Getting started
SmartPart is an online shop built around configurators. Instead of picking a product off a fixed list, you describe the one you actually want — size, finish, material, options — and the shop draws it in 3D and prices it while you work.
This page walks through a whole purchase, from finding a product to following the order after it is placed.
Before you start
You can browse the catalogue and configure a product without an account. You need one to check out, because an order has to belong to someone who can be delivered to and who can follow its progress afterwards.
Register from Account → Register. If you already have an account, sign in first and your cart will still be waiting.
1. Find a product
Start from the home page or a category, or use the search box in the toolbar. Products that can be configured open into a configurator rather than a plain product page.
2. Configure it
The configurator has two halves: the controls and the 3D view.
- Change a control — a size slider, a material, a colour, an optional extra — and the model redraws to match.
- Drag the model to turn it, scroll to zoom. You are looking at the item you are about to buy, not a stock photograph.
- The price updates as you go, so there is never a quotation step or a wait.
If a dimension is not accepted, it is outside what can actually be made. The configurator only offers combinations that a supplier can build.
3. Add to cart
Adding to cart stores your configuration, not just the product name. You can keep shopping and come back to it; each cart line keeps the exact options you chose.
4. Check out
Checkout runs in three steps:
- Review order — confirm the lines and the configured options.
- Shipping — where it is going. The address assistant can complete it for you from a map lookup.
- Payment — you are handed to the payment provider, and returned to a confirmation page.
Your order is created when payment is submitted. It is only treated as paid once the payment provider confirms it directly to SmartPart — see Orders and payment.
5. Follow the order
Every order has its own page, reachable from Account → Purchases. It shows where the order is in manufacture and delivery, and what has already happened to it.
The stages an order moves through are documented in full in Fulfilment states.
Where to go next
- Configurators — what the 3D configurator can do.
- Orders and payment — what happens after checkout.
- Accounts and roles — customer, supplier and administrator accounts.
- Inventory — the stock register, and how orders reserve and use it.