For E-Commerce founders
Engineering for
E-Commerce Founders
Most e-commerce builds are three vendors stitched together: a theme from one shop, a checkout app from another, an inventory sync tool nobody fully understands. It works until Black Friday, when the seams show. We build it as one system, owned by one engineer who can debug the whole stack — not just the piece their agency sold you.
E-commerce is a conversion-rate business before it's anything else. Every week your checkout underperforms or your product pages load slow is measurable revenue left on the table — not a hypothetical, a number in Shopify analytics.
Stack we use
Compliance
PCI scope stays with Shopify's native checkout — we don't build custom card-collection flows that would pull you into PCI SAQ D. Sales tax nexus and 1099 reporting route through Shopify Tax or Avalara; you still need a tax advisor for multi-state nexus decisions.
Engagement
from $3,000
2–3 weeks
Why e-commerce builds are different
Same engagement model.
Industry-specific defaults.
We don't pretend a generic SaaS stack ships e-commerce at v1. The pain points below are what most builds in your industry get wrong on the first try — we wire them correctly from commit one.
The pain points
What breaks at v1 in e-commerce
Each of these is something we've watched founders get wrong on the first build. We ship the correct version on day one.
01
Checkout correctness under load
Discounts stacking wrong, subscriptions double-billing, checkout timing out during a traffic spike — these show up during your highest-revenue week, not during testing. We build and load-test checkout logic before launch, not after the first incident.
02
Inventory sync that actually syncs
Oversold products during a flash sale are a trust problem, not just a refund problem. We wire real-time (or near-real-time) sync with your 3PL or fulfillment provider instead of a nightly CSV job that's always twelve hours stale.
03
Headless vs theme — the decision most agencies skip
Theme-based Shopify ships faster and costs less. Headless Hydrogen buys custom UX and performance headroom. Most agencies default to whichever they know, not whichever fits your growth stage. We pick based on your actual constraints.
04
App-store bloat
Fifteen Shopify apps for reviews, upsells, currency conversion, and SEO each add render-blocking scripts. We consolidate what can be consolidated and measure the Core Web Vitals cost of what stays.
What we ship
Concretely,
by handoff.
The work you'd hand a salaried e-commerce engineer — done end to end on a flat-price engagement.
- Headless Hydrogen storefront or hardened Shopify Plus theme, picked for your stage
- Checkout logic tested against discounts, bundles, and subscriptions before launch
- Real-time inventory sync with your 3PL or fulfillment provider
- Klaviyo / Postscript flows for abandoned cart, post-purchase, and win-back
- Performance budget enforced on product and collection pages
E-Commerce work we've shipped
Real founders, real shipped product
The kind of build we do for e-commerce founders. Different industries, same flat-price model.

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Common e-commerce questions
Can you migrate us from WooCommerce or a custom cart?
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Will the storefront hold up on our biggest sales day?
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By city
E-Commerce Development for E-Commerce Founders
Same engagement scoped to your local market. Click the city for the full per-city economics and case studies.
Deeper reads
Long-form on our blog
Ask anything
Got a E-Commerce question?
Frequent questions
Valery Satsura
CEO · Start Matter · usually replies in minutes
Hey, I'm Valery. Ask anything about building for E-Commerce Founders. I usually reply in minutes.
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Read the playbookReady for your E-Commerce build?
Ship e-commerce in weeks, not quarters.
30-minute call, flat-price quote in 24 hours, first deploy inside two weeks.