A Catalog Nobody Can Filter
Three hundred products in one long collection, no size or material filters and variants listed as separate products. Shoppers give up first.
E-commerce development
Shopify and WooCommerce Stores That Turn Browsers Into Paid Orders
A store customers can search and buy from on a phone in under a minute, and your team can run without calling a developer.
The Digital Elites builds and migrates Shopify and WooCommerce stores for online retailers, makers and service businesses that sell products. We start with your catalog, your shipping rules and your margins, then build the store around them, not around a theme demo.
Moving from Wix, Squarespace, BigCommerce or an old Magento install? We bring over products, customers and order history, and redirect every old URL so Google keeps sending shoppers to the new store.
Overview
What Goes Into an E-commerce Build
An e-commerce build is a website plus the plumbing behind every order: payments, shipping, tax, stock and the feed that puts your products in Google.
The storefront is the part everyone sees. The part that decides whether you make money is quieter: how products are grouped and filtered, what happens at checkout on a phone, whether shipping charges match what the carrier bills you, and whether your products appear in Google Shopping. We plan all of it before a page is designed.
Shopify plan fees, paid apps, premium themes and card processing are paid by you directly to those providers. Our build fee is a fixed quote, agreed before we start.
Where stores lose sales
Four Ways an Online Store Loses Orders
Most stores we're asked to fix get enough visitors. The orders are lost somewhere between the product page and the payment button.
Shipping Costs That Appear Too Late
Surprise shipping at the last step is a classic cause of abandoned carts. Wrong rates also leave you paying the carrier the difference.
Products Missing From Google Shopping
No Merchant Center feed, or one full of disapprovals for missing GTINs and mismatched prices, keeps your products out of the Shopping tab.
A Theme Weighed Down by Apps
Every review widget, upsell popup and chat app adds scripts. On a mid-range phone the product page crawls and the buyer leaves.
What's included
What Our E-commerce Builds Include
Every store is quoted from your catalog size, integrations and migration needs. These are the parts most builds need.
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An Honest Platform Recommendation
We tell you whether Shopify or WooCommerce suits you before we quote, based on your catalog, your budget and who runs the store day to day.
Shopify suits most stores that want hosting, security and checkout handled for them. WooCommerce suits businesses already on WordPress or needing unusual product logic, and it means owning the hosting and updates.
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Catalog Structure and Product Data
Collections, tags, variants and filters planned around how your customers actually shop: by size, use, material, brand or price.
We clean up product titles, descriptions and images in bulk by CSV, so the catalog is consistent before launch, not after.
We set up:
- Variants for size, color and finish instead of duplicate products
- Filters shoppers use, not every attribute you store
- Collection pages written to rank for category searches
- Product templates with specs, shipping and returns info
- Bulk import from your spreadsheet or old platform
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Checkout and Payment Gateways
Shopify Payments, Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Shop Pay set up and tested on real phones with real cards before launch.
We keep checkout short: guest checkout on, no forced account creation, and shipping and tax shown before the final step.
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Shipping and Sales Tax Rules
Flat rates, free-shipping thresholds, live UPS, USPS and FedEx rates, local pickup and delivery by ZIP code, set to match what you actually pay.
Sales tax is configured for the states where you have nexus, using Shopify Tax or a WooCommerce tax service, so you collect the right amount from the first order.
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Google Merchant Center Feed
Your products sent to Google Merchant Center with clean titles, GTINs, brand, condition and shipping data, eligible for Shopping ads and free listings.
We clear disapprovals before launch and connect the feed to GA4 and Google Ads, so Shopping campaigns can start the week the store goes live.
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Speed on Real Phones
Compressed images, a lean theme and only the apps you need. We test product and collection pages on a mid-range Android phone, not a fast office laptop.
Core Web Vitals are checked in Search Console after launch, and any app that slows the store down has to earn its place.
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Store Migration Without Lost Sales Data
Products, customers, order history, reviews and gift card balances moved from Wix, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Magento or an older WooCommerce site.
Every old product and collection URL points to its new address, so the rankings and backlinks you've built carry across.
Product pages
What Every Product Page Needs Before Launch
The product page does the selling a shop assistant would. Before launch, each template answers what a buyer wants to know without scrolling for ages or messaging you.
A product page that sells shows:
- Clear photos, including scale and close-ups
- Price, variants and stock status together
- Shipping cost or the free-shipping threshold
- The returns policy in one plain sentence
- Reviews from verified buyers
- Specs and sizing in a scannable table
We build these into the template, so every product you add later gets the same structure without extra work.
Measurement
Judge Your Store by Orders and Margin, Not Traffic
Sessions and page views tell you people arrived. They don't tell you where buyers dropped out or what each order cost.
| Measure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Conversion rate by device | Whether phone shoppers buy as often as desktop shoppers |
| Checkout drop-off | Which step of checkout loses the most buyers |
| Average order value | Whether bundles and free-shipping thresholds are working |
| Best and dead products | Which products sell and which ones nobody even views |
| Merchant Center status | How many products are approved, limited or disapproved |
| Repeat purchase rate | How many customers come back for a second order |
We set up GA4 e-commerce events alongside your Shopify or WooCommerce reports, so these numbers are there from launch day.
Recent work
Recent Websites From Our Katy Studio
A selection of websites we designed and built for clients. Hover a project to scroll the full page.
Website · Home services
J. Miles Design: case study
Site for a virtual interior design studio selling room makeovers, full-home packages and new-build plans.
Website · Construction
Waters Roofing: case study
Website for a Georgia roofing contractor covering repairs, replacements, metal, TPO and solar roofing.
Website · Home services
Huggy Homey: case study
Website selling Singapore home staging and interior renovation as a single service.
Website · Education
CounselTrain: case study
Website for a UAE provider of IT and professional certification training for teams.
Website · Healthcare
Frances Yeo Practice: case study
Website for a Singapore psychology practice offering assessments, psychotherapy and counselling.
Website · Retail
Vulcan Strength: case study
Website for a supplier of bumper plates, bars, racks and rigs for home and commercial gyms.
Website · Automotive
Team Benik: case study
Website for a go-kart parts seller, race team and driver development programme.
Website · Construction
Kepsake Kreations: case study
Website for a Tennessee renovation firm: basements, custom homes and outdoor living.
Website · Professional services
Resolute Management Consultancy: case study
Website for a Dubai advisory firm covering strategy, M&A, data and AI, risk and governance.
How it works
How We Build and Launch Your Store
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Catalog and Platform Plan
We review your products, variants, shipping and tax needs, recommend Shopify or WooCommerce and agree the scope in a fixed quote.
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Structure and Design
Collections, filters and page templates are mapped first, then designed for phones before desktop.
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Build and Import
Theme build, product import, payments and shipping set up on a staging store you can click through and test.
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Test Real Orders
We place real orders with real cards, check tax and shipping on each, test refunds and read every email your customers receive.
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Launch and Connect the Feed
Redirects go live, Merchant Center is connected and we watch orders, errors and Search Console closely for two weeks.
Already selling online? We'll show you where your current checkout loses buyers.
Plan Your Online StoreAfter launch
Store Care After Launch
A store keeps changing after launch: new products, app updates, seasonal sales and platform changes. A care plan keeps it working while you sell.
Billed monthly, no long contract. Stop whenever you're happy running the store yourself.
The care plan covers:
- App, theme and plugin updates tested before they go live
- New products and collections set up to the same standard
- Merchant Center disapprovals checked and fixed
- Sale setup: discount codes, banners and shipping cutoffs
- Speed checks after every new app or theme change
- A short monthly report on orders, conversion and drop-off
Black Friday and holiday prep starts in September, not the week before, so codes, stock and shipping cutoffs are tested in time.
Compare
Your Own Store, a Marketplace or a Simple Buy Button
Each route trades control against built-in traffic. The right one depends on your margins and how many products you sell.
Your Own Online Store
Shopify or WooCommerce on your own domain. You own the customer list, set your prices and pay no marketplace commission, but you bring the traffic yourself.
Amazon, Etsy and eBay Only
The buyers are already there, but referral fees take a cut of every sale, you sit next to rivals on price and you never own the customer's email.
See E-commerce MarketingA Site With a Few Buy Buttons
Selling a dozen products, gift cards or class passes? A CMS site with a Shopify Buy Button or Stripe payment links costs less and does the job.
See CMS WebsitesPlenty of brands run both: their own store for margin and repeat buyers, a marketplace for reach. We'll tell you which to build first.
Your plan
A Store Plan Built Around How You Sell
The right build depends on your products and how orders get packed and shipped, not on which theme looks best in a demo.
We plan around:
- How many products and variants you carry, and how often they change
- Where you ship, and whether you offer local pickup or delivery
- Who packs orders and updates stock: you, your staff or a 3PL
- Systems to connect: QuickBooks, ShipStation, Klaviyo, your POS
- Your margins, which set the free-shipping threshold
- Seasonal peaks and the launch date you're working toward
A store planned on those details launches on time and doesn't need rebuilding the first time you add a product line.
Learn About The Digital ElitesFAQ
E-commerce Website Questions We Hear Most
We won't promise a sales figure before we've seen your products, your prices and where your traffic comes from, and we'd be cautious of any agency that does. A better store removes the reasons people leave without buying. We set up tracking so you see conversion rate and checkout drop-off from the first week.
Shopify, for most stores. Hosting, security, checkout and updates are handled for a monthly fee, and staff learn it in an afternoon. WooCommerce makes sense if your site already runs on WordPress, you need product logic Shopify apps can't handle, or you want full control of hosting. We'll give you the reasons either way.
A fixed project fee, quoted after we've seen your catalog, integrations and migration needs. Platform plans, paid apps, premium themes and payment processing fees are paid by you directly to those providers. The after-launch care plan is monthly with no long contract.
A store with a clean catalog of a few hundred products usually takes six to ten weeks from kickoff to launch. Migrations with order history, custom product options or POS and inventory integrations take longer. Product data is the usual bottleneck, so catalog cleanup starts in week one.
Not if the move is planned properly. We crawl your current store, map every product, collection and blog URL to its new address with 301 redirects, keep the titles and descriptions that rank, and check Search Console daily for the first weeks after launch.
Yes. Common connections include QuickBooks or Xero for accounting, ShipStation for fulfillment, Klaviyo for email and Square or Shopify POS for in-person sales, so stock levels stay in sync between your shop counter and your website.
We set up the Google Merchant Center feed, fix product disapprovals and link it to Google Ads, which makes your products eligible for free listings and Shopping ads. Running and optimizing the Shopping campaigns themselves is part of our e-commerce marketing service.
You do. The Shopify account or WordPress hosting, the domain, the theme files, the product data and the customer list are all in your business's name. If we ever part ways, you keep everything and we hand back any logins we hold.
Tell Us What You Sell and How You Ship
Send us your product count, your current platform and your shipping setup. We'll recommend a platform, explain what the build involves and give you a fixed quote.