Sauna Configurator: 9 Choices Buyers Want Before They Call
8 min read
People take weeks to choose an outdoor sauna and only call once they know what they want. A sauna configurator answers their questions earlier. Here are the 9 choices it needs to cover, and what each one shows the buyer.
An outdoor sauna is not an impulse buy. People take weeks over it: comparing makers on their phone in the evening, looking at photos, working out whether it will fit in the garden. Most only call once they already know what they want. If your website does not answer their questions, they keep looking.
A sauna configurator lets the buyer build their own sauna and see it in 3D before they ever write to you. Below are the 9 choices it needs to cover, and what each one shows the buyer.
The short answer
A sauna configurator is a tool on a maker's website where the buyer picks the sauna's shape, size, rooms, wood, heater, glass, benches, finish and extras, and the 3D model and price update instantly. These nine choices answer the questions you would otherwise handle by email and phone, and you receive a request with the full specification.
Why saunas are hard to sell from photos
A sauna has every trait that makes buyers hesitate: it is expensive, made to order, comes in many combinations and is often bought from a maker the buyer has never heard of. Photos show one finished version. The buyer wants to see theirs.
Research suggests these are exactly the products where 3D and AR help most:
- American Marketing Association via ScienceDaily (2021): a peer-reviewed Journal of Marketing study found that AR has a positive but small effect on online sales overall, with stronger effects for less popular brands, niche products and higher-priced items (ScienceDaily).
An outdoor sauna ticks all three boxes.
The 9 choices a sauna configurator should cover
1. Shape: barrel, cube or modular
Buyers often do not know which shape suits them until they see the options side by side. Let them switch shapes in one click and show each one from the side and the front.
2. Size: how many people fit
"Will four of us fit?" is one of the most common questions. Offer lengths in the steps you actually build, and show how many people the steam room seats next to each one.
3. Rooms: steam room, changing room, shower
In a longer sauna, the buyer wants to see where the steam room ends and how much space is left to change. A model with the partitions in place makes that obvious, which a floor plan with numbers does not.
4. Wood, outside and in
Spruce, pine, thermowood or cedar outside; aspen, lime or abachi inside. A price list tells the buyer the price difference. The 3D view shows the colour and grain, which often matters more to them than the price.
5. Heater: electric or wood-burning
The buyer wants to see where the heater sits, where the chimney goes, whether it is fed from inside or outside, and how much bench space is left. The configurator should only offer heaters that suit the chosen size.
6. Glass, doors and windows
A glass door, a glass back wall or a side window changes the look of a sauna more than anything else. This is a choice worth seeing, not imagining.
7. Benches and loungers
One or two levels, loungers lengthwise or across. The buyer sees straight away whether they can lie down at full length, and no longer needs to ask by email.
8. Exterior finish and roof
Natural, oiled or painted wood; bitumen shingles or metal. Showing colour and roof together lets the buyer judge whether the sauna will suit their house and fence.
9. Extras
A canopy over the entrance, a terrace, LED lighting under the benches, steps and handrails. When the extra appears in the model in its place and the price changes at the same moment, it is easier to decide whether it is worth it. Small items like a bucket or thermometer can simply be checkboxes.
Summary: choice, question and what the configurator shows
| Choice | Buyer's question | What the configurator shows |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | Barrel or cube? | Shapes side by side, from every angle |
| Size | Will four of us fit? | Length and seats in the steam room |
| Rooms | Will there be space to change? | Partitions and the size of each room |
| Wood | What does thermowood look like? | Colour and grain outside and inside |
| Heater | Electric or wood-burning? | Heater position, chimney, only options that fit |
| Glass and doors | How does it look with a glass wall? | The glass in place |
| Benches | Can I lie down? | Bench levels and lounger length |
| Finish and roof | Will it suit my house? | Colour and roofing together |
| Extras | What does the canopy add to the price? | The extra in the model and the new price |
Try it yourself: below is a working sauna configurator demo built by the Trimata team.
Will it fit in the garden?
Photos cannot answer this at all. An AR view lets the buyer place a full-size sauna in their own garden with their phone and walk around it. The configurator can also show the size of the base area they will need to prepare for the chosen model.
Published cases show that buyers use AR and that it affects sales:
- Amazon (2024): based on a 2023 Amazon study, Amazon reports an average 9% sales improvement when its View in Your Room AR feature is enabled on a listing (Amazon).
- Arlity (2023): desk maker Ergonome reports that nearly 20% of its configurator users also try the desk in AR (Arlity).
- Shopify (Gunner Kennels case): after adding 3D and AR so buyers could check crate size, Gunner Kennels reported, against the previous quarter, a 40% rise in order conversion and a 5% lower return rate (Shopify).
How to prepare your sauna range for a configurator
- List the shapes and lengths you actually build. Only the ones you are ready to make.
- Mark the possible rooms and heaters for each length. These become your main rules.
- List the combinations that do not work. For example, which heater does not suit the shortest sauna.
- Decide what to show instead of a price. An exact price, a price range, or a request only.
- Collect your source material. Drawings or photos with dimensions, plus wood and finish samples.
- Decide where requests should go. Email or CRM.
- Test it on a phone before launch. Ask a few people to build a sauna and watch where they stop.
You can see how such a configurator works on a maker's site, and what the buyer chooses in it, on our sauna configurator solution page. The full service is described on the 3D configurator page.
What you get: a request with the full specification
A request from a sauna configurator arrives with the shape, length, heater, wood, extras, a picture and the price the buyer saw. You do not need three emails to understand what they want, so you can reply quickly. And speed matters:
- Harvard Business Review (2011): in a study of 1.25 million online leads at 42 US companies, firms that tried to contact the prospect within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead as those that tried even an hour later (Harvard Business Review).
For how many more inquiries configurators bring in the published cases, see Do 3D Configurators Increase Inquiries?.
