Concept Project · Shopify
A small brand sells to the world
A Shopify store built to convert, for Vietnamese handmade goods selling into the US and EU.
- The workshop
- A leather workshop, three makers
- Sold through
- Instagram and regulars in Saigon
- Platform
- Shopify, international cards and PayPal
- Package
- Lên Sàn A–Z
Before it went global
Saigon Leather Co. is a three-person workshop in District 4, selling through Instagram to regulars at home. Now and then somebody abroad sends a message, and each time it turns into a conversation that runs for days.
- Day 1A customer in Chicago messages on Instagram: "Do you ship to the US? How much is the tote in dollars?" The workshop works the price out by hand at that day's exchange rate.
- Day 2A trip to the post office to ask what one bag costs to send to the US. A message back. She asks how to pay; the workshop has a Vietnamese bank account and nothing else.
- Day 3A personal PayPal address is sent over. She asks about tracking and returns. Nobody can answer either with confidence.
- Day 5She stops replying. Nobody did anything wrong. It just took five days to answer questions a website answers in five seconds.
The workshop makes something customers in the US and Europe will happily pay properly for. What is missing sits between wanting it and the first order: taking the money, sending the goods, and making somebody on the other side of the world comfortable enough to press pay.
Three things to solve
Taking an international card. A wire transfer and a personal PayPal address are enough for one order, not for a shop. Customers abroad expect to tap a card and be done inside a minute. They are not used to sending money to an account they have never heard of.
The cost of shipping abroad. A different figure every time, and asking the post office then messaging back is far too slow. The cost and the number of days need to be on the product page, before the decision.
Trust in a name nobody knows. There is no shop to walk into and no friend to vouch for it. The website has to do that job: who makes this, what it is made of, and what happens if it is not right.
Design decisions
Chosen
Shopify, rather than Haravan or an international marketplace
The customers are in the US and Europe, pay by card, and need an English page and automatic emails in their own time zone. Shopify comes wired to international card gateways and PayPal, works out shipping by region, and its checkout is one Western shoppers already know with their eyes closed. Haravan is strong at home. Etsy and Amazon Handmade are for later, once the store's own orders are steady and a marketplace fee starts earning its keep.
Chosen
A flat shipping rate per region, printed on the product page
Twelve dollars to the US, ten euro to Europe, tracked, stated as 8 to 12 days. The workshop absorbs the small difference between states, and in exchange the customer never reaches the last step to find out what shipping costs. More carts are abandoned at exactly that moment than anywhere else, so the number has to be there from the start.
Chosen
A product page about the maker, in English written by a person
The maker's name, the years at the bench, close photographs of the stitching, how the leather changes colour over a year of use. That is what somebody pays extra for in handmade work, and it is what no mass-market page can write. The English is written, not machine translated, because a native reader can tell instantly.
Chosen
Three automatic emails instead of answering messages at night
A confirmation the moment payment goes through, an email with the tracking number when the bag leaves the workshop, and a note two weeks after it arrives. A customer in New York ordering at midnight Vietnam time still gets an answer in a minute, and the workshop wakes up to a packing job rather than an inbox.
Deliberately skipped
Full multi-currency and pop-up discounts
The store shows USD and EUR, the two markets it is aimed at. Ten more currencies for the look of it makes prices awkward and reports hard to read. There is no discount box jumping up on arrival either: nobody buying handmade work needs to be hurried.
What was built, screen by screen
The store speaks English because the workshop's customers speak English. These four screens follow the path a customer in the US actually takes.
Free worldwide tracking · Ships from Saigon in 48h
Bags & wallets
Made to order · US $12 flat · EU €10 flatSaigon Tote
$148
Full-grain, tan or dark brown
Crossbody Satchel
$196
Brass buckle, 2 sizes
Slim Wallet
$62
6 cards, hand-burnished edge
Card Holder
$38
Gift box included
Collection page, prices in USD
Prices in dollars, with shipping for both regions stated at the top. The currency switcher sits in the top corner, so a European customer switches to euro and sees their own price.
Free worldwide tracking · Ships from Saigon in 48h
Handmade in Vietnam
Saigon Tote
$148
Cut, stitched and burnished by Tuấn, fourteen years at the bench. Full-grain hide that darkens with use, solid brass hardware.
Colour
Ships to 🇺🇸 United States · $12 flat
Made in 48h, tracked delivery in 8 to 12 days. 30-day returns.
A product page that tells the maker's story
Four angles, one of them there purely to show the stitching. Shipping cost and delivery date sit directly above the add-to-cart button. There are no reviews, because the store is new, and that space is being kept for real ones.
On a phone
Customers in the US browse in the evening after work. The shipping line and the 30-day returns line still appear above the buy button, with nothing to scroll for.
Ships from Saigon in 48h
Handmade in Vietnam
Saigon Tote
$148
🇺🇸 $12 flat · 8 to 12 days · 30-day returns
Add to cartShip to
Shipping method
Payment
Charged in USD. Import duties, if any, are shown before you pay.
Order summary
International checkout
A US address, two shipping options with real dates, card, PayPal and Apple Pay. The total is in USD, with a line about import duty so nothing is a surprise on the doorstep.
Orders
Every order carries the ship-by date and the customs invoice, printed from the same screen.
What is waiting to be made, by ship-by date
Everything is made to order, so each order carries the date it has to ship. Destination country, tracking number and the customs invoice all print from this one screen, so the workshop has nothing to remember beyond making the bag.
How an order runs once it is live
- 1CustomerIn New York, orders at midnight Vietnam time, pays by card, and saw the shipping cost before pressing buy.
- 2StoreSends the English confirmation immediately; the order joins the make queue with its ship-by date.
- 3WorkshopOpens the list in the morning, cuts and stitches within 48 hours, prints the customs invoice with the order.
- 4ShippingThe international courier collects, and the tracking email goes out on its own.
- 5After deliveryTwo weeks later, an email asking how the bag is wearing in, which opens the door to the next order.
What was handed over
Exactly what the Lên Sàn A–Z package promises, no more and no less.
- An international domain, a Shopify store in the workshop's name, and every account owned by the workshop
- Every product loaded with photos, prices in USD and EUR, and English written individually for each piece
- An international card gateway and PayPal connected to the store, with guidance on the application paperwork
- Shipping rates by region, two shipping options, and a customs invoice template that prints from an order
- Three automatic emails: confirmation, tracking, and a note two weeks on
- A 30-day returns policy and an Our Craft page, both written
- One training session at the workshop, recorded so it can be watched again
- 30 days running it together, and a report after launch: which countries customers come from, what they look at, what they buy
What it was designed to do
A complete cross-border operation: a customer in New York orders at midnight Vietnam time, pays by card, gets a confirmation, and the workshop wakes up to a bag to make and a parcel to pack. The questions about shipping, payment and returns are answered on the page instead of living in an inbox. It is also the ground to open Etsy or Amazon Handmade from later, once the store's own orders are running steadily.
If this were your workshop
You bring:
- The products and the amount you want to take home; GoEcomaZ works out the USD and EUR selling prices
- Close-up photographs, natural light is enough, and the workshop's story in Vietnamese; GoEcomaZ writes the English
- The packed weight and size of each piece, for the shipping rates
- Business paperwork for the international payment gateway. Start this first, because approval time depends on the application
From the first conversation to real orders running on your own domain usually takes 2 to 4 weeks, following the A→Z rhythm on the home page. The Lên Sàn A–Z price is agreed up front at that first conversation, see what the package covers.
Want your shop online like this?
30 minutes, free, and we talk about the business first. The person answering is the person who will build your project.