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Ecommerce & Payments

An online store that takes payment cleanly and loads fast.

We build ecommerce on WooCommerce or as a custom, headless storefront, then wire in the payments your customers expect: Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. The checkout is tuned to lose fewer buyers, the tax and shipping math is handled by the tools built for it, and the store is measured against real performance thresholds. You own the store, the code, and the accounts.

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WOOCOMMERCE & HEADLESS STRIPE · PAYPAL · APPLE PAY YOU OWN IT
The overview

A store is a checkout that has to work, not a catalog that looks nice.

A storefront earns its keep at one moment: when a customer decides to pay. Everything before that is preparation. So we treat the buying flow, the payment integration, and the store's speed as the real product, and the visual design as the part that serves them rather than the other way around. A beautiful store that drops buyers at a clumsy checkout is a failure dressed up well.

We build on whichever foundation fits. WooCommerce when you want a proven platform on WordPress with a deep ecosystem and a team that can run it. A custom or headless storefront when you have outgrown the packaged cart and need performance, an unusual buying flow, or the storefront decoupled from your content so each can change on its own. Headless commerce separates the storefront a shopper sees from the commerce engine behind it, which can sharpen speed and flexibility at the cost of more moving parts. We name which one fits and why, and we are happy to say a standard build covers you.

Underneath all of it is ownership. The store runs in your hosting and your own payment and platform accounts, the code lives in your repository, and the setup is documented. The point is a store you control, not a rental you keep paying us to enter.

What we hold to

Every store we build runs on the same handful of commitments.

  • The checkout is tuned to lose fewer buyers
  • Card data goes to the processor, not through your server
  • Tax and shipping handled by the tools built for it
  • Speed measured against real Core Web Vitals thresholds
  • You own the store, the code, and the accounts
What is included

From catalog to cleared payment, the whole path.

An ecommerce build is more than a cart plugin switched on. It is the catalog, the checkout, the payment integration, the tax and shipping math, and the performance work that keeps shoppers moving, all set up to fit how you actually sell and handed over for you to run.

The list below is the typical scope. We right-size it to your store. A small catalog on WooCommerce needs less than a high-traffic headless build, and we will say so rather than pad the work.

What's included

  • WooCommerce or custom and headless storefront builds
  • Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net gateway integration
  • Apple Pay and Google Pay wallet checkout
  • Checkout optimized to reduce cart abandonment
  • Subscriptions and recurring billing with dunning
  • Sales tax via TaxJar, Stripe Tax, or Avalara
  • Live carrier rates and fulfillment via ShipStation
  • Core Web Vitals and store performance tuning
  • Hosted-field card handling to shrink PCI scope
  • The store delivered in your accounts, for you to own
Checkout & payments

Fewer steps, the right payment methods, less drop-off.

Most lost sales happen at checkout, not in the catalog. A buyer with intent abandons because the form is long, the payment method they wanted is missing, or they are asked to create an account to spend money. So the checkout is where the careful work goes.

We lean on the express checkout buttons the gateways already provide, because a saved-card wallet skips manual entry, which is the single biggest friction point on mobile. Apple Pay and Google Pay ride along with Stripe and PayPal, so a returning shopper can pay in a tap rather than typing a card number on a phone. We surface the methods your buyers actually use and order them sensibly rather than burying the popular one.

For subscriptions, we build on the billing tools the gateway provides, such as Stripe Billing or WooCommerce Subscriptions, rather than hand-rolling a billing engine. The quiet cost in recurring revenue is failed-card recovery and cancellations, not the first charge, so dunning and retries get real attention rather than being treated as an afterthought.

Where the checkout work lands

  • Express wallet checkout with Apple Pay and Google Pay
  • Guest checkout, so buyers are not forced to register
  • Short, validated forms with clear error messages
  • Payment methods ordered to match how buyers pay
  • Subscriptions with proration, trials, and plan changes
  • Dunning and retries to recover failed renewals
  • Webhook handling that confirms payment before fulfillment
  • Multiple gateways matched to your existing banking
Tax, shipping & speed

The unglamorous parts that quietly decide whether a store works.

Tax, shipping, and speed are where stores leak money without anyone noticing. Every U.S. state with a sales tax now has economic nexus rules, which means you can owe tax in a state once your sales there cross a threshold, even with no office or warehouse in it. Guessing at rates is not a strategy, so we wire in a tax engine like TaxJar, Stripe Tax, or Avalara to calculate at checkout across the right jurisdictions. We do not file your returns or give tax advice; we make sure the math is correct and the records are clean for whoever does.

Shipping gets the same treatment. Live carrier rates so customers see real costs instead of a flat guess that either scares them off or eats your margin, and a fulfillment tool like ShipStation so orders flow out without your team re-keying them.

Then speed, because a slow store loses buyers before checkout. Product and category pages are usually the heaviest, so that is where the work goes: image handling, lazy loading, caching, trimming scripts, and on headless builds, pre-rendering pages and serving them from a CDN. We measure against the actual Core Web Vitals thresholds Google uses for real-world page experience, not a gut feeling that the store feels quick.

What this covers

  • Tax calculated at checkout across U.S. jurisdictions
  • Economic nexus thresholds tracked by the tax engine
  • Live carrier shipping rates shown to the buyer
  • Fulfillment wired in so orders are not re-keyed
  • Core Web Vitals measured, not assumed
  • Image, caching, and script work on heavy pages
  • Pre-rendering and CDN delivery on headless builds
  • Performance re-checked after launch, not just before
How we work

Pick the right foundation, then prove the checkout before scaling it.

We start by deciding honestly whether WooCommerce or a custom build fits, then get money moving cleanly through a real checkout before piling on features. A store that takes payment reliably and loads fast beats one with every bell and a flaky cart.

// the cart drafts the order, the gateway clears the payment, the record stands

  1. Fit the foundation to the storeWe look at your catalog, traffic, buying flow, and team, then decide with you whether a WooCommerce build or a custom or headless storefront is the right call. We name the tradeoffs in plain terms, including cost and who maintains it, rather than defaulting to the most ambitious architecture.
  2. Wire the payments to your realityWe integrate the gateways and wallets that match your customers and your existing banking, using hosted fields so card data goes straight to the processor. Apple Pay and Google Pay come along with Stripe and PayPal, and Authorize.net slots in where you already have a processor.
  3. Build and test a real checkoutWe get a real order flowing end to end early: cart, payment, tax, shipping, confirmation, and the webhook that confirms the charge actually succeeded before fulfillment. Test transactions through each gateway prove it works before a customer ever touches it.
  4. Handle tax, shipping, and subscriptionsWe connect the tax engine, live carrier rates, and fulfillment, and where you sell on a recurring basis we set up billing cycles, proration, and dunning. These are the parts that quietly cost money, so they get tested rather than assumed.
  5. Tune for speed, then hand overWe measure the store against Core Web Vitals, fix the heavy product and category pages, and confirm the numbers. Then we hand over the store in your accounts and repository with documentation, so you can run it, extend it, or bring in anyone you like.
Questions, answered plainly

Frequently asked questions

It depends on where you are. WooCommerce earns its keep when you want a proven, well-supported platform on top of WordPress, with a large ecosystem of extensions and a team that can run it without us. A custom or headless storefront is worth the extra cost when you have outgrown what a packaged cart does well: when you need a storefront that loads fast under heavy catalog and traffic, when the buying flow is unusual, or when you want the store decoupled from the content layer so each can change without breaking the other. Headless commerce separates the storefront a shopper sees from the commerce engine behind it, which can lift performance and flexibility, but it adds moving parts and cost. We will tell you plainly when a standard WooCommerce build covers your need rather than selling you architecture you do not yet require.

The common ones, chosen to fit how you actually sell rather than defaulting to one. Stripe and PayPal cover most businesses and bring Apple Pay and Google Pay along with them through their express checkout buttons. Authorize.net is a fit when you already have a merchant account and processor relationship you want to keep. PayPal and Venmo, and buy-now-pay-later options through the same providers, are there when your buyers expect them. Apple Pay and Google Pay matter because a saved-card wallet skips manual entry, which is one of the biggest drop-off points on mobile. We integrate what suits your customers and your existing banking, document the setup, and hand it over in your own accounts.

Yes. Recurring billing has its own moving parts beyond a one-time sale: billing cycles, plan changes and proration, trials, dunning and retries when a card fails, tax on each renewal, and clear records for the customer. We build these on the billing tools the gateway already provides, such as Stripe Billing or WooCommerce Subscriptions, rather than hand-rolling a billing engine, because payments are the wrong place to be clever. We are candid about the work involved, since the part that quietly costs money is failed-payment recovery and cancellations, not the first charge.

With the services built for it, wired into checkout. For tax, every U.S. state with a sales tax now has economic nexus rules, meaning you can owe tax in a state once your sales there cross a threshold even with no physical presence. We integrate a tax engine such as TaxJar, Stripe Tax, or Avalara so rates are calculated at checkout across the right jurisdictions, rather than guessing. For shipping, we connect live carrier rates and fulfillment through tools like ShipStation so customers see real costs and your team is not re-keying orders. We do not give tax advice or file your returns; we make sure the store calculates correctly and the data is clean for whoever does.

Because a slow store loses buyers before they reach checkout, and the effect is measurable. Google measures real-world page experience through Core Web Vitals, and on ecommerce the field data is consistent: faster stores see fewer abandoned visits and higher conversion, while every added second of load time costs a share of sales. Product and category pages are usually the heaviest, so that is where the work lands: image handling, lazy loading, caching, trimming plugins and scripts, and on custom or headless builds, pre-rendering pages and serving them from a CDN. We measure against the actual Core Web Vitals thresholds rather than asserting the store feels fast.

We keep card data out of your hands wherever possible. The gateways we use let the card details go straight to the processor through their hosted fields or elements, so the sensitive numbers never touch your server, which is both safer and shrinks your PCI scope. On top of that: HTTPS everywhere, current platform and plugin patching, least-privilege admin access, and webhook handling that verifies the payment actually succeeded before the order ships. PCI DSS compliance is an ongoing obligation that sits with your business, not a one-time setting; what we do is build the store so it does not become the weak link.

You own it. The store runs in your own hosting and your own payment and platform accounts, the code lives in your repository, and the configuration is documented so your team or another developer can pick it up. There is no proprietary layer you have to keep paying us to touch. If you want us to maintain and support the store afterward you can, but that is a choice, not a leash.
The rest of the codex

Related services

Ecommerce sits inside our wider Web Development work. These are the other Web Development sub-services and the hub that ties them together.

THE HUB Web Development Overview of Web Development services
Custom Web Applications Laravel and Next.js apps, dashboards, portals, and APIs, with migration and managed hosting
WordPress & CMS SEO-ready WordPress builds, plus other and headless CMS
Website Redesign & Audit Redesigns and standalone audits: performance, SEO, accessibility, security
Design, UI/UX & Graphics Interface and UX design, visual design, and graphics

Selling online, or planning to?

Tell us what you sell and how you want to take payment. We will give you a straight read on whether WooCommerce or a custom build fits, which gateways suit your customers, and what a clean checkout would look like.

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