How to sell more made-to-order products online

First: full price and delivery time

One sentence next to the price is the cheapest fix. It answers the top two reasons people leave a cart.

The delivery time has to be the one your workshop really keeps. We write it as a range, honest rather than short. Cost: a few days of writing and one shipping rule by country.

Second: one drawing and one photo for size

A list of measurements does not tell the buyer if the piece fits. In Baymard Institute's testing of furniture sites, test participants needed exact measurements, and some could not tell which number belonged to which part.

Cost: one drawing per product family and one photo. One day of a draughtsman's time per family.

1. ·A dimensions image: each measurement drawn on the part it describes.
2. ·One photo in scale: next to a person, a door, a small carry-on.
3. ·For made-to-order: the width or height the buyer chose appears on the drawing.

Third: photos that show the material

Buyers go to the photos first. In Baymard's usability testing of furniture sites, 79% of test participants went to the product images first, and 41% watched product videos.

Cost: one shoot per product family, a form for customer photos, a way to send swatches from the warehouse.

1. ·Zoom and close-ups: the leather grain, the shine of the fabric, the stitching from two centimetres.
2. ·A photo in daylight, not only in the studio.
3. ·Customer photos. I think a buyer trusts a stranger's living room more than a studio set.
4. ·A swatch by post. The page says it exists, how to ask for it, how long it takes.

For made-to-order, the swatch is part of the product page.

Fourth: 3D, only for versions never made

Count the versions a buyer can order. If every version already exists, the first three fixes are enough. If a buyer can order a version that has never been made, only the model shows it.

We do not have a conversion number for 3D. Vendor case studies without a method are not a source we quote. Cost: a build, measured in weeks, and a clean list of options from you before it starts.

1. ·Globe-Trotter custom configurator, live on globe-trotter.com: 39 body colours, 13 leathers on each of four parts (straps, guides, corners, handles), 6 linings.
2. ·39 × 13 × 13 × 13 × 13 × 6, counted 17 September 2026: more than six million combinations before frame, hardware, wheel housings or initials.
3. ·Almost none of them exist as a physical piece. The buyer orders theirs as a specification for the workshop.
4. ·The bar under the model shows the total price and the crafting time, three to four weeks.

If every version already exists, stop after step three.

Fifth: AR, last, on a measured model

Most test participants skipped it. In Baymard's usability testing of furniture sites, 87% of test participants who saw View in Room chose not to use it; 6% looked for it on their own. Baymard recommends good images above AR.

AR shows the model as fact. On a two-seater we built this year, the model came back 9% narrower than the specification, with the height exact. We found it only by putting the specification's dimension lines around it.

1. ·When it helps: will the piece fit through the door, seen at true size on your own floor.
2. ·Before AR: every axis checked against the specification.
3. ·The number on the page is read from the specification, never from the model.
4. ·Cost: an export per platform, a size check on every axis, a QR code on desktop. Days.

AR goes on a model only after every axis is checked.