Ember Coffee: a $500 shop that sells a habit
Demonstration build · subscription shop · Seattle, WA · see it live
This is one of our demonstration builds: a site we made ourselves, to show what the top of our price range buys. Nobody ordered it; the brief, the constraints and the deadline were real, the client was not. Every number below is from our own published audit tooling.
The brief we set ourselves
A small-batch coffee roaster in Seattle selling one thing that matters: never facing an empty bag at 6:30 a.m. That means the site is not a catalogue: it is a subscription pitch. The visitor must understand the offer in one screen, pick one of four plans without a spreadsheet, and know exactly what happens after they order.
Decisions that shaped the shop
- The morning, not the bean, is the hero. "Good mornings start with a little fire": the first screen sells the moment of use. Origin stories and tasting notes come later, where the already convinced reader looks for them.
- Four plans, whole words, no matrix. "Four ways to fill your cup": each plan says who it is for. Choice paralysis is the main killer of subscription pages.
- A "what happens after you order" section. Roast day, ship day, first-bag timing, all spelled out. Buyers of consumables fear logistics more than price.
- Specific information, not vague claims: a section title on the page and the rule for every paragraph on it. Numbers, days and origins instead of "premium quality".
- Drawn SVG art, warm palette for the craft. No stock lattes; the page's fire-and-ember palette belongs to roasting, not to a template.
The numbers
- Audit score
- 100 / 100 on the first full check, zero issues; re-verified today
- Contrast checks
- 167 elements measured, light and dark mode
- Page weight
- 30 KB for an entire shop front: most product photos on the web weigh more alone
- Dark mode
- Its own palette, not an inversion, measured rather than assumed
Fast pages are not a vanity metric for a shop: every extra second of load measurably costs orders, and a 30 KB storefront has no seconds to lose.
What this would cost you
This scope (a storefront with subscription plans, product pages, FAQ and ordering flow) sits at the top of our range: $475–500, delivered in 24 hours from the moment the scope is agreed. You see it finished and working before you pay anything. The full rules are one short page: How We Work.
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