E-commerce Website Development: The Complete 2026 Guide

Before choosing WooCommerce, Shopify or another platform, it is worth creating three simple business process maps.

They do not need to be a technical specification. The goal is to understand which data, actions and systems will need to be brought together in the online store.

Product and data map

Determine where the key product information originates and is maintained:

• product name;
• SKU;
• price;
• sale price;
• stock level;
• category;
• attributes and variations;
• images;
• description.

The most important question is - which system is the main source of data?

In one company, everything may be managed in WooCommerce. In another, prices and stock levels may sit in an ERP, images and descriptions in a different system, while the online store only displays the product information.

Order map

Describe what happens after the customer chooses a product:

product → cart → delivery → payment → order → warehouse → invoice → shipping → customer communication

This helps you see where automation is needed and where data has to be passed to another system.

Exceptions map

The third map covers situations where things do not go according to the ideal scenario.

What happens if:

• the payment fails;
• the item is no longer available;
• the stock level changes during the purchase;
• the order is cancelled;
• a refund is needed;
• the ERP is temporarily unreachable;
• the payment or delivery system does not respond?

These three maps often reveal the true complexity of a project much faster than a list of platform features.

A few dozen simple products and several thousand items with sizes, colours, materials, stock levels and different prices are two completely different e-commerce projects.

Before development, you need to define:

• categories and subcategories;
• product attributes;
• variations;
• SKUs or other product identifiers;
• regular and sale prices;
• images;
• stock status;
• related products;
• B2B or customer group pricing, if needed.

We explain how B2B selling changes the functionality of an online store in What is B2B e-commerce?

If you sell courses, digital products, subscriptions, bookings or rentals, you need to think not only about the product page, but also about what process begins after the purchase.

The product structure also affects SEO. Categories, variations, attributes and filters later determine the URL structure, indexing and how easily both users and Google can find a specific product.

In a small online store, products, prices and stock levels can be managed directly in WooCommerce, Shopify or another e-commerce platform.

In a larger company, this data may already be stored in:

• an ERP;
• a warehouse management system;
• an accounting system;
• a supplier data feed;
• another product information system.

This is where you need to define the main source of data.

The same data should not have to be maintained manually in several systems. First, determine which system is the main source of data.

If the current stock level is held in the ERP, you should not create a second, independent stock level that someone regularly corrects by hand in the online store.

This becomes especially important if the company has:

• several warehouses;
• a physical shop as well as e-commerce;
• several online stores;
• sales on marketplaces;
• frequent price or stock changes.

The platform should be chosen based on the project requirements, not just its popularity.

When choosing a platform, you should not look only at how quickly the first version of the store can be built.

You also need to assess:

• how content and SEO will be managed;
• how easily the product structure can be changed;
• how new languages and markets will be added;
• how integrations will be built;
• what the long-term licence and maintenance costs will be;
• how much control you need over the technical solution.

WooCommerce can be particularly suitable when e-commerce is closely tied to content, SEO and the company’s wider WordPress environment. To learn more about when WordPress is the right choice for a business website, read our article on WordPress development for businesses.

At the same time, no platform will, by itself, fix a poorly planned product structure, data flow or order process.

For a detailed comparison of the two platforms, see WooCommerce or Shopify: which is better for the Latvian market?

In Brandsite e-commerce projects we often use WooCommerce, but custom development is also possible for more complex solutions.

For a detailed comparison of prices and platform costs, see the article How much does online store development cost in Latvia in 2026?.

Payments and delivery are part of the order process, so before choosing integrations you need to know how this process should work.

Payments in 2026

When choosing payment methods, it is no longer enough to ask:

“Will we accept cards or online banking?”

Shoppers may expect several ways to pay:

• payment cards;
• Apple Pay;
• Google Pay;
• bank payments;
• instant bank transfers;
• in some markets, other digital wallets or buy-now-pay-later options.

This does not mean each payment method needs a separate integration.

A single payment service provider can offer several payment methods through one integration.

For example, the MakeCommerce WooCommerce module currently offers bank and card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and several digital bank payment methods. The module also includes a number of delivery features. makecommerce.net

Before choosing, look not only at the commission fee, but also at:

• which payment methods are available in your target markets;
• how convenient it is to pay on a mobile device;
• how payment statuses are handled;
• how refunds work;
• how the system reports a failed payment;
• whether order and payment statuses can be reconciled automatically;
• how payment data is passed to the ERP or accounting system.

What has changed with instant euro payments?

The European payments landscape has changed significantly in recent years.

Since 9 October 2025, payment service providers in the euro area must offer the ability to send instant euro transfers, while receiving instant payments had to be supported from January 2025.

Verification of Payee has also been introduced, which helps compare the payee name entered with the account details before a transfer is made.

This does not mean every online store must add instant bank transfer as a checkout method.

But when choosing payment infrastructure in 2026, it is worth assessing:

whether your payment partner can take advantage of the new instant-payment capabilities, how quickly the business receives its money and how automatically a payment can be matched to a specific order.

The payment method is only one part of the process. The online store also needs to know what to do when:

the payment succeeds → the order is confirmed

the payment fails → the order stays pending or is cancelled

a refund is made → the order, the payment and, where needed, the stock level are updated

These are exactly the flows that need to be defined during online store development.

Delivery

You need to define:

• parcel lockers;
• couriers;
• in-store pickup;
• delivery zones;
• free delivery conditions;
• delivery of oversized items;
• delivery to multiple countries;
• what happens to the shipment after the order is received.

What matters is not only the delivery method the customer chooses at checkout, but also the process on the company’s side.

Not always.

If products, orders and stock levels can be managed efficiently within the e-commerce platform itself, additional integrations may not be needed.

They become relevant when the company already uses other systems and employees regularly have to transfer information between them.

For example:

ERP → products, prices and stock levels → online store

Online store → order → ERP / warehouse

Online store → customer → CRM

The goal of business system integration is not to connect as many tools as possible. The goal is to create a clear and manageable data flow.

Depending on the company’s processes, an e-commerce platform can be connected to various business, payment, delivery and marketing systems.

These are examples, not a universal list. The specific connection depends on both the e-commerce platform and the API capabilities of the external system.

For example, the Horizon REST documentation provides data resources and synchronisation mechanisms that allow an external system to track new, changed or deleted records. This is one of the technical principles on which data exchange between an ERP and another system can be based. horizon-rest-doc.visma.lv

When is a custom API integration needed?

A ready-made plugin does not always solve a specific company’s process.

A custom API integration may be needed if you need to synchronise:

• B2B prices;
• stock levels across several warehouses;
• specific order statuses;
• customer groups;
• custom product data;
• information between several systems.

Sending data is not the only thing that matters.

You also need to plan error handling, re-synchronisation, access rights and a clear main source of data.

That is exactly why ERP integration with an online store or CRM integration is often not simply a question of whether a WooCommerce integration or a ready-made module exists for a particular system.

In practice, the type of integration depends on the business process. In Brandsite projects we have implemented, for example:

• Addores - Omniva integration with automatic generation of parcel locker shipping labels; 
• Bluetti - product XML feeds for Salidzini.lv, 220.lv and KurPirkt.lv; 
• Swim.lv - display of up-to-date product availability across several warehouses in Latvia and Estonia;
• Vedam - CRM integration, Google API address input and automated email communication. 

E-commerce UX should not be judged only by the design of the home page or product cards.

What matters is the entire purchase flow:

product → cart → checkout → payment → confirmation → order fulfilment

On the product page, the customer needs to understand:

• what they are buying;
• what the price is;
• what variations are available;
• whether the product is in stock;
• how delivery will work.

At checkout, you should not ask for unnecessary information or create uncertainty about payment and delivery.

But a successful purchase alone is not enough.

You also need to define:

• a failed payment;
• a cancelled order;
• a refund;
• a sold-out product;
• a delivery error;
• an external system being unavailable.

It is precisely these scenarios that often reveal problems that are not visible in the store’s design mock-ups.

E-commerce SEO is much easier to plan before the store goes live than to fix after hundreds or thousands of URLs have already been created.

Google states that Product structured data can help Search understand a product’s price, availability, shipping and other information. Google recommends using product structured data, a Merchant Center feed, or both together. Google for Developers

The internal structure of the online store also matters. Google recommends making sure that products can be reached through real links from categories or other navigation elements, not only through the internal search. Google for Developers

In 2026, e-commerce visibility is no longer just about positions in classic Google results.

Product information can appear in:

• classic Google Search results;
• Google Shopping;
• AI Overviews;
• AI Mode;
• other Google product and shopping experiences.

But this does not require any special “AI SEO” markup.

Google states that AI Search still relies on the classic Search fundamentals. Google for Developers

For e-commerce, this means paying particular attention to:

• clear product names;
• unique and useful product content;
• up-to-date prices;
• accurate availability;
• product identifiers and attributes;
• high-quality images;
• indexable category and product pages;
• Product structured data;
• Google Merchant Center data.

Product data should not live only in the JavaScript layer

Since October 2024, Google’s e-commerce documentation has included a specific recommendation:

the safest place for Product structured data is the initial HTML.

Google still supports Product markup generated with JavaScript, but warns that dynamically generated markup can make Shopping crawls less frequent and less reliable - especially when prices and availability change often. Google for Developers

This is especially important for stores where:

• the product price;
• availability;
• variations;
• Product schema;
• other essential product information

is loaded only after client-side JavaScript runs.

That is why a technical e-commerce check in 2026 should compare:

what the browser shows

versus

what the server sends in the initial HTML.

Merchant Center and structured data complement each other

Product structured data helps Google Search understand a specific product page.

Merchant Center, in turn, lets you send Google a structured product feed with price, availability and other product attributes.

They are not substitutes for each other.

In many e-commerce projects, it makes sense to use both:

product page + Product structured data + Merchant Center feed

The most important thing is to make sure different sources do not contain conflicting price or availability information.

What is Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol?

In 2026, Google took another step towards AI commerce with the Universal Commerce Protocol, or UCP.

It is an open standard designed to let merchant systems connect to AI shopping experiences and, in the future, support the purchase process directly in Google environments such as AI Mode and Gemini.

This means that, over time, the following will become increasingly important in e-commerce architecture:

• structured product data;
• accurate prices and availability;
• APIs;
• order system interoperability;
• a stable payment infrastructure;
• data consistency between the online store and other channels.

This does not yet mean that every online store must implement UCP today.

Availability and specific integration options depend on the market and on how far Google has rolled it out.

But the trend matters:

an online store is becoming less of an isolated website and more of the main source of product and order data for several sales channels.

An online store is a distance selling environment, so its development has to take more than design and technology into account.

Requirements differ depending on:

• the product or service being sold;
• the customer group;
• the country;
• the company’s role in the supply chain;
• the size of the company.

Distance selling requirements

Under EU consumer protection rules, the consumer must have access to essential information before the purchase about:

• the product or service;
• the seller;
• the price;
• any additional costs;
• payment;
• delivery;
• the right of withdrawal.

For distance contracts, consumers in the EU generally have a 14-day right of withdrawal, although there are exceptions.

E-commerce accessibility

Since 28 June 2025, the requirements of the European Accessibility Act, transposed into the national law of each EU member state, apply to e-commerce services. In Latvia, they are set out in the Product and Service Accessibility Law.

In practice, this means it is not enough to check whether someone can read the home page.

The entire purchase process must be accessible.

For example:

• keyboard navigation;
• product selection;
• forms;
• buttons;
• image alt text;
• identification features;
• security features;
• the checkout process;
• payment features;
• error messages.

Key actions must be perceivable, operable and understandable with assistive technologies such as screen readers as well.

The rules also include certain exemptions, including for some microenterprises providing services, so each company’s obligations must be assessed individually.

GPSR - product safety information in an online store

If the online store sells consumer products, the EU General Product Safety Regulation, or GPSR, which has applied since 13 December 2024, must also be taken into account.

The regulation matters for the technical development of an online store too, because certain product information must already be available in the online offer.

Depending on the product and the company’s role, the product listing may need to show:

• product identification information;
• a product image and type;
• the manufacturer’s name or trademark;
• the manufacturer’s postal and electronic contact details;
• if the manufacturer is outside the EU - details of the responsible person in the EU;
• required warnings and safety information.

This means legal requirements can affect the product data model itself.

If this information has to be shown for hundreds or thousands of products, it should not be handled by typing text manually into each product description.

It is better to define dedicated product fields and a data structure during online store development.

That way, the requirements can be managed consistently even when products are synchronised from an ERP, PIM or supplier system.

How legal requirements apply in practice depends on the company, the product and the market; this section is not individual legal advice.

A good e-commerce project is not just a list of the features you need today.

The architecture needs to leave room to grow.

Before development, it is worth checking whether the solution will let you add later:

This does not mean every feature has to be built in the first version of the project.

What matters more is avoiding architectural decisions that, a year later, turn every new feature into a full rebuild.

An online store should not be accepted simply on the principle that “the pages open and the buttons work”.

The full order lifecycle needs to be tested.

Online store pre-launch checklist

It is worth running this check with several products, payment methods and delivery scenarios, not just with one ideal test order.

Going live is not the end of the project.

After that, the work with real customers and real data begins.

You need to track:

• where users abandon the purchase process;
• which products are viewed but not bought;
• whether payments and delivery work correctly;
• whether integrations are synchronising;
• which organic search queries attract visitors;
• how advertising and email communication affect sales.

Further work may include technical maintenance, SEO, improving product content, checkout optimisation, email automation and developing new features.

If the project is a rebuild or migration of an existing online store, simply building the new system is not enough.

You need to assess what has to be migrated:

• products;
• categories;
• customer accounts;
• order history;
• product images;
• content;
• SEO metadata;
• existing URLs;
• integrations;
• analytics configuration.

It is especially important to preserve the existing URL logic or to plan redirects correctly.

Otherwise, a technically better store may lose some of the organic visibility it has already gained after the migration.

A good project brief is not a detailed technical specification.

It should help the developer understand the business process, requirements and constraints.

The more clearly the process itself is described, the easier it is to choose a suitable technical solution and estimate the scope of the project more accurately.

A real Brandsite example is Vedam

In Vedam’s case, a single web solution had to combine:

• booking moving services;
• moving box rentals;
• product purchases;
• online payments;
• CRM integration;
• Google API address input;
• automated email communication.

The customer can combine rental and purchased products in a single order, while on the company’s side several day-to-day processes are managed in one unified system. 

This shows well why building an online store does not always mean just a product catalogue, a cart and a payment button.

Sometimes e-commerce becomes part of a broader business system.

Where should I start when building an online store?

Start with the product and data map, the order process and the exception scenarios.

Before choosing a platform, it should be clear:

what you sell → where the data is stored → how the purchase happens → what happens after the order.

Which platform is best for an online store?

It depends on the project requirements.

WooCommerce can be a good fit when the WordPress environment, SEO, content and customisation matter. Shopify can suit more standardised SaaS e-commerce.

Specific B2B, rental, booking or other business logic may require a more custom solution.

How much does online store development cost?

Brandsite’s professional e-commerce projects usually start from EUR 5,000, but the price is significantly affected by:

• the product structure;
• custom UX/UI;
• languages;
• payments;
• delivery;
• ERP and CRM integrations;
• B2B functionality;
• data migration;
• non-standard business logic.

An accurate price can be set after assessing the project’s process and functionality.

More details: How much does online store development cost in Latvia in 2026?

How long does online store development take?

It depends on the complexity of the project.

A simpler e-commerce solution can be built within a few months, while projects with custom UX/UI, a large number of products, several languages and ERP or other integrations need longer planning, development and testing.

It is not only the programming time that matters, but also how ready the product data, content and integrations are.

Does an online store need an ERP or CRM integration?

No.

If products, customers and orders can be managed efficiently in a single e-commerce platform, additional systems may not be needed.

An integration becomes valuable when, without it, employees regularly have to transfer data manually between several systems.

Does an online store need Apple Pay and Google Pay in 2026?

Not every store necessarily needs every payment method.

The choice should be based on the market, the audience and the devices they use.

However, in mobile e-commerce, wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay can reduce the number of steps at checkout, so they are worth assessing together with your payment service provider.

Should an online store offer instant bank payments?

The EU Instant Payments Regulation does not oblige every online store to offer instant bank payment as a checkout method.

The regulation applies primarily to payment service providers.

Even so, in 2026 the instant-payment infrastructure makes bank payment options more attractive for e-commerce as well, so they are worth considering when choosing a payment partner.

Does an online store need to be accessible to people with disabilities?

E-commerce services fall within the scope of the European Accessibility Act, which each EU member state has transposed into national law.

This means the entire shopping process needs to be assessed - navigation, product selection, forms, checkout, identification and payments.

At the same time, the rules provide for specific exemptions, so how they apply must be assessed individually.

What is GPSR and how does it affect an online store?

GPSR is the EU General Product Safety Regulation.

If the online store sells consumer products covered by it, the product listing may need to show the manufacturer, the responsible person in the EU, product identification and safety information.

That is why it is worth planning the product data structure during development.

Should SEO be planned during online store development?

Yes.

Category structure, product URLs, filters, canonical logic, indexing, internal links and structured data are much easier to plan before launch than to rework afterwards.

How do I prepare an online store for Google AI Search?

No special “AI SEO” markup is needed.

What matters more is maintaining:

• indexable product and category pages;
• accurate product data;
• prices and availability;
• Product structured data;
• a Merchant Center feed;
• high-quality, unique product content.

In 2026, it is also especially worth checking whether essential product data and Product markup are available in the initial HTML.

Should an online store already implement Google UCP?

Not necessarily.

The Universal Commerce Protocol is a new Google AI commerce initiative, and its availability depends on the market and integration options.

But it shows that APIs, structured product data and the ability to use a single data source across several sales channels are becoming increasingly important in online store architecture.

What must be checked before launching an online store?

One successful test order is not enough.

You also need to test:

• a failed payment;
• a refund;
• a sold-out product;
• a coupon;
• delivery zones;
• mobile checkout;
• emails;
• analytics;
• ERP/CRM synchronisation;
• an external system error.

Can an existing online store be moved to another platform?

Yes, but the migration needs to be planned separately.

You need to migrate or assess:

• products;
• customers;
• orders;
• images;
• URLs;
• SEO data;
• integrations;
• analytics.

It is especially important to preserve existing organic visibility with a correct URL and 301 redirect plan.

Online store development is not just about building product cards, a cart and a payment button.

The whole system needs to be planned:

products → data → order → payment → delivery → integrations → customer communication

Brandsite develops e-commerce solutions from UX/UI and product structure to WooCommerce, payments, delivery, ERP/CRM integrations and custom business logic.

Online store development

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