Your online store, marketplaces and order operations, run as one connected system

E-commerce usually means the online store itself, while digital commerce covers everything involved in selling online. That includes the store, marketplaces and social channels, product data, payments, order handling, couriers, returns, accounting links, and the search and advertising that bring buyers in. The distinction matters when choosing a supplier. A well-built store can still lose money if cash-on-delivery refusals, unmatched remittances or ads that count cancelled orders go unnoticed. Our e-commerce development service covers the store build itself in more depth.

Sales are usually lost at a few predictable points: slow product pages on mobile, delivery costs revealed late, forced account creation, missing local payment methods and items shown as available that are out of stock. After the order, more is lost to unconfirmed cash-on-delivery parcels that buyers turn away on delivery, and to slow refunds that stop customers buying again. We find your actual leaks by tracing real orders and reviewing the analytics funnel, then fix them in order of the revenue they affect, measuring each change against completed orders.

For most product brands the answer is both, with a clear role for each. Marketplaces bring buyers who are already searching, but they charge commission, control the customer relationship and set the rules on pricing and returns. Your own store keeps the margin and the customer data, and is where repeat buyers and follow-up messages pay off. We compare channels on margin after fees, delivery and returns, then feed every channel from one catalogue and pull every order into one queue, so adding a marketplace does not double the admin.

Yes, and they should, or stock and reporting will always be wrong. Staff can create an order from a WhatsApp chat or phone call in a short form, or send the customer a checkout link for the items discussed, which records the order and payment like any website sale. Instagram and Facebook shops can draw on the same catalogue. Every order then carries its source channel, so you can see what each channel really sells, and courier booking, stock deduction and invoicing work the same way for all of them.

Remittances are reconciled by matching each courier payment, line by line, to the orders it covers, using the tracking number as the link. Couriers usually pay cash-on-delivery takings in batches, net of delivery and collection charges, so a bank deposit rarely equals any single day's orders. We import the courier's settlement file or API data, match it to delivered orders, check charges against the agreed rate card and flag short payments, missing parcels and orders delivered but not yet paid. Finance then works from a list of exceptions rather than the whole statement.

Returns should follow one tracked process from request to refund, with stock and accounts updated at each step. The customer requests a return with a reason, the system checks eligibility against your policy, books a courier pickup or issues a drop-off label, and the warehouse records the item's condition on arrival. Approval then triggers the refund or exchange, puts saleable stock back on sale and posts a credit note to accounting. Return reasons are reported by product, which often points to sizing, description or packaging problems.

Ad platforms should learn from orders that are delivered and kept, especially where many orders are paid by cash on delivery. A purchase tag fires when the order is placed, so refused, cancelled and returned orders still look like successful sales to Google Ads and Meta, and their bidding starts favouring the wrong buyers. We keep the purchase event for speed, then send adjustments or offline conversions once delivery and payment are confirmed. Reports show both views, so you can see the gap between placed and paid revenue for each campaign.

You need a PIM, or product information management system, only when your catalogue, channels or editing team outgrow the store's own admin. A modest catalogue sold through one store and one marketplace usually runs well on a clearly structured catalogue with validated import templates. Large variant ranges, several languages, regular supplier data feeds or many sales channels are signs that a separate PIM will save time and prevent errors. We set out the options, from validated spreadsheets to a dedicated PIM, and recommend one against your growth plans.

If trade buyers purchase the same products at different prices, a trade login on the retail store is usually enough. Approved accounts see their own price lists, minimum quantities, reorder lists and payment on account, while retail shoppers see none of it. A separate trade portal makes sense when trade buying looks different, for example quick entry by SKU, requests for quotes, approval by the buyer's manager, or products retail customers should not see. Shopify, WooCommerce and custom builds handle these differently, so we decide after mapping how your trade customers actually order.

Add Saudi Arabia as a market on your existing store when the same business sells, ships and gets paid there, and open a separate store when a local entity, warehouse or payment gateway is involved. A market on one store shares the catalogue and admin while setting its own riyal prices, Arabic right-to-left content, delivery options and payment methods such as mada and cash on delivery. A separate store suits different stock, separate pricing teams or tax and e-invoicing obligations that your advisers confirm. The same question applies when expanding between the UK and Pakistan.

Yes. Websites and digital marketing were Softweb Planet's starting point, and the team still runs SEO and paid media alongside its development work. With one team responsible for both, a drop in sales is investigated across the store, the product feeds and the campaigns together, instead of each supplier checking only its own part. You get one named lead, one plan and reporting judged on completed orders. For a furnishing business we combined a WordPress website, on-page SEO work and a Google Ads campaign built to generate calls, which shows the same joined-up approach on a service website.

Monthly running costs depend on your platform, channels and order volume, and we list them in writing before you commit. Typical lines are the platform plan and paid apps or extensions, hosting for WooCommerce or headless builds, payment gateway fees, marketplace commissions, courier and cash-collection charges, messaging costs for WhatsApp confirmations, and ad spend. Ongoing work such as SEO, campaign management and support is quoted separately. We quote the build as a fixed price after discovery, so you can see what the whole operation costs, not only the launch figure.

That depends on where your buyers will come from, and nobody can honestly promise a date. Paid search and social campaigns can send buyers from launch day, but they need time to gather enough conversion data to bid well. Organic search usually builds over months, and faster for brands people already search for by name. Marketplaces and existing customers tend to produce sales soonest. We plan the launch so these channels overlap, and because you review working software every one to two weeks, measurement is ready when the first orders arrive.