Selling firewood online when delivery only goes so far

The problem

Lewis Holmes's father started the family forestry business in 1981. It was broader then, and less focused on firewood than it is now. The business has evolved, but the old Wix site had not kept up with it. It could take an order, but it could not work out whether that order was one Holmes Forestry could actually deliver. Logs are heavy, bulky and go out on the company's own vehicles rather than a courier network, so the postcode matters more than almost anything else. The result was a website that sold very little and a phone that rang constantly.

What we did

We rebuilt the store on Shopify with delivery at the centre of it rather than bolted on at the end. Two zones drive the whole thing: free local delivery across most of North Lincolnshire, and a £10 charge further out that is waived above £200. Rates apply automatically at checkout, so customers see the real cost before they commit, and orders from outside the delivery area are stopped rather than taken and refunded later.

Product data was rebuilt around how people actually buy logs, split by wood type and by bulk bag or loose load. Moisture content and Ready to Burn detail sits on the product pages, because it is a legal requirement for logs sold under two cubic metres in England and it is also the thing customers compare on. Local delivery has shaped other builds we have done, including Tilly's Treat Cupboard in Scunthorpe, but never as the thing the whole store turns on.

Outcome

The site went live on 1 September 2026, ahead of the season that matters. It is too early for sales figures worth publishing, so we will come back to this one after a full winter.

What is already true is that Holmes Forestry can take an order without a phone call, and the delivery rules that used to live in Lewis's head now live in the checkout. Phase two is scheduled ordering and delivery slots, which is the natural next step once a season of demand shows where the pressure points are.