The Playbook · PROCESS
How an e-commerce build works, step by step
An e-commerce build starts with a spreadsheet and ends with a refund. Everything between those two is the part most owners never see, so here it is in order. Five steps, what happens in each, what I need from you, and what should be running on its own the week after launch. Most builds ship in two to four weeks.
What happens before anything is designed?
The catalog, in a spreadsheet: every product, every variant, cost, price, weight, photos. Then the rules: shipping by zone, tax, returns, what happens when something is out of stock. Then the margin math, which decides how much store you should buy at all. This step is mostly you, and it is the one that stretches timelines when it waits.
What I need from you
The spreadsheet, the photos, your shipping and return policy in your own words, and a login to whatever processor you already use. With those four in hand the build has a fixed price and a date.
What gets built first?
One product page. Not the homepage. The product page has to do a salesperson's job: photos in context, dimensions, what is in the box, shipping cost and time before the cart, reviews near the buy button. Once one product page sells, the rest follow the pattern. The homepage comes last, because a store's homepage is a doorway, not a destination.
How does the checkout get built?
As few steps as the processor allows, guest checkout on by default, shipping cost shown before the customer commits. Every extra field sheds real buyers, and on a phone every extra page sheds more. I test it as a stranger, on cellular, with a real card, and I count the taps. The store mistakes play is the list I test against.
How does the back end get wired?
Orders, receipts and inventory updates happen without you touching them. A sale sends the receipt, adjusts the count, and queues the shipping label. A refund reverses all three. This is the step that separates a store from a brochure with a cart, and it is the step most quotes leave out, which is why the e-commerce service page lists it as a line item.
What does launch day look like?
A real order, placed by me, paid with a real card. A real refund. A shipping label printed. Search set up underneath: titles that name the product, structured data for the products, a sitemap that matches. Then the store goes live and I watch the first week of orders with you.
What happens after launch?
Care, month to month, on the plans page. Essential is $149 a month and keeps the store patched and backed up. Priority is $749 a month and adds store monitoring. Local SEO Growth is $1,500 a month, or $1,664 bundled with Business maintenance. The one automation I add to almost every store is the cart-abandonment email from the email sequences play, because it recovers orders while you sleep.
If you want the range before the first call, the six-tap estimator has a store option. The exact number comes after we talk about the spreadsheet.
What else do owners ask?
How long does an e-commerce build take?
Most builds ship in two to four weeks once the catalog and the photos are in hand. Large catalogs, many variants or a system to connect push it longer, and I will say so before we start.
Do I have to write every product description?
You write the facts: what it is, what it does, what is in the box. I shape them into pages that sell. A description written by someone who has never held the product reads that way.
Can you move my existing products?
Yes. An export from your current platform or marketplace becomes the spreadsheet in step one, and the photos come with it. Moving is usually faster than starting from nothing.
Your move. Call or text (847) 387-0244, or price your build in six taps and I call you with the exact number.
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