E-commerce Websites for Retailers
Shopify's checkout is excellent. Its all-in cost is not. Between platform fees, payment fees, app subscriptions, and transaction fees on third-party gateways, a seven-figure store pays two to three margin points in platform tax. The question isn't whether to leave. It's when the math flips.
Looking for a tailored solution for your firm? View our industry overview
Industry Needs
Choose Your Path
WordPress / WooCommerce
- Best for solo or small teams
- Fast launch
- Plugin-based flexibility
React / Django Custom
- Best for growing organizations
- Phased rollout
- Complete ownership
Growth Roadmap
Path A can be your starting point. Path B is where you evolve when operations demand more.
Professional Website
Establish credibility online
Structured Intake
Forms, booking, document collection
Client Area
Billing, retainers, basic portal
Custom Portal
Full system ownership
Path A. WordPress / WooCommerce
Retailers with up to roughly 2,000 SKUs, standard shipping, and Canadian payment rails (Stripe / Moneris / Interac). Where the operational problem is 'ship the catalog and accept payment' rather than 'build unique commerce logic'. WooCommerce buys you ownership without the hosted-platform percentage tax, at the cost of running WordPress updates yourself.
Phases
- 1.WooCommerce store on your own hosting (or managed WP)
- 2.Stripe / Moneris gateway integration with Interac fallback
- 3.Inventory feed from your POS or a light OMS
- 4.Shipping rate calculator for Canada Post / UPS / FedEx
Core Pages
- Home with featured collection / campaign
- Shop. Category tree with filtering and sort
- Product pages with variants, shipping ETA, reviews
- Cart and checkout (guest + account)
- My Account. Orders, addresses, returns
- Blog / Journal (for organic SEO)
- About / Contact / Shipping & Returns
Core Features
- Catalog with variants, bundles, and category taxonomy
- Stripe / Moneris payment plus Interac Online / Apple Pay / Google Pay
- Canada Post / UPS / FedEx live rate calculation
- Tax handling for GST / HST / QST
- Inventory sync from POS (Square / Lightspeed / Shopify POS) or OMS
- Reviews, email capture, and transactional email via Klaviyo / Mailchimp
Limitations
- •You own the uptime. Plugin conflicts, security patches, database backups
- •Catalog filtering slows past ~5,000 SKUs without careful indexing
- •Multi-warehouse inventory needs an OMS layer on top of Woo
- •Complex promotions (tiered, stackable, conditional) quickly exceed what stock plugins handle
Path B. React / Django Custom
Retailers doing $3M+ GMV online, running subscription or auto-ship lines, or whose margin math shows the platform + app + payment + transaction stack costs 2–3% of revenue annually. Also right when you need checkout logic a hosted platform won't let you customize (B2B gates, tax-exempt flows, quote-to-order).
Phases
- 1.Headless storefront (Next.js) against a commerce engine (Medusa / Saleor / custom)
- 2.Multi-warehouse inventory with 3PL and marketplace sync
- 3.Subscription / auto-ship billing with dunning and pause flows
- 4.Custom checkout (B2B, tax-exempt, quote-to-order where needed)
Core Features
- Headless storefront for page speed and SEO control
- Commerce engine with custom product data, bundles, and promotion rules
- Multi-warehouse inventory with 3PL and Amazon / Walmart marketplace sync
- Subscription / auto-ship billing with pause, skip, and dunning
- Payment orchestration (Stripe, Moneris, alt-rail) with vaulted tokens
- Tax engine integration (TaxJar / Avalara) for US expansion
- ERP integration for finance (QuickBooks / NetSuite / SAP B1)
- Admin dashboard for ops, fulfillment, and CS
Our Recommendation
Why This Matters
Ready to explore this path?
Request a review and we'll recommend the right approach for your Ontario business.
No obligation. We'll tell you honestly if this makes sense for your business.