The five stages
- Discover. We learn about your brand, products, customers and goals, and look at your current store or competitors if you have them.
- Plan. A written scope: platform, templates, apps, integrations, data to migrate, content responsibilities and a timeline.
- Design. Page designs for mobile and desktop, reviewed and revised with you before any build work starts.
- Develop. The store is built on a staging copy, products are loaded or migrated, and integrations are connected and tested.
- Launch. Domain connected, redirects live, test orders passed, tracking checked, and a review two weeks after launch.
Timeline we plan for
| Project type | Timeline we plan for |
|---|---|
| New store on a theme we configure | Six to ten weeks |
| Custom design and build | Ten to sixteen weeks |
| Migration without design changes | Four to eight weeks |
| Migration with design changes | Eight to fourteen weeks |
| Headless build | Scoped in stages; the plan stage comes first |
These are planning figures, not promises. The written plan sets the dates for your project, and the biggest factor is usually how quickly content, photos and approvals arrive.
What we need from you at each stage
| Stage | What we need from you |
|---|---|
| Discover | Access to your current store or analytics if you have them, your product range and one person who can make decisions |
| Plan | Answers to scoping questions, platform account set up in your name, sign-off on the written scope |
| Design | Feedback in one consolidated round per revision, brand assets, product photos or a photography plan |
| Develop | Product data, policy content, payment and shipping account details, time to check test imports |
| Launch | Approval to switch the domain, availability on launch day for a test order |
How we communicate
Each project has one named contact on our side. We share progress in short written updates and keep decisions in a shared document so nothing depends on memory. Calls are arranged when a decision is easier to talk through, and a written summary follows every call.
How changes are handled
Ideas change once people see designs, and that is normal. If a change fits inside the agreed scope, it is simply part of the revision round. If it adds work, we describe the change and its cost in writing before doing it, and you decide. Nothing extra is billed without that written step.
Testing before launch
- Real orders through every payment method and delivery option, plus a refund
- Prices checked to show GST-inclusive totals, with no card surcharges on those networks where the ACCC says they are no longer allowed[1]
- Pages checked on real phones and common browsers
- Keyboard and screen reader checks on key templates against WCAG 2.2 Level AA[2]
- Core Web Vitals checked against Google's "good" thresholds[3]
- Redirects sampled from the migration map, if there is one
- Marketing opt-ins checked to be unticked and connected to your email platform
After launch
Two weeks after launch we review orders, errors, Search Console data and any customer feedback, and fix anything the launch revealed. From there you can run the store yourself with our handover notes, or choose an optional care plan for updates and changes.
Where to start
The project planner helps you collect answers to the questions we ask in the Discover stage. Send the brief it creates with your enquiry, and the first reply can go straight to specifics.
Questions
Can you work to a fixed launch date?
Often, if the date is set at the planning stage and content arrives on time. The written plan shows what has to happen by when.
Do I need to have product photos ready?
Not at the start, but they shape the design. We can write a photography brief so you know exactly what to shoot.
Who will I deal with?
One named contact for the whole project, who keeps decisions in writing.
Can I see the store before it goes live?
Yes. Everything is built on a staging copy you can review and test before launch.
Sources
Opened and checked on 3 November 2026. Each entry says what kind of source it is.
- Price displays. ACCC, updated 2 October 2026. Regulator
- What's New in WCAG 2.2. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, updated 5 October 2023. Standards body
- Web Vitals. web.dev (Google), updated 31 October 2024. Platform documentation