Services / Ecommerce
04Ecommerce
Checkout as the easy part
Most abandoned carts are not a pricing problem. They are a form that asked for one thing too many.
Someone who has added an item to a cart has already decided. Everything after that point is yours to lose — and the usual way to lose it is a checkout that asks for an account, hides the shipping cost until step three, or takes six seconds to load on a phone with two bars.
So the store is built backwards from the payment screen. Every step is judged by whether it makes finishing easier, and anything that does not is removed.
The platform is a decision, not a default
Agencies tend to have one answer regardless of the question. There are really two, and the catalogue picks between them.
A hosted platform — Shopify and its equivalents — handles payments, tax, fraud, inventory and the admin your team will actually use. If the catalogue changes often, if there are variants and stock levels, or if you want to sell in person as well, this is nearly always right. It costs a monthly fee and a slice of each sale, and it is usually worth both.
A static store with a hosted checkout suits a small, stable catalogue — a dozen products that rarely change. The pages are as fast as any other static site, hosting costs almost nothing, and payment is still handled by a real provider. Below a certain size it is the cheaper answer by a wide margin.
We will tell you which one your numbers point to, including when that is the option we earn less from.
Product pages that answer the question
A product page has one job: remove the last reason not to buy. That usually means photographs at a size worth zooming, the dimensions or ingredients somebody is actually looking for, shipping cost visible before checkout rather than after, and a clear answer on returns.
Images get the same treatment as everywhere else — modern formats, correctly sized, lazy-loaded below the fold. A product grid is the heaviest page on most stores and the one most often served at four times the necessary weight.
Payment stays with people who do it properly
Card details never touch a server we build. Payments go through an established provider, which keeps you out of the hardest parts of PCI compliance and puts fraud screening in the hands of a company that sees millions of transactions.
Shipping rates and tax get configured against your real numbers and the places you actually sell into. Tax in particular is specific and changeable, so it is set up with you rather than assumed.
What you get
A catalogue you control
Add a product, change a price, mark something out of stock — without calling us.
Product structured data
So listings can show price and availability directly in search results.
A checkout tested on a phone
Where most of it happens, and where most badly built checkouts fall apart.
Order and stock handover
A walkthrough of fulfilling an order and finding a customer, recorded and yours.
05Boundaries
What we don't do
- No forced account creation. Guest checkout always. Requiring an account before payment costs more sales than any loyalty scheme returns.
- No fake urgency. No invented countdowns, no "three people are viewing this", no scarcity that is not real. It works once and costs the repeat customer.
- No custom payment handling. Card data belongs with a payment provider. Anyone offering to build you a bespoke card form is offering you a liability.
- No hidden shipping. Cost shown before the final step. Surprising someone at checkout is the most reliable way to lose them.
06Questions
Asked
about stores
Whichever fits the catalogue. A hosted platform handles payments, tax and fraud for you and is usually right for a growing store. A small fixed catalogue can be a static site with a hosted checkout, which costs less to run. The decision is made on your numbers, not on preference.
An established payment provider, always. Card details never touch a server we build. That keeps you out of the hardest parts of PCI compliance and puts fraud handling with people who do it at scale.
Yes. Adding a product, changing a price and marking something out of stock are day-one requirements of the build. If you have to call us to change a price, the build failed.
Configured during the build against your real rates and the jurisdictions you sell into. Tax rules change and are specific to your situation, so we set them up with you rather than guessing on your behalf.