Scenario products are dummy products you can use in Pickler to calculate environmental footprints for products that don’t yet exist or aren’t part of your inventory. They are mainly used in sales and internal analysis to support decision-making.
A typical example is a customer asking for a comparison between their current packaging and a potential alternative. Even if you don’t own the competitor product or the alternative doesn’t exist yet, scenario products allow you to model both options and quantify the expected impact difference.
Scenario products VS inventory products in Pickler
Pickler works with two types of products.
Inventory products represent real-life products based on data you own and can prove. They are used for verified footprint calculations, marketing claims, widgets, and external communication.
Scenario products are hypothetical products based on assumptions. They don’t require evidence, are clearly marked with a warning banner, and can’t be shared externally as widgets or used directly in marketing. Scenario products are available as part of Pickler’s sales subscription.
Creating and sharing scenario products
From a workflow perspective, scenario products work exactly the same as inventory products. Creation, editing, and calculations follow the same steps.
The only difference is that during creation—via the form, API, or spreadsheet—you mark the product as a scenario product instead of an inventory product. Pickler then automatically applies the correct warnings and sharing limitations.
You can also duplicate an existing inventory product into a scenario product and easily introduce changes to the data and see the difference. This can be done from the products page, or conveniently from comparisons.
Using scenario products in sales
Scenario products are commonly used in sales conversations to compare alternatives and answer customer-specific questions. Typical use cases include:
Recreating a customer’s current packaging
Modeling a competitor product
Comparing material choices such as virgin versus recycled content
Exploring impact differences without owning the product data
These comparisons help sales teams provide quantified, transparent insights instead of relying on generic sustainability statements. Scenario products are meant to guide discussions, not to serve as formal claims.
Scenario products for modeling and eco-design
Scenario products can also be used to model future products and eco-design decisions. By changing variables such as material type, weight, or composition, you can see how design choices affect environmental impact before production starts.
Common applications include:
Testing alternative materials
Reducing material usage
Exploring different product structures
Evaluating future supplier options
This makes sustainability part of the design process rather than a check after launch.