A configurable product does not have a price; it has a set of rules that produce one once every option is chosen. Three options with five choices each is 125 real prices behind one product page, and the count multiplies with every option you add. The website has to compute the price, not look it up.
Transcript
[0:02.48] Ever tried to explain your pricing to someone new and heard yourself say, well it depends?
[0:09.48] We hear that phrase a lot in Discovery.
[0:12.36] One client made architectural door hardware.
[0:15.64] On paper it was one product, one price.
[0:18.90] Then it depends started.
[0:21.31] Opener strength, closer strength, body size, colour and the list changed from one product to the next.
[0:28.13] If you do the maths on that, three options with five choices each is 125 variants.
[0:34.13] Add a fourth option and you're past 600, all sitting behind a single product page.
[0:40.63] So that product doesn't really have a price.
[0:43.43] It has a recipe for one.
[0:45.53] The number only exists once the customer has answered every question you need.
[0:51.15] So that's why we ask every client before we start building.
[0:55.05] Pick your most complicated product and price it for me.
[0:58.47] Out loud.
[0:59.77] Now everyone believes the rules are simple until they hear themselves try and explain them.
[1:05.78] Try it with your weirdest product.
[1:07.62] Count how many times you say it depends.
[1:10.82] Each one is a rule your website has to know.
Frequently asked questions
Why can't we just create every variant as its own product?
Because the number multiplies. Three options with five choices is 125 variants; a fourth option makes it 625. Beyond a handful of options the list becomes unmanageable, and every price change has to be made hundreds of times.
Where do pricing rules usually live before a build?
In someone's head, or a spreadsheet, or a phone call. The first job is to write them down: the options, which choices depend on others, the uplift each one adds, and the exceptions. An agency can build from that; it cannot build from "it depends".
What is the quickest way to find out if our pricing is really simple?
Pick your most complicated product and price it out loud to someone new. Count how many times you say "it depends". Each one is a rule your website has to know.