Platform choice and set-up
The platform that fits your catalogue, team and growth plans, set up in your business's name.
Convert — demand into revenue
E-commerce stores built to sell, and kept running
An online store has to do two things well: make it easy to find and choose a product, and make it easy to pay. Then it has to keep doing them, as products, prices and platforms change. We build stores for both jobs and look after them after launch.
E-commerce store creation and maintenance is building an online store, including the platform, catalogue, product pages, checkout and payments, and keeping it secure, fast and up to date after launch.
Which e-commerce platform should we use?
For most small and mid-sized businesses, an established platform such as Shopify or WooCommerce is the right start: quick to launch, reliable payments and many integrations. A custom build makes sense only when the catalogue, pricing rules or integrations go beyond what those platforms handle well.
What it includes
Six parts of an e-commerce engagement
Catalogue and product pages
Clear product information, good images, variants that make sense and pages that answer the questions buyers ask before they buy.
Checkout and payments
A short, trustworthy checkout with the payment methods your customers expect, and no surprises at the last step.
Tracking and analytics
E-commerce events from product view to purchase, so you can see where shoppers drop out and which channels produce sales.
Marketing integration
Product feeds for ads and shopping listings, email capture and abandoned-cart follow-up connected from the start.
Maintenance
Platform and plugin updates, security, backups, speed checks and routine changes, so the store keeps working after launch.
Why do shoppers abandon their carts?
Most often for fixable reasons: unexpected costs at checkout, being forced to create an account, a slow or confusing checkout, too few payment options, or doubts about delivery and returns. Fixing those points, and following up abandoned carts by email, recovers sales the store has already earned.
Choosing a platform
Hosted platform or custom store?
A hosted platform is faster and cheaper to launch and run, and handles payments and security for you. A custom store offers full control but costs more to build and maintain. Most businesses should start hosted and move only when a specific need makes it worthwhile.
| Hosted platform | Custom store | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | Shorter | Longer |
| Running and upkeep | Lower; platform handles much of it | Higher; you own all of it |
| Flexibility | Within the platform's limits | As much as you build |
| Best for | Most catalogues and growing stores | Unusual pricing, catalogues or integrations |
Questions
E-commerce: common questions
Do you maintain the store after launch?
Yes. Maintenance is part of this service: updates, security, backups, speed checks and routine changes such as new products and promotions, so the store does not slowly break after launch.
Can you move our existing store to a new platform?
Yes. A migration moves products, customers and order history, keeps the addresses that already rank or redirects them, and is tested before switching over, so the move does not cost sales or search visibility.
Do you handle product photography?
We can arrange product photography and video through specialists we work with, or work with images you already have. Good images are among the most important parts of a product page, so we plan them with the catalogue rather than as an afterthought.
How do you get traffic to a new store?
Through the rest of the Digital system: search and shopping visibility, paid campaigns, social and email. A store launched without a plan for traffic is a shop on an empty street, so we plan both together.
Build a store that sells
We start by looking at your catalogue, your customers and where your current store loses them.