Quote Lists, Compare & Product Inquiries
Your product catalog gives customers three ways to move from browsing to getting in touch: a form on every product page, a quote list for asking about several products at once, and a side-by-side comparison to help them choose. This article covers all three, and what arrives in your inbox. It assumes the catalog is already switched on; see Setting Up Your Product Catalog.
All three are set up under Catalog → Catalog settings in the sidebar, which is available to Site Admins.
The inquiry form on every product page
Every product page has a form beside the product, headed with your product's name. Choose which form it uses under Catalog settings → Product page → Inquiry form. Any form you've built works; a short one with name, email, phone and a message is usually right. To use a different form for one product, pick it in that product's Inquiry form setting.
You don't need a "which product?" question on the form. Every inquiry includes the product and the version the customer was looking at, added as a Products requested line alongside the customer's answers. It appears in your email notifications, and in Slack and webhook notifications too, with no changes to your templates.
Make sure the form actually notifies someone: open it under Forms and check who it emails. See Getting Notified: Email, Slack & Webhooks.
A few related settings sit in the same place: the form heading (under Wording), which side of the page the form sits on, whether it stays in view while scrolling, and up to two Extra buttons under it, like Call us or Email us. On phones the form becomes a button along the bottom of the screen that scrolls to it.
The quote list
Many customers want to ask about several products at once. The quote list lets them collect products as they browse, then send one request that lists all of them.
How customers use it
- Under the form on every product page is an Add to button with your list's name. It adds the version currently showing, so two versions of the same product are two items.
- While the list has something in it, a small pill with the list's name and count sits in the bottom-left corner of every page, linking to the list.
- The list page shows each item with a remove button, beside a form. Sending it delivers one request with every product and version named on the Products requested line, and the list then empties itself.
The list is kept in the customer's own browser, so there's no account to create. It holds up to 20 items, and it belongs to that device: a list started on a phone won't appear on a laptop.
Setting it up
Under Catalog settings → Quote list:
- Let customers save products to a quote list: on to begin with.
- Quote list name: what the list is called everywhere on your site: the button, the pill and the page. "Quote list" to start; call it whatever suits how you work, like Inquiry list or Saved list.
- Quote list form: optional. Leave it empty to use the product page's inquiry form, or pick a form made for multi-product requests.
If neither form is set, the list page asks customers to contact you directly instead, so set one before you rely on the list.
Comparing products side by side
When two products look alike, customers want to see exactly how they differ. Compare lines up to four products from the same category in a table, detail by detail, with the rows where they differ highlighted.
How customers use it
- A Compare button sits in the corner of each product card on your listing pages, and under the form on each product page.
- A pill with the count appears in the bottom-left corner, next to the quote list pill, linking to the comparison.
- The comparison page shows each product's photo, name and badge, then every detail in rows. Customers can switch on Only show differences to cut straight to what sets them apart. Under each product are buttons to ask about it and to add it to the quote list.
Comparisons stay within one category, because a category decides which details its products list, and that's what makes the rows line up. If a customer picks a product from a different category, they start a new comparison. The product page tells them before they click, so nothing disappears by surprise. A comparison holds up to four products and, like the quote list, stays in that customer's browser.
The Compare button only appears on products that have details filled in, since there'd be nothing to line up otherwise. The more consistently you fill in your products' details, the more useful comparing becomes. See Adding Products & Variations.
Setting it up
Compare is on to begin with. Under Catalog settings → Compare you can turn it off with Let customers compare products side by side, or rename it with Compare button name, like Side by side. The name is used on the buttons, the pill and the page.
Good to know
- Landing pages stay focused. The quote list and compare pills are hidden on pages marked as landing pages, so a page built for one action doesn't offer a second way off it.
- Search engines skip the list and comparison pages. They're different for every visitor and empty to a search engine, so they're kept out of search results.
- Unpublished products drop out. If you unpublish a product someone had saved or was comparing, it simply no longer appears, and it can't be sent in a request.