Product configurator for the trades: from vague wishes to calculable inquiries

A genuine inquiry from a contact form recently consisted of just one sentence: The sender would like something for their balcony. A name and phone number were included, nothing else. Before this could be turned into a quote, it took three phone calls, two unsuccessful callbacks, and an on-site visit that turned out to be unnecessary—the customer wanted something completely different. Calculate that in hours. And then extrapolate that to all the inquiries that come in during a week.

Over the past few weeks, we've developed a product configurator that addresses precisely this problem. This article explains what truly helps and what only looks like a future trend. It's about craft businesses that manufacture products you won't find off the shelf: balcony cladding, fences, awnings, stair railings, metal facades. In short, anything the customer has a vague idea of, but for which you ultimately need millimeter-precise dimensions.

To set the right expectations: A configurator is not a vending machine. It doesn't do the calculations for you, it doesn't replace taking measurements, and it doesn't conjure up customers who weren't there before. What it does is less spectacular and more valuable—it sorts. It asks the questions you would normally ask on the phone, and it does so around the clock, without ever getting tired.

Why now is the right time

Because time is currently the scarcest commodity in the skilled trades—and not because of too many orders. The ZDH (German Confederation of Skilled Crafts) economic report 1/2026, with the latest figures on the order situation, shows an average order backlog of 8,9 weeks, with a capacity utilization of 75 percent. In other words: The order books aren't overflowing, but the people who can actually calculate costs are still in short supply. Every hour spent on an inquiry that never results in an order is twice as much time lost elsewhere.

There's a second effect, difficult to measure but easy to observe. Someone sitting on the sofa at 9:30 pm, thinking about their balcony, isn't going to call the next morning. They want to do something now. If your website at that moment only offers a form with a large, empty text field, you'll get exactly what fits in an empty text field: a sentence.

The problem isn't the customer, but the empty field.

A contact form asks for your message. That's about as helpful as a waiter asking what you want without offering a menu. The customer doesn't know what you need to know. They don't know that it makes a difference whether the cladding goes in front of the parapet or between it and the wall. They don't know that panels and cassettes are two different constructions. They don't even know that you need millimeters, not approximate four meters.

This isn't a criticism of the customer, but a design flaw in the form. A configurator reverses this approach: instead of making the customer articulate what they can't, it guides them through the decisions you would ask for anyway, in the order you need them, and with images instead of technical jargon.

The end result isn't a message, but a data set: design, construction, dimensions in millimeters, material, hole pattern, color, installation requirements, postal code, contact details — and, if the customer wishes, a photo of their balcony with the pattern fitted onto it. This allows for a cost estimate without prior phone calls.

Previewing your own photo — and what's behind it

Now for the part that took the most development time. The customer uploads a photo of their balcony, draws four corner points on the area to be covered, and sees their perforated metal sheet there: perspectively fitted, in their desired color, with the chosen pattern, and in the correct scale. Change the color: instantly. Change the pattern: instantly.

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This sounds like augmented reality and expensive 3D software, but it isn't. Behind it lies a calculation from high school: homography. Four pairs of points, a system of linear equations, and the result is a 3x3 matrix that maps each point of the rectangle to the corresponding point in the photo. The browser can apply this matrix directly—it's called matrix3d ​​and runs on the graphics unit. The pattern itself is a seamless tile with transparent holes; it acts as a mask over a solid-colored surface. That's why the color change is so fast: only the background color changes; no new calculations are performed.

The scale is self-contained. Each hole pattern specifies how many millimeters a tile physically covers. The customer has previously entered the width of the area in millimeters. From these two values, the required tile size in the image is determined—no slider, no guesswork. The whole process relies on a simple proportion and a bit of linear algebra.

Why the photo still stays on the phone

Things get serious for a moment, and for good reason. A balcony photo isn't a neutral image. It reveals where someone lives—and modern smartphones embed the exact coordinates directly into the file. This EXIF ​​metadata includes the capture time, camera model, and, if location services are active, the GPS position. Stiftung Warentest, in its guide to metadata in digital photos and its implications for home and habits , clearly explains what information is included.

This leads to a decision I recommend to anyone building something like this: The photo isn't even uploaded while the customer is just testing it. It's read in the browser, resized, displayed, and edited there. Only when it's submitted does it go to you—and in the process, it's rewritten server-side, which is when the metadata disappears. This is also the most honest selling point of the entire application, because you can state it without exaggeration.

Seven rules from practice

The takeaway part — whether you have something like this built yourself or have just received an offer for it.

1. Ask questions in the order you calculate.

Not in the order that looks pretty. If the building shape determines which dimensions are even practical, it must come first. In our case, this means specifically: those who choose the U-shape will subsequently get three width fields instead of one. Those who don't choose it will never see these fields. A question that is irrelevant to the current case is not a harmless add-on, but grounds for termination.

2. Pictures beat technical terms

A round perforation pattern RV 5-8 tells you everything, but your customer nothing. A tile showing the pattern tells them everything. The same applies to colors: a color swatch instead of a DB number. Write the technical term in small print next to it—then the customer learns it along the way and uses it during phone calls. Very practical.

3. Force a millimeter, but be friendly.

A number field with plausibility limits is your calculations' best friend. It prevents those approximate four-meter errors and catches typos before they land in your inbox. The error message is crucial: a hint about the allowed range is helpful, a blanket "invalid" is annoying.

4. Make the most beautiful step skippable

This sounds paradoxical, yet it's the most important point on this list. The photo preview is the heart of the matter—and yet, it must be possible to skip it. Some people don't have a photo handy, some are on the bus, some simply don't want to. An inquiry without the preview is still complete and predictable. Making the preview mandatory will only cause you to lose the very customers who are in a hurry—and experience shows that these are the ones who actually buy.

5. No shopping cart if you don't sell anything.

A configurator that generates an inquiry doesn't belong in a shop's checkout. With us, the items are stored in a separate inquiry list; only when submitted does this create a transaction with its own number and status. The side effect was underestimated: The customer can collect multiple items—a front panel plus two side panels—and still only enter their contact details once.

6. Think about your thumb, not your mouse.

Nobody precisely draws four corner points over a photo on their phone. So you tap them, one after the other, guided from top left to bottom left, with a magnifying glass that enlarges the area under your finger and is positioned slightly off-center—otherwise, your finger will cover the exact spot you want to tap. It sounds like a minor detail, but it's the difference between "works" and "works" on the device most of your customers use.

7. Identify what the representation cannot do.

No screen displays definitive colors, not a single one. Displays are calibrated differently, and sunlight does the rest. A visible indication that the color representation is non-binding and that final decisions are made based on actual samples costs nothing and saves you the hassle of a complaint where someone has to stand next to the installed metal panel with their phone.

Where does this all stand in the market?

It's remarkable that the foundations are already in place. According to a Bitkom survey of 504 craft businesses from the summer of 2025 , almost every business now offers at least one digital service. However, only about a quarter use customer or employee portals—that is, platforms where customers can complete tasks themselves. This is precisely where the gap lies: For most, "digital" means being accessible—website, email, messenger. It rarely means that the customer can actually complete a task with them.

This isn't criticism, but an opportunity. Whoever is the first in their network to offer a position where one can fully develop their project has a unique selling point that cannot be explained—you simply link to it.

What it costs, without coffee grounds

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I don't like posts that beat around the bush with numbers, so let's be clear: this isn't a weekend project. A configurator with a visual editor, server rendering, inquiry management, and the necessary data protection features costs in the high four-figure to low five-figure range and takes about eight weeks to develop. Without photomontage, as a simple guided inquiry process with image selection, it costs roughly half as much and is ready in four to six weeks—perfectly adequate for many trades. The current price range is listed in the FAQs on the demo page; I'm deliberately not repeating it here because prices that are maintained twice will eventually diverge.

The honest calculation is the other way around: How many hours a month do you waste on inquiries that never result in a quote? Knowing this figure tells you your return on investment. Not knowing it is the first hurdle to overcome—even before considering any software. How such a project unfolds with us is explained on our custom website development page ; the technical foundation in our case is WordPress with WooCommerce as the data model—but without the sales functionality, purely for managing inquiries. However, this isn't limited to WordPress . The query logic and image preview operate in the browser and communicate with the shop only via its interface. Therefore, the same process is also available as an extension for Shopware 6 , as a module for Magento 2 , or as a theme extension for Shopify . What your customer sees remains the same in all four cases; the difference lies in how the completed inquiry is integrated into your inventory management system.

For which trades is the effort worthwhile?

The rule of thumb that has emerged is: It's worthwhile wherever the product is highly variable , dimensionally dependent , and visually crucial . Examples include metal construction and locksmithing, sun protection and awnings, fences and gates, stairs and railings, windows and conservatories, garden and landscape design with paved areas, and interior finishing with wall panels.

It's hardly worthwhile, however, if you're primarily installing standard products listed in a catalog—in that case, a good product filter is the better tool. And it's not worth it if every inquiry requires measurements before anything can even be said. That, too, is part of honest advice.

The overlooked point: accessibility

The Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) has been in effect since June 28, 2025, and it doesn't just apply to online shops. It covers services in e-commerce—explicitly including interaction options and appointment booking on regular company websites. A configurator falls precisely into this category. The Darmstadt Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK Darmstadt) provides a concise summary of the BFSG's scope , including the crucial exception for many businesses: micro-enterprises with fewer than ten employees and a maximum annual turnover of two million euros are exempt from the law when providing services. Violations can result in fines of up to 100.000 euros, in addition to the risk of receiving a cease-and-desist letter under competition law.

In practical terms, this means: keyboard accessibility is not a luxury. With our software, every corner point can be moved using the arrow keys, every step has a visible focus marker, every touch target is at least 44 pixels in size, and status changes are announced for screen readers. This might add five percent to the development time—but saves many times that amount later on. For those who want to delve deeper: we've outlined the priorities for an accessibility audit in a separate article.

We are interested in your experience

The demo runs openly online, using neutral placeholder patterns instead of customer data: Try out the product configurator with photo preview . You don't need a balcony—a photo of any surface will do, even the opposite wall if necessary. We genuinely welcome anyone who tries to push the application to its limits.

What was the vaguest inquiry you've ever received? We're collecting them now, and the one-liner about a balcony is no longer the most common. And to everyone already using such a tool: At what step do your customers drop out? That's the most interesting statistic in the whole thing—and the one that's written about the least.

If you are wondering whether this is worthwhile for your trade, feel free to write it in the comments — or directly via the contact page , then we will take a closer look at your inquiry.