What this covers
You have a storefront that customers can use without surprises, and a checkout you can trust on day one, with shipping, taxes, inventory, and tracking behaving the way your team expects.
Most teams come to us when selling is working, but the checkout side is still held together by manual steps that don’t scale: shipping, taxes, returns, and inventory rules. You’ll end up with a store that takes paid orders reliably, in French and English, with tracking you can trust. Next, we’ll confirm the platform and the product data we’re loading.
We start where stores fail at launch: checkout, payments, taxes, shipping rates, and inventory behaviour. We set those rules up early, then we test them with real carts and addresses before anything goes public. Once orders can flow end to end, we finish the theme setup, product catalogue structure, and email automation.
A bit about us
We’re Stairwell Commerce, a two-person build team for Shopify and WooCommerce stores. Émile handles the build work inside the platform and the theme. Sophie runs the project, tests every path through checkout, and keeps the launch from turning into a late-night guessing game.
We do this work for owners and small retail teams moving from DMs, marketplaces, or a counter to a store that can take real volume.
Most store projects look fine until the first week of orders. We get hired to prevent that week. We set up shipping and tax rules the way they work in Canada and the U.S., we test payment flows before launch, and we don’t treat tracking as a box to tick. If something can fail, we try to make it fail in testing, with you copied in on what we changed and why.
After you order
Once you approve the order, we lock the plan for the build, collect access, and start with the parts that break sales: checkout, payments, taxes, shipping, and inventory behaviour. You’ll see progress in a working staging store as we go.
1. Kickoff and access On order We confirm your platform choice and your launch priorities, then collect access to the platform, domain, email tool, and analytics accounts. We also take your product export and a short list of shipping rules and return rules so we can build against what you actually do. 2. Store setup and theme Week 1 Émile sets up the theme, navigation, and core pages, then configures payments, checkout settings, taxes, and shipping zones. Sophie starts QA early, checking language behaviour, address rules, and edge cases like out-of-stock and discount combinations. 3. Products and catalog Week 2 We import products, clean up variants and options, and build collections so customers can browse the way you merchandize. We’ll send a short punch list of product-data fixes we can’t guess, like missing weights, inconsistent sizes, and duplicated SKUs. 4. Testing and launch Week 3 We run full test orders through the store, including tax and shipping calculations for Canada and the U.S., and we verify payment capture and confirmation emails. We install GA4, GTM, and pixels and validate key events. Once you approve the final checklist, we launch.
Shopify or WooCommerce build
A production store built on Shopify, or on WooCommerce running on WordPress, with a configured theme and the core site structure in place.
THEME SETUP AND CORE PAGES
Homepage, collection and product templates, header and footer, navigation, and standard pages such as About, Contact, Shipping, Returns, and Privacy, formatted to match your brand.
PRODUCT CATALOGUE AND COLLECTIONS
Product import and cleanup, variant and option structure, collection setup, and basic filters where the theme supports them, so the catalogue is usable on day one.
Payments, checkout, tax, shipping
Payment methods configured and tested, checkout settings set, tax rules set for where you sell, and shipping zones and rates built for Canada and the U.S.
EMAIL AUTOMATION SETUP
Klaviyo or Mailchimp connected to the store, with key automations enabled and branded, including abandoned checkout and basic post-purchase messages.
CONVERSION TRACKING AND ANALYTICS
GA4 and tag setup through GTM where needed, plus pixels for your ad platforms, with purchase and checkout events tested so reporting matches real orders.
Pricing below covers the full Online store build through launch testing, with configuration and QA focused on checkout, shipping, taxes, and inventory rules. Prices are per visit.
Priced items
Get started
If you’re ready to book the build, the next step is a signature so we can lock the start date and send the kickoff checklist.
1. Sign the order to reserve your start date. 2. Pay the 30% setup deposit to begin. 3. Share access and your product export so we can start the build.
CAN YOU WORK IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH ON THE STOREFRONT AND EMAILS?
Yes. We set up the storefront structure so customers can browse and check out in French and English, and we wire the email flows so each language receives the right version. Sophie checks language switching, checkout labels, and automated emails in both languages before launch.
WHAT PLATFORM SHOULD WE USE FOR OUR SIZE: SHOPIFY OR WOOCOMMERCE?
We’ll recommend one after we look at your catalogue size, how often products change, and what you need from shipping and taxes. Shopify usually reduces maintenance work. WooCommerce usually makes sense when WordPress is already part of how you run the site.
Signature
Fee summary
How do you handle shipping rates for Canada and the U.S.?
We start with your real shipping methods and the carriers you can actually use, then build zones for Canada and the U.S. We test rates with real addresses and different cart weights, because most rate problems only show up once a customer enters a full delivery address.
WHAT DO YOU NEED FROM US TO GET PRODUCTS LOADED CORRECTLY?
A current product export, plus a short decision list for anything the file won’t tell us, like which variants should be separate products, what weights to use for shipping, and how you want colours and sizes named. We’ll send a template if you don’t already have one.
Payment
We take 30% to start the Online store build and 70% when it is complete. Any ongoing work is invoiced at the start of each month. Invoices are payable within 7 days.
Kickoff access. We start once we have store access, domain access if needed, and your product export. If access arrives in stages, the timeline moves with it because we cannot test checkout, shipping, and taxes without the live settings.
Platform decision. If we are choosing between Shopify and WooCommerce, we confirm the recommendation after reviewing your catalogue size, product changes, and shipping and tax needs. We only build once that choice is locked in.
Products data quality. Product loading depends on the export you provide. If SKUs, weights, options, or variant names are missing or inconsistent, we will pause to agree a decision list with you, then apply it consistently across the catalogue.
Testing and sign off
Before launch, Sophie runs checkout tests across French and English, plus shipping and tax tests using real Canada and U.S. addresses. We wait for your approval on the storefront and test orders before switching the site live.
Third party tools. Payments, shipping rates, taxes, email platforms, and tracking tools are run by third parties. We configure and test what we can inside your accounts, but we cannot override their outages, holds, or policy decisions.
Changes during build. This order covers the build steps listed in the scope. If you add new features or extra integrations mid-build, we will price them before we start, so the launch work does not drift without a written yes.
After launch support. After launch, fixes to anything we configured are handled as ongoing work and billed monthly. New requests, new products, and seasonal changes also fall under ongoing work once the build is complete.
