There are three useful starting points
A catalogue or enquiry website shows products and helps customers visit, call or ask about availability. It can be enough when prices vary, stock changes quickly or an order needs a conversation.
A payment-link route directs customers to an existing payment or ordering service for selected products. It can be simpler than maintaining a full catalogue, but you still need to understand how orders, stock and customer communication are handled.
A full online shop manages products, a basket and checkout, often alongside stock, shipping and other systems. It offers more functionality and brings more operational work. Do not choose it just because “e-commerce” sounds like the next step.
Work out fulfilment before designing checkout
Who sees an order, checks stock, packs it and communicates with the customer? Where can you deliver or offer collection? How are delivery charges and unavailable items handled?
Write down the real process. If website stock and shop-floor stock differ, decide how they will be kept aligned. A checkout that takes money for unavailable goods is not a successful customer experience simply because the payment worked.
Prepare proper product information
You need useful names, descriptions, approved images, prices and relevant options or variations. Add accurate information that helps someone choose, rather than repeating a supplier’s shortest description everywhere.
The business must approve product and customer-facing policy information. Delivery, cancellation and returns requirements depend on what you sell and how you sell it, so obtain appropriate advice where needed; a designer should not invent policies to fill a template.
Compare platforms against your workload
List the features you actually require: product variations, stock syncing, collection, delivery regions, tax handling, payment providers and reporting. Check current provider documentation and pricing for each rather than relying on an old comparison article.
Also ask who updates software, handles failures and exports your data if you move. Consider the admin experience, not only the customer-facing design. The right platform is one the business can operate consistently.
Understand the ongoing costs
Potential costs include platform subscriptions, payment processing, paid apps, domain renewal, email and support. These are separate from the design work unless expressly included in a quote. A transaction fee and a monthly subscription are not the same thing.
MadeReal’s £35 website plan is not an unlimited all-inclusive online store. A full shop or specialist integration is scoped and quoted separately. We can discuss whether a simpler product-and-enquiry website fits the business first.
Start with the customer journey
Ask what someone needs to know before visiting or ordering. An independent food business might benefit from a clear product introduction and visiting details before investing in complex fulfilment systems. The Skipton Cheese Stall project shows a real food-business website; it is not presented as evidence of a particular checkout system or sales result.
Explore small-business websites or talk to MadeReal about the actual scope. A free homepage preview helps judge the visual direction, while the operational requirements determine what needs to be built behind it.