TL;DR Contra Sp. z o.o., a plastics manufacturer operating in 14 European countries, needed an online store where customers could configure plastic plates to their own dimensions and shapes — including hole cutting and real-time pricing. Dotinum built the entire platform from scratch: a custom product configurator in JavaScript/AngularJS, real-time SVG preview, automated production order reporting, dynamic shipping cost calculation, and a full e-commerce feature set. The result: Poland’s first online store for fully personalized plastic products.
Project at a glance
Client | Contra Sp. z o.o. Sp. K. |
Industry | Plastics manufacturing / E-commerce |
Market | Poland, 14 European countries |
Project type | Custom e-commerce platform with product configurator |
Technology | JavaScript, AngularJS, ECMAScript6 |
Notable | Poland’s first online store for custom-cut plastic products |
About PlasticExpress
PlasticExpress is the first online store in Poland that sells plastic plates with a product configurator, adjusted to the shape and dimensions the customer requires.
The project was made for Contra Sp. z o.o. Sp. K., which specializes in the production of advertising articles made of plastics — especially PoS and display products, and plexiglass processing. Since 2005, the company has been operating in 14 European countries. Contra cooperates with recognized brands such as Apart, Nivea, and Santander.
The challenge: why a standard store wasn’t enough
Selling products that customers can cut to any shape or size isn’t possible with a standard e-commerce platform. The client didn’t want to sell only ready-made solutions — their goal was an online store in which the user designs the product themselves, based on the required shapes or dimensions.
The project came with two specific technical constraints that ruled out off-the-shelf platforms:
The ability to cut holes in the configured product
Dynamic pricing — the price of each service had to be calculated separately based on the current per-meter rate of the specific service provided
Both requirements meant that every order would be unique. The platform had to handle this complexity at scale, without manual intervention on the client’s side.
What building a custom product configurator e-commerce platform actually involves
Dotinum designed the online store completely from scratch. The process ranged from graphic design, through front-end coding, to back-end programming — an advanced internal layer consisting of business logic with support for all system actions.
The product configurator
From the user’s perspective, the most important part of the application is the personalized product configurator. It is written in JavaScript based on the AngularJS framework using ECMAScript6.
The configurator allows customers to define:
Type and thickness of the material
Shape with exact dimensions
Hole placement and dimensions
Material processing technology: laser cut, power saw, or diamond polishing of the element’s edge
As customers adjust each parameter, they see a real-time preview of the finished product. After confirming all specifications, the system automatically creates an SVG vector file containing the complete product parameters. The file is adapted and ready for direct use in the production process — no re-entry of data, no manual conversion.
Connecting the configurator to production and logistics
A product configurator isn’t just a front-end tool — it needs to connect to the operational side of the business. For PlasticExpress, an important requirement was the automation of production, logistics, and accounting processes through daily order reports.
These reports took the form of textual information containing the full details of each order, with the automatically generated SVG file attached — containing the exact shape configured by the customer. This meant orders could flow directly from the customer’s browser into the manufacturing workflow.
To validate usability before launch, Dotinum also conducted a series of usability tests.
Additional features built into the platform
Beyond the configurator itself, the implementation covered the full operational stack required for a functioning e-commerce business:
User account creation
Basket and checkout — full order processing
Payment and shipping service, including dynamic calculation of shipping costs based on the dimensions and weight of configured products
Notification system
Money-box loyalty feature: customers receive a percentage of their order value after purchase, redeemable against future order
Discount system: fixed discounts for intermediaries, and additional volume-based discounts depending on order size
Handling of queries for non-standard products that cannot be configured in the standard configurator
Implementation of other standard online store functionalities
Results
Thanks to the implemented solutions, Dotinum delivered the first online store in Poland that allows users to create fully personalized plastic products.
PlasticExpress is a direct response to the growing demand for plexiglass products adapted to the unique shapes required by customers. Buyers can evaluate and order a range of basic shapes, letters, and numbers — with the option to cut holes in them — entirely online, without contacting sales.
The platform handles the complete customer journey: from real-time product configuration and automatic price calculation, through order placement and payment, to automated production file generation and order reporting. The client gains operational automation alongside a differentiated sales channel that competitors offering only standard products cannot match.
Key takeaways
A custom product configurator e-commerce build requires full-stack development: front-end configurator logic, a back-end pricing engine, and integration with the production workflow
Real-time preview and automatic SVG file generation remove manual steps between order and production — and reduce the risk of errors from re-entered data
Dynamic per-meter pricing is achievable but requires custom business logic; it is not available in off-the-shelf e-commerce platforms
Usability testing before launch is worth the investment: configurators carry higher interaction complexity than standard product pages
The configurator alone is not enough — logistics automation (dynamic shipping cost calculation, automated order reports) determines whether the system scales operationally
Want to discuss a similar project?
Write to us at info@dotinum.com or visit dotinum.com