Ecommerce stores for Adelaide businesses — built to the right tier
Most Adelaide ecommerce builds are a template theme with plugins or apps bolted on until the store almost does what the business needs. We build two things, and we are honest about which one you need: Shopify for speed, Medusa for ownership.
Two paths, one honest recommendation
We will confirm this on a discovery call. The recommendation should be the one that fits, not the one that bills more.
| Shopify | Medusa + custom frontend | |
|---|---|---|
| You are starting out | Right answer | Overkill |
| Under ~200 products | Usually right | Depends on complexity |
| Live in 3–4 weeks | Yes | Takes longer |
| No server maintenance | Platform handles it | Needs a care plan |
| Established revenue to protect | Probably outgrown it | Right answer |
| B2B and retail on one store | Possible with apps | Native |
| Multi-region, multi-currency | Extra cost | Native |
| You want to own the code | Theme only | Full source |
| No platform fees | Shopify fees apply | None |
The rule of thumb: if you are doing less than roughly $150k/year online and do not have complex requirements, Shopify is almost always the right answer. Above that, or with complexity, Medusa starts to pay for itself.
Live in a month, without the infrastructure burden
A properly built Shopify store is not a $60 theme with your logo dropped in. A developer writes custom sections, product templates, collection logic and configures checkout, shipping, tax and payments for how you actually sell.
GOOD FIT FOR
STORE BUILD
- Custom Shopify theme built from a solid base — custom sections, templates and logic, not a purchased theme
- Store setup: collections, product templates, product options, variant architecture
- Navigation, search and filtering built around how customers shop
- Mobile-first buying flow, tested on real devices
- Customised order confirmation and shipping notification emails
PAYMENTS & OPERATIONS
- Shopify Payments or Stripe configured
- Apple Pay and Google Pay enabled
- Shipping zones and rates built from actual postage costs
- Australian GST configuration
- Shopify Markets configured for international sales if relevant
- Inventory tracking, low-stock alerts and fulfilment workflow
APPS & INTEGRATIONS
- Essential apps only: usually reviews, email or SMS, and tax reporting
- We actively resist app-stacking — every app is a fee, a performance cost and a security dependency
- Xero, MYOB or fulfilment integration where needed, scoped individually
AT LAUNCH
- On-page SEO across product and collection pages
- Product and Offer structured data for rich results
- Shopify Payments and PCI compliance correctly configured
- Google Analytics 4 with ecommerce events
- Google Search Console verified and sitemap submitted
- Testing across phones, tablets and desktop
- Launch support while the first orders come in
Own the store, the code and the ceiling
For established sellers with revenue worth protecting, complex catalogues or a commerce model that does not fit the Shopify mould. A Medusa backend with a custom Next.js frontend and Stripe payments.
GOOD FIT FOR
COMMERCE BACKEND
- Medusa 2.x commerce engine: products, variants, orders, customers, regions
- Australian GST configuration, including international exemptions
- Shipping zones and rates built from actual postage costs
- Multi-currency and multi-region support natively
- Customer groups, price lists and tiered pricing for wholesale + retail
- Inventory tracking, low-stock alerts and backorder handling
- Order management and fulfilment workflow
- Admin dashboard scoped to what staff actually need
- Versioned REST and Storefront APIs, documented
CUSTOM FRONTEND
- Storefront written from scratch in Next.js and TypeScript — no theme, no page builder
- Product listing, filtering and search built around how customers shop
- Cart and checkout with as few steps as the transaction allows
- Server-rendered and edge-cached on Cloudflare
- Accessibility to WCAG 2.2 AA on the buying path
- Mobile-first, tested on real devices and networks
PAYMENTS & COMPLIANCE
- Stripe Elements — card data never touches your server, keeping you in PCI DSS SAQ A
- Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Privacy Act and Australian Privacy Principles designed into the data model
- Consent capture, retention rules and deletion handling
- Audit logging on admin actions
SECURITY & LAUNCH
- No plugin ecosystem — the largest compromise vector in template ecommerce does not exist
- Cloudflare WAF, bot management and DDoS mitigation
- Dependency pinning, vulnerability scanning and scheduled patching
- Automated daily database backups with tested restore
- Product and Offer structured data
- Google Analytics 4 ecommerce events
- Redirects for every legacy URL if migrating
The plugin stack is the liability
WooCommerce still works for hobby stores. We will audit and fix an existing store; we will not build new ones on it.
A typical WooCommerce store is WordPress plus a commerce plugin plus thirty more plugins to make it behave. A page builder. A checkout plugin. A shipping plugin. A coupon plugin. A tax plugin. Hundreds of thousands of lines of third-party code you did not write, cannot audit, and update on faith. When it breaks, it breaks at checkout.
The three concrete problems
Security: the plugin ecosystem is the largest compromise vector in ecommerce. Most breaches are an unpatched plugin, an abandoned plugin, or a premium plugin that stopped being maintained.
Performance: every plugin adds weight and request overhead. A WooCommerce store competing with a Medusa store on Core Web Vitals is a losing race.
Maintenance: WordPress and every plugin needs updating. When a plugin update breaks a template or a checkout, that is your problem.
If you already run WooCommerce, see website upgrades. If you are choosing a platform now, we will recommend Shopify or Medusa.
Two tiers, clearly priced
Fixed quotes after discovery. Larger catalogues, complex shipping, ERP integrations and multi-region setups are quoted individually.
| Shopify | Medusa | |
|---|---|---|
| Build | From $3,500 | From $6,000 |
| Care plan | From $99/month | From $149/month |
| Platform fees | $56–$399/month (Shopify) | None |
| Transaction fees | Shopify Payments fees apply | Stripe only |
| App/integration costs | Typically $30–$150/month | Scoped individually |
| Timeline | 3–4 weeks | 6–10 weeks |
| Code ownership | Theme only | Full source |
ALL PRICES IN AUD · GST INCLUDED WHERE APPLICABLE · NO DALT SYNC TRANSACTION FEES · NO LOCK-IN CONTRACTS
You do not have to start from zero
Products, customers, order history and content migrated where the source platform allows export. Redirects mapped and tested before cutover.
Migrating from Shopify to Medusa is a common path — start on Shopify, outgrow it, move to Medusa when the revenue justifies it. URL mapping, redirects and indexation are tested before cutover. Migration is scoped individually after reviewing your current store.
We also migrate stores from Etsy, a Facebook shop, a spreadsheet or an existing WooCommerce site where a cleaner platform is the honest answer.
Before you ask — probably answered here
Still weighing it up? Tell us what you sell and how you sell it — we will give you the honest answer.
DaltSync Shopify builds start at $3,500 and headless Medusa builds at $6,000. Across the Adelaide market, template-based stores typically run $2,000 to $6,000; custom and headless builds commonly run $8,000 to $25,000+ depending on scope. Care plans start at $99/month for Shopify and $149/month for Medusa.
Because the plugin ecosystem is the largest security and performance liability in ecommerce, and it is a race against maintenance debt. We will audit and fix an existing WooCommerce store — we will not build new ones. See website upgrades.
Rule of thumb: under roughly $150k/year online and no complex requirements, Shopify. Above that, or with wholesale and retail, multi-region or complex catalogue needs, Medusa. On the call we will tell you honestly which one fits — and it is often the cheaper one.
Because it is more work and it gives you more. Shopify is a platform you rent — infrastructure, admin and compliance are handled for you, at the cost of platform fees and code ownership. Medusa is software you own — the build is bigger because we build more of the stack, but you are left with an asset, no platform fees and no ceiling.
No. Both come with an admin interface for products, orders, customers, pricing and stock. On Shopify, you can also edit the theme visually. On Medusa, storefront changes are development work, quoted up front.
From Shopify, you take the products, customers and order data — but not the theme code. From Medusa, you take the whole codebase, database and domain. This is the single biggest reason clients eventually move from Shopify to Medusa.
Shopify: yes, with apps, though it is the most common reason a store outgrows Shopify. Medusa: yes, natively, with customer groups and price lists.
Shopify: 3–4 weeks for a standard store. Medusa: 6–10 weeks. Complex catalogues, ERP integrations and multi-region setups take longer.
Shopify: their transaction fees apply, plus the subscription. Medusa: only Stripe's fees (currently around 1.7% + 30c for Australian cards). Neither setup charges a DaltSync transaction fee.
No, in either tier. On Shopify, Shopify Payments handles card data. On Medusa, Stripe Elements collects card details in the browser and sends them directly to Stripe. In both cases your server never receives card data, which keeps your PCI DSS scope small.
Product structured data is included on both tiers. A Google Merchant Center feed is additional scope on either.
Which store fits your business?
Tell us your product count, how you sell and where you want to be in two years. We will tell you whether Shopify or Medusa is the sensible answer — including when it is the cheaper one.