Client: Design Build Cast Limited
Task: WordPress website for jewellery design, protoyping and casting business
Project goals: Design & build a website that generates instant quotes for precious metal casting and real-time spot pricing
Technology / Framework: WordPress + WooCommerce + Custom plugin development
Background: DBC London is a collective of expertly skilled craftsmen working in precious metals, providing services for jewellery retailers & manufacturers and other specialist industries. They wanted their new website to demonstrate their skills and to give their clients and prospective customers a regular go to resource for valuable information like spot pricing for precious metals, and also to provide instant quotes for casting based on these spot prices.
Our task was to design and build a website that delivered the following functionality and benefits:
- Effectively showcase the client’s core business skills and offerings
- Customers able to upload 3D CAD files and get instant quotes for casting in all precious metals
- The quote system will store uploaded files and notify DBC staff who can retrieve the file
- Where 3D files are unavailable, customers to be able to send multiple flat files for review
- Website to display daily London spot pricing for precious metals
After researching a variety of existing solutions to the instant quote requirement, we decided the best option was to build a custom eCommerce solution on WordPress. To achieve the necessary functionality quickly and cost-effectively we adapted an existing WooCommerce plugin designed for 3D plastic printing so that it would cater for casting in precious metals.
Site visitors can upload their 3D CAD design in a variety of file formats. The plugin will analyse the model, displaying the cubic volume and surface area. It will calculate the density which will form the basis of the pricing calculation.
However, in order to generate a meaningful price for both DBC and their customers, we coded the plugin to pull the latest metal prices from an industry RSS feed. It then performs a number of calculation steps to include the client’s processing costs, and then displays a list of final prices for casting in a variety of metals.
The quote system currently issues indicative pricing, so at this stage the site visitor can then complete a form to request a formal quote. However the system is so accurate the quoted price is unlikely to vary from the instant quote unless the client model is missing required casting support elements like sprues.
Overall, the project has been a great success. The client was delighted with the final website and they now offer a solution that is unique in their marketplace, and that will stand them apart from their competition.
