I've built an online product catalogue with AI. Check it out!

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Today’s Update:

I’ve been working on a significant logic update based on feedback from early testing. Previously, ProductDeck had two distinct states:

  1. Catalogue Mode: A clean product display with no variants and no commerce features.
  2. Online Store Mode: Full Snipcart integration with cart, checkout, and product variants.

After setting this up for a few clients, a third requirement became obvious. Some businesses need the complexity of variants (Size, Colour, etc.) but aren’t ready to take payments online.

So, I’ve added a 3rd Option: Enquiry Mode.

In this mode, the system displays the same variant dropdowns as the Store mode, but instead of a “Buy Now” button, it displays direct enquiry options.

How it works: In the admin settings, you can now add a Shop Email and a WhatsApp Number.

  • Email Only: A button appears allowing the customer to enquire via email. Clicking it opens their mail app with the subject line and message auto-filled with the specific product and variant they selected.
  • Email & WhatsApp: If you add a number, a second button appears that instantly launches a WhatsApp chat with you, again pre-filled with the specific product details.

Demo Update: Note that this new feature isn’t on the old demo link shared previously in this thread. The development version has now moved to a dedicated website. I’ll be launching that soon and will start a fresh thread with the final links.

Pricing & Licensing: This is the final piece of the puzzle before I stop updating this dev thread.

I’m planning to transact via Lemon Squeezy. The pricing model will be:

  • Initial License: €59 (+ local tax) per domain.
  • What you get: A perpetual license (it works forever) and 1 year of free updates.
  • Renewals: If you want to continue receiving feature updates and security patches after year one, it will be €29 per year.

To be clear: This is not a one-time purchase for unlimited domains and lifetime updates. As we’ve seen elsewhere in the RW community, that business model is unsustainable and ultimately serves no one. This model ensures the project remains supported and healthy for the long term.

Launch Window: I’m aiming for a March launch, though that is tentative.

Final Note: Just to reiterate—while I’m posting this here, ProductDeck is not RapidWeaver dependent. It runs on any platform or stack, as long as the server supports PHP.

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Final update…

After much consideration, I’ve decided I’m not going to release ProductDeck (or BlogDeck: Yes, I did do that in the end too!) to other devs. My reasons are two fold…

  1. It’s really bloody good! I’ve had a few people who actually know what they’re doing look at it, and the feedback has been fantastic (one even offered to buy it off me!). It’s weakness is how well locked down it is, or to be more precise, isn’t. If it ended up growing legs, it’d be easy to hack and then freely distribute. I don’t want that.
  2. Support. I know from years in the RW community the type of market this thing has, and how much support this market needs (read: a huge amount!). I’m not willing to get involved in that, no matter how much it might make (which I suspect isn’t really that much).

I started off on this path to create a solution for my own clients, so that’s what I’m going back to. It’s going to be an in-house solution, only ever sitting on my servers, and only ever available to my clients.

I suspect in time I’ll get the full package and marketing sorted to launch it as a WaaS. But that’s a way off. If ever.

So, thanks for the comments above and the great feedback I’ve had via messages on other channels.

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