Ecommerce
Stove World UK
They were selling stoves on eBay. We built them a shop. The site now takes 1,352% more in orders than it did in 2015 and sits on the first page of Google for "log burner".
Reading, Berkshire
The web department for businesses too small to have one
We build websites and then we look after them, in some cases for twenty-five years and counting. Updates, ecommerce, hosting, search, artwork, copy and the awkward technical things nobody else wants to own.
+1,352%
Order value for one client, 2015 to 2026
25 yrs
Our longest client relationship, and its fourth website
5 mins
The smallest unit we bill. Nothing rounded up to the hour
0
Contracts, minimum charges and monthly fees
This is what a month looks like
One client, one month, taken from the timesheet. Updating the delivery price for a premium delivery postcode. Putting back a review ribbon that had dropped off the mobile version. Making the pages load faster. Turning a customer photograph into a scheduled social media post. None of it was big enough to raise a purchase order for. All of it needed doing.
- 01/06
- updated pinned posts on Facebook
- 01/06
- restored Trustpilot ribbon on mobile version
- 01/06
- fixed search form on search results page
- 03/06
- removed irrelevant products from summer category
- 03/06
- moved advertising budget from Shopping to Pmax
- 04/06
- corrected Highlands & Islands delivery price as requested
- 05/06
- added drag and drop reordering to gallery module:
- 09/06
- deferred render-blocking scripts and styles
- 10/06
- fixed layout shift while filter is loading
- 11/06
- scheduled six customer review posts
- 12/06
- SEO and spelling/grammar check for new product page
- 17/06
- fixed date picker glitch on mobile
- 22/06
- new sliding tabs for small screens
- 25/06
- social media post for customer review
- 29/06
- monthly statistics report and analysis
- 30/06
- scheduled social media posts for four customer photos
June 2026, one client. Client name and figures removed.
What happens when nobody’s looking after it
Nothing, at first, which lulls you into a false sense of security. A website that has been left alone doesn’t break in day one – it just gradually becomes less effective.
Then the delivery charges stop matching what the courier actually charges, because nobody left in the building understands the shipping matrix. The bank holidays never get blocked out of the delivery date picker, so customers keep choosing dates you cannot meet. New products go up without a description worth reading and never appear in search at all. Somebody adds a page in a green font, then somebody else adds a bunch of images that are the wrong size and aren’t formatted properly, and after a year the site no longer looks like one company.
Meanwhile the social accounts stop posting, the advertising carries on spending, and nobody reads the figures because nobody is being paid to.
None of that is dramatic. It is erosion, and by the time it is visible from the outside it has usually cost more than a year of looking after it properly would have. If nobody is looking after yours.
We bill for the time we use
If a job takes ten minutes, you pay for ten minutes. There is no minimum charge, no contract and no monthly fee for the privilege of being a client. Invoices to regular clients arrive with an itemised timesheet, in arrears, so they never pay for work they’re still waiting for.
A straightforward site of about five pages starts from £750 and typically takes about a month. An online shop on a standard platform will cost upwards of £2,500; and a for shop built around how your business actually works you’re looking at £5,000 to £7,500.
Hosting is £12.92 plus VAT a month and it is the only thing that recurs. Your domain names and licences stay in your own name, where they belong.
Some of the businesses we run the website for
Ecommerce and integration
Big Apple Hot Dogs
No online shop at all in 2020. First page of Google now for "wholesale hot dog suppliers", with a system that reads the fulfilment centre's stocktake every morning and reports what is running out.
Bespoke system
SRO Audiences
Their previous developer charged them every time they used their own system. We rebuilt it so they owned it outright. Millions of ticket applications later, it is still running.
Can’t AI do this now?
It is a fair question, and we use AI every day. It finds bugs faster than we can, it writes the dull parts of the code and it has saved our clients real money.
But you get out of it what you put in. Ask it to build you a website and it will build you a website. But it doesn’t know which of your products actually make you money, or why your best customers chose you over the firm down the road, or what you tried in 2019 that did not work.
Ask it about something you know nothing about and the answer sounds convincing. Ask it about something you know well and you spot what is missing straight away. Your business is the thing you know well.
What we work with
WordPress and WooCommerce, OpenCart 2, 3 and 4, and bespoke PHP where an off-the-shelf platform would cost more to bend than to replace. We still look after sites built in older technology too. If you have inherited something nobody wants to touch, that is usually the call we are best at.
Tell us what you’d change
No website is ever finished, and most conversations start with something somebody would like to be different: a fault that has been worked around for months, a section that ought to exist and doesn’t, or an idea the site has never been able to do anything with. Phone, email or WhatsApp, whichever is least effort. If you are already a client, you know we do not charge for the phone call.