Shopify is the right platform for most Indian D2C brands. What decides whether the store makes money is the configuration most builds skip.
Shopify suits most Indian D2C brands because checkout, hosting and payments are solved. The work that decides revenue is Indian-specific: gateway choice, GST-compliant invoicing, COD rules by pin code to control return-to-origin losses, courier integration, and a checkout tested on mid-range Android phones.
Shopify Payments, Razorpay, Cashfree and PayU differ on settlement time, per-method fees, UPI handling and dispute process. Start onboarding in week one, because KYC and approval routinely take longer than the build stage they are meant to fit into.
GSTIN capture, HSN codes and the correct CGST, SGST or IGST split by delivery state. Shopify does not do this natively for India, so it comes from an app or custom work, and retrofitting it means manual corrections every month.
Cash on delivery is a large share of Indian orders and carries return-to-origin losses that quietly eat margin. Rules by pin code, order value and category, plus partial prepayment options, turn COD from a liability into a channel.
Shiprocket, Delhivery, Bluedart or direct. Pin code serviceability, weight and zone-based rates, and tracking your team can see without opening another dashboard.
Most Indian Shopify stores are slow because of app scripts and uncompressed product photography rather than the theme. Every app you install adds weight to every page, whether the page uses it or not.
A mid-range Android on an uneven connection is your median customer. A checkout that works on a laptop and stalls there is where the revenue leaks, and desktop QA will never find it.
| Problem | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Gateway onboarding started late | Launch slips waiting on KYC |
| GST invoicing added after launch | Manual invoice fixes every month |
| COD with no pin code rules | Return-to-origin losses on orders you should have declined |
| Twenty apps installed | Every page slower, every month more expensive |
| Product photography uncompressed | Slow product pages on the phones customers use |
| No abandoned cart recovery | Recoverable revenue simply left |
| Theme customised without a copy | Every update overwrites your changes |
| Ask them | A good answer sounds like | Walk away if |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the code and files? | You do, unconditionally, in the contract | Ownership depends on staying with them |
| Can I open three sites you built? | Live URLs you can check yourself | Screenshots and a portfolio PDF |
| What is explicitly not included? | A written list with change pricing agreed | Everything is included, which means nothing is defined |
| How will we know it worked? | A metric agreed before work starts | They report activity rather than outcome |
The exclusions question is the one most people forget, and it decides whether the final invoice matches the quote.
Faster to launch, checkout and payments solved, hosting included. You pay monthly and per app, and you accept the platform's limits. Right for most D2C brands.
No platform fee and complete control, and you own hosting, security, performance and updates. Right when you already run WordPress and have someone to maintain it. See WooCommerce development.
Who maintains the store in month twelve. If the answer is nobody, Shopify. If you have a developer and want no platform fee, WooCommerce is genuinely cheaper over time.
For most, yes. Checkout, hosting, payments and PCI compliance are solved, and it is faster to launch than the alternatives. The work that decides revenue is Indian-specific configuration: gateway, GST invoicing, COD rules and courier integration.
Not natively in a way most Indian accountants accept. GSTIN capture, HSN codes and the CGST, SGST and IGST split by delivery state come from an app or custom work. Set it up before launch, because retrofitting means manual corrections every month.
Shopify Payments where available, or Razorpay, Cashfree or PayU. They differ on settlement time, per-method fees and UPI handling. Start onboarding in week one, since KYC approval frequently takes longer than the build.
With rules rather than a switch: by pin code, order value and category, plus partial prepayment for higher-value orders. Return-to-origin losses are the hidden cost of COD, and the difference between controlled and uncontrolled COD is often the difference between margin and none.
Usually apps and images rather than the theme. Every installed app adds scripts to every page whether that page uses it or not, and product photography uploaded uncompressed makes it worse. An audit tells you which apps are actually costing you.
Yes. The parts needing care are product URL redirects so search rankings survive, order and customer history, and retesting every payment and shipping rule after the move. Migrations that skip redirect mapping lose traffic that took years to build.
You do. The Shopify account, theme files, product and customer data are yours on final payment, and not conditional on staying with us.
Send us what you are trying to fix and we will tell you what it takes, what it costs, and whether we are the right people for it. If we are not, we will say so.