Platform: why usually WooCommerce
For most small and mid-sized stores we recommend WooCommerce: it is open, takes no percentage of your revenue, has a mature ecosystem for payments and shipping, and does not lock you into one provider. Shopify is a legitimate alternative when you want a fully hosted solution and accept a monthly fee plus transaction costs, but in our practice data ownership and cost predictability usually win. If a store has very specific flows, it gets built custom, but that is the exception, not the rule.
Payments: cards and cash on delivery
In much of Europe and the Balkans the reality is dual: part of the customers pay by card, a large part still chooses cash on delivery. The store must support both, cleanly and without tricks. Card processing is chosen per market and currency; selling across borders needs multi-currency display, the way Moms Pants behaves differently for domestic and international buyers. Each of these decisions affects checkout and accounting, so they are made before the build, not after.
Shipping: rules before couriers
Before choosing a courier, define the rules: what free shipping is and from which amount, what happens with bulky products, how returns work. Those rules get built into the store and must be visible before checkout, because a surprise shipping cost at the last step is the most common abandoned-cart cause we see in the data.
Non-negotiables for any store
- HTTPS everywhere and proper handling of customer data (GDPR: consents, privacy policy, right to erasure).
- Clear prices with tax, shipping costs before checkout, and return terms in plain sight.
- Product pages that answer questions: dimensions, materials, delivery times, real photos.
- Speed: every slow second in the cart measurably costs orders.
- Order confirmation emails that actually arrive, which means properly set up email (SPF, DKIM).
What it costs
On the market, a professionally built store runs from 1,500 to 5,000+ euros depending on catalog size, payments and integrations. What exactly drives the price, and how a monthly all-inclusive model works, is laid out in our pricing guide. One rule always holds: ask for a fixed, itemised offer before work starts.
After launch: where selling actually begins
A store without traffic is a warehouse with the lights off. The post-launch plan is made before launch: SEO for categories and products, Merchant Center and Google Ads for Shopping, email for repeat purchases. And measurement from day one: the goal is not visits, it is a cost per order you can say out loud.