Catalogue and product pages
Structure of categories, attributes and variants. Photography at the right dimensions, copy that answers the questions a buyer actually has, structured data for Google results.
Services · 02
E-commerce development for businesses
An online store is not a website with a cart. It is a small operating system: catalogue, prices, stock, payments, shipping, returns and support. If any one of those parts is fragile, the shop loses orders in silence.
Two stores, two different catalogues
The cart is the easy part. What makes the difference is variants, shipping and updates that must not need a developer every week.
- 6–12weeks with catalogue and copy already prepared
- 5working days for a written proposal
- 2rounds of revisions included, not billed as you go
When it makes sense, and when it doesn't
Before choosing a platform it is worth checking whether the numbers hold up. That is the first conversation we have, even when the client has already picked the name of the shop.
An online store works when the margin on the product covers the cost of acquisition, shipping and returns. With very thin margins and low volume, the online channel can cost more than it brings in: in that case a catalogue with a quote request beats a cart nobody completes.
It works well instead when the product is hard to find in physical shops, when the customer needs technical information, when reordering is natural, or when the company already sells by phone and wants to remove the manual work.
The first calculation you can do yourself, with your own numbers: use the ecommerce margin calculator and see what is left on each order, which customer acquisition cost is still sustainable and how many orders you need to cover your fixed costs.
- A stable catalogue, with variants and prices you can manage without a technical intervention.
- An existing way of shipping, or a courier chosen and configured together.
- Someone in the company responsible for orders, returns and support.
What a project includes
Checkout and payments
Card, bank transfer, cash on delivery where needed, Apple Pay and Google Pay. A short checkout, shipping costs visible before the last step, abandoned cart recovery.
Shipping and returns
Shipping rules by weight, zone and free-shipping threshold. Automatic tracking sent to the customer and a returns process a person can actually follow.
Integrations
Warehouse, management software, e-invoicing, couriers, newsletter, CRM. The goal is not re-entering the same order by hand into three different systems.
Which platform
There is no best platform in absolute terms: there is the one that costs least to maintain for your catalogue and your team.
Standard management (Shopify, WooCommerce) is the sensible choice in most cases: predictable costs, a wide ecosystem of apps and couriers, updates handled for you. Suitable for catalogues up to a few thousand items with normal commercial rules.
A custom build makes sense when the product is configurable, prices depend on complex parameters, the catalogue comes from an internal system, or the store has to plug into production processes. It costs more at the start and less once the rules change.
In both cases the part that makes the difference is not the platform: it is the photography, the product copy and the clarity of shipping and returns.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to open an online store?
Six to twelve weeks for a shop whose catalogue is already prepared. The main variable is the number of products: uploading and writing 30 product pages is a different job from 800, and descriptions copied from the supplier rarely work on Google.
Is Shopify better, or a custom solution?
If your commercial rules are standard, a managed platform is almost always the cheaper choice over time. A custom build pays off when the product, the pricing or the stock follow logic that standard platforms only handle through a pile of workarounds.
Can we also sell on Amazon or eBay?
Yes, and it is often worth it as an additional channel. What matters is deciding beforehand who controls prices and stock levels: without a single source of truth you end up with double sales and cancelled orders.
Who handles orders and returns?
Your company, with tools that make the work fast. We set up flows, notifications and integrations, and we train the people who do it every day. We don't do warehouse or customer-service outsourcing.
How much does an online store cost?
What weighs most is the catalogue (how many products, how many variants), the number of integrations (warehouse, courier, invoicing), and who will handle orders and returns. A cart installed in a week and a store wired into your management software are not the same job. The quote is written after the first conversation, with the line items separated.
Further reading
B2B e-commerce: when it pays off (and when it doesn't)
When B2B e-commerce makes sense, which operating model to choose and how to calculate the break-even threshold.
Close to this service
Custom software
When the store has to talk to production, the warehouse or a management system nobody wants to replace.
SEO
A shop with 500 invisible product pages sells only to people who already know it. Work on the product pages is part of SEO.
Craft and manufacturing
Selling handmade or made-to-order products online: lead times, customisation, small batches.
We check the numbers before the cart
Tell us what you sell, at what price, and how many shipments you handle, and we can tell you in one call whether the online channel makes sense now or in six months.