Choosing a platform
Shopify is the fastest way to a reliable store with hosting and security handled for you. WooCommerce gives full control and suits businesses already using WordPress for content. A custom Laravel store is worth it for complex pricing, trade accounts, subscriptions with unusual rules or tight integration with other systems.
What makes a store sell
- Speed: fast category and product pages on mobile, where most shoppers browse.
- Findability: clear categories, useful filters and search that understands what people type.
- Product pages: great photos, honest descriptions, reviews, delivery and returns information near the buy button.
- Checkout: guest checkout, express payment options and as few fields as possible.
Measurement from day one
Every store launches with GA4 e-commerce events and conversion tracking for Google and Meta, so you know which channels drive sales from the first order. See conversion tracking for how that is done properly.
Built for search
Category structure, filter handling, product schema and a Merchant Center feed are planned in the build, not added later, which saves a costly fix down the line. The SEO side is covered on e-commerce SEO.
Moving an existing store
Re-platforming a store carries risk to rankings and revenue. Product and category URLs, customer accounts and order history need careful migration and redirects; see website redesign and migration.