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Work Case study · Web store

From Instagram DMs to a store that sells while they sleep

A handloom and batik clothing brand was taking every order by direct message and bank transfer. We built a web store that takes local and international payments, keeps stock in step with their shop, and confirms every order on WhatsApp.

Where they started

Selling one message at a time

The brand has a studio in Colombo and a boutique in Galle, and a loyal following on Instagram. Every online sale started as a direct message: “Is this available in M?”, “How much to Kandy?”, “Can you ship to Melbourne?”. Then a bank transfer, a screenshot of the slip, and someone checking the account before packing.

It worked until it didn’t. Messages piled up overnight, pieces sold twice because the shop and Instagram didn’t share stock, and customers in Australia and the UK, a big part of their following, had no easy way to pay at all.

Client
Handloom and batik clothing brand (name withheld)
Locations
Studio in Colombo, boutique in Galle
Customers
Sri Lanka and the diaspora abroad
Timeline
11 weeks to launch
Hands holding a phone with a list of messages

01 Checkout

Three steps, every way to pay

Online shoppers abandon a large share of carts, and long, confusing checkouts are one of the biggest reasons: about 70% of carts are abandoned on average1. So checkout is three short steps: details, delivery, payment. Guests don’t need an account.

Customers pay the way they already do: local and international cards through a licensed Sri Lankan payment gateway, LankaQR from any banking app2, or cash on delivery inside the island. Card details are entered on the gateway’s own secure page, never on the store, which keeps the brand’s card-security obligations small3.

handloom-studio.example/checkout
1 · Details2 · Delivery3 · Payment
Handloom saree, indigo · Batik shirt, MRs 24,850
  • Card Visa · Mastercard · Amex
  • LankaQR Any banking app
  • Cash on delivery Sri Lanka only
  • Pay from abroad Ships worldwide
Pay Rs 24,850

Thank you, Dilini! Order #2817 is confirmed. We’ll message you here when it ships to Kandy.WhatsApp · 9:42 pm

Behind the store

One stock count,
online and in store

The store is connected to the point of sale in the Galle boutique. A piece sold in the shop disappears from the website within seconds, and a web order reserves it before anyone can sell it twice.

A courier handing a parcel to a customer
  • Stock in one place. Shop and website draw from the same count, by size and colour.
  • WhatsApp updates. Order confirmations, dispatch and delivery messages go out automatically through the official WhatsApp Business Platform4.
  • Courier labels in one click. Island-wide and international shipments are booked from the order screen.
  • Product pages search engines understand. Prices, availability and sizes are marked up for Google’s shopping results5.
  • Size guides that build trust. Real measurements and close-up photos of the weave, because trust is what turns an online visit into a purchase6.
  • Gentle cart reminders. A shopper who leaves with items in the cart gets one friendly reminder, never a stream.

Results

The first two seasons

  • 31%

    Of revenue online

    Up from 8%, without taking a single sale away from the boutique.

  • 58%

    Checkout abandonment

    Down from 81% in the old DM-and-transfer process.

  • 22%

    Orders from abroad

    Mostly Australia, the UK and the Gulf, customers who couldn’t easily pay before.

  • 0

    Pieces sold twice

    Since shop and website started sharing one stock count.

References

The research behind it

Every method on this page builds on published research, standards or official documentation. Numbers in the text point here.

  1. Baymard Institute. Cart abandonment rate statistics. baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
  2. LankaPay. LANKAQR, Sri Lanka’s national QR payment standard, issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. www.lankapay.net/en/for-business/lanka-qr
  3. PCI Security Standards Council. (2024). PCI DSS v4.0.1. blog.pcisecuritystandards.org/just-published-pci-dss-v4-0-1
  4. Meta. WhatsApp Business Platform: Cloud API developer documentation. developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/
  5. Google Search Central. How to add merchant listing structured data. Google for Developers documentation. developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/merchant-listing
  6. Gefen, D., Karahanna, E., & Straub, D. W. (2003). Trust and TAM in online shopping: An integrated model. MIS Quarterly, 27(1), 51–90. doi.org/10.2307/30036519

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