Custom e-commerce development for your sales process

Someone exports a file from the ERP once a day and uploads it to the store. By evening some orders are for stock that's already gone, so you pay twice: in team hours and in returns.

Every customer has their own discount, and the store shows one price. Bulk orders come back for a correction over the phone.

A process stitched together from modules by different authors. One update disables the whole thing, and nobody knows which module was the cause.

A dedicated e-commerce solution is code written for one process in your company, instead of bending the company to fit an off-the-shelf plugin. It's usually an integration with a system you already have, or a store feature nobody sells in a boxed version because it's specific to your industry. It doesn't mean a new store: at JustIdea we add this layer to the engine you're already selling on.

Sources: PrestaShop developer documentation · WooCommerce API documentation

Dedicated e-commerce solutions: what's included

• ✓ ERP, WMS and wholesaler integrations: stock, prices, orders, invoices
• ✓ Custom modules, where nothing off the shelf exists or does only half the job
• ✓ Product configurators: dimensions, dependent variants, live pricing
• ✓ B2B logic: per-customer price lists, trade limits, orders from a file
• ✓ Order-side automation: statuses, documents, notifications
• ✓ Migrations and one-off scripts, when data needs moving with no store downtime

At the end you get three things: a repository under your own account, build documentation and access to every environment. Without that third item, the first two are just paper, since you'd still have to call us for every single change.

• Your sales process has rules no off-the-shelf module has.
• The store needs to talk to an ERP, warehouse or production system in both directions.
• You sell to businesses with price lists, limits and order approval.

• You need one feature a ready-made module already has: that's PrestaShop modules.
• You want a new store on a theme: that's a PrestaShop build.
• You're short on hands for ongoing fixes: that's post-launch care.

Hourly rate for the developer writing your code

Platforms we build this on: PrestaShop and WooCommerce

Billed after a brief, instead of an open-ended list of hours

Licences you need to buy for this to work

A dedicated e-commerce solution is a graduated decision, not a yes-or-no choice. Almost every store passes through four levels and stops at the cheapest one that solves the problem. They're listed in the order we check them for you.

When custom code pays off, and when we advise against it

Custom-written code costs more to build and to maintain than an off-the-shelf module. These are three situations where that gap pays for itself many times over, and three where it stays a plain cost.

“Pays off: the process is your edge”

A configurator, pricing driven by parameters, handling a bulk order with a trade limit. If how you sell is what sets you apart from competitors, bending to fit a ready-made solution means giving that edge up.

“Pays off: manual work costs you every month”

Re-typing orders between systems, issuing documents by hand, updating prices in several places. These are hours you can count to the last one, and their yearly cost is usually enough to build the automation that removes them for good.

“Pays off: an off-the-shelf solution blocks growth”

The platform won't allow the pricing structure you need, or the integration your biggest customer requires. The cost of not having that feature is then higher than the cost of building it, and it shows up in lost orders.

“We advise against it: a ready-made module does the same job”

If a market solution covers the need well enough and the difference is only convenience, we recommend the market solution. A module for a few hundred pounds versus dozens of hours of work isn't a conversation about quality, it's one about arithmetic.

“We advise against it: the need is temporary”

A feature for one promotional campaign, or for one customer who might change their mind. Code stays with you for years, along with its upkeep cost, so for seasonal needs it's cheaper to handle them by hand or with configuration.

“We advise against it: the process isn't settled yet”

If the company is still working out how it wants to sell, code will lock in a state that'll be out of date in six months. It's better to work with what the platform gives you and come back to this conversation once the process settles down.

You buy custom development before you can see the result

Custom-written code can't be clicked through before you decide: you get a brief, a quote and a timeline. Only one thing is checkable, whether past projects turned out the way we promised. The ratings cover the whole agency, not custom projects alone.

What we hear before anyone orders code from us

The three objections come up on almost every first call. We settle them before quoting, since after signing they cost more than the conversation.

“We're worried about depending on one contractor”

Fair, since that's standard practice in this industry. That's why JustIdea's code goes straight into your own repository, the documentation describes a clean build, and the access is yours. Changing agency then costs as much as onboarding a new team, not as much as writing everything from scratch.

“An hourly quote is an open-ended bill”

Not with us. After analysis you get a scope closed into a single figure, and going beyond it needs your sign-off before we continue. We report hours with a description, so you see what they went on, not just a total on an invoice.

“We'll do it later, there's no time now”

Waiting has a cost too, and you pay it in team hours, every month, regardless of when we start. Add those hours up once and compare them to the quote: it's usually the one argument that doesn't need explaining twice.

Questions we hear before you decide

Custom online store development: what decides cost and durability