Case Study · 2026-08-29
Building a custom number plate builder with live preview and UK-wide checkout
Plates4Show needed an e-commerce site built around a genuinely custom product: number plates people design themselves. Here's how the plate builder and checkout came together.
Plates4Show sells custom number plates, which is a product that doesn't really work with an off-the-shelf e-commerce template. A customer needs to see exactly what their plate looks like, with their own registration on it, before they order it, not a generic product photo with a dropdown next to it.
The plate builder
We built a custom number plate builder with a live-updating preview: the customer types in their registration and sees it rendered on the plate in real time, with plate size options built in. What they see in the builder is what they get, so there's no gap between "what I designed" and "what turns up."
Checkout, streamlined for the actual product
Because every plate is effectively made to order, the checkout needed to handle that cleanly rather than treating it like a standard stocked product. We built a streamlined checkout with UK-wide delivery, so the custom part (the plate itself) and the standard part (paying and getting it delivered) both feel like they belong on the same site instead of one feeling bolted onto the other.
What this is on an ongoing basis
The build is on a monthly retainer, so the site keeps getting looked after rather than being left to drift after launch.
If you're selling something that needs to be configured or previewed before someone buys it, a template builder usually won't get you there. Have a look at website design and build or get in touch to talk through what a custom build would look like for your product.
Topics: E-commerce, Case Study, Custom Build
By Lee Day · leeday.uk · UK-wide support