I build online stores that take payments reliably and stay manageable once the orders start arriving. Product catalogues, tiered and member pricing, inventory, shipping rules, and checkout flows that hold up when the store gets busy.
Most of the work in an online store happens behind the storefront. Whether a store works comes down to whether the payment clears, the inventory stays accurate, the customer gets a receipt, and your staff can find and fulfil the order without calling a developer.
I've built stores that sell physical products, digital downloads, event tickets, and webinar access with different prices for members and non-members. Payments run through Stripe, Moneris, or PayPal, depending on what fits your business and your bank.
What goes into a store that works
A working store needs a product catalogue with variants, options, and categories that make sense to a shopper, and inventory tracking so you don't sell what you no longer have. Tax and shipping have to be set up for Canadian sellers. The checkout should have no step that doesn't need to be there, because every extra field costs you orders. And your team needs an order management side they can run day to day.
When Shopify is the right answer for a business, I'll say so and build there instead. A custom store makes sense when you have pricing rules, memberships, or integrations that off-the-shelf platforms make difficult. If you just need to sell forty products, a custom build is money you should keep.
