How do I add a blind price calculator to my website?

If your website runs on Shopify, you add a blind price calculator by installing a calculator app, uploading your price grid by width and drop, adding your options and switching the calculator on in your product page. The customer then types the width and drop, picks the options and sees the price before adding the blind to the basket. With the Curtain and Blind Calculator the first product takes an afternoon. It costs $99 a month on Shopify, about £79, and there is a 7-day free trial.

Step 1: Install the app

Find Curtain and Blind Calculator in the Shopify App Store and install it. The trial gives you seven days to set up one product and test it before you pay anything.

Step 2: Create the product

Make a normal Shopify product for the blind, for example "Roller blind, blackout", with photos and a description. The base price of the product carries your minimum charge. The calculator adds the price for the size on top.

Step 3: Upload your price grid

Your supplier's grid has widths across the top and drops down the side, with a price in each cell. Save it as a CSV or Excel file, exactly as it reads on paper, and upload it. One grid can cover a whole fabric group, and a premium fabric can have its own.

When a customer types a size between two bands, the calculator prices it at the next band up, the way your supplier does. A blind 142 cm wide is priced in the 150 cm column, not the 120 cm one. Check the smallest and largest sizes in your grid too. Sizes outside them should be refused on the page, not guessed.

Step 4: Add the options

Add the choices the customer makes and what each one costs: a cassette headrail as a fixed amount or an amount per metre, a motor only above a certain width, the chain side at no cost but recorded on the order. Your margin is either built into the grid or added as a rule, whichever way you price in the shop.

Step 5: Switch it on in the product page

In the Shopify theme editor, add the calculator block to the product template. It shows the width and drop boxes, the options and the live price. It works in centimetres or inches.

Step 6: Place a test order

Order one blind yourself. Open the order in Shopify and check that it shows the width, the drop and every option, because that is what your workroom or supplier will make from. Then price the same size from the paper grid by hand and compare.

What if my website is not on Shopify?

The app runs on Shopify only. If your site is on WordPress, Wix or something built for you, you can move the shop part to Shopify, or have a calculator built for your platform. Ask us which is cheaper in your case.

Next step

Install Curtain and Blind Calculator from the Shopify App Store, or ask us to set up your first product with your own price list.

First published on the InterioApp blog.