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.