Ecommerce Web Design South Africa

Online stores designed around your products, your customers and the way you do business.

We design and develop custom ecommerce websites for South African businesses using WordPress and WooCommerce. From straightforward online shops to more complex product catalogues, we focus on making it easy for customers to find what they need, make a decision and complete their purchase.

Get in touch

Ecommerce that works for customers and for you

An online store has two audiences.

The Customer

For your customers, it needs to make browsing and buying as simple as possible. Products should be easy to find, options should make sense, and there should be as little friction as possible between deciding to buy and completing checkout.

The Owner

For you, it needs to be manageable. Adding products, changing prices, processing orders and updating content shouldn’t require calling a developer every time something changes.

We consider both sides from the beginning.

Why WooCommerce?

WooCommerce gives us the flexibility to build an online store around the business rather than forcing the business into a predefined template.

Because it runs on WordPress, your products, pages, articles and other content can all live within the same content management system. It can accommodate anything from a small catalogue of simple products to variable products, product categories, coupons, shipping rules, payment gateways and more specialised functionality.

Most importantly, you’re not tied to a proprietary website platform. Your website and its content remain under your control.

What sets our ecommerce websites apart

Designed for your store

We don't start with an off-the-shelf ecommerce theme and swap in your logo and colours. The design is developed around your brand, your products and the customers you're trying to reach.

Easy product discovery

Categories, navigation, search and filtering become increasingly important as a catalogue grows. We think about how customers will actually look for products rather than simply displaying everything in a grid.

Responsive by design

A large proportion of online shopping happens on phones. Product listings, galleries, variations, filters, carts and checkout all need to work properly on small screens, not merely shrink to fit them.

Frictionless checkout

Once somebody has decided to buy, the website shouldn't get in their way. We keep the route from cart to payment clear and pay attention to the small details that can make checkout confusing or cumbersome.

Built for performance

Ecommerce sites can become heavy quickly. We build with performance in mind and avoid unnecessary plugins and page-builder bloat wherever possible.

Easy to manage

Products, prices, images and other day-to-day content are editable through WordPress and WooCommerce. Where a site needs custom content, we build the editing interface around what actually needs to be managed.

How we approach ecommerce web design

Understand the store

Before designing anything, we look at what you're selling, who you're selling it to and how the business operates. That includes the catalogue structure, product types, payment requirements, shipping and any functionality particular to your business.

Structure the catalogue

We work out how products should be organised and how customers will move through the store. For larger catalogues this can include categories, attributes, filters and search.

Design the shopping experience

We design the key ecommerce interfaces, including shop and category pages, product pages, cart and checkout, alongside the rest of the website.

Build in WordPress and WooCommerce

The approved design is developed as a responsive WordPress website using WooCommerce, with the required payment, shipping and product functionality configured as part of the build.

Test the details

We test the store across screen sizes and work through the complete buying process, including product variations, forms, cart behaviour, checkout and transactional emails.

Hand it over

Once the site is live, we show you how to manage the parts of the store you'll use regularly, so you're not dependent on us for routine changes.

Ecommerce functionality, without the kitchen sink

Every store is different. We configure WooCommerce around what the project actually requires rather than loading the site with features and plugins simply because they're available.

Depending on the project, that can include:

Product management

Simple and variable products, categories, attributes, stock and pricing.

Payments

Integration with appropriate South African or international payment gateways.

Shipping

Shipping zones, rates, collection options and other delivery requirements.

Product filtering

Useful for larger catalogues where customers need to narrow products by category, size, type, price or other attributes.

Coupons and promotions

Discount codes and promotional pricing where required.

Order management

A practical WooCommerce backend for viewing, processing and managing orders.

Transactional emails

Branded order and customer notifications with reliable email delivery configured where required.

SEO foundations

Search-friendly product and category structures, metadata controls, structured content and the technical foundations needed for ecommerce SEO.

More than the shop

An ecommerce website still has to work as a website.

Depending on the business, customers may need to understand who they’re buying from, compare options, read technical information, see previous work, find answers to questions or discover the site through Google before they’re ready to buy.

That’s why we design the store and the surrounding website as one system, rather than treating WooCommerce as something bolted onto a few product pages.

What does an ecommerce website cost in South Africa?

There isn’t a particularly useful one-size-fits-all answer.

A small store with a limited product range and straightforward payment and delivery requirements is a very different project from a large catalogue with product variations, advanced filtering, specialised shipping rules or integrations with other systems.

Our ecommerce projects are quoted according to the design, catalogue and functionality required. Once we understand what the store needs to do, we’ll provide a clear scope and fixed project cost.

Ecommerce web design FAQs

Do you use Shopify?
Our ecommerce development is primarily based on WordPress and WooCommerce. We choose it because it gives us considerable control over design, content and functionality without tying the website to a proprietary hosted platform.
Can you redesign an existing WooCommerce website?
Yes. Depending on the condition of the existing site, we can either redesign and rebuild it or retain parts of the existing WooCommerce setup where doing so makes sense.
Can I manage products myself?
Yes. Day-to-day tasks such as adding and editing products, changing prices, managing stock and processing orders are handled through the WordPress/WooCommerce dashboard.
Can you add products for me?
We can include initial product population or migration in the project scope. For large catalogues, we’ll normally look for the most efficient way to import existing product data rather than manually recreating every product.
Do you provide ecommerce SEO?
We build the technical and on-page foundations needed for search optimisation. Broader SEO strategy, keyword research and ongoing content optimisation can be scoped separately where required.
Do you only work with businesses in Cape Town?
No. We’re based in the Western Cape and work with businesses throughout South Africa and the world. The entire design and development process can be handled remotely.

More about Design More about Websites

What you get in the box

Each project is unique, but these are the things you can count on.

Exquisite bespoke WordPress web design prototypes

Our designers deliver premium quality, bespoke WordPress web design prototypes (mockups) which deliver your message, engage your audience and convert them to your product or service offering.

A pixel perfect, responsive WordPress website

Our WordPress websites are built using best-in-class tools such as such as Bricks, and the Crocoblock suite of tools. We pay great attention to details such as micro-interactions, subtle animations, and fluid responsiveness across all types of devices.

An easy-to-use content management system

A content management system (CMS) is what allows you to add to or edit your website. WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system.

Custom manual

We create a simple manual for the usage of your specific website, covering logging in, finding your way around the dashboard, and managing content such as posts, pages, media, and menus.

Personal training

As part of the standard package we also give an hour or two of personalised training, either face to face, or via phone, video, and / or screen sharing. More training can be arranged as-needed as part of a maintenance agreement.

Maintenance

Our WordPress maintenance services cater to the diverse needs of websites, recognising that not all require constant attention. Simple brochure-type websites may only need maintenance every 6 months, while those with higher exposure and risk profiles may benefit from monthly upkeep. Our comprehensive maintenance tasks include plugin updates, security checks, regular backups, performance optimisation, content updates, and ensuring overall website functionality.

Security plugins

As well as following sound security practices as a matter of course, for most WordPress websites we also install and set up WordFence and Sucuri plugins. These plugins have complementary sets of security enhancements, and work well together to keep most sites secure.

Backups

We always install BackupBuddy, which creates a .zip of the entire website which can easily be restored in the case of a security breach or any other scenario where the website has been compromised. If needed, BackupBuddy can be set to automatically create backups, and send them to an offsite destination, such as DropBox or similar.

Updates

Often overlooked, regular updates are crucial for maintaining the security of a website. The frequency of these updates should be tailored to the specific risk profile of your website.

Optimisation and performance

A slow website causes people to leave, whereas a fast website will keep your visitors engaged. A fast website not only feels really great to use, but site speed is also a primary search engine ranking factor for the same reason.

Hosting

We select a web host that is best suited for your particular needs. For South African clients we generally recommend Xneelo. For websites with an international reach we may recommend a managed WordPress host such as Hostinger, SiteGround, or WP Engine. We help you create your hosting account or create it for you, and when setting up your website we deal with the hosting company on your behalf.

Image optimisation

We optimise all images on the website using ImageOptim, which greatly reduces image size while retaining quality. Automated solutions such as WP Smush are suitable for websites which are regularly updated with images. Optimised images make a huge difference to the speed and user experience of a website.

Caching

We install and configure a caching plugin such as WP Rocket which serves a static copy of the website which frees up the load on the database to ensure a very fast-loading site.

Ready to start selling online?

Whether you’re launching a new online store or replacing one that has become difficult to use or manage, tell us a little about the business, your products and what you need the website to do.