Case Study · August 2026

From Instagram DMs to her own jewellery website: The House of Urmila

A South Indian imitation-jewellery label that used to manage every order inside Instagram DMs now runs a 39-product store on its own domain, with UPI, COD and order tracking built in. Here is the whole journey, with the live store to check for yourself.

The House of Urmila's live jewellery website on thehouseofurmila.com — hero, catalogue and cart
The live store at thehouseofurmila.com — open it in a new tab; everything below is verifiable there.

The problem: a business living inside a DM inbox

The House of Urmila sells handpicked South Indian imitation jewellery — chokers, temple sets, bridal pieces — and like thousands of Indian sellers, the business started on Instagram. Discovery worked. Everything after discovery didn't: every price question, every size query, every order and every payment lived inside DMs. One person, one inbox, no catalogue a customer could browse, no checkout a customer could finish on their own.

That is the ceiling most DM sellers hit. Instagram is a brilliant shop window and a terrible cash counter. (We wrote about the pattern across 226 real small stores here.)

What she runs now

  • A 39-product catalogue on her own domain — thehouseofurmila.com, not a link-in-bio page. Chokers, temple jewellery, bridal sets and everyday pieces, each with multiple photos she shot herself.
  • Checkout customers finish alone — UPI and card payments through Razorpay, plus the options Indian buyers actually ask for.
  • Order tracking— a Track Order page, so "where is my parcel?" stopped being a DM thread.
  • Offers without manual work — festive discount codes and free-shipping thresholds run on the store banner, not in copy-pasted DM replies.

Watch her story

The House of Urmila testimonial reel cover

We published a short testimonial reel with her on our Instagram. From the caption, as posted:

"Started her journey with sitesplaced and now her website is live and ready! She had escaped the hassle of managing orders through DM and made the first step towards a proper online presence."
Watch the reel on Instagram ↗

Why this matters if you sell on Instagram

Nothing in this story required a developer, an agency or a ₹15,000 build. The store was generated from what already existed — her Instagram and her product photos — and publishing was free, with 0% commission on sales. The paid plan came later, for the custom domain and branding removal, once the store had proven itself.

If your business lives in your DMs today, the same path is open: paste your Instagram handle and see your own store built in minutes.

Your shop window is ready. Add the cash counter.

Free to build, free to publish, 0% commission — UPI, COD and WhatsApp checkout included.

Build my store from Instagram →

More proof

26 live customer stores

bejewelled-by-priya.sitesplaced.site
Priyas Bejewelled — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
Priyas Bejewelled184 products
elyrahstudio.com
Elyrah Studio — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
Elyrah Studio102 products
thehouseofurmila.com
THE HOUSE OF URMILA — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
THE HOUSE OF URMILA39 products
orulabs.sitesplaced.site
oru labs — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
oru labs31 products
bellaloom.in
BELLALOOM — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
BELLALOOM16 products
the-girl-house.sitesplaced.site
The Girl House — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
The Girl House31 products
trapwearclothing.sitesplaced.site
TRAPWEAR+ — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
TRAPWEAR+23 products
seecreationstudio.sitesplaced.site
See Creation Studio — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
See Creation Studio7 products
nestify.sitesplaced.site
Nestify — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
Nestify11 products
unsortedd.com
UNSORTED — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
UNSORTED8 products
gadha-alankriti.sitesplaced.site
Gadha Alankriti — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
Gadha Alankriti11 products
budget-fashion.sitesplaced.site
Budget Fashion — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
Budget Fashion11 products
giyftrush.sitesplaced.site
Giyftrush — a live store built and published on SitesPlaced
Giyftrush10 products

Every store here is live and taking orders · read the SitesPlaced reviews from their owners