Digital commerce software development

Custom software is the right choice when your business model has requirements the platform can't support without a fragile plugin stack. Common triggers: you operate a multi-vendor marketplace where seller management and commission logic live in a spreadsheet; your B2B pricing involves customer-specific agreements that require manual quote management; your subscription model needs billing flexibility (pauses, skips, mid-cycle plan changes) that Shopify subscriptions can't handle; or your product catalogue is complex enough that variant management is causing SKU errors and overselling. If a platform configuration would work, we'll tell you. Custom development carries ongoing maintenance cost that platforms absorb for you.

Yes. Most digital commerce projects involve integrating with existing operational systems rather than replacing everything at once. We integrate with major ERP systems (SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite), warehouse management systems, 3PL APIs, and accounting platforms (Xero, QuickBooks). We've also integrated custom commerce backends with Shopify and WooCommerce, so existing storefronts can sit on top of a more capable backend. The integration scope is defined during discovery because it's usually the most complex part of a commerce build and needs to be right-sized before development starts.

A multi-vendor marketplace has four distinct system layers: seller management (onboarding, verification, product listing controls, and policy enforcement); catalogue management (unified product data across sellers with consistent taxonomy); order management (routing orders to the correct seller, tracking fulfilment, and handling returns across vendors); and financial management (commission calculation, payout scheduling, and tax handling for each seller). We scope which layers you need and which can be handled by existing tools. For early-stage marketplaces, we build the core seller and order management layer first and add sophistication as the business scales.

Cost depends on the scope of what you're building. A headless storefront replacing a Shopify theme, connected to your existing commerce backend, typically runs $25,000 to $60,000. A subscription commerce platform with recurring billing, subscriber management, and churn tools typically runs $40,000 to $90,000. A multi-vendor marketplace with full seller management, order routing, and payout automation is typically $80,000 to $200,000 depending on complexity. We scope and price every project before development starts. Contact us with your business model and we'll give you a fixed cost with a clear scope.

Real-time inventory sync uses a single inventory source of truth, typically your warehouse management system or ERP, that all sales channels read from. When a sale is made on any channel, the available stock figure updates immediately and propagates to all other channels. We build the sync layer with optimistic locking to handle concurrent updates: if two channels receive simultaneous orders for the last unit, one processes and the other triggers an out-of-stock response rather than overselling. The specific architecture depends on your channel mix and order volume. High-traffic flash sales require a different concurrency model than steady B2B ordering. We define the sync architecture during discovery based on your actual channel configuration.