Craft Commerce Developer Agency

Most ecommerce platforms look flexible until you try to do anything real with them. You hit rigid templates, plugin bloat, and workflows that feel more like workarounds than solutions. Craft Commerce avoids all that. You get full control, clean structures, and a store you can shape around how your business actually works. Products become proper content, not catalogue items with limits. And because it’s open source, nothing is hidden and everything can be customised.

Platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce make you adapt your business to their rules. Craft Commerce flips that. You set the rules. You control the experience. You design a store that fits your brand instead of compromising to fit a template. As a first-party plugin for Craft CMS, it gives you a content-first setup that grows with you, not against you.

We keep things simple. What Craft Commerce is good at, where it shines, and when it’s the right fit — straight answers, no nonsense.

What is Craft Commerce?

It's an open-source e-commerce solution developed by Pixel & Tonic that operates as an add-on to Craft CMS. Launched in 2015, this platform works differently from most e-commerce platforms because products are treated as real content, not basic catalogue items.

Craft Commerce takes a content-first approach, so your products and your content actually work together instead of living in separate boxes. You can build the exact relationships you need — product stories, technical details, rich media, whatever helps people buy with confidence. Nothing is predefined or forced. You shape the structure, the logic, and the experience to match your business, giving you flexibility now and room to grow later.

Content Management Integration

What sets Craft Commerce apart is its seamless integration with Craft CMS’s powerful content modelling capabilities. The platform has no predefined content expectations, allowing businesses to create sophisticated content architectures that support their unique selling propositions. This means you can weave products into content to add real value, building customer trust and loyalty based on demonstrated expertise rather than just product specifications. Integrating content and commerce also provides valuable insight into customer behaviour and preferences, helping businesses make informed decisions to optimise their e-commerce strategies. Additionally, the broader ecosystem of integrations, plugins, and community resources further supports these capabilities, enabling businesses to extend functionality and tap into a supportive network.

Core E-commerce Features

Craft Commerce delivers comprehensive e-commerce functionality while maintaining the flexibility that defines the platform. The core features are designed to support businesses of all sizes, from simple donation sites to complex multi-vendor marketplaces.

Product Catalogue Management

The product management system in Craft Commerce reflects its content-first philosophy. Products are managed as content entries with unlimited custom fields and attributes. This approach allows for sophisticated product presentations that go far beyond traditional catalogue limitations.

Inventory tracking spans multiple locations with real-time stock management capabilities. The system supports complex product hierarchies, bundling options, and relationships between products that traditional platforms struggle to accommodate. Whether you’re managing thousands of SKUs or a carefully curated selection, the platform scales to meet your requirements.

Order Processing Workflow

From cart to fulfilment, it provides a complete order management system. The workflow is designed to be both powerful for administrators and intuitive for customers. Order processing includes automated status updates, customizable notification systems, and integration points for third-party fulfilment services.

Customer account management extends beyond basic order history to include wish lists, custom fields for B2B relationships, and segmentation capabilities that support targeted marketing efforts. The system maintains detailed customer data while respecting privacy requirements and providing transparent data management tools.

Product Variants and Options

One area where Craft Commerce truly excels is in handling product variants and complex configurations. The platform’s flexible approach to variants allows businesses to create sophisticated product option systems that reflect real-world purchasing decisions.

Creating Complex Variants

Product variants in Craft Commerce can extend far beyond the typical size, colour, and material options. The system supports unlimited variant types with individual pricing, stock levels, and images for each option. This matters if your products aren’t simple or you need more control over how people buy.

Custom fields for variants enable businesses to add specific data points that matter for their industry. Whether that’s technical specifications, compatibility information, or custom manufacturing parameters, the platform accommodates business-specific requirements without forcing compromises.

Managing Product Configurations

For businesses with complex product configurations, it provides tools to manage intricate relationships between options. The system can handle dependent options where selecting one variant affects available choices for other attributes. This functionality supports sophisticated buying experiences for technical products, custom manufacturing, or service bundles.

Product bundling capabilities allow for both fixed bundles and customer-configured packages. The platform calculates pricing, inventory, and shipping for bundled items while maintaining individual product data for reporting and analysis.

Cart and Checkout System

The cart and checkout system exemplifies Craft Commerce’s commitment to flexibility and customisation. Unlike platforms that force businesses to adapt their processes to predefined checkout flows, Craft Commerce allows complete ownership of the customer journey from cart to completion. Customers can also apply discount codes or promotions during checkout, making it easy to take advantage of special offers.

Flexible Cart Functionality

Cart management supports both guest checkout and account creation workflows, with the flexibility to customise these processes based on business requirements. The system tracks cart abandonment and provides hooks for recovery email automation, helping businesses recover potentially lost sales through targeted follow-up campaigns.

Multi-step checkout processes can be tailored to business needs, whether that’s a streamlined single-page checkout for simple products or complex multi-stage processes for B2B transactions requiring approval workflows.

Payment Gateway Integration

Craft Commerce integrates seamlessly with popular payment gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, and Square. The integration architecture allows for multiple payment methods within a single checkout process, supporting diverse customer preferences and international payment requirements.

For B2B applications, the platform supports custom payment terms, credit limits, and invoice-based transactions. These advanced payment workflows accommodate complex business relationships while maintaining security and compliance requirements.

Advanced Marketing and Sales Tools

Marketing capabilities in Craft Commerce extend well beyond basic promotional tools to provide sophisticated customer engagement and retention features. It empowers marketing teams to leverage their creativity in designing unique campaigns and user experiences. The platform’s marketing tools are designed to support both automated campaigns and targeted manual outreach.

Discount and Promotion System

The discount engine supports complex promotional rules with conditional logic that can account for customer segments, order history, product combinations, and seasonal factors. This flexibility allows businesses to create sophisticated promotional campaigns that drive specific business outcomes rather than generic discounts.

Coupon code management includes bulk generation, usage tracking, and expiration controls. The system supports various discount types, including percentage discounts, fixed amounts, free shipping, and buy-one-get-one promotions with detailed performance analytics for each campaign.

Customer Segmentation

Customer segmentation tools allow businesses to create targeted campaigns based on purchase history, geographic location, order value, and custom attributes. These segments can trigger automated email campaigns, personalised product recommendations, and exclusive promotional offers.

Integration with email marketing platforms and CRM systems extends these capabilities into comprehensive marketing automation workflows. The platform maintains detailed customer interaction data that supports sophisticated retention and upselling strategies.

Shipping and Tax Configuration

Shipping and tax management in Craft Commerce provides the flexibility needed for businesses operating in multiple markets with varying requirements. The system accommodates everything from simple flat-rate shipping to complex multi-carrier rate calculations.

Flexible Shipping Options

Shipping zones and methods support custom rate calculations based on weight, dimensions, destination, and product types. Real-time shipping rate integration with carriers like UPS and FedEx provides accurate shipping costs while maintaining fast checkout performance.

The platform supports free shipping thresholds, promotional shipping options, and shipping discounts that can be combined with other promotional offers. For businesses with complex shipping requirements, custom shipping calculators can be developed to handle unique scenarios.

Tax Management

Tax calculation supports multiple jurisdictions with product-specific tax rates and exemption rules. The system handles both origin and destination-based tax calculations, accommodating businesses operating across different tax regimes.

For B2B operations, tax exemption management includes customer-specific exemption certificates and an automatic tax exemption application based on customer attributes. This functionality proves essential for wholesale operations and businesses serving tax-exempt organisations.

Technical Advantages

The technical foundation of Craft Commerce provides significant advantages for businesses requiring custom functionality or integration with existing systems. Built on modern web development principles, the platform offers both performance and extensibility. With its robust RESTful API, Craft Commerce supports headless commerce implementations, allowing businesses to use Craft Commerce as a backend while integrating with modern front-end frameworks for greater flexibility and seamless user experiences. Development teams often invest significant hours into customising Craft Commerce solutions, ensuring optimal results tailored to each business’s unique needs.

Developer-Friendly Architecture

Craft Commerce is built on the Twig templating language, providing developers with a powerful and intuitive way to create custom templates and functionality. This approach enables rapid development of bespoke features while maintaining code quality and maintainability.

The RESTful API opens possibilities for headless commerce implementations, mobile app integration, and third-party system connections. This API-first approach ensures that Craft Commerce can integrate into complex technical ecosystems rather than requiring businesses to replace existing systems.

Multi-Site and Multi-Language Support

Multi-site support allows running multiple websites for different brands, regions, or languages from a single Craft Commerce installation. This capability significantly reduces maintenance overhead while providing centralised management of shared resources like customer data and inventory.

Multi-language capabilities are built into the platform core, enabling geographic expansion without requiring platform migration or complex internationalisation add-ons. The system handles currency conversion, localised pricing, and region-specific shipping and tax calculations seamlessly.

Performance Optimization

Performance optimisation features include sophisticated caching systems, database query optimisation, and asset management tools that ensure fast loading times even with large product catalogues. The platform’s architecture supports scaling from small businesses to enterprise operations without requiring platform changes.

Database efficiency features include optimised queries for product searches, category browsing, and order processing. These optimisations become increasingly important as product catalogues grow and customer bases expand.

Content and Commerce Integration

The integration between content and commerce represents one of Craft Commerce’s most distinctive advantages. This integration goes far beyond simple product descriptions to enable sophisticated content marketing strategies that drive sales and build customer relationships.

Rich Content Capabilities

Matrix fields enable complex content layouts for product descriptions, landing pages, and category presentations. This functionality allows businesses to create engaging product stories that differentiate their offerings from competitors selling similar products.

Blog and content marketing capabilities within the same system eliminate the need for separate content management platforms. This integration ensures that content and commerce data remain synchronised while providing seamless user experiences across all site sections.

SEO and Asset Management

SEO optimisation tools for product pages and category listings are built into the platform core rather than requiring additional plugins. This approach ensures that e-commerce sites can compete effectively in search results while maintaining fast loading times and clean URL structures.

Asset management for product images, videos, and downloadable content provides sophisticated media handling with automatic optimisation, multiple format generation, and CDN integration. These features ensure that rich media enhances rather than slows the shopping experience.

Craft Commerce vs Other Platforms

Understanding how Craft Commerce compares to other e-commerce platforms helps clarify when this solution provides the best fit for business requirements. The comparison reveals fundamental philosophical differences that impact long-term success.

Craft Commerce vs Shopify

Shopify prioritises quick deployment and ease of use for non-technical business owners through pre-built templates and out-of-the-box functionality. This approach enables rapid launch but constrains businesses to Shopify’s predetermined structure and capabilities.

It prioritises complete customisation and integration capabilities for businesses with specific requirements. While this requires professional development investment, the result is complete control over customer experience and business processes without ongoing subscription fees for basic functionality.

The total cost of ownership analysis reveals important differences. Shopify’s monthly subscription costs accumulate significantly over time, while Craft Commerce’s $199 Lite or $999 Pro licensing fees with $59 annual renewal represent one-time investments with predictable ongoing costs.

Advantages over WooCommerce

WooCommerce operates as a WordPress plugin, inheriting both WordPress’s flexibility and its security challenges. The plugin architecture can create conflicts and performance issues as businesses add functionality, requiring ongoing maintenance to ensure stability.

Craft Commerce provides integrated e-commerce functionality within a purpose-built content management system, eliminating plugin conflicts while maintaining security through its focused architecture. The platform’s performance advantages become particularly apparent under heavy load conditions or with large product catalogues.

Comparison with Magento

Magento offers extensive e-commerce functionality but comes with significant complexity that often requires dedicated technical teams for ongoing management. The platform’s learning curve and hosting requirements can overwhelm smaller businesses while providing more functionality than many businesses actually need.

Craft Commerce provides a middle ground between Shopify’s simplicity and Magento’s complexity, offering sophisticated functionality with manageable implementation and maintenance requirements. This balance makes it particularly attractive for growing businesses that need more than basic e-commerce but want to avoid Magento’s overhead.

Use Cases and Business Applications

Craft Commerce is flexible enough to fit a wide range of business models without forcing you into someone else’s idea of how ecommerce should work. It gives different industries the space to build the exact workflows, content structures, and product setups they need. When you look at real use cases, it becomes clear where the platform stands out and why it’s often the better choice for teams who want control instead of constraints.

Small to Medium Business Applications

For small to medium businesses that need custom ecommerce without the enterprise headache, Craft Commerce hits the sweet spot. You get serious capability without the heavy architecture or painful scaling issues. As you grow, the platform grows with you — no forced migrations, no rebuilds just to keep up.

You can tailor workflows to match how your business actually operates rather than bending your process around a platform’s limits. This is especially useful for teams with unique fulfilment setups, bespoke products, or service models that don’t fit into traditional ecommerce templates. It’s ecommerce that adapts to you, not the other way around.

B2B Commerce Solutions

B2B ecommerce usually breaks mainstream platforms because pricing, permissions, and ordering logic aren’t simple. Craft Commerce handles these out of the box. You can set complex pricing rules, build customer-specific catalogues, and introduce approval steps or account-level terms without duct-taping plugins together.

With segmentation baked in, you can control who sees what, who pays what, and how they order. That means one platform can run both B2B and B2C without managing two systems or duplicating effort — cleaner for your team, better for your customers.

Subscription and Recurring Revenue

If your business relies on recurring revenue, Craft Commerce gives you the stability and control you need. Monthly, annual, usage-based — it handles the billing logic without tying you to rigid subscription plugins or external services that limit what you can offer.

You can manage trials, pricing changes, pauses, renewals, and customer settings in a way that aligns with how you sell. That makes it a strong fit for software, memberships, training programmes, or any model where ongoing value matters. It’s flexible enough to support the nuances that other platforms struggle with.

Industry-Specific Applications

Different industries have unique requirements that Craft Commerce’s flexibility addresses effectively. The platform’s customizable nature makes it particularly suitable for businesses with specialised needs.

Fashion and Apparel

Fashion and apparel businesses benefit from Craft Commerce’s sophisticated variant handling and visual presentation capabilities. The platform supports extensive product variants with individual images, sizing charts, and seasonal catalogue management that fashion retailers require.

Content integration capabilities enable fashion brands to create compelling product stories, styling guides, and brand narratives that differentiate their offerings in competitive markets. The platform’s multi-site support accommodates multiple brands or seasonal collections within unified management systems.

Digital Products and Software

Digital product delivery and software licensing capabilities include automatic delivery systems, license key generation, and user access management. These features support software companies, digital agencies, and content creators selling downloadable products or subscription services.

The platform’s API capabilities enable integration with software licensing systems, user management platforms, and automated delivery services that digital businesses require for scalable operations.

Manufacturing and Wholesale

Manufacturing and wholesale operations benefit from custom pricing capabilities, bulk order processing, and quote generation systems. The platform supports complex pricing structures based on quantity, customer type, and custom configurations.

Quote generation and approval workflows accommodate businesses where pricing varies based on specifications, delivery requirements, or customer relationships. These features enable manufacturers to provide professional quote processes while maintaining efficient order management.

Implementation and Development

Craft Commerce performs optimally on modern hosting infrastructure with adequate resources for database operations and file handling. The platform benefits from SSD storage, adequate RAM, and optimised server configurations that support its sophisticated caching systems.

Hosting considerations include backup systems, security hardening, and performance monitoring that ensure reliable operation under varying load conditions. Craft Cloud provides managed hosting that addresses these requirements for businesses preferring managed infrastructure solutions.

Development Workflow

Development workflows for Craft Commerce projects benefit from version control, staged deployment environments, and testing protocols that ensure quality implementations. The platform’s flexibility requires disciplined development practices to maintain code quality and system stability.

Best practices include content modelling planning, template architecture design, and performance optimisation strategies that ensure sites remain fast and maintainable as they grow. These practices become increasingly important for complex implementations or high-traffic sites.

Plugin Ecosystem

The plugin ecosystem provides extensions for common functionality while maintaining the platform’s focus on quality over quantity. Available plugins address payment processing, shipping integration, marketing automation, and analytics without creating the bloat that affects other platforms.

Third-party integrations include popular business tools like CRM systems, email marketing platforms, and analytics services that businesses rely on for operations and growth. The integration architecture ensures these connections remain stable and performant over time.

Working with Craft Commerce agencies

Craft Commerce needs proper development, so choosing the right agency matters. Plenty of agencies say they “support” Craft, but few specialise in it. You want a team that actually understands the platform, knows its edges, and can design a store around your business instead of forcing your ideas into a template.

Working with the right partner means your store is faster to manage, easier to scale, and far less likely to fall over when you need it most. Ongoing support becomes a genuine advantage, not a ticketing system that slows everything down.

And if you're choosing Honcho, you get more than platform expertise. You get a team that challenges assumptions, asks awkward-but-important questions, and builds with intent. No handoffs. No juniors doing senior work. No guesswork. Just a focused Craft Commerce team working directly with you.

If you want a store that performs, lasts, and makes your team’s life easier, you need an agency that treats Craft Commerce as a craft — not an add-on. That’s us.

Benefits of working with a specialist Craft Commerce agency

A specialist team understands how Craft Commerce behaves, where it shines, and where it needs careful handling. That means better decisions, fewer surprises, and a store built properly from day one. You get clean architecture, reliable integrations, and a system that can grow without being rebuilt every few years.

You also get peace of mind. Security, performance, and scalability are baked into the way experts build — not bolted on at the end.

Why work with Honcho

We only work with Craft. It’s the platform we know inside out, and it shows in the quality of the sites we deliver. You work directly with the specialists building your store — no layers of account managers, no unclear handoffs, no “we’ll get back to you next week” delays.

We help you understand what you actually need, not just what you asked for. We simplify the complex, reduce risk, and make sure every part of your store is aligned with how your business works. Our clients choose us because we’re honest, focused, and obsessed with doing the job properly.

Selecting the right development team

Look for agencies with real Craft Commerce experience, not just Craft CMS knowledge. Check their work. Ask who will actually be doing the development. Make sure they understand your business goals, not just your feature list.

The right partner supports you beyond launch — keeping your store secure, fast, and improving over time. If an agency can’t show a plan for ongoing support, keep looking.

Project management and timelines

Craft Commerce projects need more planning than traditional template-based platforms — but that planning pays off. Good agencies take you through discovery, architecture, development, testing, and launch in a structured, predictable way.

After launch, the work doesn’t stop. Updates, improvements, security checks, and performance tweaks keep your store running smoothly. A strong agency stays with you for the long haul, improving the store based on real data, not guesswork.

Getting Started with Craft Commerce

Beginning your Craft Commerce journey requires understanding licensing options, setup processes, and available resources for learning and support. While Craft Commerce offers a flexible licensing model, it's important to note that some additional features or services may require paid add-ons or upgrades.

Licensing and Pricing Structure

Craft Commerce operates on a tiered licensing model with predictable costs. Craft Commerce Lite ($199 with $59 annual renewal) targets businesses with simple selling requirements, while Craft Commerce Pro ($999 with $59 annual renewal) provides comprehensive ecommerce functionality for complex business needs.

This licensing structure contrasts favorably with subscription-based platforms, where monthly costs accumulate indefinitely. The annual renewal fees support ongoing development and support while providing predictable cost structures for business planning.

Initial Setup and Configuration

The setup process begins with installing Craft CMS followed by the Commerce plugin configuration. Initial configuration includes payment gateway setup, shipping zone definition, tax calculation rules, and basic product catalog creation.

Essential plugins for new installations often include SEO optimisation tools, analytics integration, and backup systems that ensure sites launch with proper foundation elements. The modular approach allows businesses to add functionality as needs develop rather than paying for unused features.

Learning Resources and Community

The Craft community provides excellent resources for learning and troubleshooting, including documentation, forums, and developer resources that support both technical implementation and business strategy decisions. This community proves super helpful for businesses and developers working with the platform.

Educational resources include official documentation, community tutorials, and agency-provided guides that help businesses understand both technical capabilities and strategic applications. These resources enable informed decision-making throughout the platform evaluation and implementation process. We hope these resources will help your business succeed with Craft Commerce.

Conclusion

Craft Commerce takes a different approach to ecommerce. It puts flexibility and control first, not shortcuts or templates. If your store needs more than a quick setup and a handful of plugins, it gives you the freedom to shape the experience around your business instead of wrestling with platform limits.

By treating products as real content, it opens the door to stronger storytelling, better marketing, and a far more connected user journey. In a crowded market where experience matters as much as price, this content-first approach can become a genuine competitive advantage.

Yes, it takes more thought and proper development to get right — but the payoff is a store that’s fast, scalable, and built to last. Craft Commerce grows with you, adapts as your needs change, and doesn’t box you in as you evolve.

If you’re planning a new store or thinking about moving away from a platform that’s holding you back, Craft Commerce is worth serious consideration. It gives you the power, flexibility, and freedom to create an ecommerce experience that actually works for your business — not just the platform you started with.