Price Reveal, a new feature recently introduced by FindLight to help buyers instantly view the product’s price estimate and help vendors minimize RFQ communication time, is the subject of this news article.
Finding the right photonics component or an optical device is only the first step in a technical purchasing process. For many products, the next question is often the most important one: How much does it cost?
Traditionally, getting an answer can take time. A buyer identifies a product, sends an RFQ to the vendor, provides additional information, and then waits for a response. Depending on the product, vendor, and complexity of the request, that response can take a day, two days, or even longer.
FindLight is introducing Price Reveal, a new feature designed to dramatically shorten this part of the purchasing process. With Price Reveal, buyers can unlock product pricing immediately by providing information about themselves, their organization, purchasing timeline, intended application, and other relevant details.
The result is a faster path from product discovery to a meaningful understanding of the potential cost — while also reducing the amount of time vendors need to spend responding to routine pricing requests.
From RFQ Waiting Time to Immediate Price Visibility
Photonics purchasing is rarely as simple as adding a standard consumer product to a shopping cart. Products such as lasers, optical components, detectors, imaging systems, fiber-optic components, and precision hardware are often purchased for highly specific applications and can involve technical requirements, different configurations, quantities, and project timelines.
For that reason, pricing is frequently handled through an RFQ process. While an RFQ remains an important part of technical procurement, not every buyer who wants to know the price is ready to begin a detailed sales conversation.
Sometimes a buyer is simply trying to determine whether a product fits within a project budget. In other cases, they may be comparing several technologies, preparing a proposal, evaluating suppliers, or deciding whether it makes sense to proceed with a particular component.
In these situations, waiting for a vendor to respond to an RFQ can create unnecessary friction.
Price Reveal is designed to address exactly this problem.
When Price Reveal is available on a product, the buyer can select the option to reveal the price and provide information about their purchasing needs. Once the required information is submitted, the price can be viewed immediately rather than waiting for a vendor to manually respond.
Example of a product listing with the Unlock Price feature allowing buyers to instantly view the price
How FindLight Price Reveal Works
The Price Reveal process is designed to exchange value between the buyer and vendor: the buyer receives faster access to pricing, while the vendor receives useful information about the potential customer and their purchasing requirements.
Instead of simply requesting a price anonymously, the buyer provides details such as their name, organization, contact information, purchasing timeline, intended application, and other relevant information requested through the Price Reveal form.
This information helps provide vendors with greater visibility into who is interested in their products and what the potential purchase is intended for.
For buyers, the key advantage is speed. Rather than submitting an RFQ and waiting for a sales representative to review the request, determine the appropriate pricing, and respond, the buyer can obtain the available price immediately.
For vendors, Price Reveal can reduce the time spent answering requests where the buyer’s primary objective is simply to understand the price.
Example of a vendor storefront
A Faster Way to Evaluate Products
Price is often one of the earliest factors considered when evaluating a technical product. Yet in traditional purchasing workflows, it can be one of the slowest pieces of information to obtain.
Consider a buyer evaluating several photonics products for a new project. They may already have identified the technical specifications they need and may have found several products that appear suitable. Before investing additional time in technical discussions, they may simply need to know whether each option falls within their expected budget.
With a conventional RFQ process, obtaining that information may require multiple individual inquiries and several rounds of communication.
Price Reveal can significantly shorten that initial evaluation stage.
Instead of asking, “Is this product potentially within our budget?” and waiting for an answer, the buyer can obtain pricing information immediately and use it to decide what products warrant further consideration.
This can be particularly useful during the early stages of research, engineering development, procurement planning, and supplier comparison.
Less Time Spent on Routine RFQs
The benefit of Price Reveal is not limited to buyers.
Vendors selling specialized photonics products can receive a large variety of inquiries. Some represent immediate purchasing opportunities, while others are early-stage requests from engineers or researchers who are still determining specifications, comparing alternatives, or establishing a project budget.
Responding to every pricing inquiry manually takes time. A salesperson may need to review the request, look up the relevant product or configuration, determine pricing, prepare a response, and follow up with the buyer.
Price Reveal allows some of these requests to be handled automatically.
When a buyer can access pricing without waiting for a manual response, vendors can spend more of their sales time on opportunities that require technical consultation, configuration assistance, negotiation, or other direct interaction.
At the same time, the information submitted by the buyer gives the vendor useful context about the potential opportunity. Instead of receiving only a generic request for pricing, the vendor can understand the buyer’s organization, application, purchasing timeline, and other relevant information.
Connecting Price Transparency With Qualified Buyer Information
One of the central ideas behind Price Reveal is that greater price accessibility does not have to mean less information for the vendor.
In a conventional public pricing model, a buyer may see a price without providing any context about who they are or why they are interested in the product. With Price Reveal, the buyer receives faster access to pricing while providing information that can help the vendor understand the potential opportunity.
This creates a more efficient exchange.
The buyer gets the information needed to make an initial purchasing decision. The vendor gets actionable information about the person and organization interested in the product.
For vendors, this can make the resulting lead more informative than a basic pricing inquiry. For buyers, it eliminates one of the most common sources of delay in the early stages of technical procurement.
Price Reveal and RFQs Serve Different Purposes
Price Reveal is not intended to replace the RFQ process entirely. Rather, the two approaches address different stages of the purchasing journey.
When a buyer needs a customized quotation, a specific configuration, volume pricing, technical clarification, or other information that requires vendor involvement, an RFQ remains appropriate.
Price Reveal is particularly useful when the buyer’s immediate need is to understand the available product price and determine whether the product is worth pursuing further.
This creates a more flexible purchasing workflow: buyers can use Price Reveal when they need immediate pricing information and move to a direct RFQ when they need a more detailed quotation or technical discussion.
Building a More Efficient Photonics Marketplace
FindLight was created to make it easier for engineers, researchers, procurement professionals, and other buyers to discover specialized photonics products and connect with suppliers.
That mission extends beyond product discovery. Once a buyer has found the right product, the purchasing process should be as efficient as possible.
Price Reveal is another step in that direction.
By shortening the time required to obtain pricing information, FindLight can help buyers move more quickly from product research to project evaluation and procurement. At the same time, vendors can reduce the amount of manual effort required to respond to routine pricing inquiries and focus their attention where direct engagement adds the most value.
For a technical marketplace, even small delays can have a significant impact. An engineer waiting several days for a price may postpone a purchasing decision, continue searching for alternatives, or move on to another supplier. Giving buyers immediate access to pricing can remove that friction at a critical point in the purchasing journey.
Price Reveal Is Now Available on Participating Products
Price Reveal is being introduced across eligible FindLight products, giving participating vendors a new way to make their pricing more accessible while capturing useful information about prospective buyers.
For buyers, the process is straightforward: when Price Reveal is available, provide the requested information, unlock the price, and continue evaluating the product without waiting for a traditional RFQ response.
For vendors, Price Reveal offers an opportunity to reduce repetitive pricing inquiries while gaining better visibility into the buyers who are actively researching their products.
The goal is simple: less waiting for buyers, less repetitive work for vendors, and a faster path from product discovery to purchasing.
FindLight will continue developing tools that make the buying and selling of photonics products more efficient for both sides of the marketplace.