शून्य योगी
Shoonya Yogi
Two years of weaving a handloom store, from a 4-product site to a 19-product Shopify brand.
Beautiful cloth, invisible online
V1 went live on instinct. What its first buyers told us shaped every version after it.
How might a small handloom label tell the story of every thread, and turn one-off dhoti buyers into people who come back every festival?
Same cloth, a different store
The launch site next to the store I handed over. The cloth and the weavers never changed. How it was shown, named and sold did.
| V1, Sept 2024 | Final, Oct 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Range | 4 dhotis | 19 products: 8 dhotis, 9 kurtas, the Whites |
| Buying | One piece at a time | Sets at 10% less, a practice kit, gift cards |
| Story | A generic template, no story | Every dhoti has a Sanskrit name and a story, the weavers are on the page |
| Photos | Front-facing, the drape hidden | Side angle, the same pose for every dhoti |
| Navigation | Home, Shop, About, Contact | Dhotis, Kurtas, Long kurtas, Sets, The Whites, Gifts: one level |
| Look | DM Sans, stock blue accents | Cormorant and Jost, Ink and Gold, one 52 px button |
| Checkout | Cash on delivery by default | UPI first, with cards and EMI |
Seven versions, one loop
From the first weeks after launch, every change went round the same loop: about two weeks from listening to live, then the measuring begins.
From four dhotis to a collection with a name
Three versions on a hand-built site. These are the screens that gave the brand its voice before Shopify.
One store, re-dressed each season
The same template underneath. A new mood, story and edit at the top every season.
Flat enough to shop in two taps
The site grew from 4 products to 19. The structure had to stay flat enough to shop in two taps, and simple enough for one designer to run.
By Oct 2025 every festival edit needed code. The store had to be run by a designer, not a developer.
4 weeks, no downtime
Designed to sell a look, not a piece
kurtas and dhotis sat on separate pages
no way to see the pair together
no reason to buy both
shipping cost was a surprise at checkout
One template for all 19 products, so every page reads the same way.
Every discount explains itself, so nobody leaves to compare prices.
buying at the bottom, browsing at the top
Quiet by default, colour from the cloth
Three rules run every page: neutrals do the work, one accent marks the action, and colour belongs to the cloth. Set up in V3, carried to Shopify and used on every store since.
Each one is a product you can buy. They appear as swatches, in photos and beside a product name, never as interface colour.
A festival page keeps the neutral ramp and borrows one accent, for one band and one button.
Summer adds one tint, a light Lake tint, for its hero. Gold dark passes only for large text, so the Weddings button stays Ink. Holi gulal and the nine Navratri day colours are content, shown in photos and swatches, never on buttons.
| Role | Sample | Font | Size, px | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | Woven slowly | Cormorant Garamond 300 | 64 / 44 / 28 | headlines, italic for the second phrase |
| Body | Handwoven in Mangalgiri | Jost 300 | 17 / 15 | paragraphs, prices |
| Label | Add to bag | Jost 400, caps, 0.26em | 11 | buttons, navigation, eyebrows |
| Name | पृथ्वी | Tiro Devanagari | 17 to 36 | one word above a product name |
One height, 52 px. Ink for buy, an outline for browse, Gold only for the festival action. Square corners.
Swatches and sizes give a 44 px tap area. The chosen one gets an Ink ring or fill.
A store that keeps the calendar
14 seasonal edits in two years: two early sales, then 12 festival edits. Each edit is a mood, a story and a reason to come back, built from the same system with one festival accent.
One template, so an edit went from idea to live in a day on Shopify.
The first two seasons were sales. Orders barely moved, and buyers started waiting for the next discount.
Navratri 2025 tried an edit instead: one offer on sets, gift wrap and a story. Orders rose, and every season after followed that model.
one offer per edit, never a sitewide sale
Six decisions that did the selling
Each one started as something buyers struggled with. The riskiest ones were tested before they shipped.
ABpressure does not suit a brand about stillness, so the calm date stayed
What the store gave back
Three numbers the design moved, and what changed for the people who use the store.