Shopify, WooCommerce and headless stores built around the catalogue, checkout and back office

Neither is cheaper in every case, because the costs fall in different places. Shopify charges a monthly plan fee, most stores add paid apps, and stores using a third-party gateway may pay an extra Shopify transaction fee on top of the gateway's own charges. WooCommerce is free to install, but you pay for hosting sized to your traffic, yearly licences for premium extensions and developer time to test updates. We compare both for your catalogue, order volume and integrations over several years before recommending one.

Yes, Shopify can run stores for businesses in both countries, but payments need planning first. Shopify Payments, the platform's own card processing, is offered only in a limited list of countries. Businesses outside that list take card and wallet payments through third-party gateways that integrate with Shopify, and cash on delivery is added as a manual payment method. Which gateways will accept you depends on where the business is registered and where funds settle, so we confirm this during discovery, because it can decide between Shopify and WooCommerce.

Offer the methods each market already uses, not only cards. For UK shoppers that typically means cards with 3-D Secure, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and buy now pay later options. In Pakistan, mobile wallets, bank transfer and cash on delivery are common, while Saudi shoppers often expect mada cards, Apple Pay and instalment options. Availability depends on your platform and the gateways willing to onboard your business, which we confirm during discovery.

Usually because the store waits for the shopper's browser to return from the payment page before recording the payment, and the shopper closed the tab or lost signal first. We create the order as pending before the shopper leaves, then confirm payment from the gateway's server-to-server notification rather than the browser redirect. Each notification is processed once even if the gateway sends it again. A scheduled check compares gateway transactions with store orders and flags any payment without a matching order for staff.

We keep card entry on the payment provider's hosted page or embedded fields and tightly control what else runs at checkout. On WooCommerce and headless stores, where checkout pages are under your control, we keep third-party scripts there to a minimum, restrict script sources with a content security policy and alert on changes to checkout templates. Against fraud we enable 3-D Secure and the gateway's risk checks, limit repeated payment attempts that signal card testing and send risky orders to a review queue. Your payment provider confirms which PCI DSS self-assessment applies.

Products, variants, images, categories, customers, order history and most content can move, and we reconcile record counts and samples against the old store. Some items rarely transfer cleanly. Customer passwords are stored in formats the new platform cannot read, so customers set new ones from an invitation email. Saved cards and active subscriptions move only if the payment providers arrange a token migration. Gift card balances, reviews and discount codes often need separate exports. SKUs and product identifiers stay stable so feeds and ad history carry over.

Headless commerce means building the storefront as a separate application, usually in Next.js, that reads products and carts from Shopify or WooCommerce through APIs, while checkout typically stays on the platform. You gain full control of design, content and page speed. In return, many Shopify apps work by adding code to the theme and will not appear on a custom front end, so features such as reviews or wishlists are rebuilt or connected through APIs. Merchandisers lose the visual theme editor unless a content management system replaces it, and there is a second application to host.

Yes, provided the pricing rules are agreed before the build. Products such as curtains priced by width and drop, or sofas with fabric and leg choices, need inputs that standard variants cannot hold, because Shopify caps variants per product and neither platform calculates a price from a measurement out of the box. We add custom option fields, calculate the price on the server so it cannot be altered in the browser, and attach the full specification to each order line for your workshop. Complex rules can be simpler on WooCommerce or a headless build.

The usual cause is accumulated apps, plugins and tracking scripts rather than the platform itself. We profile product, collection and cart pages on a mid-range phone, list every script and what loads it, and remove whatever no longer earns its place, including code that uninstalled Shopify apps leave behind in the theme. On WooCommerce we also examine hosting, object caching, slow database queries and plugins that run on every page. Images are resized and served in modern formats, and Core Web Vitals are rechecked after each change.

Yes, if the feed is planned with the catalogue rather than after it. We generate a Google Merchant Center feed from the store with the identifiers Google expects, such as GTIN, or brand and manufacturer part number where no GTIN exists, plus accurate titles, images, prices and stock. Shipping costs and the returns policy are set in Merchant Center, and prices and availability on product pages match the feed, because mismatches lead to disapproved items. Which products then appear is decided by Google, and paid Shopping campaigns are covered by our paid advertising service.

The quote covers the scope agreed after discovery: storefront design, platform setup, each named integration, data migration, testing and launch, itemised so you can phase parts of it. The largest cost drivers are how far the design departs from a theme, custom app or plugin work, the number of systems to connect and the volume of data to move. Platform plans, paid apps, extension licences, gateway fees and hosting are billed to your own accounts, and we list them separately so running costs are clear from the start.

Product data and payment approvals cause more delay than the build itself. Missing images, inconsistent sizes and unconfirmed prices hold up imports, so catalogue preparation starts as soon as the project does. Payment gateways run their own merchant checks before issuing a live account, and local gateways and courier accounts can take a while to approve, so we apply early. Delivery, returns and privacy policies also need writing. With those in hand, a store on an adapted theme can launch in weeks, while custom designs, migrations and ERP links are usually phased.

You can, or we can, and we agree which before launch. Shopify patches its own platform, but themes and apps still need reviewing as they change. WooCommerce stores need regular WordPress, plugin and PHP updates, tested on staging before they reach the live site. We offer ongoing support covering updates, monitoring, backups and small improvements, and we document everything so your team or another provider can take over.