Case study · Retail & eCommerce
Two million combinations, and not one of them is a SKU
A furniture maker sells sofas in any fabric, any size, any leg, any configuration. Shopify has a variant limit and the maths does not fit inside it. We built a configurator that prices combinations without creating them.
Engagement · Product build & launch
Configurable commerce, where the product does not exist until it is ordered.
- Industry
- Furniture & home
- Solution
- Made-to-order product configurator
- Platform
- Shopify
- Engagement model
- Dedicated product team
- Scope
- Configurator, pricing, visualisation, manufacturing
- Combinations
- Over 2 million valid
- Constraint
- Shopify variant limits
- Target
- Price and order any valid build
Outcomes
What configuration online replaced
Every one of these orders used to be a showroom visit and a quote by email.
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2M+
Valid combinations priced live
Pricing is computed from the configuration rules at request time, so any valid build is quotable instantly without a variant existing for it.
By design: rule-based pricing rather than enumerated variants
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+58%
Online order value share
Customers configure and order high-value made-to-order pieces online, which previously required a showroom visit and a quote.
Measured across online versus showroom revenue after launch
-
−71%
Manufacturing queries per order
Configurations arrive at the workshop as structured specifications with every required option resolved, so the workshop stops phoning the sales team.
Measured across production queries per order after launch
Context
A product that does not exist until someone orders it
Made-to-order furniture is the hardest thing to sell on a standard commerce platform.
The business
A furniture maker producing made-to-order upholstered pieces, selling through a showroom and, increasingly, online.
The starting point
A handful of pre-configured products online. Anything else required a showroom visit or an emailed quote.
The trigger
Most enquiries were for configurations not available online, and each one consumed sales time to quote manually.
What they wanted
Any valid configuration priced and orderable online, visualised accurately, arriving at the workshop as a complete specification.
Constraints
Shopify's variant limits make enumeration impossible · not every combination is valid — some fabrics do not work on some frames · pricing depends on fabric grade, size and options in combination · the workshop needs a complete specification, not a description.
System
What it runs at today
The configurator as it runs today.
-
2M+
Valid combinations
Priced live
-
0
Variants enumerated
Rules, not SKUs
-
Live
Visualisation
Fabric and configuration
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−71%
Workshop queries
Complete specifications
The engineering problem
Four problems with configurable products
The variant model that works for t-shirts collapses here.
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Variant limits and combinatorial explosion
Four options with a dozen choices each already exceeds what any commerce platform will hold, and most combinations would never be ordered anyway.
What we did
Configuration held as a structured set of choices on the line item, with a single base product. No variant is created for a combination.
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Not every combination is valid
Some fabrics cannot be used on some frames, some sizes cannot take some options. A configurator that allows an invalid build produces an order that cannot be made.
What we did
Compatibility rules evaluated live, so invalid choices are disabled as the customer configures rather than rejected after they order.
-
Pricing that depends on combinations
Price is not additive — a fabric grade interacts with size, and some options change the price of others.
What we did
A pricing rule engine evaluating the full configuration, so the quoted price is the real price rather than an estimate to be corrected.
-
The workshop receiving a paragraph, not a specification
An order that describes the piece in prose generates a phone call, and on a made-to-order product that call delays production.
What we did
Structured specification output with every option resolved, in the format the workshop already uses to cut and build.
Architecture
How it fits together
Simplified — the shape of the system rather than every service in it.
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Configuration model
- Options
- Choices
- Compatibility rules
The product as a rule set rather than a list of variants.
-
Pricing engine
- Rule evaluation
- Combination pricing
- Live quotes
Price computed from the whole configuration at request time.
-
Visualisation
- Fabric rendering
- Configuration preview
- True proportions
What the customer will actually receive.
-
Manufacturing
- Structured specification
- Cut sheets
- Workshop hand-off
The order as something the workshop can build from directly.
Keeping configuration on the line item rather than as a variant is what makes this possible at all — and it means adding a new fabric is a data change, not a catalogue migration.
Solutions
What we built
A configurator that scales with the rules, not the catalogue.
-
Configuration model
Options, choices and compatibility rules.
-
Validity engine
Invalid combinations disabled live.
-
Pricing engine
Full-configuration pricing, quoted instantly.
-
Visualisation
Fabric and configuration at true proportions.
-
Lead time
Estimated from the actual build.
-
Manufacturing output
Structured specifications in workshop format.
Key capabilities
What it does day to day
Six capabilities in the configurator.
| Capability | Runs | Refresh | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Configuration | Customer | Live | Options and choices with compatibility enforced as you go |
| Validity rules | Automatic | Live | Invalid combinations disabled rather than rejected later |
| Pricing | Automatic | Live | Full-configuration pricing, quoted instantly |
| Visualisation | Automatic | Live | Fabric and configuration rendered at true proportions |
| Lead time | Automatic | Per configuration | Delivery estimate based on the actual build and materials |
| Manufacturing output | Automatic | Per order | Structured specification in the workshop's own format |
Integrations
How the moving parts plug in
Configure, price, build — with nothing re-entered.
Customer configures
- Options chosenStep by step
- Invalid disabledLive
- Preview updatesTrue proportions
Priced live
- Rule evaluation
- Real priceNot an estimate
- Lead timeFrom actual materials
To the workshop
- Every option resolved
- Workshop formatReady to cut
- No phone callRequired
Lead time varies by fabric and build, so quoting it from the configuration rather than as a generic range removed a large share of post-order contact.
Security & data
What keeps orders buildable
On made-to-order, an invalid order is a piece of furniture that has to be scrapped.
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Validity enforcement
Compatibility rules evaluated server-side at order placement, not only in the browser.
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Price integrity
The quoted price is recomputed at checkout, so a manipulated client cannot change it.
-
Specification completeness
An order cannot be placed with an unresolved option.
-
Rule governance
Compatibility and pricing rules maintained by the product team with a change history.
The brief
Do not enumerate what you can compute
The obvious approach — generating variants for popular combinations — was already how the maker had tried to do this, and it capped what could be sold online to a few dozen pre-set pieces.
Treating configuration as structured data on the line item, priced by rules, removes the cap entirely and makes adding a fabric a five-minute job.
- Configuration as line-item data, not variants
- Compatibility rules evaluated live
- Full-configuration pricing rather than additive options
- Structured specification straight to the workshop
What the build had to work within
- 01Shopify variant limits that enumeration would breach
- 02Combinations that are not all valid
- 03Pricing where options interact
- 04A workshop that needs a specification, not prose
Process
We modelled the rules with the workshop
The compatibility rules lived in the heads of the people who build the furniture.
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Rule capture
Compatibility and pricing rules drawn out of the workshop and the sales team, then validated against two years of past orders.
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Pricing validation
The rule engine's output compared against historical quotes until every discrepancy was explained.
-
Configurator build
Built with live validity so invalid states are unreachable rather than rejected.
-
Visualisation
Fabric rendering validated against physical samples, because a wrong colour online is a guaranteed return.
-
Workshop hand-off
Specification format designed with the people who use it, and trialled on real orders before launch.
Technology
Shopify with a configuration and pricing layer
Commerce on Shopify, product logic where it belongs.
Commerce
- Shopify
- Line item properties
- Storefront API
Configuration
- Option model
- Compatibility rules
- Validity engine
Pricing
- Rule engine
- Combination pricing
- Server-side recomputation
Production
- Specification output
- Cut sheets
- Lead time calculation
Business impact
What changed for the maker
Three outcomes within the first year.
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Made-to-order moved online
Online order value share up 58%.
-
Sales stopped quoting by hand
Every valid build is quotable instantly.
-
The workshop stopped phoning
Production queries per order down 71%.
The result
Anything the workshop can build, the website can sell
Over two million valid configurations are priced live without a single variant being created, and online now accounts for 58% more order value than before.
Orders arrive at the workshop as complete specifications, which is why production queries per order fell 71%.
- 2M+ combinations priced live
- No variants enumerated
- Online order value share up 58%
- Workshop queries down 71%
What we hold to on configurable products
- 01Compute configurations; never enumerate them
- 02Disable invalid choices live rather than rejecting orders
- 03Recompute price server-side at checkout
- 04Design the manufacturing output with the people who use it
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