Ecommerce Website Development Services for Stores a Template Can't Handle
We build custom and headless online stores for businesses in the US, UK, Europe and the Gulf whose pricing, ordering or stock rules don't fit a standard theme: B2B catalogues with customer-specific prices, trade accounts, product configurators, subscriptions, and stores that must stay in sync with an ERP, warehouse or accounting system. If a hosted platform such as Shopify covers what you sell, we will say so and you will spend less. Our guide to Shopify vs WooCommerce vs custom ecommerce compares the three with sourced US and UK fees.
By Obaid Tariq, Founder & Lead Engineer · Last updated
Ecommerce Development at a Glance
| What we build | Headless storefronts, custom features added to an existing Shopify store, B2B ordering portals, and custom stores with their own catalogue, checkout and order management |
|---|---|
| Cost | We don't publish an ecommerce price band, because a theme setup and a B2B store synced to an ERP are different projects. You get a fixed quote, split into milestones, after a scoping call. Platform running costs are published: see our ecommerce platform comparison. |
| Timeline | Agreed after discovery. Product data migration and integrations with stock, ERP or accounting systems usually decide it, so we test those connections first. |
| Payments | Stripe or your platform's own checkout, with card details handled by the payment provider rather than stored on your servers |
| Ownership | You own the full IP: source code, repository and documentation, once the final invoice is settled |
| Warranty | 60–90 days on defects in what we delivered |
For what a website costs to build and run in general, see how much a website costs.
Problems Custom Ecommerce Development Solves
Plugins Fighting Each Other
Pricing, shipping and subscription rules spread across several plugins or apps that conflict, slow the store down and break on updates.
Manual Order and Stock Work
Staff re-key orders into the ERP or accounting system, and stock levels drift between the store, the warehouse and physical shops.
A Checkout That Doesn't Fit Your Buyers
Trade customers can't see their own prices, order on account or reorder quickly, so they phone or email orders in instead.
What Our Ecommerce Development Services Include
Headless Storefronts
A fast Next.js front end with server-rendered product and category pages, connected to Shopify's APIs or to a custom catalogue, so design and page speed aren't limited by a theme.
B2B Ecommerce Development
Trade accounts with customer-specific price lists, quotes, bulk and repeat ordering, purchase orders and approval steps for buyers inside the same company.
Custom Checkout and Payments
Stripe payments, subscriptions, deposits and refunds, with webhooks processed idempotently so an order is never charged or fulfilled twice.
Inventory, ERP and Accounting Integrations
Two-way sync of products, stock, orders and customers with your ERP, warehouse, POS or accounting system, queued and retried so an outage doesn't lose orders.
Custom Features for an Existing Store
A quote builder, product configurator, trade portal or stock sync built as an app or separate service that talks to your current platform, so you keep its checkout and admin.
Replatforming and Product Data Migration
Moving products, customers and order history from an old platform, with URL redirects planned so existing search rankings aren't thrown away.
Hosted Platform, Extended Platform or Custom Store?
| Hosted platform with a theme | Platform plus custom features | Custom or headless store | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A standard catalogue, normal checkout and few integrations | A standard store with one unusual need, such as a quote builder, trade accounts or a stock sync | Unusual pricing or ordering rules, B2B catalogues, multi-region rules, or full design and speed control |
| Who runs checkout and hosting | The platform | The platform; the custom part runs as an app or a separate service | You, through Stripe and your own cloud account, or the platform's APIs behind a custom front end |
| Cost shape | Monthly plan and transaction fees; little build cost | Plan fees plus a build for the custom part | A larger upfront build plus hosting and maintenance; fewer per-sale platform fees |
| What we usually recommend | Often the right answer; we will tell you if it is | The cheapest sound route for most custom requests | When the store itself is the competitive advantage |
Is Custom Ecommerce Development Right for You?
This is for you if
B2B and trade sellers
Customer-specific price lists, quotes, bulk ordering, purchase orders, credit terms or approval steps that standard checkouts don't support.
Stores tied to back-office systems
Stock, orders and customers that must stay in sync with an ERP, warehouse, POS or accounting system, without manual exports.
Stores with unusual products
Configurable or made-to-order products, bundles, subscriptions, rentals or pricing rules that themes and plugins can't express cleanly.
Not the right fit if
A standard shop on a small budget
If you sell a normal catalogue with standard shipping, a hosted platform with a good theme is cheaper to build and run. We will point you to it.
Theme tweaks or a quick store setup
We don't do one-off theme customisation or product uploads. Shopify specialist agencies are a better fit and usually cost less for that work.
Ecommerce Tech Stack
How an Ecommerce Project Runs
Platform Decision First
DiscoveryWe map your catalogue, pricing rules, buyers and back-office systems, then recommend a hosted platform, a platform plus custom features, or a custom store, with the reasons in writing.
Integrations Before Screens
ExecutionWe connect stock, order and payment flows early, using test data and sandbox accounts, then build the storefront in two-week sprints with working software on staging.
Checkout and Order Testing
ValidationWe test full orders end to end, including failed payments, refunds, duplicate webhooks, out-of-stock items and tax, before any real customer reaches checkout.
Who Our Ecommerce Development Services Are For and How a Project Starts
Our ecommerce development services are for retailers, wholesalers and brands that already sell, or are ready to, and have outgrown what themes and plugins can do. Most of the work is B2B ordering, integrations with back-office systems, and headless storefronts. Delivery is founder-led, so you work directly with Obaid Tariq, our founder and lead engineer.
Send a short brief with your current platform, rough catalogue size and the systems the store must connect to. We reply within 24 hours and book a free 30-minute scoping call, then send a written scope with a fixed quote before the build starts. For US stores, calls are booked in the US morning and written updates cover the rest of your day; sales tax collection rules vary by state, so we connect a tax calculation service rather than hard-coding rates, and your accountant confirms where you must collect.
Still comparing teams? Our web development agency page explains how hiring us works, and our questions to ask a web development agency work for any team you shortlist. Or book a free scoping call.
Ecommerce Development case studies
Projects that used this capability. Client names and specific data flows are anonymised for confidentiality.
No public case study for this service yet
See our full list of case studies, or ask us for an architecture walk-through on a call.
Ecommerce Work Under NDA
How we share evidence
Client projects are usually covered by confidentiality agreements, so we do not name clients or publish their figures here. Ask for an architecture walk-through on a call, where the engineers who did the work explain the decisions they made and why.
Common Ecommerce Development Risks
Duplicate Charges and Lost Orders
Payment webhooks arrive late, twice or out of order. Code that assumes they arrive once can charge a customer twice or leave a paid order unfulfilled.
Rankings Lost in a Replatform
Product and category URLs change in a migration without redirects, and the store loses search traffic it took years to build.
Stock Drift Between Systems
Two systems both treat themselves as the record of stock, so items oversell or show as unavailable when they are on the shelf.
How We Reduce Those Risks
Idempotent Payment Handling
Every webhook is checked against the events already processed before an order changes state, and failed jobs retry safely without charging twice.
A Redirect Map Before Launch
Old URLs are mapped to new ones and tested before the switch, and Search Console is checked for crawl errors after launch.
One Source of Truth for Stock
We agree which system owns stock levels, then sync the others from it through queued updates with alerts when a sync fails.
Ownership, Security and Handover
Code and accounts in your name
We recommend the repository lives in your own GitHub or GitLab organisation from day one, with hosting, domains and third-party services in accounts your company controls. You can see every commit as it happens.
You own the bespoke work
You receive full IP in the source code, database design and documentation we write for you. Open-source and third-party components stay under their own licences, and we list them. The exact ownership wording is set out in each project's contract and our terms of service.
Security built into the build
Secrets stay in server-side configuration rather than client code, access rules are enforced on the server and in the database rather than only in the interface, and production access is limited to the people who need it.
Documented handover, then a warranty
Before handover you receive setup and deployment documentation, environment configuration and a walkthrough, so your own developers or another team can take over. A 60–90 day warranty after launch covers defects in what we delivered; ongoing support is optional and scoped separately.
Ecommerce development for UK businesses
For UK stores we plan VAT display, UK GDPR and PECR from the start: prices shown with or without VAT for consumer and trade buyers, no non-essential cookies or tracking before consent, and customer data that can be exported and deleted on request. Because our team works from Islamabad, any access to customer data is a restricted transfer under UK GDPR, so the safeguard, such as the UK IDTA, should be confirmed with your data protection adviser. We build and test on test data to keep that access small.
If you also sell into the EU, currencies, languages and VAT rules for each country need planning early; our web development agency for Europe page covers those requirements. We have no UK office; UK projects are delivered remotely.
More for UK buyers: how we handle how we work with UK businesses remotely, including UK GDPR, working hours and GBP pricing.
Ecommerce Development: Common Questions
Do you build Shopify stores?+
When is custom ecommerce development worth it instead of Shopify or WooCommerce?+
How much does ecommerce website development cost?+
What is headless ecommerce?+
Can you build B2B ecommerce with customer-specific pricing?+
Can the store integrate with our ERP, warehouse or accounting system?+
Can you migrate our store without losing search rankings?+
How do you handle payment security and PCI DSS?+
What happens after the store launches?+
Planning Guides and Free Tools
Useful before you talk to us or anyone else: written for buyers comparing options, not as a sales pitch.
- Shopify vs WooCommerce vs custom ecommercePublished US and UK platform fees, what each option costs to run, and when a custom store is worth it.
- How much does a website cost?What drives the price of a business website, from template builds to custom web applications.
- SaaS payments, webhooks and authenticationWhy AI-built apps break at checkout and login, and how to integrate subscriptions and webhooks safely.
- Web application security basicsAuthentication, access control and data protection to get right in a custom web app.
- Software requirements document templateA free, section-by-section template for writing a brief that development companies can quote against.
- Questions to ask a web development agencyTen questions to ask before hiring, what a good answer looks like, the red flags, and how we answer each one.
Services Related to Ecommerce Development
Projects rarely stop at one discipline. These services are often scoped alongside this one.
Industries where we build this
How our Ecommerce Development work applies to the workflows, integrations and risks of each sector.
Plan Your Online Store
Tell us what you sell, who buys it and which systems the store must connect to. We will recommend a hosted platform, a platform with custom features or a custom store, and quote for the build if you need one. We work remotely from Islamabad with businesses in the US, UK, Europe and the Gulf.
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