E-commerce website design company for storefronts, baskets and the checkout in between.
We design and build the parts of an online store that decide whether a visit becomes an order: category and product pages, the basket, the checkout, and the systems behind them that have to agree about stock and price.
Most of this work starts on a store that already exists and already has traffic. We are a design and development partner, not a platform reseller, so the answer is sometimes to keep the platform you have and fix two flows on it.
- 120+Projects delivered across 12 countries since 2012
- 100+Senior in-house engineers, six countries
- 2 to 4 weeksTypical time from signature to start
- ISTQBCertified QA inside every sprint
- ISO 27001Certified security practice, audited by Quay Audit UK
01Overview
What e-commerce website design covers, and where it stops
E-commerce website design is the design and build of the surfaces a shopper uses, from the category page to the checkout, plus the integration work behind them that keeps price, stock and orders consistent across the systems a business already runs. Our published work: JewelCandle, ten WordPress shops rebuilt as Shopify storefronts across seven EU countries; the Pet4Me marketplace, designed from no brand and no design system; and a UX audit of an ordering app. Few stores need all four layers below at once.
- Find and browseGetting a shopper from a landing page to the right product without a support ticket.
- Category and listing pages
- Search, filters and facets
- Merchandising rules
- Decide and buyThe screens that carry the order, and the only ones a shopper really judges you on.
- Product page and variants
- Basket and promotions
- Checkout and payment
- Stock, price and settleThe systems behind the shop that have to agree, or the shopper finds out before you do.
- ERP and product information
- Stock and fulfilment
- Returns and refunds
- Measure and improveWhat the store is losing, where it loses it, and whether the change you shipped moved anything.
- Analytics and funnel data
- Performance budgets
- Accessibility conformance
02Platform choice
Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento or a custom storefront: which one you actually need
The decision that governs an e-commerce budget is not which agency, it is whether to change platform at all. Each row below is a situation we are genuinely brought in on, what it costs while it lasts, and the route that fits it. Two of the five end in advice to keep what you already have.
| Where you are | What it costs you | The route that fits |
|---|---|---|
| “We are launching, and the catalogue is simple.” | Nothing yet, and a custom build would | Stay on a hosted platform. Shopify or an equivalent will do this for less than a build, and the money goes further on photography, copy and merchandising.What Shopify work looks likeOr book a meeting |
| “The shop is a plugin bolted onto our WordPress site.” | Plugin conflicts, and updates that break checkout | Decide whether the store is the business. If it is, replatform: JewelCandle moved ten WordPress shops onto Shopify, a catalogue of more than 10,000 products sold across seven EU countries.How we did this for JewelCandleOr book a meeting |
| “Our pricing, bundles or configurator do not fit the platform.” | An extension per rule, and a fight on every upgrade | Build the part that does not fit: a custom storefront, or a custom front end over a commerce back end you keep running.How we build custom systemsOr book a meeting |
| “The storefront is fine. Stock, prices and orders are the mess.” | Oversells, re-keying, refunds and apologies | Leave the storefront alone. The work is the middleware between the shop and the ERP, product information system and logistics partners.Platform development and integrationOr book a meeting |
| “Traffic is fine and the checkout leaks.” | You pay for every visit twice | Measure before you redesign. An audit of the funnel you already have usually names the fix, and it is rarely the homepage.UX consulting and auditOr book a meeting |
03Storefront
What we design and build on a store
Six kinds of work, drawn from what we have actually delivered in retail. Each names the situation it is right for, because most of them are wrong for most stores.
Storefront and category design
The pages a shopper lands on and browses: layout, listing density, filters and the merchandising rules behind them, designed against your real catalogue rather than a demo one.
- Right when
- People land and do not browse
Product page, basket and checkout
The screens that carry the order, designed as one flow rather than four approvals. We count the fields, cut the steps between a full basket and a paid order, and test the flow before it is built.
- Right when
- The basket fills and the order does not land
Replatforming a shop you have outgrown
Moving a store off a setup it has outgrown with the catalogue, the URLs and the traffic intact. JewelCandle moved ten WordPress shops onto Shopify storefronts this way, market by market.
- Right when
- The platform is the thing you keep fighting
A custom storefront or front end
When pricing, bundles or a configurator do not fit a packaged data model, we build the storefront, or a custom front end over a commerce back end you keep running underneath it.
- Right when
- Your rules break the product
Storefront-to-ERP integration
The middleware between the shop and the systems of record: products, stock, prices, orders and logistics partners, so one number means one thing in every place it appears.
- Right when
- The shop and the ERP disagree
Performance, accessibility and QA
A performance budget on the pages that carry revenue, a WCAG position procurement can read, and automation, load and stress testing before a switchover rather than after it.
- Right when
- It only feels fast on your laptop
04Stack
What we design and build stores with
The stack behind our published retail and e-commerce work, and the platforms we design on, extend and integrate. Running something not on this list? Send your integration list with the enquiry and we will tell you what is realistic before you commit to anything.
Vue
Nuxt
TypeScript
Laravel
PHP
MySQL
Redis
AWS
Shopify
WordPress05Obligations
What a storefront has to satisfy before it can take money
A store inherits obligations the day it goes live, and three of them decide design work rather than a sign-off at the end. Three below that constrain the build, then what unicrew brings to them.
Card data, and who carries the PCI scope
Most stores keep their PCI DSS scope small by never touching card data: the provider's hosted fields or redirect do that. It is a design decision, because it changes what a checkout may look like.
- In a build
- Decided at the checkout wireframe
Accessibility, before procurement asks
The European Accessibility Act brings consumer e-commerce into scope, and enterprise and public-sector buyers now ask for a WCAG position before they ask about features. Retrofitting one costs far more than designing to it.
- In a build
- A design constraint, not a QA pass
A performance budget on the pages that sell
Category and product pages are where a mid-range phone on a poor connection decides whether to wait. A budget agreed before design is a constraint on images, fonts and third-party tags. Agreed after launch, it is an argument.
- In a build
- Set before the first mockup
Certified security and quality
unicrew holds ISO 27001:2022 and ISO 9001:2015, both renewed through a multi-stage audit with Quay Audit UK, which is usually what a retailer's security questionnaire is reaching for.
- What it gives you
- A document trail that already exists
QA that runs before the switchover
ISTQB-certified QA engineers work inside the sprint. On JewelCandle's replatforming that meant automation, load and stress testing across the storefronts, the ERP and the middleware before the switch, plus the test plan their own team kept running afterwards.
- What it gives you
- The peak-traffic test done in advance
Least-privilege access, agreed first
Contracts and NDAs before anyone starts. We work from access agreed with your technical contact, read-only wherever the work allows, and we do not ask for write access to a live store during discovery.
- What it gives you
- No write access to a live store
A redesign that only changes how the store looks usually moves nothing. What decides a purchase sits lower down: category page paint on a mid-range phone, search that survives a misspelt product name, fields between basket and paid order. We measure those on your store first, because a new homepage is an expensive way to keep a leaking checkout.
Andrii BurdaSenior Engineering Manager, unicrew06Delivery
How an e-commerce design engagement runs
Four stages, and the first is the one that decides whether the rest is worth doing. A store with traffic is already generating evidence about what it loses and where, so we read that before anyone draws a screen. Most engagements start within two to four weeks of signature.
- Measure the store you haveFunnel data, the checkout field by field, the pages that carry revenue on a mid-range phone, and the search queries that return nothing. On a store with no traffic yet this stage is catalogue and competitive work instead.You getA written read on what the store loses, and where
- Design against the flow, not the homepageWireframes and a UI kit for the screens the order actually passes through, tested as a flow rather than approved as pictures. Where there is no brand system to work from we build one, which is what Pet4Me needed before a single screen could be drawn.You getA UI kit and the flow, agreed before build
- Build or replatform in slicesThe highest-value template ships first, against your real catalogue on your own staging environment, before the rest of the scope is committed. A replatforming moves shop by shop or market by market so the store keeps selling throughout.You getWorking templates running on your real catalogue
- Integrate, test, then switchThe ERP, product information and fulfilment connections, then automation, load and stress testing before the cutover, in a release window chosen around your trading calendar rather than ours.You getA tested switchover, and the test plan you keep
07Proof
What we can show you from retail and e-commerce work
Three published projects with the client named, and two verified Clutch reviews. Every figure below is either published on the work itself or is the client's own words, quoted exactly.
- A catalogue that had to survive the moveJewelCandle, a European manufacturer selling in seven EU countries. Their Head of IT, in his Clutch review: "We had 10 WordPress websites that one developer managed." We rebuilt them as Shopify storefronts, wired to a Microsoft Dynamics ERP and an AWS product information system through custom middleware, and ran automation, load and stress testing before the switch. Work done under our former Artelogic brand.10,000-plusproducts manufactured, sold across seven EU countries
- A marketplace designed from nothingPet4Me arrived with a founder's vision and no brand, no design system, no wireframes. We researched the US and UK markets, mapped three personas and an end-to-end journey for each, used rapid wireframe rounds as a conversation rather than a deliverable, then built the UI kit and the platform on Laravel, Vue and Nuxt across mobile, tablet and desktop.3personas mapped before a screen was drawn
- We also build behind other agenciesA German web-design and e-commerce agency brought us in to extend a WordPress form so it could group values and calculate a price from them. In their 2025 Clutch review the CEO writes: "The project has been a complete success so far and our end customer has regular income via his website and form." More on white-label web development.White labelyour brand on the front, our engineers behind it
08Client voices
What retail and agency clients say
Artelogic anticipates our needs and meets them before we even identify them. My team lead wants to keep both of Artelogic’s developers on the project until the product’s release. We have a backlog of 40 big projects, so I only see Artelogic’s involvement increasing.
With the newly programmed function, we were finally able to calculate the correct price within the form. Results were delivered quickly and to our complete satisfaction. Their service was always professional, and they always checked to make sure everything was okay.
09Case studies
Storefronts, marketplaces and ordering flows we have designed
Three published projects, three different starting points: a manufacturer replatforming seven markets, a marketplace with no design foundation at all, and an ordering app where the job was to audit the flow before anyone redrew it.
See all case studies
eCommerceEcommerce software development for JewelCandleJewelCandle, a mid-size European manufacturer of scented products, sells across seven EU countries (B2B and B2C) via online shops.10,000-plusProducts manufactured
MarketplacePet4MeA comprehensive pet adoption and community marketplace, designed from the ground up to connect animal lovers, eliminate hidden fees, and support responsible pet ownership.
Food productionUX Audit for a Catering ApplicationBy addressing user feedback, improving key functionalities, and implementing targeted design changes, the application is poised to meet its business objectives and provide a superior user experience.
10Questions
E-commerce website design: frequently asked questions
We work on three engagement models: time and materials billed hourly and quoted per project, fixed price quoted per project against an agreed outcome, and team extension billed monthly per team member. Which fits depends on how firm the scope is, so we recommend one at the end of discovery. We do not publish a price band: a checkout redesign and a seven-market replatforming are too far apart for one number to be right. Fixed-scope work carries a post-launch warranty, length agreed in the contract.
Most engagements start within two to four weeks of signature. In retail the constraint on duration is the trading calendar, not the engineering: nobody wants a replatforming landing in peak season, so we sequence releases around your calendar. A replatforming then moves shop by shop, or market by market, so the store keeps selling throughout, as JewelCandle's move off ten WordPress sites onto Shopify did across seven EU countries.
Yes, and it is usually the larger half of the work. For JewelCandle we built the middleware between Shopify storefronts, a Microsoft Dynamics ERP and an AWS product information system, plus the component that connects products to their sales channels, takes orders back and hands them to logistics. Where a system exposes no usable API, the access layer is the first thing we build. More on our platform development and integration page.
Most of the time you should keep it. A replatforming earns its cost when the platform is what you keep fighting: pricing, bundles or a configurator that will not fit its data model, or a setup that cannot hold the catalogue you actually sell. If the platform is fine and the checkout leaks, measure the funnel you have and fix the two flows losing the most: a UX audit, not a rebuild.
Your payment provider and your acquiring bank carry most of it, and good checkout design keeps it that way. The provider's hosted fields or redirect keep card data out of your own systems, which is the difference between a short self-assessment questionnaire and a long one; your acquirer decides which applies. We design the checkout around that decision, and we will say so when a design idea would drag card data into your scope.
Contracts and NDAs before anyone starts. We work from least-privilege access agreed with your technical contact, read-only where the work allows, never write access to a live store during discovery. Delivery runs with ISTQB-certified QA engineers, and unicrew holds ISO 27001:2022 and ISO 9001:2015, both renewed through a multi-stage audit with Quay Audit UK. We do not hold SOC 2. Customer data is personal data under GDPR, so retention and erasure are decided in the data model.
Tell us what the store loses, get a straight answer on what to change
A call with senior people who have shipped storefront work, not a sales qualifier. You leave with an opinion on platform, scope and sequence, and the reasoning behind it.
What happens after you contact us
- We reply within one business dayA senior engineer reads your message, not a bot.
- A call about the storeWhat you run, what it loses, and who has to sign off.
- Route and engagement model, in writingKeep, extend or replatform, priced as time and materials, fixed price, or team extension.
- NDA, then discoveryMost engagements start within two to four weeks of signature.