A Warhammer 40K terrain business outgrew Etsy and needed their own site. We built them a fully self-managed e-commerce platform with a complete CMS. They control products, pricing, bundles, discount codes, cross-selling, and email automation from the backend. No developer needed after handover.
The Dice Tavern makes laser-cut MDF terrain for Warhammer 40K. They started on Etsy and it took off. Really took off. But success on Etsy comes with a catch: Etsy charges 6.5% on every transaction, plus 4% + 20p for payment processing, plus listing fees on every product. And if you're selling over $10k a year, they automatically opt you into offsite ads which can add up to 15% on top. All in, a good chunk of every sale was walking straight out the door.
They needed their own website. But they're not technical. They didn't know how to build a site, didn't know SEO, and didn't want to be relying on a developer every time they needed to change a product or run a promotion. They needed something they could actually manage themselves.
On top of that, Etsy gave them no way to follow up with customers after a sale. No email sequences, no review requests, no cross-selling. Every transaction was a dead end. The customer bought, Etsy took their cut, and that was it.
We didn't just build them a shop. We built a full content management system, a bit like WordPress but designed specifically for e-commerce. The whole point was that they could run everything themselves: edit the website, manage products, create promotions, handle orders. No developer needed after handover.
The admin panel is the heart of the whole thing. Products, prices, descriptions, images, stock levels, page content, SEO settings. All editable from one dashboard. Changes go live instantly. No waiting for a developer to make a text change or add a product.
Customer adds terrain to their basket? The platform suggests a matching gaming mat at a bundled discount. They set the rules themselves: which products trigger which suggestions, what discount to offer, what message to show. They change it whenever they want from the dashboard.
Black Friday sale? Done in 30 seconds. Flash discount for a loyal customer? Two clicks. They create codes, set percentages, limit usage, and launch promotions from the backend whenever they want. No waiting, no cost, no developer.
Every order kicks off a sequence automatically. The templates are editable in the backend so they can tweak the wording anytime without a developer.
The Dice Tavern now runs their entire business from a platform they fully control. They manage products, change prices, create discount codes, set up cross-sell bundles, edit email templates, process orders, and track revenue from one backend. They haven't needed a developer since handover. The CMS we built means they can update anything on the site themselves, whenever they want, in minutes.
The automated email sequence is why they've maintained a 4.9-star rating. Customers get a confirmation, a dispatch notification, a friendly check-in, and then a review request with a discount for next time. Four emails per order, all automatic, all feeling personal. And the cross-sell engine bumps up order values without anyone having to think about it.
Etsy charges sellers a combination of fees on every single sale. Here's what that was actually costing this business.
That's the Etsy fees alone. On top of that, they don't pay for any third-party plugins, email marketing tools, or developer time. The CMS handles everything and they manage it all themselves.
With our platform there are no monthly subscriptions, no plugin fees, and no developer needed. They manage everything from the built-in CMS themselves.
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