. It’s a classic 2D website for now, but we have high expectations for the launch of the 3D configurator in this market. We look forward to their feedback.

Benefits for Victorinox

Since the Emersya Interactive 3D configurator was launched on the Swiss website, Victorinox has experienced a considerable increase in traffic to the Corporate gifts customization section. In 2022, the online customizer generated over 2.2 million Swiss Francs worth of orders for the Swiss market alone. Furthermore, showcasing all customizable product categories in one place has enabled Victorinox to gain significant visibility across their different product ranges.

Victorinox also uses Emersya’s Order Management System for made-to-order products. At the end of the online customization process, the client can request a quotation for their custom product. Emersya automatically creates a quotation request with the following information:

the selected product and its corresponding bar code
the requested quantity
an image of the custom product design
a unique URL to visualize the custom design in Interactive 3D
the customization options and their corresponding product codes
the source images for the custom graphics applied
the production ready images (vector graphic files) for the custom graphics applied
the custom text and font applied

All quotation requests are centralized in the Emersya Order Management module on the Emersya Platform. The tool allows Victorinox to streamline and automate the preparation of quotations for corporate customers and redistribute orders to their various partners.

The future of 3D at Victorinox

Over the last 4 years, the use of 3D within the company has been evolving. Victorinox has created a Transformation & Technology department to oversee the company’s digital transition at an enterprise level. One of their main objectives is to eliminate silos between teams by streamlining and optimizing the current systems they use. The department is exploring how Victorinox could use new tools like the online Interactive 3D configurator and the Emersya Order Management solution to continue to digitalize their global sales strategy and their relationship with distributors & partners.

Victorinox also has created an internal content team that now produces the 3D models for all the products available for online customization. They work closely with the production team to ensure that for each new product an optimized 3D model, or digital twin, is created, ready to be used to create marketing resources such as images, animation and video. Emersya supports the Victorinox teams on a daily basis in order to advise them on how they can leverage their 3D assets to create the most value of 3D at different stages of their products’ lifecycles, from product ideation to marketing, sales and made-to-order production.

About the company

Victorinox is a global company based in Switzerland with five product categories: Swiss Army Knives, Household and Professional Knives, Watches, Travel Gear and Fragrances. The Swiss Army Knife is the core product and has a pioneering role in the development of all product categories.

Victorinox