E-commerce Website Development

Online store development that sells on mobile too

Building an online store does not start with design. It starts with how you sell, how you ship and how you get paid. The stores I build take orders by card or cash on delivery, ship them with Econt or Speedy and are ready for Google from launch. I work with retailers in Plovdiv, Sofia and across Bulgaria.

I have also built and run online stores of my own, so I know not only the code but also day-to-day life after launch: orders, returns, couriers and customer questions.

WooCommerce, Shopify or custom: which platform for your online store

The platform decides how much you pay each month, how much freedom you have and how easily you connect to Bulgarian couriers.

• WooCommerce is the right choice for most Bulgarian stores. There is no monthly subscription, you have full control and there are ready modules for Econt, Speedy and card payments. It suits anything from a few products to several thousand.
• Shopify is convenient if you want minimal technical upkeep and accept a monthly fee and commissions. Connecting to Bulgarian couriers requires additional apps.
• A custom store makes sense for specific logic: a product configurator, file uploads from customers, B2B pricing or a link to inventory software. It is the fastest option, but every new feature needs a developer.

After the consultation I will recommend one of the three and explain why, based on how you will work with the store, not on what is easier for me.

Payments, couriers and legal requirements

Payment

Customers in Bulgaria still often choose cash on delivery, so it is always included. On top of it I add card payment (through Stripe or your bank’s payment module) and bank transfer. The fewer steps in checkout, the fewer abandoned carts.

Delivery with Econt and Speedy

The customer chooses an office, locker or address and sees the shipping cost in the cart. You create the waybill from the store’s admin panel. If you offer free shipping above a certain amount, it is calculated automatically.

Ordinance N-18 and NRA registration

Every online store in Bulgaria must be registered with the National Revenue Agency (NRA) and report its sales under Ordinance N-18. When payments go through card, bank transfer or cash on delivery via a courier, the store issues a document for every order and prepares the monthly audit file, without a cash register for online sales. I set this up while building the store, so you can sell legally from day one. The exact settings are best agreed with your accountant.

Documents

An online store in Bulgaria needs terms and conditions, information about the right of withdrawal, a privacy policy and a cookie banner. I prepare the pages and the technical side; it is a good idea to have a lawyer or accountant review the content.

How long online store development takes

Usually between 4 and 6 weeks. Here are real timelines from my projects:

• AstroCrafts, a WooCommerce store with a personalizer: 5 weeks
• Your Portrait, a custom store with photo uploads and card payments: 4 weeks
• Star Map, a custom store with a real-time configurator: 6 weeks

What slows things down most is preparing the products: photos, descriptions and prices. If you have them in a spreadsheet, the store goes live faster.

SEO for online stores

A store wins in Google mainly through its categories, not its homepage. So when I build an online store:

• every main category gets its own text, not just a product list
• products have unique descriptions instead of the ones copied from the supplier
• filters do not create thousands of duplicate pages in Google’s index
• products have structured data (Product, availability, reviews) so they show extra information in search results
• page URLs are short and readable

Online stores I have built

• AstroCrafts: a WooCommerce store for star maps and gifts, with an interactive personalizer, coupons and automated emails
• Your Portrait: my own Next.js store for portraits from photos, with 16 styles, photo uploads and Stripe payments
• Star Map: my own Node.js store with a configurator and a real-time preview of the map

What affects the cost of an online store

The cost depends on the number of products and their variations, the platform, integrations with couriers, payments and inventory software, whether the design is custom and who will enter the products. Every quote lists the items separately, so you can see what you pay for.

For a regular business website without a cart, see web development. For maintenance of a store that is already live, see server administration and maintenance.

Describe the store you want and I will send you a written quote.