Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Sounds like the system some PC mfg. sites use; show a base model, then go through each major component and let the user keep a standard item or upgrade/downgrade it, then show the final product with parts and total cost.

I`m not sure of any scripting premade to do this, but it can be custom made, I`m sure. Possibly the hardest part, if needed, would be to do it with interacting/overlaying images to actually display a finished product. If it`s only text, it will be much easier.



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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Webline,

Yes, similair to PC mfg like Dell that has it. However, I did find a software company here: http://www.earlyimpact.com/productcart/build_to_order/

Seems like a lot of money & I`m not sure it would give the the graphic look.

Seems to me there is not much info out there on this subject, must be a low demand I guess...

Man, this is SUCH a bugaboo of ours! We offer exactly that, and it`s nearly impossible to find any kind of turnkey solution.

Almost all e-commerce templates are designed to sell a single product, in only 1 configuration. You can offer choices of color or size, but that`s about all.

Our product is a set of 26 flags, each one representing a letter. The customer orders as many flags as they choose, selecting from the alphabet to spell messages.

As such, not a single shopping cart offers any kind of basic capability. Worse---eBay and other sites don`t offer any way to accomplish the order.

What we`ve had to do is make 5-flag "generic" ads, then use "contact us" or email to allow people to specify which five flags. Then, because we sell the banners in three versions (banners, vertical ladders and valences), we have to put up 3 ads, one each of five flags.

All in all, it`s a total nightmare. We`ve worked around a lot of it on our own site, using PrestoSell order forms. But there`s no error-checking.

The result is we`re saving up money to hire a programmer who can build us a unique, one-of-a-kind shopping cart, totally customized to exactly our product.

Well, that is the alternative I guess. We could display up to 10-15 different varients of the wagon with multiple color choices. However, that would take all the fun out of buying a customized product! I truely believe consumers want to have the freedom to get what they want and are usually willing to pay for it when they can see it on their own, not just in words or specifications list. With that said, the search will continue.

Hello Ken,

You are definitely right that words and specifications have their limits.  But the way that many sites get around this limitation is by showing many examples of already placed custom orders or samples. Indeed, since most consumers do not have customization on their products, they are used to this method of buying.

Best,

Tammi



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Tammi L. Coles
Archer Targeted Communication
ArcherTC.com
Follow me on Twitter @archertc

hey cool,

I`m not sure that your request is so much low demand as maybe you didn`t use the right search terms when looking.

I did a search on Google for "product configurator" and came up with a few options, including these:

http://www.tdci.com/buydesign/BD_solutions/bd_configurator.htm
http://www.technicon.com/products_customcommerce.html

Depending on what kind of server you have you might want to append Linux or Windows to the end of your search.

Not sure if any of these would do the graphic at the end that you would want -- but perhaps these applications would get you started in the right direction.

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Click here for do it yourself website solutions!

Those are great examples of customize/configurator type websites that I believe service the more "established" businesses. I suppose many years down the road those examples may be a possibility. I guess to achieve what we are looking for just may be unattainable with our very low startup resources and relatively simple product. Perhaps our initial sell need not to be so technical, although it would be a cool feature to have for a new product to come on the market.

Thank you all for your input.

 

I wanted to create a site like this for a long time, but never figured out how I could do it. Thank you for all who have commented on this thread!


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