Car configurator

Buying a car is often a person’s second largest purchase, making it a significant decision—one that can also be complex and overwhelming. It's an emotional choice, too, as customers seek not only the best specs but also a sense of inspiration.

In a typical car company, the configurator serves primarily as a marketing tool for dealerships to capture leads and sell existing inventory. At Rivian, a new direct-to-consumer car company, the configurator plays a far more critical role. It’s an integral part of the purchase process, where the cars that customers configure online are the exact cars built specifically for them.

Company
Rivian

Year
2020

Product Opportunity

Build a best-in-class custom car configurator.

Key Product Requirements

  • Enable customers to explore options and understand the full product offering in a visually engaging way.

    Highlight key specs—range and price—as these are the top considerations when purchasing an EV. Include clear calls-to-action (CTAs) to drive conversions.

    Ensure a responsive design optimized for all devices, especially mobile, which accounts for 60% of web traffic.

  • Collaborate with vendors, internal design, and vehicle teams to develop an art direction that anchors the customer experience.

    Create a scalable approach to produce over 200,000 unique configuration images while keeping mobile performance in mind.

    Ensure that imagery is accessible as a microservice for integration with other applications.

  • The initial launch is exclusively for existing pre-order holders and not open to the public. Coordinate with the marketing team to manage the configurator launch and implement authentication capabilities. Invites will be sent in waves, starting with the earliest customers.

    Highlight the limited "Launch Edition" package, ensuring it is prominently displayed and can be removed from the configurator once sold out.

    Update the logged-in account experience to reflect new order statuses, include configuration visuals, and offer ability to reconfigure or switch models while retaining access to the Launch Edition.

  • Coordinate closely with the development of the concurrent Order Management System (OMS).

    Ensure smooth integration with the customer service order management tool for a unified workflow.

    Prioritize flexibility to adapt quickly to changes amid simultaneous development efforts.

Launch

Nov 2020. Launch blog.

Solution Highlight 1

Landing page

We optimized the landing page hierarchy to prioritize key product information, ensured essential details—such as price, range, and expected delivery dates—are always present and immediately accessible. This approach helps potential customers quickly understand value proposition and availability.

Imagery serves as a central anchor in the user experience, allowing customers to visually connect with and customize the product they are building. The visual elements are designed to be immersive and engaging, making the customization journey feel tangible and personalized.

The landing page is a responsive web application designed to look and perform seamlessly across mobile and desktop breakpoints. Whether on a smartphone or a large screen, users enjoy a consistent, intuitive experience optimized for easy navigation and interaction on any device.

Solution Highlight 2

Image compositor

We collaborated closely with vendors, design, and engineering teams to create a visual identity that blends real-world elements to make the vehicles feel tangible (e.g., tire marks and warehouse settings). The Color, Materials, and Finishes (CMF) team was a key partner in achieving stitch-perfect accuracy for interiors and ensuring color fidelity in renderings.

Photography was ruled out early due to the operational complexity of visualizing hundreds of thousands of combinations of wheels, paint, and interiors, and the impracticality of managing updates for new options. Instead, we implemented a solution using layered images with transparent backgrounds. Adding a new color, for instance, is as simple as adding a new paint layer to the compositor with predefined rules, and the service automatically generates all the needed images of that new color with every wheel and interior combination.

All images are pre-composited, flattened, and cached to ensure they load instantly for customers.

A lightweight, high-performance solution was essential, as the configurator plays a central role in the conversion funnel.

Solution Highlight 3

Deep integration

The initial configurator launch coincided with other major launches at the company. Specifically, the in-house order management system (OMS) needed enhancements to support new order statuses and attributes, driven by the front-end experience we aimed to deliver. For instance, to display an image of a customer’s configured vehicle on their account page, each configuration had to be broken down into individual attributes and stored within the OMS. The account page would then read these attributes and call the image compositor to display the appropriate image.

This workflow allowed us to continuously improve renderings and ensure they displayed correctly across all touchpoints—eliminating the risk of having to chase outdated images. It also added significant customer value, enabling critical features such as the ability to reconfigure an order or even switch models as many times as desired.

Results

  • +50% Engagement time

    Customers were deeply engaged with new content and benchmarks were set with site wide engagement time and average pages viewed.

  • 1,400% Order Increase

    Orders skyrocketed the day after we launched the car configurator app. We were able to handle the increased volumes with zero customer facing issues.

  • Successful IPO

    The innovative consumer ordering flow has added significant value to the company and contributed to Rivian having the 7th largest IPO in US history.