Mule
← Industries · Antique shops & vintage dealers

A digital agency for antique shops.

Mule Digital builds websites for antique shops, vintage dealers, and curated estate-sale businesses. Image-led sites that surface the inventory you actually have, integrate with 1stDibs or Chairish where it makes sense, and rank for the design-buyer searches that drive high-margin sales.

01 · How we frame it

What we know about antique shops.

Antiques and vintage are one-of-one — every piece needs its own photograph, its own provenance note, its own price, and once it sells, it's gone. That makes traditional e-commerce templates a poor fit; most antique-shop sites we audit either run a Shopify catalogue that's perpetually out of date or skip the inventory question entirely and just show a phone number.

The good pattern is a hybrid: a curated rotating selection of pieces on your own site (twenty to fifty items, well-photographed, kept fresh), a clear path to 1stDibs or Chairish for the buyer who wants to transact online, and a strong local-search presence for the design buyers and interior decorators who source from you. The site is a gallery and a credential, not a Shopify clone.

02 · Why we’re a fit

Why a antique shop picks Mule.

  • 01Hand-curated rotating inventory surface that you can update yourself when pieces come and go. No quixotic attempt to mirror every SKU online.
  • 021stDibs, Chairish, or Etsy integration for online transactions — keep the marketplaces doing what they do well, and let your own site do the framing.
  • 03Designer and trade-buyer page with the wholesale terms and a structured inquiry path. High-margin segment most antique shops underinvest in.
  • 04Strong local SEO + Google Business Profile setup — design buyers and decorators source heavily from local search.
Common questions

From antique shops.

  • Do we need to put everything online?

    No. Twenty to fifty curated pieces that turn frequently is more effective than a thousand-SKU catalogue that's half-stale. Antiques selling online live on photography quality, not inventory breadth.

  • Should we sell on 1stDibs or Chairish in addition?

    For higher-end inventory, yes — they bring serious buyers and handle the transactional friction. We integrate the listings and link from your own site so the brand stays consistent.

  • What about provenance and authentication?

    We treat provenance notes as primary content on every piece. The trust signal matters more than the marketing copy in this category.

  • Do you handle the photography?

    We direct; we don't shoot. For antiques specifically we recommend a local product photographer on a small retainer — your inventory turns and the photos need to keep up.