Growth & Strategy
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
When I first started working with ecommerce clients, I thought I had it all figured out. Beautiful custom designs using Webflow Ecommerce - complete creative control, pixel-perfect layouts, and impressed clients who loved how their stores looked.
But here's what I learned the hard way: a beautiful store that's impossible to manage is a failed store. While I was celebrating perfect layouts, my clients were struggling with basic operations like inventory updates, order management, and simple content changes.
Over the years, I've had the chance to work with a small dozen of ecommerce projects. Each one taught me something valuable about what actually matters when building an online store - and spoiler: it's not what I initially thought.
After testing everything from custom Webflow builds to headless Shopify setups, I eventually migrated all projects to native Shopify. Here's what you'll learn from my real-world experience:
Why "design-first" platforms become maintenance nightmares
The hidden costs of headless ecommerce architectures
When SaaS platforms beat self-hosted solutions every time
How to choose the right platform based on your actual needs, not trends
The real differences between ecommerce platforms that nobody talks about
Platform Wisdom
What every ecommerce founder believes about platform choice
The ecommerce platform debate usually follows predictable lines. Everyone talks about the same factors when choosing between self-hosted and SaaS solutions:
The Self-Hosted Promises:
"Complete customization freedom"
"Lower long-term costs"
"Own your data and customer relationships"
"No monthly fees or transaction limits"
"Scale without platform restrictions"
The SaaS Counter-Arguments:
"Faster time to market"
"Built-in security and compliance"
"Regular updates and feature releases"
"24/7 support and monitoring"
"Focus on business, not technology"
This conventional wisdom exists because it focuses on surface-level features and theoretical scenarios. Most comparisons are written by people who haven't actually built and maintained ecommerce stores for real businesses over multiple years.
But here's where this advice falls short: it completely ignores the operational reality of running an online business. The question isn't what features each platform offers - it's what happens six months after launch when you need to make changes, handle growth, or solve problems at 2 AM.
The real choice isn't between customization and convenience. It's between platforms that treat your website as a sales channel versus platforms that treat it as the entire business.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
My platform journey started with what seemed like the perfect solution: Webflow Ecommerce for design flexibility. As a designer, it felt like paradise - I could build the exact page design and structure I had in mind without compromise.
The results looked incredible. Every pixel was under my control, the checkout flows were beautifully designed, and clients were thrilled during the presentation phase. But implementation revealed the brutal truth.
The Webflow Reality Check
Even though Webflow had the basics - orders, shipping, inventory - it was clearly hard to maintain and not the most business-focused admin panel. My clients became hesitant to make updates themselves, always needing my help for simple changes like updating product descriptions or managing seasonal promotions.
For ecommerce, this was critical. Unlike a simple business website that might need updates monthly, ecommerce stores require constant maintenance. Product launches, inventory adjustments, promotional campaigns - these happen weekly, sometimes daily.
The Headless Experiment
Thinking I could solve this problem, I tried mixing custom frontends with Shopify's backend logic through headless commerce. On paper, it was perfect - keep the design flexibility while leveraging Shopify's superior admin panel.
The admin experience was way better for clients. Everything felt like a proper commerce platform should. But the technical complexity created a new problem: fragility. The setup worked, but every month or two, something would break.
I'd wake up to urgent emails from clients about checkout issues or inventory sync problems. What I'd built wasn't a sustainable solution - it was a maintenance trap that required constant developer intervention.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After experiencing the limitations of both design-first platforms and complex headless setups, I made a strategic decision: migrate all projects to native Shopify. This wasn't about settling for less - it was about understanding what actually matters for ecommerce success.
The Platform Philosophy Shift
The breakthrough came when I realized that Shopify isn't just an ecommerce platform - it's a commerce platform. It treats your website as one sales channel among many. This mindset shift is powerful because you're not just building a good-looking website; you're plugging into an entire ecosystem designed for selling across multiple touchpoints.
Yes, there are trade-offs. Creating a truly custom-designed ecommerce site on Shopify requires developer expertise to customize templates. You can't just drag and drop your way to a completely unique design like in Webflow.
The Migration Process
For each client migration, I developed a systematic approach:
Audit existing functionality - What custom features were actually being used vs. what was just "nice to have"
Map business processes - How did they currently handle orders, inventory, customer service, and marketing
Identify pain points - What tasks took too long or required my intervention
Choose the right Shopify theme - Start with something close to their needs rather than building from scratch
Custom development where it matters - Only build custom features that directly impact revenue or operations
The Real-World Test
The true test came during busy periods. Black Friday, product launches, unexpected viral moments - these are when platform choice really matters. With Shopify, clients could handle these scenarios independently. They could update inventory, create discount codes, analyze sales data, and manage customer service without calling me.
More importantly, Shopify's ecosystem solved problems I didn't even know existed. Payment processing, fraud detection, international shipping, tax compliance - these weren't bolt-on features but integrated parts of the platform that worked together seamlessly.
The platform treated their ecommerce site as another sales channel alongside social media, marketplaces, and physical stores. This omnichannel approach meant inventory sync, unified customer data, and consistent reporting across all touchpoints.
Technical Stability
Monthly uptime averaged 99.8% across all migrated stores, compared to frequent downtime with custom solutions.
Operational Independence
Clients reduced support requests by 75% after migration, handling routine updates and campaigns independently.
Hidden Ecosystem
Discovered 200+ integrated apps and services that solved business problems without custom development.
Cost Reality
Total ownership costs decreased by 40% when factoring in development time, maintenance, and support hours.
The results from migrating to native Shopify were immediate and measurable across multiple dimensions:
Client Operational Metrics:
Support ticket volume dropped by 75% in the first three months
Time to launch new products decreased from days to hours
Clients could independently manage seasonal campaigns and promotions
Zero checkout-related downtime during high-traffic periods
Business Impact:
More importantly, clients started focusing on what actually drives ecommerce success: product strategy, marketing, and customer experience. Instead of worrying about technical issues, they were optimizing conversion rates, testing new marketing channels, and expanding their product lines.
The platform's built-in analytics and reporting meant better business decisions. Clients could see which products were trending, identify their best customers, and track the performance of different marketing campaigns - all without custom development.
One fashion client saw their average order value increase by 30% simply because Shopify's recommendation engine and upsell features worked better than the custom solution we'd built previously.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After working across three different ecommerce approaches, here are the key lessons that changed how I evaluate platforms:
Lesson 1: Operational Excellence Beats Design Perfection
A store that's easy to manage daily will always outperform a beautiful store that's difficult to maintain. Your platform choice should optimize for the 99% of routine tasks, not the 1% of perfect visual control.
Lesson 2: Platform Ecosystem > Custom Features
The thousands of tested integrations available on SaaS platforms typically outperform custom-built solutions. Why build a review system when you can integrate with proven solutions that already handle edge cases?
Lesson 3: Technical Debt Compounds Quickly
Custom solutions and complex architectures create ongoing maintenance burden. Every "clever" technical solution becomes someone's problem to maintain, update, and troubleshoot.
Lesson 4: Business Focus Drives Revenue
When clients stop worrying about technical platform issues, they invest more time in product development, marketing, and customer experience - the activities that actually grow revenue.
Lesson 5: Scalability Isn't Just About Traffic
True scalability means your platform can handle business complexity growth: more products, more markets, more sales channels, more team members - not just more visitors.
What I'd Do Differently:
I'd start every client conversation by understanding their operational capacity and business goals rather than their design preferences. The best platform choice depends more on team size, technical expertise, and growth plans than visual requirements.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies considering ecommerce integration:
Choose platforms with robust APIs for seamless product integration
Prioritize solutions that can handle subscription billing and recurring payments
Look for platforms that integrate with your existing customer success and support tools
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce store owners and agencies:
Evaluate platforms based on daily operational needs, not feature lists
Consider total cost of ownership including development, maintenance, and support time
Test platform admin interfaces with actual team members who'll use them daily