Nancy's product catalog spans six categories, each representing a different application of her resin craft. Ear rings ranging from DOP 200 to DOP 250 — delicate pieces like the Whisper Leaf Earrings, preserving real foliage in lightweight resin, or the Flutter Wings Earrings, sculpted to capture the movement of a butterfly in mid-flight. Keychains personalized with letters embedded with real flowers and beach finds. Drink coasters like the Shoreline Whisper Dish, featuring real sand and seashells beneath ocean-blue resin waves. Candles and candle holders including the Coastal Duo and the Coastal Glow Sphere. Personalized gifts including a heart-shaped resin photo frame. And decorative pieces that serve as both functional objects and artwork.

Every item is made by Nancy herself. There are no mass-produced components, no offshore manufacturing, no stock inventory. Each product is created using materials sourced from the Dominican Republic — the seashells, the flowers, the sand. The brand's authenticity is its most important selling point, and the website needed to communicate that authenticity to someone browsing on their phone from anywhere in the world.

The Challenge: An Artisan Store That Doesn't Look Like One

The biggest design risk for any handmade goods store is looking cheap. There's a widespread assumption that "handmade" means "small-budget" — and generic e-commerce templates reinforce that assumption with cookie-cutter layouts, poor typography, and stock photography that has nothing to do with the actual products.

Esencias by Nancy needed to break that mold. The resin earrings Nancy makes are sophisticated, wearable art. The candle holders photograph beautifully against natural backgrounds. The keychains tell personal stories. The website needed to communicate that level of craft before a customer clicked on a single product.

The second challenge was genuine bilingual functionality — not a translation toggle that awkwardly switches the interface language while leaving URLs unchanged, but a proper language-split architecture where /en/products/whisper-leaf-earrings and /es/products/pendientes-hoja-susurro are distinct, fully-localized pages with their own SEO metadata, their own structured data, and their own content served from Sanity.

The third challenge was operational independence. Nancy is an artist and entrepreneur, not a developer. She needed a CMS she could use to add new products, update descriptions, manage inventory, and upload photography — all without touching code.

The Technology Stack

This is the project in our portfolio where the technology choices are most directly tied to DR Web Studio's own infrastructure. Esencias by Nancy runs on Next.js 15 + Sanity CMS + TypeScript — the same stack we use to build and maintain our own website. That's not a coincidence. We recommend this combination to e-commerce and content clients because we run it ourselves and we know exactly what it's capable of.

Next.js 15 with App Router is the most significant upgrade this project could receive over older React frameworks. The App Router's nested layouts and server components mean that product pages are rendered with the full product data on the server — search engines see complete, content-rich HTML for every item in the catalog, with prices, descriptions, and structured product data included. For an e-commerce store trying to rank for searches like "handmade resin earrings Punta Cana," "epoxy resin gifts Dominican Republic," or "handmade souvenirs Punta Cana," server-side rendering is not optional — it's the foundation of the SEO strategy. We also chose Next.js 15 specifically for its integration with Core Web Vitals optimization — image loading, layout stability, and interaction responsiveness all perform at the level that Google rewards with better rankings.

TypeScript covers the entire codebase — frontend components, Sanity schema definitions, API utilities, and i18n configuration. For a project with complex bilingual routing and a product catalog that changes regularly, TypeScript's type safety catches the kinds of errors that would otherwise surface as broken product pages or missing translations in production. This isn't defensive programming — it's the difference between a store that works reliably and one that breaks unpredictably.

Tailwind CSS 4 handles all styling. The upgrade to version 4 gave us new capabilities in color management and responsive design that were particularly useful for the product photography display system. Every product card, every hero section, every mobile breakpoint was built with Tailwind's utility classes — which means the entire visual system is consistent, maintainable, and can be updated without touching a single CSS file.

Sanity CMS is the backbone of the content operation. The headless CMS architecture means Nancy accesses a clean, purpose-built interface at /studio to manage everything about her product catalog — product names in both languages, descriptions, pricing in Dominican Pesos, photography, category assignments, and inventory status. When she creates a new resin piece, photographs it, and wants it live on the store, she opens Sanity, fills in the product details, uploads the images, and publishes. The site updates automatically. No developer required, no deployment delay, no technical knowledge needed. This operational independence is what makes a content management choice right for a solo founder — and it's precisely why we built DR Web Studio's own content system on Sanity.

i18next with next-i18next handles the bilingual routing layer. This is proper internationalization, not a workaround. Each product has a Spanish and English version of its name, description, and SEO metadata stored in Sanity. The routing layer serves /en/ and /es/ paths as genuinely distinct experiences — separate URLs that Google indexes independently, hreflang tags that tell search engines which version to serve to which audience, and localized Open Graph tags that display correctly when a customer shares a product on Instagram or WhatsApp.

Motion (the successor to Framer Motion) handles animations and page transitions. The subtle entrance animations on product cards, the smooth image transitions in the hero carousel, and the lightbox interactions all use Motion — giving the site the fluid, premium feel that matches the craft quality of the products.

React Photo Album with Yet Another React Lightbox powers the photo gallery section, where Nancy showcases her work in a magazine-style grid. The lightbox allows customers to view full-resolution images of each piece without leaving the page — critical for handmade goods where customers need to see texture, color, and detail before purchasing.

Swiper handles the hero image carousel on the homepage — a rotating showcase of Nancy's best work that immediately communicates the variety and quality of the catalog before a visitor has scrolled anywhere.

Dark mode is built in natively, toggling between light and dark themes based on system preference or manual selection. For a brand built on natural materials and earthy aesthetics, the dark mode palette was designed to complement the product photography — warm whites and product images look equally beautiful against light backgrounds or against deep, rich dark ones.

Netlify handles deployment with the Next.js plugin for optimal edge performance and automated builds triggered by Sanity content updates.

The Design: Luxury Artisan, Not Craft Fair

The visual direction for Esencias by Nancy was guided by one principle: the store should look as refined as the products it sells.

The homepage opens with a full-screen hero carousel of product photography — not lifestyle stock imagery, but Nancy's actual pieces shot against clean, natural backgrounds. The visual first impression establishes the quality signal before any copy runs. This is how high-end jewelry and artisan goods brands build trust with customers who have never encountered the brand before.

Product cards were designed with restraint. Each card shows the product image, name in the active language, and price in Dominican Pesos. There's no clutter — no star ratings, no promotional badges, no "ADD TO CART" buttons on every card. The focus is the product. Clicking through reveals a dedicated product page with a full image gallery, description, material details, and the purchase flow.

The photo gallery section gives Nancy a canvas to showcase work that doesn't fit neatly into the product catalog — experimental pieces, seasonal collections, behind-the-scenes material. It functions as both a portfolio and a brand story, reinforcing the handmade authenticity that distinguishes Esencias by Nancy from manufactured alternatives.

Typography and color were chosen to reflect the brand's roots in Dominican nature — warm neutrals, soft whites, colors that recall the ocean and the flora that appear in the products themselves. The dark mode palette extends this palette into deep ocean blues and charcoal tones that make the product photography pop.

Every design decision was made with mobile in mind first. Nancy's customers — both local Dominican buyers and international tourists who discover her work — primarily browse on their phones. The mobile experience is not a scaled-down version of the desktop site; it's the primary design context that the desktop view adapts from.

Bilingual E-Commerce: English for Tourists, Spanish for the Local Market

The Dominican Republic's artisan market has two very different audiences that operate in very different ways. Local Dominican customers browse in Spanish, pay in Dominican Pesos, and often discover products through Instagram and word of mouth. International tourists — particularly those visiting Punta Cana — browse in English, are comfortable paying in DOP once they understand the conversion, and are specifically looking for authentic local souvenirs and handmade gifts to bring home.

A store that only served one of these audiences would cut its potential market in half. Esencias by Nancy serves both, with each audience receiving a fully localized experience.

The URL structure reflects this clearly. The English store lives at esenciasbynancy.com/en/ — English product names, English descriptions, English meta titles that target search terms like "handmade resin earrings Punta Cana" and "epoxy resin gifts Dominican Republic." The Spanish store lives at esenciasbynancy.com/es/ — Spanish product names, Spanish descriptions, Spanish meta titles targeting "aretes de resina hechos a mano Punta Cana" and "regalos de resina epoxi República Dominicana."

Both language versions are fully indexed by Google as independent pages with appropriate hreflang tags. A tourist searching in English sees the English version in search results. A Dominican customer searching in Spanish sees the Spanish version. Neither audience is served a translated version of the other's experience — they each get content written and optimized specifically for them.

This is the same bilingual architecture we've applied across our tourism and e-commerce clients, and it's the approach we document in our own web development guides for Dominican businesses. For any Dominican business serving both local and international customers, true bilingual routing is not a nice-to-have — it's a market access decision.

SEO: Ranking for Handmade Gifts in Punta Cana

The search opportunity for Esencias by Nancy is specific but significant. Tourists planning or experiencing a Punta Cana vacation actively search for authentic local souvenirs and handmade gifts — and they search with high intent. "Handmade gifts Punta Cana," "resin art Dominican Republic," "unique souvenirs Punta Cana" are queries from people who want exactly what Nancy makes and are ready to buy.

Next.js server-side rendering ensures every product page is a fully-optimized, independently indexable landing page. Each one has its own title tag, meta description, Open Graph image, and JSON-LD structured data marking it up as a Product with price, availability, and brand information. Google doesn't just know the store exists — it knows every product in the catalog, in both languages, with pricing data that can appear in rich search results.

The photo gallery and about pages build topical authority beyond pure product searches. The brand story — Nancy's 2020 origin, the use of Dominican natural materials, the handcrafted nature of every piece — is content that builds E-E-A-T signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) that support the commercial product pages.

Sanity's real-time content pipeline means new products are immediately indexed as soon as Nancy publishes them. There's no sitemap update delay, no manual submission required — Netlify's automated deployment propagates new content to the production site and the sitemap in minutes.

The Shopping Cart: Keeping It Focused

For a store of Esencias by Nancy's current catalog size — 19 products across 6 categories — the shopping cart system was designed for clarity over complexity. Customers can add products with quantity management, review their cart, and contact Nancy directly through the integrated contact form to finalize orders and arrange payment.

This approach reflects a deliberate decision about where the conversion happens. Nancy's products are personal and often personalized — a customer buying a keychain with a specific letter, or commissioning a custom resin piece, benefits from a conversation with the maker. The contact form isn't a limitation; it's an opportunity to create the kind of direct customer relationship that builds loyalty and repeat business in a way that anonymous checkout flows don't.

As the business scales, the platform is fully ready to expand — PayPal or Stripe integration can be added directly to the existing cart system without a rebuild. The Sanity schema already includes pricing fields structured for payment processing. The architecture was built to grow.

What This Project Demonstrates

Esencias by Nancy is the project in our portfolio that most directly answers a question we hear from small Dominican businesses: "Can a professional website work for a business at my scale?"

The answer is yes — and in some ways, the smaller the business, the more important the digital presence becomes. When you're a solo artisan competing for tourist attention against resort gift shops and mass-produced souvenirs, your website is your strongest competitive advantage. It's the only place where Nancy's story, her craft, and her specific vision for each piece can be communicated completely and on her own terms.

The technology stack — Next.js + Sanity + TypeScript + Tailwind — is the same one we use for DR Web Studio itself. It's not enterprise software for a small business; it's the right foundation for any business that takes its digital presence seriously and plans to grow. It's fast, it's manageable, it's fully bilingual, and it's built to last.

View the live store at esenciasbynancy.com and explore the full project in our portfolio.

If you run a small business in the Dominican Republic — an artisan brand, a local boutique, a service provider, or any business that sells to both Dominican and international customers — and your digital presence doesn't reflect the quality of your work, the gap between where you are and where you could be is exactly what we build.

Contact us for a free consultation and let's talk about what the right platform looks like for your specific business.