Online Store Development in the Philippines, From Cart to Courier

Three things, usually. Catalogue size and variants: 60 products is a Starter job, 2,000 SKUs with size and colour combinations is not. Custom workflows: tiered wholesale pricing, per-branch stock, subscriptions or a vendor dashboard. And integrations: syncing to an existing POS, accounting system or marketplace account. Pro at ₱149,000 covers most growing stores and adds the branded Android app; Business at ₱199,000 covers the rest. We tell you which band you are in before you commit, not after.

Layer the controls. Orders above a peso limit you set trigger a confirmation by SMS, Viber or Messenger, and the parcel does not move until someone replies. High-value orders can require a partial downpayment by GCash. Numbers that have already refused a delivery go on a blocklist, and new customers can be limited to prepaid on first purchase. You also get a return-to-sender rate by area and by courier, so you can switch off COD for the routes that keep failing.

J&T Express and LBC for nationwide parcels, Lalamove and Grab for same-day Metro Manila deliveries, and other couriers where they publish an integration. Where a courier has no API, we still build the workflow: the order screen produces the address block and package details, and the tracking number you get back is pasted once and pushed to the customer automatically. You keep your own courier accounts and your own negotiated rates.

By zone and weight, not by guesswork. We set Metro Manila, rest of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao as separate zones with weight bands that match your courier's rate card, then add remote-area and island surcharges where they apply. A free-shipping threshold is a useful lever — it lifts basket size — but only once you know your average shipping cost per zone. That number shows up in your reports after the first few weeks, and we tune the rates with you then.

That is the point of the admin panel. Adding products, changing prices, running a sale, editing shipping rates, processing refunds and booking couriers are all screens, not code. You get unlimited admin users with roles, so a packer can see orders without seeing your sales figures. Training and written documentation are included in every package, and support covers the first year while your team gets comfortable.

No. Plenty of stores we build run from a room at home with a shelf and a printer, and the store does not care where the stock sits. What you do need is registration: DTI for a sole proprietorship or SEC for a corporation, a mayor's permit and BIR registration, because your payment gateway will ask for those documents before approving your merchant account. Confirm the specifics with your accountant or your BIR RDO.

Usually yes, and you do not have to give up Messenger. The store becomes the thing you link to: it takes the payment, records the address, books the courier and sends the tracking, so your team stops copying orders into a notebook. Messenger stays for the conversation, and the free lifetime AI assistant handles the repetitive questions — availability, sizes, shipping fees, delivery times — on both the site and after hours.