Friction / Product discovery
Weak search visibility — buyers never reach the catalogue.
Commerce service / 03
Ecommerce website development
An online store succeeds when products get found, pages load fast on mobile, checkout completes with South African payment methods, and you can see where revenue drops. We build for those four jobs — architecture, SA payments, fulfilment fit and measurement — not for the cheapest theme launch.
- Product architecture built to be found — not only to look like a store.
- South African payments and mobile checkout designed for completion.
- Purchase funnel measurement from day one — not bolted on later.
Commerce architecture
Illustrative workflow demo — sample interface
SKU-1042
Industrial fitting set
Category / Components
Schema / Product
SKU-1188
Spare seal kit
Category / Consumables
Mobile nav / Indexed
Meta strip · unique title · OG · JSON-LD Product
Mobile checkout panel
Cart / 2 lines
Delivery / Regional rate shown
Gateway / SA EFT + card
Pay · sample CTA
Order status notification
ORD-2026-055
Status / Packed
Next / Dispatch email
Customer notified
Where commercial value is lost
Follow the path from discovery to confirmation. Each stage shows a common friction point — sample themes, not your live analytics.
Friction / Product page
Slow product pages on mobile raise bounce before add-to-cart.
Friction / Cart
Unclear delivery pricing appears too late in the journey.
Friction / Payment
Checkout abandonment when gateways or trust cues are weak.
Friction / Confirmation
Poor fulfilment communication creates support calls after purchase.
Common symptoms
- Platform template stores all look identical and rank for nothing.
- High platform and plugin fees eat thin retail margins.
- Product pages load slowly on mobile, where your buyers are.
- Checkout drop-off is high and you cannot see where or why.
- Your store cannot handle B2B realities like account pricing.
Classify the build shape
Not every catalogue needs a full checkout. This check helps separate standard commerce from quotation or B2B account paths.
Choose the commerce model
Checkout, catalogue-only, RFQ basket, trade pricing and custom integrations solve different problems. Pick the shape before you buy a stack.
Standard checkout
Standard scope
- Primary purpose
- Sell fixed-price products online with card or EFT payment.
- Checkout
- Present — cart and payment gateway
- Account requirement
- Optional guest checkout; accounts helpful for repeat buyers
- Typical integrations
- SA payment gateway, delivery rates, order email
Catalogue only
Standard scope
- Primary purpose
- Publish a searchable range so buyers find specs and contact you.
- Checkout
- Absent — contact or enquiry only
- Account requirement
- Usually none on the public site
- Typical integrations
- Spec downloads, enquiry form, optional CRM notify
RFQ basket
Hybrid scope
- Primary purpose
- Let buyers assemble a product list and request a formal quote.
- Checkout
- Absent — quote request replaces payment
- Account requirement
- Optional; useful for returning trade buyers
- Typical integrations
- RFQ inbox, quote PDF, status tracking
Trade / customer pricing
Custom scope
- Primary purpose
- Show negotiated or tiered prices to authorised accounts.
- Checkout
- Optional — cart may appear only after login
- Account requirement
- Required — roles and price lists
- Typical integrations
- Account portal, price lists, invoice/terms handoff
Custom integrations
Custom scope
- Primary purpose
- Connect stock, ERP, dealer networks or unusual fulfilment rules.
- Checkout
- Depends on the commercial model above
- Account requirement
- Usually required for B2B sync
- Typical integrations
- ERP/stock APIs, dealer feeds, custom fulfilment
Relevant proof
No public ecommerce client case study yet. Use the model matrix to choose the right commerce shape before scoping.
- We do not invent storefront case studies. Scope starts from product count, payment model and fulfilment rules.
What is included — system layers
Deliverables grouped by storefront, transaction, operations and growth — not one flat checklist.
01 / Storefront architecture
Storefront architecture
- Category and product information architecture mapped for search intent — not only a theme catalogue grid
- Unique metadata and structured data per product
- Performance budget: fast mobile loads as a hard requirement
02 / SA payments & checkout
SA payments & checkout
- Cart and checkout tuned for completion on mobile
- South African payment gateway integration (PayFast, Yoco, Peach — chosen at scoping)
- Delivery pricing and options shown early enough to reduce abandoned carts
03 / Operations
Operations
- Order management workflow suited to your fulfilment process
- Order confirmation and status emails that cut post-purchase support noise
04 / Measurement
Measurement
- Search Console onboarding for product and category URLs
- GA4 ecommerce purchase and funnel events (add-to-cart → checkout → purchase)
- Readable numbers from day one — not “we’ll add tracking later”
What's not included
Clear exclusions protect scope — marketplace feeds and large-range content are quoted separately:
- Marketplace feeds and ERP integrations (scoped separately)
- Product photography and copy for large ranges (quoted separately)
- Paid-traffic management
Pricing and packages
The indicative ecommerce band (from R45 000) sits above theme and quick store installs because it prices architecture, SA payment and delivery wiring, and purchase measurement — not a theme licence. This service is available as Ecommerce website package. Full ranges on our pricing page. Every project gets a fixed, itemised quote after scoping.
Frequently asked questions
Which payment gateways do you support?
We integrate established South African gateways — PayFast, Yoco and Peach Payments are typical choices — selected during scoping based on your fees, settlement needs and card/EFT/instant-EFT mix. The store is built so switching gateways later is a contained change, not a rebuild.
Why not just use Shopify or WooCommerce?
Sometimes you should, and we will say so when that is the honest answer — especially for a tiny range and a speed-to-launch priority. Theme and quick WooCommerce installs often sit well below our indicative ecommerce floor because they price setup, not lasting product SEO architecture, SA gateway and delivery logic, or purchase measurement. A scoped build earns its cost when findability, page speed, B2B pricing rules or unusual workflows matter more than the quickest possible start.
What does the indicative R45 000–R110 000 band actually cover?
Search-structured categories and products, a mobile-tuned cart and checkout, an SA payment gateway chosen at scoping, delivery and order messaging that matches how you fulfil, and GA4 ecommerce events so purchase funnels are readable. Marketplace feeds, ERP sync and large-range photography stay out of scope until quoted. Fixed quote after scoping — the range is for budgeting, not a menu price.
Related pages
Prefer a fixed-price SEO audit first?
Larger, ecommerce or catalogue sites: the Advanced SEO Audit (R8 500) with architecture review and a 90-day roadmap. Smaller sites: the SEO Audit & Priority Fix Pack (R2 950).
Get a straight quote for this work
Tell us what you need and get a straight answer — clear scope, indicative pricing and a fixed quote after one scoping conversation.