PTC and VNTANA Supercharge Retail DX Strategies with New 3D Optimization Capabilities

As more brands and retailers pursue extended Digital Transformation (DX) strategies, significant barriers have emerged: 3D assets created for internal and supply chain collaboration are unsuited to use elsewhere, being stored in incompatible file formats and different, disconnected data sources. The file sizes of these 3D assets are so large that their use in product development and sales & marketing scenarios is hindered without extensive manual rework.

Bringing together retail’s most widely used PLM solution and the power of 3D platforms, PTC and VNTANA are collaborating to empower retail, apparel, footwear, and accessories companies to seamlessly scale their use of 3D in product design, development, and downstream consumer experiences. Together, FlexPLM enables automatic optimization of 3D assets by leveraging VNTANA’s patented algorithms, making it significantly easier to use and collaborate with those assets than previously possible.

“Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, eCommerce has quickly become the dominant mode of retail, at the same time that supply chain disruption created an acute need for remote, visual collaboration – forcing brands and retailers of all sizes to rapidly increase their use of 3D assets for design, development, and digital engagement and sale,” explains Bill Brewster, Senior Vice President and General Manager of PTC’s Retail Business Unit.

The demand for 3D in retail increased dramatically in 2020, with recent research suggesting that more than 90% of brand and retail leaders believe that the pandemic accelerated the need for digital product creation. Compounded by pre-existing market forces such as digital-native consumers, increased social media shopping and a timeline for capitalizing on trends that can be measured in weeks rather than years, the scope of 3D strategies has also evolved. These abilities have grown from simply replacing physical samples with digital alternatives, to transforming line reviews and fit sessions, and bringing products to life on eCommerce websites with augmented reality applications.

“VNTANA is specifically designed to solve these business challenges as brands look to make more use of their 3D assets across the retail value chain,” explains Ashley Crowder, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of VNTANA. “With this collaboration, FlexPLM users can easily collaborate on 3D models and instantly share a web-standard version that can be used not only for in-house design reviews and supply chain collaboration, but also across social media, eCommerce, and digital advertising, which have proven to double online conversion rate and reduce returns by 40%. We are excited to reach the largest pool of retail PLM users through our work with PTC.”