Product Configurator for Pergolas, Awnings and Exterior Blinds
The customer's first question — what does a terrace pergola cost — doesn't have one answer, it has dozens. The price moves with width and projection, with the type of operation, with the fabric collection, with the RAL colour of the frame, and with how it is fixed: to a wall, to its own posts, or to a structure that is already there.
In the office, the answer is looked up in supplier tables organised by size bands and then topped up from memory with whatever else goes in: motor, remote, wind sensor, lighting. And some of the combinations that look fine on paper can't actually be made — which comes to light only when the order reaches the supplier or the crew reaches the site.
A configurator for shading systems keeps width, projection, operation and fixing in one set of rules, and stops impossible combinations before they become an order.
Where manual quoting gets complicated
- Prices are read from size-band tables, and anything between two bands is approximated — usually in the customer's favour, to avoid an argument later.
- Impossible combinations surface late: a width beyond the limit of that arm type, a motor that doesn't match the roller system, a wind sensor requested on a manually operated unit.
- The fabric collection and the frame colour change the price, but they end up as free text in the notes rather than priced options — so nothing recalculates when the customer changes their mind.
- Installation is estimated by eye, because it depends on the fixing method, and the fixing method is only clear after the site visit. The difference gets negotiated after the quote has already been accepted.
How quoting can look with a configurator
Prices from width and projection, with the supplier's bands
Dimensions are entered exactly as the customer gave them, and the system applies the right supplier band and rounds up to the next one. The grey zone between two table rows disappears.
Mutually exclusive options blocked by design
Manual operation never opens the sensor list. The roller system filters compatible motors. The maximum span of the arm type limits the sizes that can be selected. What can't be delivered isn't offered.
Comparable variants in a single document
The same pergola with manual operation, with a motor and with a wind sensor, side by side, with the price difference on each option. The customer chooses from a table instead of from three documents sent on different days.
Supplier order and installation sheet from the configuration
The accepted quote produces the supplier order with every option code, and the installation sheet: fixing type, the accessories that come with it, and what has to be prepared on site before the crew arrives.
Before and after, in quoting for shading systems
Today
With a configurator
Today
Prices are looked up in size-band tables, and sizes between bands are approximated.
With a configurator
The price is calculated from width and projection, with the supplier's bands applied exactly as defined.
Today
The fabric collection and RAL colour are written into the notes of the quote.
With a configurator
They are priced options, and anything unavailable in the chosen combination doesn't appear at all.
Today
A wind sensor is quoted on a manually operated unit and corrected at installation.
With a configurator
Automation options only appear when the type of operation allows them.
Today
Three variants for the same customer go out as three separate documents.
With a configurator
Variants sit side by side, with the price difference on each option.
Today
The fixing method comes up after the quote and changes the final value.
With a configurator
Fixing type is a choice in the configurator, with its accessories and labour included.
What a configurator needs to know for shading systems
Here the hard part isn't the price. It's the number of combinations, and the fact that many of them rule each other out.
Exclusion rules, not only compatibility rules
Operation, roller system, sensors, remotes and lighting all constrain each other. Rules that say what is possible aren't enough; you also need rules that say what must never reach an order.
Price bands with rounding up
Suppliers don't price by square metre, they price by width and projection band. The configurator has to reproduce those bands exactly, including behaviour at the boundaries, or the difference comes straight out of the margin.
Fabric consumption on developed area
Fabric isn't consumed at the ordered size: there are allowances for hemming, for winding and for cutting out of the collection's roll width. What is charged and what is installed are two different numbers.
An installation sheet tied to the configuration
Fixing to a wall, to its own posts or to an existing structure changes the accessories, the labour and what has to be ready on site. If fixing type is an option in the quote, the installation sheet can be generated from it.
Try a configurator
A working public demo on another configurable product: you pick the dimensions and options, and the drawing, the itemised price and the bill of materials recalculate live.
Open the demoThe enquiries too, not just the quoting
This is the most strongly seasonal sector of the nine. Demand concentrates in spring and early summer, which means campaigns are planned before the season rather than during it.
- What gets prepared over winter — pages, material, campaigns ready to switch on — decides how spring goes.
- Meta works well here, because the product sells on the image, and finished terraces are the best material there is.
- Intent-based Google Ads stays the backbone, with budget pushed into the peak and pulled back outside it.
- During the peak, how fast you answer an enquiry matters more than in any other sector on this list.
Real project
See a system built for a manufacturer
Case study: how quoting and production look once information travels in a single flow.
Let's see how many combinations you actually quote
In the free audit we take the range you sell and list the options and the rules that connect them. From there it's clear whether a configurator is worth building, and where to start.