Ecommerce software development company

Custom ecommerce software for online retailers, subscription businesses, B2B sellers, and marketplace operators who need a platform built around their specific catalogue, checkout, and fulfilment model, not a Shopify theme or a SaaS plan that covers 80% of the requirement.

When your product configuration, bundle logic, B2B pricing rules, subscription mechanics, or multi-vendor marketplace requirements can't be modelled without significant compromise on a standard platform, we build the system that fits the business rather than the other way around.

  • Custom ecommerce platforms with product catalogue, checkout, order management, and fulfilment workflows built for your specific inventory model

  • Multi-vendor marketplace development with seller onboarding, commission management, and payout automation

  • Headless commerce architecture decoupling your storefront from your backend so content teams and developers work independently

  • AI personalisation and recommendation engines that increase average order value and repeat purchase rate from your existing traffic

Recognition

Sound familiar?

  • forcing complex product configurations, bundle rules, or B2B tiered pricing into a SaaS ecommerce platform that wasn't designed for them, and paying developers to maintain workarounds every time the platform updates?

  • running separate tools for product catalogue, inventory, subscription billing, and fulfilment that share no data and require manual reconciliation between every order?

In short

RaftLabs builds custom ecommerce software for online retailers, B2B sellers, marketplace operators, and subscription commerce businesses. We develop custom ecommerce platforms, multi-vendor marketplaces, headless commerce frontends, AI personalisation and recommendation engines, subscription and recurring commerce platforms, and B2B ordering portals. Most ecommerce projects deliver in 10 to 16 weeks at a fixed, agreed cost.

Companies we've built for

Vodafone
Nike
Microsoft
Cisco
T-Mobile
Aldi
Heineken
GE

What ecommerce businesses get when they work with us

Ecommerce and retail businesses served across 8+ markets
20+
Week delivery for ecommerce platforms
10-16
Software products shipped
100+
Cost delivery
Fixed

When the platform becomes the ceiling

Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento cover standard ecommerce well. They handle product listings, a standard checkout, basic promotions, and a handful of payment gateways. The ceiling appears when the business model requires something the platform wasn't designed to support. Complex product configurations with dozens of interdependent attributes, B2B pricing tiers per account, multi-vendor marketplace logic with seller-specific fulfilment and split payouts, subscription mechanics with custom box curation, or a catalogue size that pushes the platform's performance and API rate limits. At that point, the choice is maintaining expensive developer workarounds that break on every platform update, or building a system designed for the actual business model from the start.

We build ecommerce software for businesses at this decision point, and for those that have already reached it after launching on a standard platform. We've built custom ecommerce platforms, multi-vendor marketplaces, headless commerce frontends, subscription commerce systems, and B2B ordering portals. We understand the operational requirements specific to ecommerce: catalogue attribute flexibility, checkout conversion, inventory accuracy across locations, payment processing reliability, and the integration landscape between the ecommerce platform, warehouse management, ERP, and 3PL systems. These are designed into the system from the start, not retrofitted later.

Problems we solve in ecommerce

  1. 01
    Problem

    Product catalogue complexity forcing custom development work every time a new attribute or variant type is added

    Solution

    SaaS ecommerce platforms define a fixed catalogue structure with a standard set of product attributes and variant types. When the product range includes items with attributes that don't fit the standard structure (configurable dimensions, interdependent options, custom engraving fields, or industry-specific classification data), every new product type requires developer involvement to work around the platform's data model. Every workaround adds fragility and slows down the merchandising team. A custom catalogue built around the actual product range removes that constraint, so product teams can add new types without waiting on developers. "I was pleased with RaftLabs team quality, consistency and execution.", Dr. J. Ayo Akinyele, President, Co-Founder, Yeletech Security & Bolt

  2. 02
    Problem

    Cart abandonment rising because the checkout wasn't built for your buyer type

    Solution

    Standard checkout flows are designed for a single buyer purchasing a standard product with a standard delivery address and a standard payment method. When your actual customers are B2B buyers on account terms, subscription customers managing recurring orders, or buyers configuring complex products with multiple options, the standard checkout creates friction at the point of purchase. According to the Baymard Institute (2024), the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.19% across 49 independent studies, meaning roughly 7 in 10 shoppers who add to cart never complete the purchase. Every extra step or mismatched assumption is a lost order. A checkout built for the actual buyer type and order model cuts abandonment at precisely the point where standard platforms let revenue slip through.

  3. 03
    Problem

    Inventory and order data split across the ecommerce platform, warehouse system, and ERP with no single source of truth

    Solution

    When an order placed on the ecommerce platform has to be manually entered into the warehouse management system, and the fulfilment status has to be manually synced back to the platform, and financial data has to be reconciled against the ERP at month end, the process is slow, error-prone, and produces a different version of the truth in each system. Oversells, mis-ships, and delayed fulfilment follow. An integrated order management layer that connects the ecommerce platform, warehouse system, and ERP gives every team a single accurate view of stock, orders, and fulfilment status in real time.

  4. 04
    Problem

    B2B customers ordering by phone or email because the ecommerce platform can't handle account pricing and approval workflows

    Solution

    When B2B customers have negotiated pricing, credit terms, minimum order quantities, and multi-user approval workflows, and the ecommerce platform can't configure any of these per account, the sales team handles every B2B order manually by phone or email. That's a hidden cost that scales with revenue. A B2B ecommerce portal with account-specific pricing, purchase order terms, and buyer approval workflows moves the ordering process online without losing the account-level commercial relationship.

Our ecommerce software development services

  1. Custom ecommerce platforms

    • Custom product catalogue with configurable attributes and variant logic
    • Checkout with your specific tax, shipping, and payment rules
    • Order management with warehouse and fulfilment integration
    • Customer account and order history
    • Promotions and discount engine
    • Admin for merchandising teams without developer involvement

    Best for

    • Retailers whose product configuration or catalogue logic can't be modelled in Shopify without apps
    • Businesses replacing WooCommerce or Magento with a maintainable custom platform
    • Brands with complex bundle or subscription mechanics that SaaS platforms can't support cleanly

  2. Multi-vendor marketplace development

    • Seller onboarding and verification workflow
    • Product listing and catalogue management per seller
    • Commission and fee structure configuration
    • Order routing to the correct seller
    • Split payment and payout automation
    • Buyer and seller dispute management
    • Marketplace analytics for operators

    Best for

    • Businesses building a marketplace where multiple sellers list and fulfil independently
    • Platforms adding a marketplace model to an existing ecommerce operation
    • Industry-specific marketplace operators who need category-specific catalogue structures

  3. Headless commerce architecture

    • API-first backend (commerce engine, product catalogue, cart, checkout) decoupled from the frontend presentation layer
    • Custom storefront built in Next.js or another framework of your choice
    • Content management integration for marketing teams to update pages without code
    • Performance-optimised frontend with fast page loads and Core Web Vitals scores that support organic search

    Best for

    • Brands with high design and performance requirements that SaaS storefronts can't meet
    • Businesses running multiple storefronts (B2C and B2B, multiple regions) from a single commerce backend
    • Retailers whose SEO performance is constrained by their current platform's page speed

  4. AI personalisation and recommendations

    • Product recommendation engine trained on purchase and browse history
    • Personalised homepage and category page product ranking
    • AI search that handles natural language queries and returns relevant results
    • Dynamic pricing recommendations by customer segment and demand signal
    • Abandoned cart and browse abandonment recovery with personalised content

    Best for

    • Ecommerce businesses with enough catalogue depth and traffic that personalised recommendations materially increase conversion
    • Retailers whose search returns poor results for non-exact queries
    • Businesses using generic email automation that sends the same content to every subscriber

  5. Subscription and recurring commerce

    • Subscription plan management with fixed and build-your-own box options
    • Recurring billing with multiple payment methods and smart retry for failed payments
    • Subscriber portal for pause, skip, swap, and cancellation self-service
    • Churn intervention workflow triggered before a subscriber cancels
    • Subscription analytics covering churn rate, lifetime value, and cohort retention

    Best for

    • Subscription box businesses with box customisation and curation workflows
    • DTC brands adding a subscription model alongside one-off purchases
    • Businesses with high reorder rates who want to convert repeat buyers into subscribers

  6. B2B ecommerce portals

    • Account-based pricing with customer-specific price lists and discount tiers
    • Quote request and approval workflow for large or custom orders
    • Minimum order quantity and bulk discount configuration
    • Purchase order payment terms including net-30 and net-60
    • Multi-user account management with buyer roles and approval limits
    • Integration with ERP for inventory and order data

    Best for

    • Manufacturers and distributors moving from phone and email ordering to a self-service portal
    • B2B brands with complex pricing tiers that consumer ecommerce platforms can't configure
    • Businesses with large account customers who need their own pricing, terms, and approval workflows

How we work with ecommerce clients

  1. 01

    Discovery

    We map the product catalogue structure, the checkout and fulfilment requirements, the integration landscape (ERP, warehouse, 3PL, payment gateways), and the operational workflows the platform needs to support. We identify where the current approach, whether a SaaS platform with workarounds or manual processes, creates the most friction. We agree scope and produce a fixed-price specification before development begins.

  2. 02

    Architecture

    We design the data model around the actual product range and business model: the catalogue attribute structure, the order and fulfilment workflow, the pricing engine (including B2B account pricing if needed), the integration architecture between the ecommerce platform and connected systems, and the admin layer for non-technical teams. Performance requirements for catalogue search and checkout are factored in before code is written.

  3. 03

    Build

    Two-week sprints with working software at each checkpoint. Core catalogue, checkout, and order management ships first. Marketplace seller flows, subscription mechanics, AI personalisation, and third-party integrations follow in subsequent sprints. The merchandising admin is built alongside the customer-facing product so both can be tested with real data.

  4. 04

    Launch and optimisation

    We go live in phases, starting with a controlled product range or customer cohort before full launch. Monitoring is configured for checkout failures, payment errors, inventory sync issues, and order routing problems. Post-launch optimisation covers conversion rate, search relevance, recommendation performance, and integration reliability as order volume grows.

Frequently asked questions

Shopify and WooCommerce handle standard ecommerce well and are the right choice for most businesses launching a direct-to-consumer store with a standard product range. Custom software becomes the right choice when the product catalogue requires attribute types and variant logic the platform can't model, when B2B pricing tiers and account terms can't be configured per customer, when the business is building a multi-vendor marketplace with seller-specific fulfilment and commission structures, when subscription mechanics require box customisation the platform can't support, or when the ecommerce platform's API rate limits and performance characteristics are constraining catalogue size or integration architecture. The decision usually comes at a specific complexity or volume threshold rather than at the start.

Yes. Multi-vendor marketplace development is one of our core ecommerce capabilities. We build the seller onboarding and verification workflow, the per-seller product catalogue and inventory management, the order routing logic that sends each order to the correct seller, and the split payment and payout automation that distributes buyer payments to sellers after commission deduction. We also build the operator admin layer for managing sellers, categories, commission structures, and disputes. The architecture is designed so sellers operate independently, listing their own products, managing their own inventory, and fulfilling their own orders, while the marketplace operator has a single view of the entire operation.

Headless commerce decouples the storefront presentation layer from the commerce backend. The frontend is a custom application, typically built in Next.js, that fetches product, cart, and checkout data from an API rather than rendering pages through Shopify's or another platform's templating system. The result is a storefront with full control over performance optimisation, page structure, and content management, which typically produces significantly better Core Web Vitals scores than a theme-based storefront. The cost premium over a Shopify theme depends on the scope. A headless frontend on top of an existing Shopify backend typically runs $25,000 to $60,000 depending on the number of page types and content management requirements. A full custom headless platform (backend and frontend) sits in the $40,000 to $90,000 range.

A B2B ecommerce portal with account pricing, quote workflow, and ERP integration typically runs $35,000 to $75,000. A custom ecommerce platform covering catalogue, checkout, order management, and fulfilment integration runs $40,000 to $90,000. A multi-vendor marketplace with seller onboarding, commission management, and payout automation runs $60,000 to $120,000. A full ecommerce platform with AI personalisation, recommendation engine, and subscription commerce runs $100,000 to $250,000 or more depending on catalogue size, integration complexity, and the depth of the personalisation layer. Fixed cost is agreed before development starts.

Ecommerce software by capability

What clients say

What our ecommerce clients say

Three-year average engagement. Founders and operators describing the work in their own words. No marketing varnish.

Dr. J. Ayo Akinyele
Dr. J. Ayo Akinyele
USA flagUSA
President, Co-Founder

I was pleased with RaftLabs team quality, consistency and execution.

01 / 02

Case studies

Related services

  • Business Process Automation, Automate order processing, inventory replenishment, returns workflows, and supplier communications
  • AI Chatbot Development, Conversational shopping assistants, order tracking bots, and post-purchase support automation
  • AI Agent Development, Autonomous agents for dynamic pricing, demand forecasting, and personalised product recommendations
  • Custom Software Development, Custom ecommerce platforms, marketplace systems, and checkout experiences built for your exact catalogue and revenue model

Talk to us about your ecommerce project.

Tell us your current platform, the catalogue and checkout requirements it can't handle, and the revenue model you're building toward. We'll tell you what we'd build and how.

  • Scope and cost agreed before work starts. No surprises. No obligation.
  • Working prototype within 3 weeks of kickoff.
  • Pay by milestone. You see progress before each invoice.
  • 60-day post-launch warranty. Bug fixes, UI tweaks, and deployment support. No retainer.
  • All conversations are NDA-protected.