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

Shopify / Shopify PlusHydrogenNext.jsTypeScriptKlaviyoInngest

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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FAQ

Common e-commerce questions

Can you migrate us from WooCommerce or a custom cart?

+
Yes — product catalog, customer accounts, and order history migrate to Shopify. We audit what won't map cleanly (custom pricing logic, legacy discount rules) before we start so there are no launch-week surprises.

Will the storefront hold up on our biggest sales day?

+
That's the point of load-testing checkout and caching product pages before launch, not discovering the ceiling during Black Friday. We size infrastructure for your actual peak traffic, not average traffic.

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.

Ask anything

Got a E-Commerce question?

Frequent questions

Valery Satsura

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.

Ready 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.