What ecommerce development in Dublin includes at Loco
We write custom code only where no established tool does the job. A store build includes:
- A platform chosen for your catalogue and team.
- Category, search and product pages designed around how your customers shop.
- Stripe or another payment provider, with the order flow designed first.
- EU VAT applied by destination.
- A plan for how orders reach your accounts, stock and couriers.
- Accessibility designed to WCAG 2.1 AA, and speed measured against Core Web Vitals.
- Analytics with ecommerce tracking, so you can see which products and pages sell.
Two builds show the range. For ERP HEADtoHEAD we wrote a booking and payments engine on WooCommerce and Stripe, set up to bill each event from its own company in its own currency. For Field Queens we redesigned the Shopify store on the Mode theme in 2024. Loco Digital was founded in 2021 and works from The Digital Hub in Dublin 8.
Mark and Adam scope each store with you and lead the design and build, as part of our web development service.
Ecommerce website design that sells on a phone
Most stores win or lose the sale on a phone, on the product page and in the checkout, so we design those first:
- Navigation and search. Collections, filters and search built around how your customers describe what they want, not how your stock system names it.
- Product pages. Photographs at one size and crop, price and delivery near the top, and variants that are easy to choose.
- A short checkout. Guest checkout, Apple Pay and Google Pay where your provider supports them, and no surprise costs at the last step.
- Trust at the point of payment. Delivery times, returns and contact details shown where doubt arises.
Should an ecommerce website in Dublin use Shopify, WooCommerce or headless?
Shopify suits most stores selling physical products to consumers, with hosting included in the monthly fee. WooCommerce runs on WordPress and suits a store inside a content-led site, or one with bookings or memberships beside the products. Headless puts a custom front end on a commerce engine such as Shopify; it costs more to build and run, so we recommend it only when one catalogue feeds a website and an app, or speed justifies the spend. We compare them in Shopify vs WooCommerce vs a custom build.
WooCommerce developers in Dublin
WooCommerce runs on your own WordPress install and hosting, which gives you full control of the checkout and the order data. We use it when a store has to do something a hosted checkout cannot, and keep it fast with hosting matched to the load.
Loco Digital designed and built the ERP HEADtoHEAD event site for Lumenia Consulting in 2026, with a booking and payments plugin on WooCommerce and Stripe. The Dublin and Birmingham events are run by separate companies. Dublin bookings are invoiced by the Irish company in euro with Irish VAT, and the plugin is set up to route Birmingham payments to the UK company when bookings open. Each booking lands as a WooCommerce order that Lumenia can refund and report on. Read the ERP HEADtoHEAD case study.
Shopify stores
Shopify is the quickest route to a dependable store when your team wants to run products and orders without a developer, and it is the platform we redesigned the Field Queens store on. Theme work, custom sections, migrations from WooCommerce and Shopify’s own payment and VAT settings are covered on our page for Shopify development in Dublin.
Stripe payments and the order flow around them
Stripe is our default for card and wallet payments because it is well documented and easy to reconcile; IPAV applicants pay their application fee through it. We design the order flow before wiring in the provider: which company and currency each order routes to, what the invoice shows, and how refunds and deposits reach your books.
How do EU VAT and the One Stop Shop affect an Irish online store?
Once your sales to consumers in other EU countries pass €10,000 in a calendar year in total, you charge each customer’s national VAT rate (Revenue’s guidance on distance sales). The One Stop Shop lets you declare that VAT in one quarterly return in Ireland (Revenue on the Union scheme). The store must apply the right rate per destination, show it on invoices and report it by country. Shopify and WooCommerce do this when configured correctly, and we set it up with your accountant.
Integrations with Xero, Sage and your ERP
Xero and Sage publish documented APIs, and connector apps exist for both on Shopify and WooCommerce. Where a connector cannot post orders, refunds and Stripe payouts the way your accountant needs, a small custom sync can, and our page on accounting automation in Ireland covers that work in detail. Customer and order records can also feed your CRM for follow-up and repeat sales, as set out in CRM integration in Ireland. Stock systems and couriers connect the same way, and we confirm each link in the vendor’s documentation before quoting. Unusual systems call for custom software development.
Performance and Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are Google’s measures of loading, responsiveness and layout stability, and Google’s ranking systems use them (Google Search Central). On a phone, a slow product page can lose the sale before the ranking matters. We follow the checklist in our guide to high-performance websites and test on phones before launch.
Accessibility and the European Accessibility Act
The European Accessibility Act has applied to ecommerce services in Ireland since 28 June 2025, and microenterprises are exempt on services (CCPC guidance). Its standard, EN 301 549, bases its web requirements on WCAG, and we design to WCAG 2.1 AA either way. We check contrast, keyboard paths, form labels and error messages, and document the results for any audit. More in EU website accessibility requirements.
You own the store, the data and the domain
You own the store, its customer and order data, and any custom code, which comes with its source and documentation. Any platform, domain or payment account we set up for you transfers to you on request.
How do you migrate an existing store without losing rankings?
A replatform can cost years of search traffic if URLs move without redirects. We map product and category URLs one by one with a 301 on everything that moves, carry customers and order history across, and keep reviews and product structured data. After launch we resubmit the sitemap and check Search Console daily for a fortnight. No one can promise rankings. The same steps apply to website redesign in Dublin.
Ecommerce development costs in Dublin
Ecommerce projects at Loco start from €10,000 ex VAT. A Shopify store on a well-chosen theme sits near that floor; a custom checkout or a headless storefront sits well above it. Every project begins with a short consult that ends in a costed plan with a price and a timeline. The Grow Digital Voucher does not fund custom store builds, and our page on what the voucher covers sets out what it does pay for.
After launch, a retainer from €2,000 a month covers hosting, monitoring, fixes and new features for the store. It is optional.
