An ecommerce website development company in Chennai will offer a platform store or a built store, and the choice turns on seven requirements you can score yourself. Each firm tends to sell the route it offers. A platform specialist recommends a platform, and a custom shop recommends a build. This guide gives you a seven-row table to score both routes against your own business, plus a short process for turning the score into a decision. One limit comes first: Burhani has no ecommerce case study, so the advice rests on process alone.
What does an ecommerce website development company in Chennai build?
An ecommerce website development company in Chennai builds an online store on one of two routes. A platform store configures a ready-made system with themes and plugins, plus a payment gateway. Custom code around your catalogue and orders, plus stock levels, defines a custom-built store. A hybrid builds custom parts on top of a platform.
The platform route is fast to start. A ready-made system supplies a catalogue, a cart, and a checkout, and the firm configures them to your brand. Options follow the platform's own limits. You pay its fees for as long as you use it. Speed is the appeal. The built route starts from your process. The firm writes the catalogue, the order flow, and the stock links around how your business works, so the first release takes longer and you own every rule in it.
A hybrid sits between the two. The platform handles the storefront and the cart, while custom code covers one or two requirements that the platform cannot meet. Firms offer it under different names, so ask which parts are configured and which are written.
Buyers search under several labels. An ecommerce website design company in Chennai may offer the same routes as a team of ecommerce website developers in Chennai. So may an e-commerce development company in Chennai. The label says little about which route fits you. Our work in website development covers content-managed sites. Web applications cover custom order and stock flows.
Platform store or built store: which fits your requirements?
Score seven requirements: catalogue size, order management, inventory sync, shipping integration, GST invoice, payment gateway, and platform transaction fee. Standard features cover them on a platform store, and two or more custom rules point to a built store. Count how many of the seven your business can leave as standard.
Swipe or use the arrow keys to compare all 3 columns.
Requirement | Platform store fits when | Built store fits when |
|---|---|---|
Requirement: Catalogue size | Platform store fits when: Standard product pages cover the range | Built store fits when: Products need custom variants or rules |
Requirement: Order management | Platform store fits when: Standard order states are enough | Built store fits when: Orders follow custom approval steps |
Requirement: Inventory sync | Platform store fits when: A plugin syncs with your stock system | Built store fits when: Sync needs custom rules or an ERP link |
Requirement: Shipping integration | Platform store fits when: Carriers have ready connectors | Built store fits when: Rates or labels follow custom logic |
Requirement: GST invoice | Platform store fits when: Platform issues compliant invoices | Built store fits when: Invoice rules differ by customer or product |
Requirement: Payment gateway | Platform store fits when: A supported gateway meets your needs | Built store fits when: A required gateway has no connector |
Requirement: Platform transaction fee | Platform store fits when: Fee is low against your volume | Built store fits when: Fee grows faster than a build would cost |
The count of custom rules decides. Zero or one points to a platform store. Two or three suggest a hybrid, with custom code for those rules, and four or more means the platform will fight you at every step. A built store then deserves a fair quote.
No ecommerce case study stands behind this table. The reasoning comes from how orders and stock behave in any business, plus invoices, and we have built that kind of software for other workflows.
Run the scoring as a one-hour workshop with the people who handle orders, stock, and invoices. Each person scores the seven rows from their own desk. Every disagreement is useful, because it shows where a requirement is not yet defined. Treat the table as a way to organize your questions.
Inventory sync is easy to underestimate. When the store and the stock system disagree, a customer buys an item that is not there. The post on inventory management software sets out when to buy, configure, or build that side, and it applies to a store as much as to a warehouse.
What does cart abandonment research say about the choice?
Baymard Institute's analysis of 50 studies puts the average documented cart abandonment rate at 70.22%. Extra costs such as shipping and tax, plus fees, drive 40% of abandonment, and a required account drives 18%. Checkout design decides results on either route, so test it before you choose.
The Baymard Institute figures come from a research aggregate of studies on online shopping in general. They do not describe your shop. The 40% and 18% shares come from Baymard's own survey of US online shoppers, after the "just browsing" group is set aside. Use them as a test list.
The list gives you a checkout test you can run on any store. Show the full cost, including shipping and tax, early. Offer guest checkout. Keep the number of steps short. Then run a real order through the flow on a phone and count the taps.
A platform store gives you a tested checkout, and a built store gives you control over it. Neither guarantees a low abandonment rate. The design of the flow does that, so ask each firm to show its checkout for a client with a similar catalogue.
What should an ecommerce quote from a Chennai company include?
A usable quote lists the catalogue import, the payment gateway, order management, inventory sync, shipping connectors, GST invoicing, and any platform transaction fee. It states who owns the store accounts and who pays for renewals. Missing items will be returned later as change requests.
- Catalogue import: how many products, what formats, and who cleans the data.
- Payment gateway: which gateway, who opens the account, and who pays its fees.
- Order management: which states an order passes through, and who can change them.
- Inventory sync: which system holds the master stock and how often it updates the store.
- Shipping connectors: which carriers, and how rates and labels are produced.
- GST invoicing: whether the store issues the invoice or exports data to an accounting tool.
- Platform fees: the percentage or fixed fee per order, and what triggers an increase.
Paste the list into an email to every firm on your shortlist. A quote with no line for GST invoicing has left a compliance task to you.
Call a reference who runs a store of similar size. Find out how long the project took to the first real order, who fixed problems in the first month, and what the client would change about the contract. The answers will not appear in a portfolio.
References settle the claims that a portfolio cannot.
Platform fees need a second look. A fee of 2% on 1,000 orders a month is small. The same fee on 100,000 orders is a line in the budget that a build might have paid for. Estimate your volume in 2 years and price the fee against it.
Ownership belongs on the same page. The store accounts, the domain, and the payment gateway account should sit in your company's name. The post on choosing a web development company lists seven handover items that apply here too.
How does GST invoicing affect an online store?
Every taxable sale needs a compliant invoice, and larger businesses must also report B2B invoices through e-invoicing. CBIC Notification 10/2023 set the e-invoicing threshold at ₹5 crore of aggregate turnover from 1 August 2023. Confirm the current rule with your tax adviser.
Find out from each firm what happens at the invoice step. Some stores issue a compliant invoice themselves, and others export order data to an accounting tool that issues it. Both can work. The risk lies in the gap between the two, where a missing field stops an invoice from reaching the registration portal.
Your invoice rules, which may differ by customer or by product, can be followed exactly in a built store. A platform follows its own rules, so check them against yours before you sign. The invoice flow belongs in the statement of work either way.
This section is general information and gives no tax advice. A chartered accountant decides which rules apply to your turnover.
Where does Burhani Technologies fit among ecommerce developers in Chennai?
Burhani Technologies has built software since 2010, including content-managed websites and web applications. We have no e-commerce case study to show, so we scope an online store based on your process: catalogue and orders, stock and invoices. A platform store is our recommendation when it covers your requirements.
→ Describe your catalogue and how orders and stock move today, and book a free consultation.
FAQs on ecommerce website development
How do I choose an ecommerce website development company in Chennai?
Begin by scoring the seven requirements: catalogue size, order management, inventory sync, shipping, GST invoice, payment gateway, and platform fee. Ask each firm which route fits and why. A firm that scores your requirements before it recommends a platform is working from your process, and that is the one to shortlist.
What is the difference between a platform store and a built store?
A platform store configures a ready-made system with themes and plugins, plus a gateway. A built store writes custom code around your catalogue and orders. The platform is quicker to launch and bound by its features, while the build follows your rules and takes longer. A hybrid mixes the two.
What is a platform transaction fee?
A platform transaction fee is a percentage or fixed charge the platform takes on each order, on top of the payment gateway's own fee. Compare it with your expected order volume, because a small fee on low volume costs little, while a fee that scales with sales can pass the cost of a build.
Do I need GST e-invoicing for an online store?
The rule depends on aggregate turnover. CBIC Notification 10/2023 set the e-invoicing threshold at ₹5 crore from 1 August 2023. Your tax adviser should confirm the current rule. Check that the store, or the accounting tool behind it, can produce and report the invoice.
How does inventory sync work in an online store?
A plugin or an integration updates stock levels after each order, and again when stock arrives. Establish which system holds the master record, how often it updates the store, and who fixes a failed sync.
What is a good cart abandonment rate?
Baymard's average is 70.22% across 50 studies, so a store near that figure is typical. Compare against it, then test the checkout. Extra costs shown late and a forced account are among the top causes in Baymard's survey. Both are cheap to fix, and neither needs a rebuild.
How many of the seven requirements need custom rules?
Count the custom ones among the seven requirements, and let that count pick the route for your ecommerce website development company in Chennai to quote.
→ Describe your product range and order flow, and get in touch.
