Decking Out the Future of Commerce Experiences
With a rich Deck Designer app that empowers homeowners to plan their dream deck, Trex upholds brand equity, drives user engagement, and expands revenue streams.
The global leader in sustainable decking, Trex offers a complete deck-building solution, enabling customers of design sophistication and DIY spirit to create stunning, functional outdoor spaces with their wood-alternative product lines.
Opportunity
Architecting a decking product that replaces a designer and looks and feels like real life
Eager to continue innovating and differentiating, Trex approached 3Pillar Global to engineer a photorealistic deck-design app to solve two key challenges.
- Without a digital retail product, deck customers either need to hire a designer to architect their space, rely on their builder to design and purchase the materials and execute or, if a DIYer, try to design and build it themselves. Eliminating the design vendor and reallocating that budget to materials and decor builds confidence for the DIYer, delivers a better deck for customers, and thereby more revenue for Trex.
- Many Trex competitors white-label the same legacy deck-design technology. The UX functionality is suboptimal, and the UI is not representative of real-life considerations. 3Pillar set out to custom build an app that could accurately represent the dimensions of an outdoor space and the component details that would realize each user’s vision.
Solution
3D modeling and virtual deck design, with a photo finish
3Pillar conducted deep user testing to architect a delightful, intuitive experience that solves for need. Here’s how it works:
- After uploading an image of the space into Trex Deck Designer, customers input their dimensions and stair and railing preferences, and the app recommends specific materials and products.
- These products can be applied directly to the backyard image, allowing users to build a virtual deck and compare different options with photorealistic precision. The colors and textures are an exact match with the real-life materials and can be easily swapped in and out. Users can even zoom in and see the pattern in the wood-like grain.
- Customers finish with everything they need to get started: a blueprint, cost estimate, and shopping list for their design.
Outcome
Still on top and looking even finer, with measurable ROI across segments
Customers are wowed by the photorealism, supporting Trex’s leadership position within the category. 3Pillar integrated a customer relationship management system into Deck Designer’s backend, equipping the inside sales team with the data and contacts they need to fill their pipeline and better qualify leads, for continued expansion and sustainable success.
“I like the degree of control it gives you, the idea that you get to see it and get a feel for it.”
– Trex customer Megan on the Deck Designer app
