Today’s buyers expect more than just the ability to buy online — they demand a smooth, frictionless experience, no matter how complex the product.
Yet, eCommerce in complex industries continues to miss the mark.
And streamlined eCommerce shouldn’t stop with customers. When employees are stuck with outdated tools and complicated workflows, the sales cycle slows down for everyone involved.
Selling complex products means managing hundreds of variants, regulatory requirements, and customer-specific pricing while maintaining consistency across every channel. So how can enterprises eliminate friction for both buyers and sellers?
The right Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solution accelerates sales, removes bottlenecks, and gives businesses the capabilities they need to keep up with evolving customer expectations. Let’s take a look at when a CPQ solution makes sense, how frustrating buying experiences impact your business, and which features to prioritize for your eCommerce experience.
What is a CPQ solution?
While today’s CPQ solutions are more powerful and robust than ever, their core function is to help businesses configure products to customer needs, determine pricing, and generate quotes. They’re either a standalone software or built-in features within ERPs or eCommerce platforms.
When CPQ is part of a larger, monolithic platform, it often lacks the flexibility and advanced capabilities required for complex commerce and B2B sales. These platforms are typically slow to innovate, leaving CPQ without modern features like AI and automation. That means sales teams are left dealing with a rigid tool that’s hard to scale, difficult to sync across systems, and more likely to cause costly errors.
When is CPQ a Right Fit?
Some businesses can get by with a basic CPQ, but for industries like Manufacturing, High Tech, or Medical Devices, a dedicated solution is a must for managing quoting, pricing, and configuration at scale.
The challenges these types of industries face range from complex deal structures and product configurations to engineering dependencies and regulatory requirements. A strong CPQ solution helps ensure these complexities don’t lead to inaccurate orders, delayed quotes, compliance issues, or pricing errors. If these issues sound all too familiar, it may be time to explore composable CPQ solutions like Logik.ai or viax.
Which Features Make For a Frictionless Experience?
Beyond supporting enterprise operations, the right CPQ solution improves the eCommerce experience by delivering a faster, smoother, more intuitive buying process — helping companies keep up with the ever-evolving expectations of today’s customers.
Composability
Buyers expect a fluid, unified eCommerce experience. A composable CPQ solution ensures consistency across every channel, building trust instead of frustration. When a CPQ solution seamlessly integrates with your tech stack, both customers and teams can rely on accurate, up-to-date data.
Guided Selling and Self-Serve Journeys
More buyers want greater control over their purchasing experience, but not every buyer follows the same path. Sellers must provide the flexibility to cater to both hands-off, self-serve experiences and situations where buyers need guidance for complex product configurations and pricing. A strong CPQ solution supports both approaches, ensuring every buyer moves through the sales process effortlessly.
AI-powered guided selling helps buyers make informed decisions faster for complex purchases. Instead of manually configuring products, AI-driven CPQ recommends optimal product configurations based on customer needs, past purchases, and industry standards while automating complex pricing and discounts. These features ensure accuracy and compliance without delays. With AI guidance, buyers enjoy a more intuitive experience, and sales teams spend less time on manual tasks.
Some purchases don’t need a middleman. For repeat orders, simple configurations, or buyers who prefer a digital-first experience, self-serve CPQ capabilities let customers configure products independently, receive quotes instantly based on real-time pricing and contract terms, and complete purchases with built-in approval processes.
Tailored Transactions
Every transaction in complex commerce comes with its own set of unique needs. When buyers are ready to purchase, they expect terms, pricing, and processes tailored specifically to them.
A modern CPQ solution makes this possible by dynamically applying predefined logic and rules based on account-level and user-specific data. This can include role-based permissions, negotiated contract terms, customer-specific pricing tiers, or location-based compliance requirements.
Whether buyers require volume-based discounts, custom product bundles, or multi-step approval workflows, CPQ ensures every critical detail is automatically applied at the time of purchase. The result is an easier, more personalized experience for the buyer and fewer manual adjustments for the seller.
Flexible Agreements
Companies need the flexibility to adapt to different buying scenarios quickly without adding friction to the sales process or limiting future scalability. With a dedicated CPQ solution, sellers gain a centralized hub where they can design custom rules and workflows, manage subscription models, and create discounts. This level of control and visibility into every transaction across every channel accelerates the quoting process and gives businesses the agility to adapt as needs evolve.
Product Discovery
Finding the right product shouldn’t feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. But in complex commerce, poor search functionality, endless product variations, and limited filtering options make the process frustrating and time-consuming.
A CPQ solution with powerful search and discovery capabilities not only speeds up the sales cycle, but also increases average order value with data-driven recommendations, add-ons, and upsells to drive profitability. This is also one of the fastest growing areas for AI in CPQ, helping buyers find the right products faster while surfacing relevant content like product manuals, compatibility details, or installation guides. For many buyers, search and discovery is their first interaction with your eCommerce experience — make sure it’s a good one.
A Smarter Way to Sell
Today’s buyers expect speed, simplicity, and a seamless journey — whether they’re configuring a highly complex product, navigating pricing structures, or making a repeat purchase. But outdated, rigid, and disconnected systems create friction for both buyers and sellers, keeping eCommerce experiences from meeting these expectations.
The right CPQ solution turns the challenges of complex commerce into opportunities by streamlining configurations, automating pricing and workflows, and ensuring that every transaction flows effortlessly from search to purchase.
If you’re looking for faster sales cycles, fewer errors, and a customer-centric eCommerce experience that builds trust and drives profitability, connect with our experts to find the CPQ solution that fits your business needs.
