Secrid Customise

Secrid, the renowned Dutch wallet brand, has been innovating with its unique designs for over a decade. Secrid was the first in the world to introduce the Cardprotector, a protected cardholder that is not only convenient but also prevents the NFC chip from being scanned unintentionally. In recent years, Secrid has noticed an increasing desire for product personalisation. To create a wallet entirely to one's taste, various colors and styles are already available. Additionally, in Secrid stores, it is possible to have the Cardprotector engraved. The challenge was to offer this engraving service online as well.

A personal touch
More and more brands are using product personalisation to build a strong bond with their customers. For example, AirPods, laptops, and phone cases can have their own unique style. To respond to this, Secrid wanted to develop a high-quality e-commerce web application that allows customers to design their own Cardprotector. With their own texts, emojis, or a ready-made design.

Pursuit of perfection
In a so-called Jumpstart, we validated with Secrid within a week whether such a tool could meet their high standards of design and user-friendliness. The question was whether it would be possible to personalise a 3D model of a wallet online with a custom design. It was inevitable that it had to be a 3D model. All angles of the wallet must be visible. Color accuracy and lighting are an additional challenge. The goal was to make the product on the screen match exactly with what arrives on the doormat. With the insights gained from the Jumpstart, we had a much more precise picture of the final product.

From concept to reality
The preparation for building the tool was a challenge in itself. Who are the right partners to support this project? Think of graphic design, the e-commerce platform, the order system, and of course the engraving machine. We helped Secrid with this challenging search. And with results: in the end, we were able to make a sharp estimate and had eliminated any surprises in the development process.

What you see is what you get
Within three months, a complete web tool was developed that enables personalisation. In collaboration with design agencies Morrow and Build in Amsterdam, the engraving tool was added to the existing website. A clear animation guides the customer to the Secrid Customise interface. The tool adapts based on the chosen wallet model: the style and color of the Cardprotector change accordingly. When a design is made, a real-time preview appears on the 3D model of the Cardprotector.

A rich customer experience
Customers can choose a template or create their own design. A premium experience is leading. Everyone should be able to use the tool with ease. Therefore, we focused heavily on user-friendliness. Without the tool feeling complex, there are many possibilities. The position, size, and font of the text can be chosen, and emojis can be added. Once the design is ready, the tool shows a beautiful 3D render of the wallet, and it can be added to the shopping cart.

Not an easy task
The engraving tool is linked to the headless CMS Storyblok that Secrid already uses. This saved time because all 3D models are in this CMS. This allows the designs that customers make to be processed effortlessly. The tool works with almost all wallets: to meet Secrid's high standards, a render with the created design is placed over the existing 3D model with Three.js. This seems simple, but to make it look as realistic as possible, the light and color of the existing 3D model must be taken into account. The design options are precisely aligned with all engravable products. There were quite a few: 213 engravable wallets to be exact. Quite a task!

Every penny well spent
The customer has created a design and paid, now they only have to wait in anticipation by the mailbox. But a lot is still happening behind the scenes. A quick automatic check verifies whether the created design meets the conditions. To ensure that the process from purchase to shipping runs entirely automatically, we developed a lot of custom work. By thoroughly studying the operation of the engraving machine, we were able to fully optimise the tool for the highest possible quality of the laser work on the wallets. The engraving machine only works on vector-based files. With the help of the open-source libraries Fontkit and Paper.js, the created design is aligned in the correct position, and any text is converted character by character into a vector. All this happens lightning-fast as soon as the customer's payment is received. Finally, the engraved product is sent to the customer, and they have a stunning personal wallet.

Time is money
Within three months, we went from concept to launch, including the very first engraving. All thanks to very good preparation. A large part of the orders is now engraved. Customers are enthusiastic, and they create unique Cardprotectors. The tool has proven to be a great success!