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Software & Cloud Development

eCommerce development

Selling online in the United States takes more than a storefront. Payments need a processor that suits your volumes, each state and locality can have its own sales tax rules, accessibility matters, and orders should reach your warehouse and accounting without retyping. We build and connect commerce platforms that handle all of it.

Discuss your project How the work is delivered

A good fit if

  • You sell to consumers or businesses across several states and need tax, shipping and payments handled correctly.
  • Orders from the online store are re-keyed into your ERP or accounting system.
  • B2B customers need account-specific pricing, quick reordering, quotes or purchasing on account.
  • Your catalog is large or complex, with variants, bundles or configurable products.
  • You are outgrowing your current platform, or its theme and add-ons have become fragile.

Another approach may suit you better if

  • You sell a handful of products with simple shipping. A standard Shopify plan set up by your own team may be enough.
  • You need a marketplace with many independent sellers, which is a larger, specialized build.
  • You want a commitment to specific sales or conversion increases. No honest provider can make one.

What this service is

eCommerce development covers the design, build and integration of online stores and ordering portals, for consumers (B2C) and for business customers (B2B). It ranges from a well-configured Shopify store to large-scale commerce web applications with custom storefronts, several brands and high order volumes.

For most organizations the storefront is the visible part of a longer chain. A single order touches the catalog, pricing, payment, tax, inventory, fulfillment, accounting and customer records. We design that whole chain, so staff are not re-entering orders and customers are not told something is in stock when it is not.

Platforms we work with

  • Shopify and Shopify Plus. A hosted platform with a large app ecosystem, well suited to most B2C stores and increasingly to B2B.
  • WooCommerce. Commerce on WordPress, with full control of code and data and hosting you manage or we manage for you.
  • Headless commerce. A commerce engine, such as Shopify's Storefront API or an open-source engine, behind a custom front end built with frameworks like Next.js. Suited to complex catalogs, multiple storefronts or content-rich experiences.

Naming a platform does not imply a partnership or reseller status with its vendor.

For business customers we add the features B2B buyers expect: company accounts with several buyers, customer-specific price lists and catalogs, volume pricing, quick order forms and reordering, quote requests, purchase order numbers, approval steps and purchasing on account with invoices issued from your ERP. These features often matter more to distributors and manufacturers than the storefront design.

US payments, tax and compliance

We integrate payment processors including Stripe, Square, PayPal, Authorize.net and Shopify Payments, using hosted checkouts or payment fields so card numbers never touch your servers. This reduces, but does not remove, your PCI DSS responsibilities.

Sales tax in the United States varies by state and often by locality, and since the Supreme Court's 2018 Wayfair decision many states require remote sellers to collect tax once they pass an economic nexus threshold. We configure tax rules as your accountant confirms and test them with orders to different states. Marketing emails and sign-up forms are set up with the CAN-SPAM Act in mind, and text marketing with the TCPA's consent rules. Personal information is handled with the FTC Act and applicable state privacy laws, such as California's CCPA as amended by the CPRA and the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, in view. None of this is legal or tax advice.

Connecting commerce to operations

Orders, customers, stock levels and prices flow between the store and your ERP or accounting system, whether that is Prometheus ERP, ERPNext, NetSuite or another platform. We connect shipping carriers such as UPS, FedEx and USPS for live rates and labels, and send customer data to your CRM where useful. Every integration is built to retry failures and report records that need attention. For more on the payment side, read future-proofing infrastructure with payment gateway integration.

Built for busy periods

Sales events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday put heavy load on a store and everything behind it. We plan for peaks with caching, content delivery networks, efficient product queries and load testing, and we make sure integrations queue work rather than fail when volumes spike. Managed-service clients can include their commerce platform in 24/7 monitoring and support, with response targets set in the service agreement.

What is included

The exact list is agreed in writing for each project. These are the usual deliverables and the usual boundaries.

Typical deliverables

  • A commerce discovery covering catalog, customers, pricing, payments, tax, shipping, returns and connected systems.
  • A platform recommendation (Shopify, WooCommerce or headless commerce) with the trade-offs written down.
  • Store design and build, responsive and tested against WCAG 2.2 AA.
  • Payment integration with your chosen processor, such as Stripe, Square, PayPal, Authorize.net or Shopify Payments, using hosted payment fields to limit exposure to card data.
  • Sales and use tax set up for the states and localities where you have nexus, as confirmed by your accountant, optionally using a tax calculation service such as Avalara or TaxJar, plus shipping rules and carrier integrations.
  • Integration with your ERP, inventory and accounting systems, including Prometheus and ERPNext.
  • Accessibility checks on the storefront, checkout and account areas, and an accessibility statement if you want one.
  • Product data migration, URL redirects, and analytics that respect consent choices.
  • Test evidence, an operations runbook and staff training.

Not included unless agreed separately

  • Platform subscriptions, apps, transaction fees and payment processor agreements, which are your own contracts.
  • Tax, legal and accounting advice. We configure what your accountant and advisers confirm.
  • Product photography, copywriting and translation, unless scoped separately.
  • Validating or attesting your PCI DSS compliance, which remains your responsibility with your processor. We design to reduce your scope.
  • Ongoing support after launch, unless covered by a separate agreement.

What we will need from you

Most delays in this kind of work come from access and decisions, not from the technical build. Knowing these early keeps the project predictable.

  • A merchant account or payment processor agreement in your organization's name.
  • Confirmation from your accountant of the sales tax registrations, nexus and rules that apply to you.
  • Product data, images and pricing, in a spreadsheet or exported from your current system.
  • Carrier accounts, such as UPS, FedEx or USPS, if live shipping rates are needed.
  • Access to your ERP or accounting system for integration and testing.
Delivery

How the work is delivered

Each stage ends with something you can review before the next one starts.

  1. Discover

    Map products, customers, pricing rules, payments, tax, shipping, returns and every system an order touches.

    Output: Commerce discovery summary and order-flow map.

  2. Choose platform and design

    Recommend a platform, then design the storefront, checkout and account areas around your customers' main tasks.

    Output: Platform decision and approved designs.

  3. Build and integrate

    Build the store, configure payments, tax and shipping, migrate product data and connect the ERP and accounting systems.

    Output: Working store on a staging environment.

  4. Test end to end

    Place test orders through every path, including refunds, failed payments and delivery addresses in different states.

    Output: Test report and reconciliation results.

  5. Launch and hand over

    Launch with redirects and monitoring in place, reconcile early orders closely, then train staff and hand over.

    Output: Live store, runbook and trained staff.

Testing and handover

  • Test orders are placed for delivery addresses in different states, and the tax lines are checked against your accountant's rules.
  • Payments, refunds, partial refunds and declined cards are tested in the processor's sandbox before launch.
  • Orders are reconciled between the store, the ERP and accounting for an agreed period after launch.
  • Card data is handled by the processor's hosted checkout or payment fields and never stored on your servers.
  • Old product and category URLs redirect to their new equivalents.

What affects the cost

We do not publish package prices. Each estimate is based on an agreed scope, in US dollars, with taxes shown separately. These are the things that move the number most:

  • Catalog size and complexity, including variants and configurable products.
  • B2B features such as account pricing, quotes, approvals and purchasing on account.
  • Integrations with ERP, inventory, accounting, shipping and CRM systems.
  • A custom or headless storefront compared with a configured theme.
  • The volume of product data to migrate and any extra languages you want.

Questions buyers usually ask

Should we use Shopify, WooCommerce or headless commerce?

Shopify suits most organizations that want a hosted platform with little infrastructure to manage. WooCommerce suits those already invested in WordPress who want full control and accept hosting responsibility. Headless commerce suits complex catalogs, multiple storefronts or custom experiences, at higher build and running cost.

Which payment processor should we use?

It depends on your volumes, card mix, whether you also sell in person, and the fees you negotiate. Common choices in the United States include Stripe, Square, PayPal, Authorize.net and Shopify Payments. We integrate with the processor you choose and help you compare the technical trade-offs.

How is sales tax handled across states?

There is no federal sales tax. State and local sales and use tax generally depends on where goods are delivered and on whether you have nexus (including economic nexus based on sales volume) in a state. Commerce platforms and tax services can calculate rates automatically once configured. Your accountant should confirm the rules, and we test that the store applies them. This is not tax advice.

Does our store need to be accessible?

Courts have applied ADA Title III to commercial websites, so accessibility is a real legal and customer-service concern for online stores. We build and test against WCAG 2.2 AA, and your legal adviser can confirm how the rules apply to you. This is not legal advice.

Can the store connect to our ERP?

Usually, yes. Orders, customers, inventory levels and prices can move between the store and systems such as Prometheus, ERPNext or NetSuite through their APIs. We design for failures, so an order is never lost if one system is unavailable.

Selling online or planning to?

Tell us what you sell, who buys it and which systems your orders need to reach. We will reply to arrange a discovery conversation before anything is priced.

Discuss an eCommerce project