• catalogue attribute changes requiring a developer every time because the platform's variant model doesn't support your product structure?

  • checkout conversion suffering because the platform's checkout flow cannot accommodate your specific tax rules, shipping logic, or payment terms?

Custom Ecommerce Platform Development

Custom ecommerce platform for online retailers whose product catalogue, checkout rules, and fulfilment workflows are complex enough that Shopify apps and WooCommerce plugins have become the majority of the maintenance burden.

Built for retailers who have hit the ceiling of what a SaaS ecommerce platform can configure -- not because the platform is bad, but because the product and business model have outgrown what one-size ecommerce software was designed to handle.

  • Product catalogue with unlimited attribute types, variant logic, and bundle configuration built for your specific inventory model

  • Checkout engine with your tax, shipping, promotion, and payment rules configured as first-class logic rather than plugin workarounds

  • Order management with warehouse system integration, fulfilment status tracking, and returns handling

  • Merchandising admin that marketing and catalogue teams can operate without raising a ticket

RaftLabs builds custom ecommerce platforms for online retailers whose product configuration, catalogue depth, checkout logic, or fulfilment workflows cannot be modelled cleanly in Shopify, WooCommerce, or Magento. A custom ecommerce platform covers product catalogue management with unlimited attribute flexibility, custom checkout with your specific tax, shipping, and payment rules, order management with warehouse integration, and a merchandising admin your team can operate without developer involvement. Most custom ecommerce platform projects deliver in 10 to 16 weeks at a fixed cost.

Vodafone
Aldi
Nike
Microsoft
Heineken
Cisco
Calorgas
Energia Rewards
GE
Bank of America
T-Mobile
Valero
Techstars
East Ventures
100+Products shipped
24+Industries served
FixedCost delivery
10-16Week delivery for ecommerce platform

When Shopify stops being enough

Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento were designed for the common case -- a product range with a manageable number of variants, standard shipping and tax logic, and a single warehouse. That covers a large portion of retail. But there is a segment of retailers whose business model falls outside the common case: configurable products with attribute combinations the platform variant model cannot represent, kit and bundle logic where component stock and assembled stock must be tracked separately, B2B pricing tiers that need to coexist with consumer pricing, and fulfilment rules across multiple warehouses that the platform's shipping logic cannot express without a stack of apps.

When a retailer in this situation tries to force their model into a SaaS platform, they pay in a different currency. Every edge case gets handled by a plugin. Every plugin creates a maintenance dependency. Every plugin update risks breaking another plugin. The development team spends more time managing integrations than shipping features, and the catalogue team needs a developer for attribute changes that should be a five-minute admin task.

A custom ecommerce platform is the right answer when the accumulated cost of workarounds -- in developer time, app subscription fees, conversion losses from checkout friction, and catalogue team frustration -- exceeds the cost of building software that models your actual business.

What we build

Product catalogue management

Product hierarchy built around your actual inventory model rather than a generic attribute system. Unlimited attribute types and option dimensions mean a configurable product can carry every combination your range requires without the variant limits that Shopify and WooCommerce impose. Bundle and kit product types where the bundle SKU tracks its own stock independently from the component SKUs, allowing you to sell components individually and as part of a kit without overselling either. Digital and physical product types handled in the same catalogue with fulfilment rules that differ by type. Product relationships configured for upsell and cross-sell recommendations at the product and category level. Category tree and faceted navigation built around your specific catalogue taxonomy, not a generic attribute filter that requires the customer to understand your internal naming conventions.

Checkout and payment engine

Checkout flow designed around your specific conversion goals rather than a platform default. Address validation at the point of entry with real-time postcode lookup. Tax calculation by jurisdiction using your configured rules -- VAT by destination country, state sales tax with product-category exemptions, or B2B tax-exempt handling for verified business accounts. Shipping rate calculation pulling live rates from your carrier accounts rather than flat rates or table rates that diverge from actual carrier costs. Payment method mix including card, buy-now-pay-later via Klarna or Afterpay, and bank transfer for B2B orders above a configured threshold. Promotion and discount code application with stacking rules. Guest checkout and account checkout with saved payment methods and address book. The checkout logic is first-class application code -- not a plugin -- so your tax, shipping, and payment rules can change without touching an integration layer.

Order management

Order capture from all sales channels -- storefront, phone, and any connected marketplace or wholesale portal -- into a single management view without manual consolidation. Warehouse allocation rules that assign each order to the correct fulfilment location based on stock availability, proximity to the delivery address, and your configured priority rules. Pick ticket generation for the warehouse team with barcode scanning support for confirmation at pick and pack. Partial fulfilment and split shipment handling for orders where items ship from more than one location or where backordered items ship when stock arrives. Carrier label generation from integrated carrier accounts with rate selection at packing. Delivery tracking status updates pushed to customers and visible in the admin without a separate tracking portal login. Returns and refund workflow with reason capture, inspection status, and stock adjustment on confirmed return.

Promotions and pricing engine

Promotion logic built as configurable rules rather than hardcoded discount types. Percentage and fixed-amount discount codes with usage limits per code and per customer. Automatic promotions triggered by cart value thresholds, specific products or categories, or customer group membership -- applied at cart without requiring a code. Tiered pricing by order quantity, so a buyer purchasing above a threshold quantity sees a lower unit price without the sales team needing to intervene. Customer group-specific price lists for B2B accounts, loyalty tiers, or trade customers who receive different pricing from the public storefront. Promotion stacking rules and exclusion logic that prevent promotions from combining in ways that collapse margin beyond your configured floor. Scheduled pricing for sale events and promotional windows with start and end times the merchandising team sets without a deployment.

Customer accounts and CRM

Customer registration and login with email verification and optional social login. Order history with one-click reorder that adds previous order items to the cart with current pricing applied. Saved addresses and payment methods for returning customers who expect checkout to be fast. Wishlist and saved items list for products the customer wants to track without purchasing immediately. Customer group assignment for loyalty tier management and B2B account pricing -- a customer's group determines the price list they see and the promotions they qualify for. Email and notification preference management so customers control what communications they receive and the unsubscribe path is clear. Customer record in the admin consolidates order history, group membership, contact information, and any notes the customer service team adds.

Merchandising admin

Product and catalogue management interface that the merchandising and catalogue team operates without developer involvement -- adding products, updating attributes, managing images, and publishing to the storefront are all admin actions, not deployments. Inventory adjustment and stock level management for corrections, write-offs, and manual overrides when the system needs to reconcile with a physical count. Order management and fulfilment actions for the operations team -- searching orders, updating fulfilment status, processing returns, and issuing refunds. Promotion and discount code management with the ability to create, schedule, pause, and expire promotions without code changes. Content management for banners, featured product slots, and homepage merchandising that the marketing team updates on their own schedule. Revenue, order volume, and catalogue performance reporting with the filters and date ranges the business team actually uses for trading decisions.

Frequently asked questions

The trigger is usually one of three things: the product catalogue cannot be accurately represented in Shopify's variant model without workarounds that create ongoing maintenance problems; the checkout requires logic -- tax rules, B2B payment terms, multi-warehouse shipping calculation -- that cannot be expressed cleanly in Shopify's checkout without a custom app that breaks on every platform update; or the operations team is maintaining multiple systems that should be one system and the integration layer has become the dominant maintenance burden. If the plugin and app cost on the SaaS platform is running above $3,000 to $5,000 a month and the development team spends more time on integrations than on features, the economics of a custom platform typically break even within 18 to 24 months and the operational improvement is immediate.

Yes. A custom ecommerce platform integrates directly with payment processors -- Stripe, Adyen, Checkout.com, Braintree, PayPal, and regional processors -- using their APIs, exactly as Shopify does. The difference is that the payment logic is application code your team controls rather than a Shopify checkout extension with platform constraints. Shipping carrier integration works the same way -- FedEx, UPS, DHL, Royal Mail, and regional carriers all publish rate APIs that a custom platform integrates with directly. Because the integration is direct, the carrier rate calculation logic can be as specific as your business requires: dimensional weight, carrier account discounts, zone-based rules, and your own negotiated rates. We document which payment providers and carriers are in scope during the project discovery phase and integrate them as a defined part of the build.

Migration follows a structured process. The first step is extracting the data from the source platform -- Shopify and WooCommerce both have export tools and APIs that produce the product catalogue, customer records, and order history in structured formats. The second step is mapping the source data model to the custom platform's data model -- this is where attribute structures, variant relationships, and category hierarchies are translated into the new model. A validation step checks the migrated data against the source for completeness before the new platform goes live. Order history and customer accounts are migrated so returning customers can log in to the new platform, see their order history, and use saved addresses without re-entering information. The migration is a defined scope item in the project -- we agree the data mapping during discovery and price it as part of the fixed cost.

A focused custom ecommerce platform covering product catalogue management, checkout with standard payment and shipping logic, order management, and a merchandising admin typically runs $60,000 to $120,000. A full platform with complex bundle and kit logic, B2B pricing, multi-warehouse fulfilment, and warehouse system integration typically runs $130,000 to $250,000. The largest cost variables are catalogue complexity, the number of payment and carrier integrations, the depth of B2B pricing logic, and whether warehouse management system integration is in scope. Every project is scoped before pricing and delivered at a fixed cost. We publish our full cost model in our ecommerce cost guide.

Related ecommerce software

Talk to us about your ecommerce platform project.

Tell us your current platform, the catalogue and checkout requirements it can't handle cleanly, and the scale you're building toward. We will scope the right build and give you a fixed cost.