Multilingual storefronts for retail, built to survive a spike.
Wave18 builds the underlying storefront and marketing site for retail and eCommerce brands on a static-first architecture, pre-rendered and served from the edge so a listing or product page loads in well under a second — even when a sale or seasonal peak triples traffic. Every build targets 95+ Lighthouse across every page, ships multilingual from day one across six languages with proper hreflang so opening a new EU market is a content task rather than an engineering project, and is built to WCAG 2.2 AA — a legal requirement for e-commerce sold to EU consumers under the European Accessibility Act, not just good practice. The commerce engine is decoupled behind an API so checkout stays responsive under load. Projects start from a fixed price of £5,000, delivered by one accountable team from scoping through launch.
What challenges does retail & ecommerce face?
Slow storefronts lose mobile sales
Most retail traffic is on mid-range phones on mobile data, where a heavy, plugin-laden theme costs conversions before the page even finishes loading.
Traffic spikes break checkout
Campaigns, launches and seasonal peaks are exactly when a monolithic store slows down or falls over — the worst possible moment for it to happen.
Every new market means more workarounds
Adding a language, currency or region to a store that was not designed for it turns a content task into an engineering project every time.
The EAA now applies to selling in the EU
Under the European Accessibility Act, e-commerce sold to EU consumers must be accessible — inaccessible checkout is now a compliance risk, not just lost custom.
What's included in web development for retail & ecommerce?
Custom Websites
Bespoke marketing and corporate sites on Astro or Next.js.
WordPress
Managed, secure and fast WordPress when a CMS fits best.
Headless CMS
Strapi, Contentful and Sanity for content teams at scale.
Web Applications
Dashboards, portals and SaaS front-ends built to last.
Frequently asked
What does a custom web development project cost?
Most web development projects start from £5,000, with corporate sites, eCommerce builds and complex applications scoping up from there depending on requirements.
How long does a website build take?
Simple marketing sites typically take 4–6 weeks, eCommerce stores 8–12 weeks, and complex web applications 12–20 weeks, depending on scope.