Configurators are commonplace across many products, from cars to lighting fixtures to the fidget toy your nephew got for Christmas. Configurators deliver an engaging experience to the end-user during a critical part of their user journey, the ordering phase. Add too much friction here and you risk customers dropping off and never coming back. In other words, a smooth configurator experience can be the difference maker in a sale.
Big companies know this, and they’ve developed in house solutions for a seamless configurating experience. Look at Tesla for example.
When you are configuring a Tesla car, all the essential details are on the screen exactly when you need it. The specs, price, and a picture of the product appear seamlessly, reducing the chances of drop off. More detailed information only appears when the user seeks it out, appearing as a pop-up window on the same page so the user does not leave the configurating flow. Bravo to the Tesla team.
Configurators in Lighting
Let’s look at a more relevant example within our beloved lighting industry.
WAC Lighting’s configurator is one of the better ones I’ve come across (but not the best). You can play around with the fixture options and the part number changes. Some of the specs are displayed but it could be better. There are some awkward spaces in their configurator that don’t show up on the part number, this should be removed.
This was a very good attempt by WAC lighting as building a configurator for lighting is very difficult. Lighting fixtures can have a ton of options, and not all options work with each other so there must be rules in place to ensure people order correctly.
The best configurator in lighting
As you might have guessed, Electrify has the best configurator in lighting. Here's why:
Builds the part number
As you saw in the WAC lighting example, our configurator also builds a part number from the user’s selections. Ours is better because we don't have unecessary sections to display the wattage and lumens, instead, we've embedded these critical specs directly within the options themselves. Which leads me to my next point.
Spec information exactly when you need it
On Electrify, you can place spec information within a configurator option. Users can then understand the specs of what they’re ordering without having to dig through a spec sheet. Seamless.
Ordering accurately without the fine print
No one likes reading fine print, unfortunately configurator rules in lighting are often stuck in fine print underneath the ordering guide in a PDF. This leads to lots of human error and is a frustrating ordering experience.
The Electrify configurator has your ordering rules embedded into the software. Users cannot order an erroneous SKU if they tried (assuming your rules are correct).
Easy to configure your configurator
There are more subtle reasons why we are so confident in our solution, and it takes place behind the scenes in your admin view. We made it easy for you to configure your configurator because we have first-hand experience with painful portal maintenance. In my past life at RAB Design Lighting, one of my biggest pain points was maintaining the monster of a portal I helped build. So, when we were developing Electrify, we sought to automate and reduce as many maintenance tasks as possible, with more automations to come.
Not breaking the flow
Not only is it easy to configure products, but all the accessories and components for the product are cleanly listed right underneath.
More cool stuff hidden to not spoil the surprise
There's a lot that I haven't covered in this blog post to support why we're the best in the business at configurators for lighting. You can email us or book a call to learn more!
