A brand website and online store for a new Houston maker of natural tobacco leaf wraps — built around the rules a nicotine product has to follow: 21+ entry, Texas-only delivery, state sales tax and clear health warnings, with every page editable by the owner.
The challenge
Up In Smoke Wraps is a new Houston brand, founded by Lester Arancibia, that sells natural tobacco leaf wraps sourced from Nicaragua. The founder had the product, the packaging and the name. He needed a website that looked like a premium brand on day one and could take orders without breaking the rules that apply to a nicotine product.
Adults only
Nobody under 21 should see the shop. The age check had to cover every page, not only the checkout.
Texas only
The brand ships inside Texas. An order with an address outside the state must not go through.
Tax and warnings
Texas sales tax has to be added at checkout, and the required nicotine and cigar health warnings have to appear on the site.
A brand people remember
Bold type, the brand's orange and cream colours, and real product shots — not a generic shop template.
The owner runs it
Headlines, page text, prices and contact details had to be changeable without calling a developer.
What we built
We designed the brand site first as clickable prototypes, went through rounds of review with the founder, and then built the store to match the approved design screen for screen.
Every visitor meets an age check before any page loads. Visitors who confirm they are 21 or older go in; anyone else is turned away. Shoppers can choose to be remembered on their device for 30 days, so regular customers are not asked every visit.
The checkout checks both the shipping and the billing address, and only accepts Texas for either one, so an order to another state cannot be placed. Texas sales tax is added automatically, and the store applies the brand's own order rules: a $30 minimum and free shipping on orders of $75 or more.
Payments run through Stripe. We tested the full payment flow with approved, declined and 3-D Secure cards before switching it to live mode.
Smoke shops and lounges can send a wholesale inquiry from a dedicated page. Shoppers can request a product, join the mailing list or send a message. Every one of these lands in its own list in the admin panel, so nothing gets lost in an inbox.
Pages explain where the leaf comes from, show a six-step guide on how to roll, answer common questions and set out the shipping and returns policy. Health warnings sit in the footer of every page.
Every headline, paragraph, button and contact detail on the site can be changed from the admin panel — 93 settings in all. Each product also has a barcode field ready for the flavours the brand plans to add. The whole site was built for phones first.
Screens
Built for phones first
The outcome
Up In Smoke Wraps now has a live, branded store on its own domain, upinsmokewraps.com, with secure HTTPS. We describe what was built and tested here, not sales figures, which belong to the client.
Compliance built in
21+ entry on every page, Texas-only delivery checked on two addresses, sales tax at checkout and health warnings throughout.
Payments that were tested
Approved, declined and 3-D Secure card payments were all run end to end before going live.
Leads in one place
Wholesale inquiries, product requests, newsletter sign-ups and contact messages each have their own list in the admin panel.
Ready to grow
Barcode fields for new flavours, a wholesale channel for shops, and a Find Us page waiting for retail locations.
Technology
Services
Tell us what you sell and who you sell to. We will tell you what it takes to build it.