Vela Commerce
A store build where the product data was the hard part — variations, bundles and a supplier feed that had never matched the catalogue.
Store build + product data · 2025Service · Direct
WooCommerce development for stores that have to work every day
Most WooCommerce problems are not WooCommerce problems. They are twelve extensions doing the job of two, on hosting chosen before the catalogue trebled. We build stores that hold up.
01Platform
Why WooCommerce
It runs on WordPress, so the people who edit your content and the people who manage your products use the same system. You own the store and the data in it, there is no per-transaction platform fee, and there is no limit on what can be changed because the code is yours.
The trade-off is honest: WooCommerce gives you no guard rails. It will happily let you install forty extensions and it will not tell you which one is making the checkout slow. That is the part this service exists for.
If a hosted platform is genuinely the better answer for your volume and your team, we will say so before you commit to a build.
02Scope
What we build
Store builds
The store from design to launch: catalogue, checkout, accounts, emails, and the admin your team uses daily. Built on a custom theme rather than a purchased one, so the storefront is not carrying code for features you do not sell.
Catalogues, variations and product data
Products with variations, bundles, options that change the price, configurable items, and catalogues large enough that filtering has to be built rather than installed. Product data structured properly at the start, because reorganising it after launch means redoing every URL.
Payments and checkout
Payment gateway integration, saved cards, alternative payment methods, and a checkout with the smallest number of steps your business genuinely needs. Checkout is where money is lost, so it is tested on real devices rather than in a desktop browser.
Shipping, tax and fulfilment rules
Zones, weight and dimension rules, click and collect, multiple dispatch locations, courier integration, and the tax rules that apply to what you sell and where you sell it. This is usually the most underestimated part of a store build and it is where we ask the most questions at scope.
Subscriptions and recurring orders
Recurring billing, renewals, pauses, upgrades and failed-payment handling. The edge cases matter more than the happy path here, and they are specified before they are built.
Integrations — stock, ERP and accounts
Connecting the store to the systems that already run the business: stock and warehouse systems, ERP, accounting, EPOS, and shipping providers. Two-way where it needs to be, with the failure behaviour agreed rather than discovered.
03Performance
Performance, because a store is measured in conversions
A store is the one kind of site where speed is directly measurable in money. Page speed targets are agreed at scope and the build is held to them: caching that works with a cart, images handled properly, database queries that survive a full catalogue, and extensions kept to the ones that earn their place.
Every store we build is tested on a real phone on a real connection before launch. So is every checkout.
04Engagement
How a store build runs
- 01
Scope. Catalogue structure, shipping and tax rules, payment methods, integrations, and what happens to the existing store’s URLs. In writing.
- 02
Build. Theme and functionality on a staging store you can place real test orders through, from early on.
- 03
Data. Products, categories and customers migrated and checked. Redirects mapped from the old URLs before anything goes live.
- 04
Test. Orders end to end, on real devices, through real gateways in test mode, including the refund and failed-payment paths.
- 05
Launch and hand over. Repository, deployment instructions, a guide for whoever manages products, and a walkthrough call.
05After launch
After launch
Stores change more than sites do. Products, promotions, extensions and PHP versions all move, and a store that breaks on a Friday is not the same problem as a brochure site that breaks on a Friday.
Support and maintenance covers updates, backups, monitoring and fixes to a published SLA. It is optional. We recommend it more strongly here than anywhere else on this site, and that is the only place we will say so.
06Proof
Selected work
Placeholder — invented projects, pending real client work
Marlow & Fen
Recurring orders with pauses, skips and address changes handled by the customer rather than by an email to the office.
Subscriptions + customer account · 2025Ardent Supply
Stock and orders kept in step with the accounts package, so the warehouse and the ledger stopped disagreeing at month end.
ERP and accounts integration · 202407FAQ
Questions we get asked
Can you take over our existing store?
Yes. It starts with a written assessment — extensions, theme, hosting, database health, and what is actually causing the symptom you called about. Frequently that avoids a rebuild.
Shopify or WooCommerce?
Depends on catalogue complexity, how unusual your shipping and tax rules are, and how much of your business already runs on WordPress. If Shopify is the right answer for you we will say so; we do not build on it.
Will we lose our search rankings if we rebuild?
Not if the redirects are done properly. Every product, category and content URL is mapped before launch, and that mapping is part of the build rather than an extra. See CMS migration.
Can our team manage products themselves?
Yes — that is a design requirement, not an afterthought. The admin is set up around how you actually add products, and you get a written guide for the person doing it.
What about PCI and card data?
Card details are handled by the payment gateway and do not touch your server. We will walk through exactly what is stored where at scope.
Who owns the store?
You do. The code, the data and the customer list. Full repository, no licence conditions of ours.
08Next step
Start a project
Tell us what you sell, roughly how many products, and what is not working now.
Or email us at hello@felixwebsolutions.com.
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