• Shopify plugins adding up to workarounds for functionality the platform fundamentally can't support at your product or catalogue complexity?

  • B2B wholesale customers needing a portal with account pricing, credit terms, and order approval that no off-the-shelf platform handles cleanly?

Custom E-Commerce Platform Development for Retailers

Custom e-commerce platforms for retailers who have hit the ceiling of what Shopify and its plugin ecosystem can support -- product configurators, B2B wholesale portals, catalogues too large for standard pagination, subscriptions, and marketplace features that off-the-shelf platforms handle poorly or not at all.

We build on the commerce architecture that fits your actual business model: headless on top of Shopify where the backend is sound but the storefront needs replacing, or a full custom platform where the underlying data model is the problem.

  • Custom product configuration with visual builders, option trees, conditional logic, and configurable pricing

  • B2B wholesale portal with account-specific pricing, credit terms, minimum orders, and approval workflows

  • Large catalogue architecture built for 100k+ SKUs with faceted search and sub-second performance

  • Headless commerce connecting a custom storefront to existing POS and inventory systems

RaftLabs builds custom e-commerce platforms for retailers who need more than Shopify -- complex product configuration, B2B wholesale portals with account pricing and credit terms, large catalogues of 100k+ SKUs, subscription and recurring orders, headless storefronts, and marketplace features. A custom platform is the right choice when off-the-shelf plugins have become a layer of workarounds for functionality the platform fundamentally cannot support. Most e-commerce platform projects ship in 14--20 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
12-14Week delivery cycles

When the plugin count becomes the problem

Most retailers start on Shopify. It works well for standard product ranges and B2C checkout flows. The problems arrive when the business grows beyond the median use case the platform was designed for.

A retailer selling configurable products -- furniture with fabric, finish, and dimension options; workwear with embroidery and badge placement; electronics with custom specifications -- discovers that Shopify's variant model has hard limits. The product configurator plugin almost works. Another plugin fills the gap. A third handles the pricing. Each plugin adds a failure point and a monthly cost. The checkout still doesn't work correctly for complex configurations.

The B2B wholesaler problem is different but equally common. Trade customers need account-specific pricing, credit terms, minimum order quantities, and an order approval step before the PO is confirmed. Shopify's B2B features handle a subset of this. What's missing requires custom development on top of Shopify's limitations anyway, at which point building a proper B2B portal on a platform designed for the job is more efficient than patching around Shopify's model.

What we build

Custom product configuration

Visual product builders that let customers configure complex products step by step -- fabric, finish, dimension, print, engraving, or any combination of attributes specific to your range. Conditional option logic so choices at one step update what's available at the next, preventing invalid combinations. Real-time price calculation as options are selected, with margin-safe pricing rules managed by your team without developer involvement. 3D or 2D product preview where the product visualisation updates as the customer configures. Configuration saved to cart with a full specification so production receives an unambiguous order. The configurator that handles your product's actual complexity rather than constraining it to a flat variant list.

B2B wholesale portal

Trade account portal with account-specific pricing tiers agreed with each customer -- no public price lists visible to trade customers on other terms. Credit terms management: order on account within a configured credit limit, with payment terms recorded and statements accessible in the portal. Minimum order quantities and minimum order values enforced at checkout by product category or supplier. PO upload so trade customers can submit a purchase order document that populates the order basket automatically. Order approval workflow for customers who require internal sign-off before submitting -- order drafted, submitted for approval, approved, then confirmed with the retailer. The B2B portal that reflects how wholesale actually works rather than a consumer checkout with a discount code applied.

Large catalogue management

Bulk product import and update via feed or spreadsheet with validation and error reporting before records go live. Attribute-based filtering built on a search index rather than database queries so filter combinations on 100,000+ SKUs return results in under a second. Faceted search with configurable filter attributes per category and synonym handling for search queries. Category and collection management with drag-and-drop merchandising for featured product placement. Catalogue version management so product data changes can be staged and previewed before publishing. The catalogue architecture that keeps performance fast as your range grows -- not one that works fine at 5,000 SKUs and breaks at 50,000.

Subscription and recurring orders

Flexible subscription billing with configurable intervals: weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or custom frequency set by the customer. Customer portal for subscription management: pause, skip a delivery, change frequency, swap product, update delivery address, and cancel without contacting support. Failed payment retry logic with configurable retry schedule and customer notification before cancellation. Subscription-specific pricing and free trial periods managed without developer changes. Cohort reporting showing subscriber retention, churn rate, and lifetime value by subscription product. The recurring revenue engine that gives customers control over their subscription and your team visibility into churn risk before customers cancel.

Headless commerce architecture

Decoupled storefront built in Next.js or your framework of choice, connected to your existing commerce backend via API. If Shopify is sound as a backend -- product data, order management, payment processing -- but the storefront is the limitation, we build the front end that Shopify's Liquid templates cannot deliver. For retailers with an existing POS and inventory system, we connect the headless storefront to those systems directly so stock availability and order data stay in sync without a separate middleware layer. Performance optimised by design: static generation for catalogue pages, edge caching for product data, and sub-second LCP on product pages.

Marketplace features

Multi-vendor marketplace architecture where third-party sellers list products alongside your own catalogue. Seller onboarding workflow: application, document verification, product submission, and approval before going live. Commission management with configurable rates by category or seller tier, calculated automatically on each order. Seller dashboard showing their own orders, returns, revenue, and commission statements without access to other sellers' data. Dispute and return management workflow that routes issues through the marketplace operator before resolution. The marketplace foundation that lets you open your platform to third-party sellers without building a separate system for each seller type.

Frequently asked questions

Shopify handles standard B2C retail well. Custom development makes sense when your product configuration is too complex for Shopify's variant model, when your B2B wholesale requirements include account pricing and credit terms that Shopify B2B doesn't cover, when your catalogue exceeds 50,000 SKUs and performance becomes a real issue, or when your business model -- marketplace, subscription, configurable products -- requires an underlying data model that Shopify's architecture doesn't support without extensive workarounds. The clearest signal is when your development spend on Shopify customisations is approaching what a purpose-built platform would cost.

Yes. If Shopify's backend -- product management, order processing, payment handling -- is working well but the storefront is the constraint, a headless build is often the most efficient path. We build the storefront in Next.js using Shopify's Storefront API or the Hydrogen framework, giving full control over the front-end experience without losing the Shopify backend you have already configured. This approach is appropriate when the limitation is templating and front-end flexibility, not the data model. When the data model is the problem -- complex B2B pricing, product configurations that don't fit the variant model -- a fuller custom platform is the right answer.

Performance on large catalogues is an architecture decision made at the start, not a problem fixed later. We build product listing pages using static generation with incremental regeneration so catalogue pages load from the edge rather than generating on request. Filtering and search use a dedicated search index -- typically Algolia, Elasticsearch, or Typesense -- rather than database queries, so 100 filter combinations on 100,000 SKUs return results in milliseconds. Product data is cached aggressively at the CDN level and invalidated selectively on update, not on every request. We run performance tests against your actual catalogue size during staging, not against a sample of 100 products.

A custom e-commerce platform with a standard product catalogue, checkout, account management, and basic B2C features typically takes 14 to 18 weeks. Adding a B2B wholesale portal, a product configurator, subscription billing, or a marketplace layer adds four to eight weeks per major feature depending on complexity. Headless builds on top of Shopify back-end are typically faster -- 10 to 14 weeks for the storefront. We scope precisely before committing to a timeline. Projects are broken into phased deliveries so you see working software before the full build is complete.

Related retail and commerce software

Talk to us about your e-commerce platform project.

Tell us what Shopify or your current platform can't do, your product complexity, your B2B requirements, and your catalogue size. We'll scope the right architecture and give you a fixed cost.