E-Commerce Software Development: Shopify, Headless, Custom Builds for B2B and D2C

Apex IT Solutions builds e-commerce platforms across the full spectrum: Shopify and Shopify Plus customizations for fast-moving D2C, headless commerce on Next.js + Sanity for design-led brands, fully custom builds for B2B and complex catalogs, and marketplace platforms for two-sided commerce. We've shipped commerce for retailers in the UK (Homesware), Pakistan (Fatima Home Decor), and B2B operations across multiple markets. Our default move is to push you toward the simplest stack that meets your requirements — most clients don't need custom, and we'll say so.

E-commerce stacks we ship

• Shopify / Shopify Plus customizations: for D2C brands with standard fulfillment under USD 10M GMV
• Headless Shopify: Shopify as commerce backend, Next.js / Sanity as front-end — for design-heavy brands needing speed
• Headless WordPress + WooCommerce: when SEO and editorial flexibility matter most
• Custom Next.js + Postgres + Stripe: for B2B with conditional pricing, complex catalog, or compliance needs
• BigCommerce / Salesforce Commerce Cloud: we work with these when client procurement requires them, but they're rarely our recommendation
• Marketplace platforms: custom builds for two-sided commerce (vendors + buyers) with onboarding, payments split, and trust/safety

What separates good e-commerce from bad

• Page speed. Every 100ms of TTFB costs ~1% of conversion at scale. Mobile Lighthouse Performance 90+ is non-negotiable.
• Checkout friction. One-click guest checkout. Apple Pay / Google Pay. Address autofill. Card autofill. Every extra field costs ~1-3% of conversion.
• Search and filtering. Above 1,000 SKUs, search becomes the primary product-discovery path. Algolia or Meilisearch beats database LIKE queries by orders of magnitude.
• Inventory accuracy. Backordered displays kill trust. Real-time inventory sync from your WMS is worth the engineering cost.
• Returns and post-purchase. 30% of e-commerce profit comes from repeat customers. Returns UX, order tracking, and post-purchase email matter.

Real Apex e-commerce builds

• Homesware (UK): Shopify Plus → custom Next.js + Postgres for B2B wholesale with 12-tier pricing. Page-load 4.2s → 0.9s, conversion +18%.
• Fatima Home Decor (Pakistan): WooCommerce → Shopify Plus migration for a luxury homewares brand. Catalog migration of 5,000+ SKUs with bespoke product attributes.
• 678 Rid Junk (USA): custom booking platform with Stripe for a junk-removal service. Booking-to-conversion 3x lift over legacy site.
• ALTR Group (Pakistan): catalogue + lead-gen site for international wholesale, integrated with their existing ERP.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use Shopify or go custom?

Shopify wins for D2C under ~USD 10M GMV with standard fulfillment. Custom wins when (a) you have complex B2B pricing, (b) you need fully customized checkout, (c) you're at scale where Shopify's per-transaction fees exceed custom hosting costs, or (d) compliance or integrations require it. Our blog post 'Custom vs WordPress vs Webflow vs Shopify' has a 5-question decision framework.

Can you handle 10K+ SKUs?

Yes. Above 10K SKUs you need (a) a real search engine (Algolia / Meilisearch), (b) CDN-cached PDPs, (c) careful CMS choice — Sanity and Strapi scale fine, Shopify's CMS hits issues. We've shipped catalogs from 100 to 50K SKUs.

Do you do B2B e-commerce with net-30, custom pricing, etc?

Yes — this is increasingly our specialty. B2B e-commerce has different requirements than B2C (approval workflows, customer-tier pricing, net terms, bulk order entry, integration with ERPs). We've shipped this multiple times.

What's the rebuild ROI vs staying on the current platform?

Depends on your platform cost, performance ceiling, and where conversion is suffering. We do a paid 2-week discovery (USD 3K-5K) that quantifies the trade-offs. Sometimes the answer is 'stay where you are, but fix X.' That's honest advice.