Retail eCommerce development where the stock figure is actually right
Multichannel retail is an inventory accuracy problem wearing a marketing costume. Fix the stock figure and most of the other complaints disappear.
What does High10 build for retail?
Retail eCommerce development is the building and integration of online stores, point of sale connections, click and collect and loyalty systems for Australian retailers. It keeps one accurate stock figure across shopfronts, the website and marketplaces, and it works within Australian Consumer Law obligations on pricing, refunds and gift cards. It suits retailers selling in more than one place.
Get a fixed written quote- Typical timeline
- 6 to 14 weeks
- What drives cost
- Catalogue size and data quality, the number of systems that must connect, whether store level fulfilment is in scope.
- Best for
- Retailers running physical stores alongside online and marketplace channels
- You own
- The store, the customer list, the product data and every channel account
- Built with
- POS and ERP connectors, real time inventory sync, commerce platforms
Your handover
Why the stock number is wrong and what it costs
Ask a retailer with three stores and a website where the authoritative stock figure lives and you will usually get a pause. In practice the point of sale knows what left the shop, the online store knows what was ordered, the marketplace listing knows neither until an overnight sync runs, and the warehouse spreadsheet is updated when someone has time. The gap between those numbers is where oversells, cancelled orders and refund apologies come from, and each one costs more than the margin on the sale.
- 01Online store built on the platform that fits your pricing model
- 02POS, ERP and inventory integration with documented data ownership
- 03Real time stock sync across stores, online and marketplaces
- 04Click and collect with store level fulfilment tooling
- 05Loyalty program with cross channel customer identity
- 06Consumer law compliant pricing, returns and gift card handling
- Marketplace channel rules and listing management
- eCommerce analytics and reconciliation reporting
- Store staff training recordings and admin documentation
The behavioural cost is larger than the operational one
The behavioural cost is larger than the operational one. A customer who is told after payment that the item is unavailable rarely returns, and under Australian Consumer Law they are entitled to a remedy rather than a credit note at your discretion. Staff learn not to trust the system and start ringing other stores, which is a workaround that hides the problem from management. The fix is not a better spreadsheet. It is deciding which system owns the stock figure, making every channel read from it, and building the reconciliation that catches drift before a customer does.
Staff learn not to trust the system and start ringing other stores, which is a workaround that hides the problem from management.
The consumer law rules that shape a retail build
The ACCC enforces Australian Consumer Law and a great deal of it lands directly on your website rather than on your shopfront. Prices must be displayed as a single total figure including GST where a total price can be calculated, which is why component pricing and surprise fees at checkout attract attention. Was and now pricing has to be genuine, meaning the previous price must have been offered for a reasonable period. Consumer guarantees cannot be excluded, so a returns page that says no refunds on sale items is both wrong and enforceable against you.
Gift cards must carry a minimum expiry period and the expiry has to be displayed
There are specifics worth building in rather than writing a policy about. Gift cards must carry a minimum expiry period and the expiry has to be displayed. Subscription and membership cancellations should be as easy to complete as the signup was. Product safety recalls need a page structure that can carry a notice quickly. Reviews must be genuine, and incentivised or filtered reviews are a real enforcement risk. We build these into the platform configuration and content templates so compliance is the default state rather than something a marketing coordinator has to remember during a sale.
- Single figure pricing including GST, with delivery costs surfaced early
- Returns and warranty pages written around consumer guarantees
- Gift card expiry rules enforced by the system, not by policy text
- Was and now pricing tied to real price history
- Recall and product safety notices publishable within the hour
- Review collection that does not filter or incentivise
How the engagement runs
Click and collect that people actually use twice
Click and collect fails for boring reasons. The website promises pickup in an hour on stock that has not been counted since Thursday. The store receives the order as an email nobody watches during trade. The customer arrives and stands at the counter while a staff member searches the floor. Nothing about that experience makes anyone do it again.
- 01Stage 1Establish store level stock accuracy with a real count and an agreed reconciliation routine
- 02Stage 2Set pickup promises per store based on measured picking capacity, not on a marketing target
- 03Stage 3Push orders to an in store device or printer that staff genuinely see during trade
- 04Stage 4Give staff a two tap flow for picked, ready and collected, with automatic customer notification
- 05Stage 5Handle partial availability explicitly with a choice rather than a silent cancellation
- 06Stage 6Set an unclaimed order rule with automatic reminders and a return to stock step
- 07Stage 7Measure ready time, collection time and abandonment per store, then adjust the promise
Two decisions on your side that keep the project moving
Done properly it is one of the most profitable things a multi store retailer can offer, because it converts a delivery cost into a store visit. We build the pieces that make it reliable, and we are deliberately conservative with promises: it is better to say ready tomorrow morning and beat it than to say one hour and fail.
What we build for retailers
The work usually starts with the integration layer rather than the storefront. We connect point of sale, the online store, the ERP or inventory system and any marketplace channels, then decide and document which system is authoritative for products, prices, stock and customers. Once that spine exists, everything else gets easier: click and collect becomes possible because store level stock is trustworthy, ship from store becomes possible because you can see where the item actually is, and endless aisle stops being a slide in a strategy deck.
On top of that we build the parts customers touch
On top of that we build the parts customers touch. A storefront on Shopify or WooCommerce depending on how unusual your pricing and account structure is, click and collect with realistic pickup timing rather than optimistic promises, and loyalty that is worth joining. Retailers already selling on Amazon or eBay get channel rules mapped so the same unit is not promised to three buyers. Where stock complexity is the core problem, a dedicated inventory system as the hub is often the better structure than making the store platform pretend to be one.
Loyalty, customer data and the difference between the two
Most Australian retail loyalty programs are discount schemes with a card. They cost margin and produce a member list nobody uses. A program is worth building when it changes behaviour, which usually means it either increases visit frequency or reveals identity at the point of sale so you can finally connect an online customer to their in store purchases.
More on loyalty, customer data and the difference between the two
That second outcome is the one retailers undervalue. Once purchases are attributed to a person across channels you can answer questions that were previously guesswork: which online browsers buy in store, which categories bring people back, and which promotions simply discounted a sale that was going to happen anyway. We build the identity join first and the rewards second, connect it to email automation so the segments are actionable, and instrument it properly so the program's cost is measured against its actual lift rather than against total member spend.
When you do not need any of this
A single store with a small online range does not need an integration spine. A well configured commerce platform with a simple point of sale connection will serve you for years, and the money is better spent on product photography, local search and getting found. We would rather scope that honestly than sell an architecture project to a business with one stockroom.
The same applies if your online sales are flat but your traffic is healthy
The same applies if your online sales are flat but your traffic is healthy. That is a conversion problem, not a systems problem, and conversion work on the pages that carry the load will tell you more in six weeks than a replatform will in six months. Integration work earns its cost when you have multiple stock locations, real marketplace volume, or a wholesale channel with its own pricing. Restaurants and food retail should look at our restaurant page, since the ordering problem is different.
Everything included
The handover checklist
The practical artefacts your team or your development partner receives when this phase is complete.
- Online store built on the platform that fits your pricing model
- POS, ERP and inventory integration with documented data ownership
- Real time stock sync across stores, online and marketplaces
- Click and collect with store level fulfilment tooling
- Loyalty program with cross channel customer identity
- Consumer law compliant pricing, returns and gift card handling
- Marketplace channel rules and listing management
- eCommerce analytics and reconciliation reporting
- Store staff training recordings and admin documentation
Not sure which level you need?
A 45 minute call, no cost, no obligation. You leave with a scope, an honest timeline and a fixed written quote.
Questions buyers usually ask
Frequently asked questions
Working with us
Can you connect our existing point of sale system?
In most cases yes. The Australian retail POS market is well served by systems with real interfaces, and we integrate rather than push a replacement. Where a system only offers batch export, we build a scheduled sync with reconciliation reporting and are explicit about the lag. We assess this in the first fortnight, because it changes the shape of the whole project.
What support do you provide during peak trading?
Retail peaks are predictable, so we prepare rather than react. Before the November to January period we load test the store, review the app and script stack for anything that has crept in, agree a change freeze date and set up alerting on checkout and sync failures. Retainer clients get an escalation path over the peak, since a two hour outage in that window is expensive.
Detail and edge cases
How long does a retail integration project take?
Usually 6 to 14 weeks. A storefront with a single point of sale connection is at the shorter end. Multi store stock sync, ERP integration, click and collect and marketplace channels take the longer end, and the pacing is usually set by data cleanup rather than development. Product data and an accurate opening stock count are the two things that most often move the date.
What drives the cost of a retail eCommerce build?
Catalogue size and data quality, the number of systems that must connect, whether store level fulfilment is in scope, and how unusual your pricing and customer account structure is. Those four explain most of the variation. We scope them on a call and send a fixed written quote. Platform subscriptions and app fees are paid directly by you in your own accounts.
Do we own the customer list and the store?
Yes. The platform account is opened under your business with your ABN, the theme or application code sits in a repository you control, and your customer, product and order data can be exported at any time. Loyalty data is yours too. We work as a collaborator on your accounts, at an access level you can revoke whenever you choose.
How do you keep stock accurate across channels?
One system is nominated as authoritative for stock and every channel reads from it, with buffers set per channel so marketplaces cannot promise the last unit. Movements sync in near real time where the platforms allow it, and a nightly reconciliation report flags drift with the likely cause. Perfect accuracy is not achievable in retail, so we design for fast detection rather than pretending drift will not happen.
Related services
Get a fixed written quote for your retail project
Tell us how many stock locations you have, which point of sale you run and where your stock figure disagrees with itself. We answer inside one business day.