The workshop, explained
Story, method, materials and tools. The part no marketplace can copy, and the part that separates a workshop from a reseller.
Industries · 01
Websites for workshops: showing the work, not just the product
Somebody buying a handmade object is not only buying an object: they are buying the person who made it. A site that shows the bench, the hands and the process sells better than a catalogue of fifty photos on a white background.
What a person buying handmade actually looks at
The questions are almost always the same, and on workshop websites they are almost always unanswered.
The visitor wants to know who made the object, how it is made, what it costs and when it arrives. If the site answers those four questions, the phone call that follows is a negotiation, not an interrogation.
They also want to understand whether they can ask for a variation: a different size, a colour, an engraving. That is the most frequent request for anyone working to commission, and there is almost never a simple way to make it online.
- Real photographs of the workshop and the stages of work, not only the finished piece.
- Dimensions, materials, finishes and production times written legibly.
- A clear way to ask for a variation or a made-to-measure quote.
The four knots a workshop usually brings
These are the points where most projects stall, and it is worth deciding them before a single line of code is written.
- The catalogue changes oftenOne-off pieces coming and going, variations that never repeat. You need a way to update it yourself, without calling anybody for every new item.
- The price is not always a priceIf the cost depends on size, material or quantity, a cart is not enough: you need a guided request-for-quote instead.
- The photographs are the productHeavy images slow everything down, small images do no justice to the work. They have to be prepared in several formats and served light.
- Who answers the phone?In a workshop enquiries arrive while you are working. The site has to say straight away what answer to expect and how long it takes.
What we build
A catalogue with real product sheets
Categories, variations, dimensions and materials. Updatable on your own, with optimised images and structured data for the Google results.
Made-to-measure requests
A form that asks for the right information (size, quantity, deadline, attachments) instead of one free box where the customer types "I would like a quote".
Online selling, where it makes sense
For reproducible pieces, a store with payments and shipping. For one-off pieces a quote request stays more effective: we say so when that is the case.
Questions workshops ask
Do we need a store, or is a catalogue with quotes enough?
It depends on how repeatable the product is. If you sell the same object in a finite set of variations, a cart makes sense. If every piece is different, a catalogue with a guided request converts better and costs less to maintain: the customer does not have to guess a configuration, you describe it.
Do we take the photographs ourselves?
In most cases yes, and that is fine: photographs of the workbench perform better than polished studio shots. We can specify lighting, framing and the formats to deliver, and we handle cropping, compression and uploading ourselves.
Can we update the catalogue on our own?
Yes, and that is the point. A catalogue that needs a technical intervention to add one piece stops being updated after two months. We prepare the admin panel and run a recorded training session.
We already sell on marketplaces: do we still need a site?
You need both, with different roles. The marketplace brings traffic and has its own rules; the site is the only place where a customer finds you, your timings and your story, and where you can collect contacts that remain yours.
Close to this sector
Website design
The full service: structure, content, photography, timings and going live.
E-commerce
When part of the catalogue is reproducible and direct selling carries the numbers.
Professionals and practices
If you work more as a technical consultant than as a workshop, the priorities change.
What do people ask you most often on the phone?
The three questions you repeat to every customer are the outline of the home page. Write them to us and we will work out together how to answer them once, for everybody.