Shopify is the right platform for 90% of e-commerce businesses. We build for the other 10%.
Custom e-commerce development is justified when your product catalogue, pricing model, checkout flow, or fulfilment logic is specific enough that Shopify's architecture creates limitations you can't work around. We build the custom e-commerce platform that handles your specific model. Fixed scope, fixed price.
Shopify can't handle your specific product configuration, pricing rules, subscription model, B2B pricing structure, or fulfilment workflow without expensive workarounds or custom app development that essentially rebuilds the functionality anyway.
Shopify is the right answer for most e-commerce businesses, and the decision to build custom instead should not be taken lightly. Shopify handles payments, inventory, fulfilment integrations, and a massive ecosystem of apps that extend the platform. A custom build starts with none of that and has to earn everything Shopify provides out of the box.
The specific cases where custom e-commerce development is justified: B2B e-commerce with customer-specific pricing (different price lists for different customer tiers, contract pricing, volume discounts that Shopify B2B doesn't support at the required granularity); complex product configuration (build-to-order products with hundreds of configuration options that depend on each other — car configurators, custom furniture, bespoke software licensing); subscription models with complex billing logic (usage-based billing, hybrid subscription + usage, plan customisation at the individual account level); or integration with backend ERP or inventory systems that require a level of data model alignment that Shopify's API doesn't support.
If your reason for wanting to build custom isn't in that list, the economics almost certainly favour Shopify. The platform selection conversation is important to have before commitment.
A custom e-commerce platform with the product catalogue, pricing engine, checkout flow, and fulfilment integration that your specific business requires — built on a codebase you own and can extend.
Custom product catalogue and configuration engine
Product types with configurable attributes, dependent options, and real-time pricing calculation based on configuration. Complex product structures (kits, bundles, build-to-order) modelled correctly in the database.
B2B pricing infrastructure
Customer-specific price lists, volume discount tiers, contract pricing, and quote workflows. B2B customers log in and see their contracted pricing rather than list prices.
Checkout with custom business logic
Multi-step checkout with custom validation logic. Tax calculation via Stripe Tax or custom tax logic. Shipping calculator with custom rules. Fraud screening integration (Stripe Radar or Signifyd).
Order management and fulfilment integration
Order workflow from placement through fulfilment with status tracking. Integration with warehouse management systems (ShipBob, Shipwire, or 3PL APIs). Custom fulfilment routing logic for businesses with complex allocation rules.
Customer account and order history
Customer portal with order history, order tracking, invoice download, and reorder functionality. Returns and exchange request workflow. Built on Next.js, Postgres, Stripe, Clerk, TypeScript.
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
A custom e-commerce platform with the product catalogue, pricing engine, checkout flow, and fulfilment integration that your specific business requires — built on a codebase you own and can extend.
Three steps, every time.
The same repeatable engagement on every project. No surprises, no mystery, no billable ambiguity.
Brief & discovery.
We send you questions, then get on a call. Output: a written scope with every step, feature, and integration listed.
Build & ship.
Fixed schedule, weekly reviews. No scope creep unless you change the scope — and if you do, we reprice it transparently.
Warranty & retainer.
30-day warranty on every launch. Most clients stay on a monthly retainer for ongoing features and maintenance.
Why Fixed-Price Matters Here
Custom e-commerce platforms have a defined scope: the product catalogue structure, the pricing model, the checkout flow, and the fulfilment integration. Fixed scope, fixed price applied to those requirements.
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Read moreQuestions, answered.
Shopify with custom app development (using the Admin API and Storefront API) is the right choice when the customisation requirements are at the edge of what Shopify supports — not fundamentally incompatible with the Shopify model. Custom app development on Shopify keeps the platform's payments, inventory, and ecosystem benefits while adding specific customisation. Full custom development is right when the business model is fundamentally incompatible with Shopify's architecture.
SEO for e-commerce requires: server-rendered pages (Next.js handles this), structured data (product schema, breadcrumb schema), canonical URL management for variant pages, and sitemap generation for large product catalogues. These are included in the standard scope.
Product catalogue export from Shopify, customer data export (email addresses, order history), and data transformation to the new database schema are included in the migration scope. The payment data (saved payment methods) cannot be migrated — customers need to re-enter payment methods in the new system.
A custom e-commerce platform with product catalogue, B2B pricing, checkout, order management, and basic fulfilment integration typically runs $35k–$75k. Complex product configuration engines add to the scope. Fixed-price.
12 to 18 weeks for a production custom e-commerce platform ready for live transactions.
Tell Ryel about your project.
Describe what you’re building and what outcome you need. You’ll have a written, fixed-price scope within the week.