Paragon Outdoor is a well established wholesaler that dominates the North American Outdoor-Décor Market with more than 20 million square feet covered by their products in the US alone.
In 2020, after 10 years of Marketplaces and B2B activities, they decided to partner with us and start selling Direct-to-Consumer. Their shopping site made its first organic sales immediately after its launch, thanks to an outstanding experience, their strong brand and online presence.
After making their first successful steps in the B2C arena and just before the 2022 “Backyard Season”, Paragon Outdoor took their vision to the next level with a fully-customizable pergola that has been conceived and designed by an international award-winning industrial designer, with a lot of thought and attention to consumers’ feedback.
Challenges
25 Billion Product Permutations
When Paragon Outdoor offered ready-made products only, they had just 130 product configurations in total. In reality, consumers kept asking for more and more flexibility. The high demand encouraged Paragon Outdoor’s CEO to make serious amendments in their factory that were necessary to start selling custom-made products.
The newborn product was designed to support full customization of style, size, canopy and beams, which means 25 billion product configurations. Our main challenge as Product Managers and Product Designers was coming up with a digital experience that demonstrates the countless amount of possibilities, and yet simplifies the configuration process.
Luxury Pricing, No-Returns Policy
While the competitive market and consumer culture in the US dictate uncompromising standards for service, custom-made sellers cannot offer refunds as the items cannot be resold.
Our next challenge was making a clear and coherent User Experience and User Interface, that would help consumers to know exactly what they buy without regrets.
Solution
Solution
Just 4 Simple Steps
Although Paragon Outdoor’s custom-made pergola has more than 25 billion permutations, we managed to break the configuration experience into just four simple steps, each one helps users to focus on a different attribute of the pergola. The easy configuration process is made to help consumers of any kind build their own product quickly, without professional skills, background, or device.
Real Time, Parametric 3D Model
With so many product configurations, it was impossible to show real photos in real-time. Yet, we wanted our users to get an accurate feedback on what they’re buing in every singe stage of the configuration process. We decided to demonstrate the pergola with a Parametric 3D Model that adjusts in real time, according to the consumer’s input.
View from every angle, at home
We decided to include Augmented Reality Functionality, User Manuals, Real Time Recommendations & Pro Tips, to help Paragon Outdoor’s customers design their own shade structure from the comfort of their home, without any struggle. We also backed the Customer Service team with a one-of-a-kind Remote Collaboration Functionality, that enables them co-designing pergolas with their customers and view the same results together, in real time.
Real Time Recommendations & Pro Tips
The Outcome
Within 6 months of Research, Specifications, Design and Development, Paragon Outdoor launched their online pergola configurator. Just a few days later, they started receiving custom orders, acquiring new satisfied customers, and having a whole new revenue stream.
Today, we are working together on the next product in this category: the custom-made pavilion.
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