How retail differs from "just an online store"
A small online store can run on its own: products are added in the admin panel and one person handles orders. That doesn't work in retail. With multiple warehouses, a network of stores, marketplaces, and wholesale customers, the website becomes one more checkout counter, not a separate business.
Hence the core requirement: every channel must work from the same data. If the website shows an item "in stock" but the store has already sold it, the customer gets an apologetic call and the business loses trust. That's why in retail projects we start not with design, but with how products, prices, and orders flow between systems.
Common retail challenges
- Inventory doesn't match reality. Sync with the accounting system happens once a day or manually, and the website sells items that are already gone.
- Orders from different channels live separately. Website, marketplace, and phone orders are processed in different places, and staff re-enter data by hand.
- Nothing can be found in a large catalog. Thousands of products without convenient filters and search, so shoppers go to a competitor.
- Online and offline compete with each other. Different prices and different rewards, and shoppers don't understand why the store is cheaper than the website.
- Wholesale customers order through messaging apps. There's no portal with custom pricing, so every order turns into back-and-forth messages and spreadsheets.
What we build for retail
The set of solutions depends on scale, but most often it includes:
- an online store with a catalog, filters, product comparison, a cart, and easy mobile checkout;
- a customer account with purchase history, rewards, and reordering;
- store location pages with addresses, hours, and product availability at each location;
- a portal for wholesale customers and dealers with custom pricing, credit limits, and documents;
- a mobile app for loyal customers, when repeat purchases make up a noticeable share of revenue. Learn more about these projects on our business and ecommerce apps page.
We choose the platform to fit the task: a mid-sized store is often well served by an off-the-shelf CMS, while a chain with complex pricing and warehouse logic is better off with custom development.
Integrations: accounting, CRM, payments, shipping, marketplaces
In retail, integrations are the core of the work, not an add-on. A typical set looks like this:
- syncing products, prices, and inventory with QuickBooks, Odoo, or another accounting/ERP system;
- sending orders to a CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) with statuses returned to the website;
- online payments through Stripe, PayPal, or Shopify Payments, plus buy now, pay later options;
- UPS, FedEx, USPS, and local delivery with shipping costs calculated at checkout;
- product feeds to Amazon and Google Merchant Center, with orders flowing back in.
How we build these connections, and what to do when your accounting system lacks a convenient way to exchange data, is covered on our integrations and automation page.
Product data: the hidden part of the project
Even a well-designed store sells poorly if product pages are half-empty: no attributes for filters, photos in different sizes, names written however someone felt like it. With thousands of SKUs, you can't fix this by hand in an evening.
So before launch, we agree on where the "source of truth" for product information lives: in the accounting system, a separate product information management (PIM) system, or the store itself. Then we set up supplier imports, rules for names and attributes, and duplicate checks. Shoppers never see this work, but it saves your content managers time every day.
Promotions, seasonal peaks, and load
Sales, holidays, Black Friday — during these periods traffic multiplies, and prices and promotions change daily. What to prepare in advance:
- promotion, promo code, and discount mechanics that a manager can launch without a developer;
- servers and caching tested for peak load, not for an ordinary weekday;
- inventory sync that keeps up with fast sales and prevents selling out-of-stock items;
- analytics set up before the campaign starts, so you can see which channels drive sales.
Mobile shoppers and catalog speed
A large share of retail website visitors come from their phones, often right in the store, to compare prices or check availability. They need fast loading, search that tolerates typos in product names, and checkout without long forms.
Speed for a large catalog is a separate challenge: filters, search, and category pages must load quickly even with tens of thousands of products. This is built into the architecture from the start, not added after launch.
What affects the cost
- Catalog size and complexity: the number of products, variants, attributes, and data sources.
- Number of channels: just the website, or also marketplaces, retail stores, and wholesale.
- Integrations: which systems are already in use and how easily they share data.
- Pricing and warehouse logic: custom pricing, multiple warehouses, in-store reservations, a loyalty program.
- Design: adapting an existing solution or a custom design for your brand.
- Data migration: whether orders, customers, and rewards need to be migrated from the old site.
Large projects are best split into phases: first the store with key integrations, then customer accounts, loyalty, and the app. We provide an estimate once we understand your processes.
Frequently asked questions
We already have an online store. Can you connect it to our accounting system? Yes. First we review your current site and accounting software, then propose a sync method that won't interrupt sales.
Can we show product availability at a specific store? Yes, if your accounting system tracks inventory by location. Then shoppers see where an item is available right now and can reserve it.
What about marketplace orders? We route them into the same CRM as website orders, so your team works in one place.
Does a retail chain need a mobile app? Not always. It makes sense when you have a base of repeat customers and a loyalty program. Otherwise, it's smarter to invest that budget in the mobile version of your website.
Who will look after the store after launch? We can take it on for support: we monitor data sync and updates, and help you prepare for promotions.
Why Promodex
For us, retail projects are first and foremost about data and processes, and only then about design. The Promodex portfolio includes Zoo Expert, Yerevan Mall, Youneedtea, and Leatherman Tools, which we helped develop. In total, we've launched 750+ projects since 2015. The store, accounting sync, and marketing are all handled by one in-house team that doesn't outsource anything, so accountability isn't spread across contractors. After launch, we stay with you so the store grows along with your business.
