Wildings Chocolates

The brief

Wildings Chocolates is a family-run business that took over from a previous owner - and with it, inherited an outdated WordPress site that had no e-commerce functionality and no longer reflected the quality of the brand.

They had a clear vision for what the new site needed to do: let customers order online and, most importantly, build their own bespoke ballotine box. That meant choosing a box size, selecting from over 50 chocolate flavours, and picking a ribbon colour - all in one seamless experience.

The inherited site

In the month after the new site launched, more than twice as many people visited the Wildings Chocolates website compared to the month before. The first sale came in on a Monday - a day when the physical shop is closed. That tells you everything you need to know about why having a website can make or break your business.

• That last point turned out to be the most important one.

The first sale on the new site came in on a Monday. This was very symbolic, as Wildings Chocolates is closed on Mondays.

Why does it matter? Before the site launched, Monday was a day with no revenue. Now it's just another day customers can find them, browse, and buy - without anyone needing to be there. Running the physical shop seven days a week to achieve the same thing would mean extra staff wages, heating, lighting, and everything else that comes with keeping a retail space open. The website does it for a fraction of that cost, around the clock.

The site reflects the care that goes into the products themselves - the Build Your Own Box experience gives customers something to engage with, not just a product to add to a cart. And when we spotted during testing that the mobile experience wasn't working well enough, we built a solution rather than shipping a problem.

The chocolate tracker wasn't in the brief. The client didn't ask for it. But we knew how important it was, and releasing an imperfect website would go against our values. We strongly believe it is our job - not our clients' - to spot issues like this. We want you to have the peace of mind that you can trust us to think about your website the way you'd want to think about it yourself - if only you had the time.

We're proud of this project. Not just because of what we built, but because of what it means for the business. A sale on a Monday, when the shop is dark and the doors are locked, is exactly why this work matters.