And built this site ourselves, instead of paying for another platform.
For a while, Luma-Isla ran its storefront on Shopify. We don't anymore, and people occasionally ask why — so here's the honest version, not the marketing version.
A monthly subscription, theme limitations, and a 250-country shipping dropdown for a small family shop that ships almost entirely within the US. The overhead of running the platform started to feel bigger than the actual craft happening in our shop. Meanwhile, buyers were already converting on Etsy anyway — that's simply where people go looking for handmade work.
lumaisla.etsy.com is where checkout happens now. It already handles 80%+ of our orders, and it comes with reviews, a mobile-optimized checkout, gift cards, and search built in — all things we'd otherwise have had to build or pay for separately.
luma-isla.com — this site — exists purely to tell the story and show the work: the collections, our process, commissions, and now this blog. No checkout happens here. Every product page links straight out to the matching Etsy listing.
One less platform to maintain. One less monthly fee. Faster page loads, since this site is plain HTML and CSS with no framework and nothing to load beyond a font and a small script. And full control over how the workshop's story actually gets told, instead of working inside someone else's theme.
It's a smaller, simpler setup than a lot of shops run — and for a family workshop with 30+ printers and one goal (make the work, finish it well, ship it out), it's been the right trade.