Most of the lost money is in the last four screens. Shipping appears as a surprise at the end. The payment form asks for the same address twice. On a phone, the button that matters is below the fold and the keyboard covers it. None of this shows up in a design review and all of it shows up in the numbers.
So checkout is where we spend the attention. Shopify when Shopify fits, and we will tell you when it does, even though the custom build is the bigger job for us. A custom storefront when your catalogue, pricing rules or vendor structure genuinely will not fit inside it.
The answer depends on your catalogue and your rules, and we work it out before anyone quotes you.
Theme work, app choices that will not fight each other in a year, and a checkout tuned rather than accepted as it came. If Shopify is the right answer for you, we will say so at the start, even though the custom build is the bigger job for us.
Complex pricing, B2B accounts, unusual stock rules, or many sellers in one store. All of these are where a hosted platform starts costing you more in workarounds than it saves.
The same list either way, on Shopify or on a storefront of your own. A few are add-ons, and those are marked.
Built for the phone firstMost of your customers arrive on a phone and decide there. The small screen is where the layout starts, and the desktop follows it.
Products people can findSearch, filters and categories that survive a catalogue of thousands. A customer who cannot find it does not buy it.
A checkout that gets finishedShipping cost shown early, the address asked for once, and the pay button still reachable on a phone with the keyboard open.
Buying without an accountGuest checkout, with the option to keep the details afterwards. Forcing a sign-up before payment loses real orders.
Fast on a weak connectionProduct images converted and loaded as they come into view, so a catalogue page is not a two-megabyte download.
Found on GoogleProduct titles, descriptions and the markup that puts your price and stock in the search result itself.
The ways your customers payLocal and international providers, cards, wallets, and cash on delivery where that is still how it works.
Stock that goes down onceOne order takes one unit, so the last piece cannot be sold to three people in the same minute.
Shipping that quotes a real costRates by area, weight or provider, shown while the customer is still deciding.
Tax and invoicesVAT handled the way your accountant needs it, and an invoice the customer can keep.
The emails around an orderConfirmation, dispatch and delivery, written in your words and set in your design, so they read as if they came from you.
Returns and refundsA path for the order that comes back, so the money and the stock are both put right in the system.
You add the productsProducts, prices, photos, categories and stock, edited by your team. No ticket, no waiting on us.
Orders worked from one screenPaid, packed, sent, returned. Whoever handles orders can see where each one is without asking anybody.
Discounts and campaignsCodes, sales and offers you set yourself, with an end date so nobody has to remember to switch them off.
Everything in your nameThe domain, the store account, the payment accounts and the data are yours. If you leave, the shop goes with you.
Someone answersThe busiest day of your year is the wrong day to be filing a support ticket. You message the people who built it.
Analytics and pixelsOptionalTraffic, sales and the ad platforms you advertise on, wired in before launch when you want them.
Abandoned basket emailsOptionalA reminder to the people who reached the last screen and stopped. Usually the cheapest sales you will make.
Each seller runs their own shopTheir products, their prices, their stock, their orders, inside your store.
One basket, one checkoutThe customer buys from three sellers and pays once. Making that feel like a single shop is the hard part of the build.
Commission and payoutsYour cut taken automatically, and what each seller is owed worked out for you.
Sellers you approveApplications, approval, and the ability to suspend a seller without touching the rest of the store.
Orders split by sellerOne order becomes each seller's own job to pack and send, while the customer still sees one order.
A dashboard for each of themSellers see their own sales and nothing of anybody else's.
Web and mobile, with independent sellers on it.
Independent sellers each run their own shop inside one store that still behaves like a single shop to the person buying. Making many vendors feel like one place, at checkout and in the basket, was the hard part of the build.
Most projects need more than one of these. It is the same team whichever you add, so nothing gets handed between companies on the way.
E-commerce
Describe the goal. We will tell you what it takes and what you can skip.
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