Crafting a Custom Shopify Theme for Handcrafted Jewelry
Honey + Goldies sells one-of-a-kind handcrafted fine jewelry — pieces that take weeks to make and command four-figure price points. The category buyer doesn't impulse-purchase; they investigate, gift-plan, and want to know who's making the work. We built a custom Shopify theme with three distinct buyer paths, a deposit-based payment system for fully custom commissions, and an editorial product experience that earns the price tag instead of asking for it.
Live since 2018
Three buyers, three paths — and a category that won’t tolerate commodity commerce.
Honey + Goldies is a fine-jewelry maker who designs and hand-fabricates each piece in a small US studio. The catalog isn’t a catalog — it’s the studio’s output, a mix of finished pieces ready to ship, semi-custom designs that get made to order, and fully bespoke commissions that take six to twelve weeks and cost four to five figures. Three different buyers, three different journeys, one storefront.
The previous site treated all three the same. A standard Shopify theme handled the high variant counts ungracefully (every custom option blew out the PDP), couldn’t accept deposits or partial payments for commission work, and offered no path for a customer to specify the carved illustration they wanted on the inside of a ring band. Insurance for a four-figure shipment wasn’t available at checkout. Gifting — a huge driver of the category — required customers to forward a product link and hope.
The brief was a custom Shopify Online Store 2.0 theme that respected each buyer’s journey. Editorial-led PDPs that earned the consideration time the category demands. A custom builder for semi-custom pieces with high variant counts that didn’t overwhelm the buyer. A commission flow that generated a private buyer-specific page with progress updates, milestones, and a managed deposit-payment system. Plus the trust mechanics: insurance at checkout, lifestyle and process photography that put the maker in the room, and a “Send A Hint” wishlist for the gift-driven half of the buyer base.
Three buyer paths, one editorial system that earns the price tag.
Editorial PDPs that take the time the category demands.
Built each product page as a long-form editorial — process photography, maker portraits, illustrated band-detail close-ups, and the story behind each piece. Buyers don't skim a $3K ring purchase; they fall through layers of detail before they decide. The PDP became the longest-engagement page on the site by design, not by accident.
Path one — Ready to Ship: classic PDP, fast checkout.
Standard product page for finished pieces with inventory: multiple photo views, detail summary, and bounded customizations like ring size or chain length. The right experience for the buyer who already knows what they want and doesn't need to be sold the brand again.
Path two — Ready to Make: semi-custom builder.
Personalized PDP that lets the buyer pick metal type, gemstone, band detail, and ring size — with a custom illustration system for the carved details on the band. High variant counts handled in a horizontal scroller so the page stays calm. Order flows into the studio's production queue with the spec already locked.
Path three — Custom: bespoke commission with deposits.
Buyer fills out a structured brief — material, size, design intent, sentiment, deadline. The system generates a private buyer-specific page with the working brief, progress milestones from the studio, photo updates, and a managed payment schedule (deposit + interim + balance). Took the commission process out of email and put it on a single URL.
Trust mechanics for a high-AOV purchase.
Insurance at checkout — opt-in coverage for high-value shipments built into the order flow, with the certificate auto-emailed alongside the order confirmation. Process photography embedded in every PDP. Studio + maker portraits on the studio page. The trust signals jewelry buyers actively look for, surfaced where they look.
“Send A Hint” wishlist for the gift-driven buyer.
Half of fine-jewelry purchases are gifts — and the gifter often isn't the wearer. The Send A Hint system lets a customer build a wishlist and send a curated link to a partner or family member, complete with a personal note and the maker's context. Cut the friction of "what do they actually want" out of the gifting path.
We don’t sell to people who skim. The new site lets a buyer fall through three pages of detail before they’ve decided what they want — and that’s exactly when they hit Add to Cart.
Engagement summary · Honey + Goldies × Commence Studio
Numbers that matter for high-AOV bespoke commerce.
Storefront, builder, and commission flow — in production.
We don't sell to people who skim. The new site lets a buyer fall through three pages of detail before they've decided what they want — and that's exactly when they hit Add to Cart.
Like what you see? Let's talk about your commerce stack.
A 14-day strategic diagnostic — we audit your current stack, identify the friction worth fixing first, and ship a phased plan with sized investments. Fully credited toward an engagement if we move forward together.
What you walk away with
- ✓A measured map of every friction point in your current commerce flow
- ✓Three phased options — minimum, considered, comprehensive
- ✓Sized investments and timelines, no aspirational ranges
- ✓A clear "don't hire us if…" section. We mean it.
