Service specification 4 sections Platform first, custom when needed
Most online shops should use Shopify or WooCommerce. BigCommerce is another good choice. A platform is faster and cheaper when the products, payments and delivery rules are standard. Build from scratch only when your sales rules will not fit the platform.
A platform gives a normal shop a tested catalogue, checkout and order area. It also gets regular updates. Paying to rebuild those parts makes no sense when they fit.
Large catalogues with trade rules may need Magento web design. Most shops do not.
Start with standard products, checkout and delivery. If all three fit, use the platform and spend the budget on the shop itself.
Renting a shop platform is the right call for most people. It is still renting, and the terms are worth reading first.
| What to weigh | What the platform handles | What it takes back |
|---|---|---|
| Getting started | You can be selling within days, with hosting, security and updates all handled. | You fit the business to the platform, rather than the other way round. |
| What you pay | A predictable monthly fee, and no server of your own to run. | That fee, plus a slice of every sale, for as long as you keep selling. |
| Taking payment | The built-in payment tools are quick to switch on and well tested. | Shopify adds 2% on top when you take payment through anyone else. |
| Changing how it works | An app covers most ordinary needs, and installing one takes minutes. | Anything unusual becomes an app, then three apps, then a workaround. |
| What you own | Nothing to maintain, and the shop keeps running if you change agency. | You are renting. The fees, the rules and the roadmap are not yours. |
| Outgrowing it | Most shops never do, and that is a good outcome rather than a failure. | The ones that do tend to find out in their busiest month. |
The platform stops fitting when a core sales rule needs a pile of workarounds. These four needs come from live stores.
Easy Care Solutions lets shoppers filter by use, product, brand, size and absorbency.
A simple menu cannot handle all five filters. The shop needs filters that match how people buy.
Easy Care Solutions sells one-off goods and repeat plans in the same shop.
Repeat orders and one-off orders run on different dates and different payment rules. The same basket has to keep both clear.
Easy Care Solutions and BlowMotion use real delivery cut-off times.
A fixed delivery message is not enough. The promise has to follow the courier slot and the current time.
Easy Care Solutions includes trade accounts as part of the store.
A standard shop treats most buyers alike. Trade access and order rules can need a separate path after sign-in.
Delivery charges can depend on parcel weight, size or zone. Product type may change the rule too. A long item may need a different courier from a small box.
Order cut-off times decide which delivery dates the shop can promise. They are the part that most often goes wrong. The shop must check the time against the courier's last collection.
Click and collect needs its own stock point and message. The shop can pass the order to a courier automatically. The courier can then send the tracking number back to the shop.
Most of this work is a migration rather than a new shop. You already have products, customers, orders and search rankings, and all four have to survive the move.
The catalogue goes first. We map every product, variant, image and price, and agree what is retired rather than moved. Customer accounts and order history follow, so nobody loses their receipts. Old product URLs get redirected to the new ones, which is the step that protects the rankings you already have.
The old shop keeps trading while the new one is checked. We switch when the two agree on stock, prices and orders.
Orders must reach stock, packing and delivery. Nobody should type them twice.
All three stores are live. Their screenshots show the real work, so this page does not need a drawn shop or a mockup.
Easy Care Solutions
Continence care ecommerce with a catalogue that has to be filtered five different ways - by user, product, brand, size and absorbency - alongside repeat subscriptions and a delivery cut-off that counts down against the courier.
BlowMotion
Hand dryer ecommerce for a UK market leader trading since 2012. Filtering by colour, sector and feature, a price match promise, and an order countdown wired to the next delivery slot.
Military Signature Archive
Mounted display prints of WWII aviation art signed by the aircrew who flew, sold to collectors in the UK and abroad. The catalogue is browsed by force and squadron, while the shop switches between pounds and dollars for overseas buyers.
The difficult sales rules set the cost. A product count on its own tells us very little.
How many products and variants
Each product type needs the right options, stock record, images and order data.
How the catalogue is filtered
Each filter needs clean product data. It must also work with the other filters.
Pricing rules and trade accounts
Account types, access and special order rules must be clear before checkout.
What the accounts package needs
Orders, tax, payments and refunds need an agreed hand-off to the finance record.
A shop needs a payment provider. Stripe and PayPal cover most UK stores, and both handle cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Klarna is worth adding where customers expect to pay later. Each provider takes a percentage of every sale. The right choice therefore depends on your order values and your margins, not on which one is easiest to fit.
A built shop needs somewhere to run. We can host it or set it up on hosting you already pay for. Either way the shop stays yours, and moving it later does not need our permission.
After launch we can maintain the shop, fix faults and add to it. The handover lists what you own, what is licensed and what support covers. Handover does not create an unlimited support promise, so what is included is set out in the agreement.
Usually built alongside a shop: bespoke ERP system, website support and maintenance and bespoke software development.
Bring the catalogue, account and delivery rules that do not fit. We will tell you whether to change the platform, extend it or build.