Services · 03 · Selling online
Online shops.
Shops on WooCommerce when the rest of your site runs on WordPress, and shops written in Laravel when the selling rules are unusual.
If the rest of your site runs on WordPress, we build the shop on WooCommerce: a custom theme, catalogue filtering and integrations with payment, shipping and accounting. When the rules are unusual, meaning several warehouses, prices per B2B customer or a checkout of your own, we write the shop in Laravel. The Sverdrup Steel B2B catalogue has run on WooCommerce since 2024.
Pick this when
- You sell from a catalogue and the product logic matters, not just how the shop looks.
- Your customers are companies: prices per account, quotes, several warehouses, filtering by specification.
- You have outgrown an off-the-shelf tool and want the shop code in your own hands.
A shop is the busiest part of a website: prices, stock, promotions, returns, integrations with accounting and couriers. Before we start we settle where that logic should live, because it decides both the budget and how easily you can change it later.
WooCommerce, when WordPress is already there
WooCommerce carries a catalogue of up to a few thousand items with custom pricing, B2B rules and integrations to payment, shipping and ERP. It gets a custom theme and a short plugin list: catalogue filtering, content structure, nothing beyond that. Above a few thousand items it stops being the right tool, and we say so.
Laravel, when the rules do not fit a ready-made shop
Several warehouses, contracts per customer, a checkout of your own, real-time ERP integrations: that is where a shop written from scratch costs less than stretching a ready-made one. The same team, the same way of working, and code that is entirely yours.
When we tell you not to do it
If you sell a dozen products with no unusual rules, the honest answer is to take an off-the-shelf tool such as Shopify and come back when you start outgrowing it. We do not quote for that, because there is nothing to quote.
- Scope / budget
- €12-180k
- Per the route, WP or Laravel.
- Timeline
- 5 wk-6 mo
- Per the route.
- Routes
- Two
- WooCommerce or a Laravel shop.
- Long haul
- Same team
- Maintained after launch.
La Danse
The WooCommerce shop of a Norwegian dancewear boutique. The catalogue leads in through brands, because that is how dancers buy, and a blog helps a small shop get found next to the big chains. Selling since 2015 on the same code.
Read the caseWhat we won't do
- Drop a page builder on a starter theme and call it a custom store.
- Wire seven plugins, one per feature, and call it integrated.
- Run B2B pricing rules through a form builder.
Common questions
Why not just use Shopify?
Shopify is a good fit when the catalogue is simple, the buyer is a consumer, and the integrations live inside Shopify’s app store. It’s the wrong fit when you need bespoke pricing rules, multi-warehouse logic, B2B account hierarchies, custom checkout flows, or you’d rather own the code than rent the platform. We’ll tell you when Shopify is the cheaper, simpler answer - and then we won’t quote.
WooCommerce or custom Laravel - how do you decide?
WooCommerce when WordPress is already the right home for the rest of the site, the catalogue is in WP’s range, and FacetWP, ACF and a curated plugin set cover the gap. Custom Laravel when the rules are too specific for WP-shaped data - multi-warehouse stock, B2B contracts with per-account pricing, real-time integrations with ERP or carrier APIs, custom checkout flows that violate WooCommerce’s assumptions. The pricing routes the same way: WooCommerce in the WP range, Laravel storefronts in the platform range.
What about WooCommerce - can you do a real shop?
Yes, for catalogues up to a few thousand SKUs with custom rules - multi-currency, B2B pricing, configurators, integrations with ERP, payment and shipping. Above that, WooCommerce stops being the right tool and we steer you to either headless Woo (Laravel frontend, WP admin) or a different platform entirely. We’ll tell you in the first reply.
Bring us the plan.
We'll price it.
If this is not what you need, we say so in the first reply.