Building materials online store development

A building materials store handles a large catalogue, several units of measure and heavy deliveries. Buyers need to find products by specification quickly, work out quantities and see the cost of delivery to their site.

Development stages

Brief and specification. We document the range, sources of stock levels and prices, payment and delivery options, and manager roles.

Platform choice. We match the CMS to catalogue size and integrations: WooCommerce on WordPress, MODX 3, Shopify or Horoshop. The criteria are catalogue speed with thousands of products, price list imports, support costs and developer availability.

Prototypes and design. We design the catalogue, product page, cart and checkout in Figma and agree them with you.

Front-end and development. We build filters, search, calculators and an account area for trade customers.

Catalogue content. We import products, specifications, photos and documents such as certificates, instructions and product data sheets.

Analytics and marketing. We set up Google Analytics 4, product feeds for Google Merchant Center, Product markup and an SEO-friendly category structure.

What matters for a building materials store

• Filters by size, grade, colour, manufacturer and stock availability.
• Quantity calculators for tiles, paint, insulation and dry mixes.
• Prices per unit, pack and pallet, with trade prices for registered customers.
• Delivery pricing by weight and address, unloading and warehouse pickup.
• Stock and price sync with your accounting system or CRM.

Benefits of selling online

Orders come in around the clock, managers spend less time on routine questions, and buyers see stock and prices before they call. The cost depends on catalogue size and integrations, and we quote after a brief.

Sources

• WooCommerce
• MODX Blog: MODX Revolution 3.0.0 (2022)
• Shopify
• Horoshop
• Google Merchant Center: product data specification
• Google Search: Product structured data