Services
Online stores that take payment, track stock and get found
Shopify, WooCommerce and custom stores, set up with the gateways your customers actually use, shipping and stock that match reality, and product pages built to rank.
Ecommerce website development is the work of building an online store that takes payment, keeps stock accurate, ships orders and brings in search traffic, on Shopify, WooCommerce or custom code. The platform matters less than getting payments, delivery and product data right for your market. Meritbyte Technologies, a Nepal-based web and software development company, builds stores for sellers in Nepal, where eSewa, Khalti and cash on delivery dominate, and for clients abroad selling through Stripe, PayPal and Shopify Payments.
Shopify, WooCommerce or custom: which should you build on?
Most stores should start on Shopify or WooCommerce; custom code earns its cost only when your selling model does not fit either. The short version:
| Shopify | WooCommerce | Custom (Next.js, Node.js, PostgreSQL) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Retail brands that want hosting, security and checkout handled | Content-heavy stores, WordPress sites adding a shop, local gateways | Marketplaces, complex B2B pricing, unusual checkout flows |
| Running costs | Monthly plan plus paid apps and transaction fees | Hosting, premium plugin licenses, maintenance time | Hosting and ongoing developer time |
| Main risk | App subscriptions pile up; checkout customization is limited | Plugin conflicts and updates need care | Longest build; you own every bug |
| Nepal gateways | Check for a maintained app before committing | Plugins exist for the main wallets | Direct API integration |
Our full comparison, with the edge cases, is in Shopify vs WooCommerce vs custom e-commerce. If you already run WordPress, our WordPress development team handles WooCommerce as part of the same site.
Which payment gateways can your store use?
That depends on where your business is registered, not where your customers are. Getting this wrong late in a project is expensive, so it is settled in scoping.
| Market | Common options | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Nepal | eSewa, Khalti, Fonepay QR, ConnectIPS, cash on delivery | Stripe does not currently onboard Nepal-registered businesses; each wallet needs its own merchant agreement |
| USA and Canada | Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal | Apple Pay and Google Pay come through the main gateway |
| UK | Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal | Strong Customer Authentication (3-D Secure) applies to most card payments |
| Australia | Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal, Afterpay | Buy-now-pay-later is widely expected in fashion and homewares |
Every gateway is connected to a merchant account in your company's name, and we test live transactions and refunds before launch. For Nepali wallets, eSewa, Khalti and Fonepay integration explains merchant onboarding and verification callbacks.
What ecommerce website development includes beyond the storefront
The storefront is the visible part. The work that decides whether a store runs smoothly sits behind it:
- Catalog. Product import from spreadsheets or an old platform, with variants, SKUs, weights and images cleaned up on the way in.
- Checkout. Guest checkout, address formats for your countries, discount rules, and order confirmation emails that answer "when will it arrive?".
- Tax. GST-inclusive prices for Australia, VAT for the UK, and US sales tax configured for the states where you have nexus.
- Shipping. Zones, rates by weight or value, free-shipping thresholds, cash-on-delivery rules in Nepal, and courier integrations where an API exists.
- Inventory. Stock synced with your POS or warehouse system, so a sale in the shop is not sold again online.
- Returns. A returns policy page and an admin process your staff can follow.
- Analytics. GA4 ecommerce events (view item, add to cart, begin checkout, purchase) so you can see where buyers drop out.
Product SEO that holds up
Product and category pages are the pages that make money from search, so they get the most care:
- Unique product descriptions, not the manufacturer's text copied across a hundred other shops.
- Product structured data with price, currency, availability and, only where real, review ratings.
- Category pages written as landing pages, with a short introduction and useful filters.
- Filter and sort URLs kept out of the index with canonical tags, so crawlers do not waste time on thousands of near-duplicates.
- Out-of-stock products kept live with a restock note, not deleted into a 404.
- A product feed to Google Merchant Center for free listings in the Shopping tab.
Our SEO services extend this after launch with content and local search.
How a store build runs
- Scoping. A free conversation about products, markets, gateways and fulfillment. You receive a scope, a timeline and a number.
- First milestone, fixed price. Platform set up in your account, theme for the home, collection, product and cart pages, and test payments working on a staging store.
- Two-week blocks. Catalog import, integrations, shipping and tax, content pages. A demo at the end of every block, a written update every week, and the staging store open to you throughout.
- Launch. A real card order and refund, redirects from any old store, feeds submitted, staff trained on orders and stock.
- After launch. Retainer days for new features and seasonal campaigns, or handover with documentation.
What does an online store cost to build and run?
Build cost is driven by the number of products and variants, how clean your product data is, the number of gateways and integrations, and anything custom: subscriptions, wholesale price lists, multi-currency, product configurators. A tidy 50-product catalog and a messy 5,000-product one are different projects even on the same platform.
Running costs deserve as much attention as the build. On Shopify, add the monthly plan, each app's subscription and transaction fees. On WooCommerce, add hosting sized for traffic peaks, annual plugin licenses and update time. Everywhere, add gateway fees per order.
Typical market ranges vary by country and scope; for Nepal, see how to start an e-commerce website in Nepal and website cost in Nepal, which includes e-commerce ranges.
Choosing a Shopify developer or WooCommerce developer
Ask before you sign:
- Whose name is the Shopify account, hosting and payment gateway registered in? It should be yours.
- Which apps or plugins will we pay for monthly, and what does each one do?
- How will checkout be tested, and who tests refunds?
- How do you handle product data: do we fill a template, or do you clean it?
- What happens to SEO if we are moving from an old store?
Red flags: a developer who wants the store in their own partner account indefinitely, a plan with a dozen paid apps for features the platform already has, and no mention of tax or shipping rules until the week before launch.
Frequently asked questions
Should a small store use Shopify or WooCommerce?
If you want the platform to handle hosting, security and checkout, and your gateways are supported, Shopify is usually simpler to run. If you already have a WordPress site, sell content-heavy products, or need Nepali wallets with fewer workarounds, WooCommerce often fits better. The deciding factors are gateways, running costs and who will maintain the store.
Can you move my store to a new platform?
Yes. We export products, customers and order history where the platforms allow it, rebuild the theme, and map every old product and category URL to its new address with 301 redirects. Customer passwords usually cannot be migrated between platforms, so we plan a reset email. Your old store stays live until the new one is tested.
How long does it take to build an online store?
A Shopify or WooCommerce store with a standard catalog commonly takes six to ten weeks from agreed scope to launch, depending mostly on how ready the product data is and how quickly gateways approve the merchant account. Approvals can take weeks, so we start that paperwork in week one.
Do you write product descriptions and take photos?
We write category page copy and can write or rewrite product descriptions, which matters for search. For large catalogs we usually write templates and a sample set your team completes. We do not run product photo shoots, but we set image specifications so photos from your photographer load quickly and display consistently.
Who owns the store after launch?
You do. The Shopify account or hosting, the domain, payment gateway merchant accounts, Google Merchant Center and analytics are all in your company's name, with us added as staff users. At handover you receive documentation for orders, stock and returns, and you can remove our access at any time.