An online store is not “a website with products”. It’s a system where a person finds the product themselves, places the order themselves and pays themselves — without calling a manager. Every “themselves” is a separate block of work. Let’s break down what a store really consists of, and why prices start from 3,800 ₾ and grow with catalogue size.
Catalogue — the shopfront and navigation
The foundation. Categories, product cards with photos and specs, search, filters, sorting. The key metric of a good catalogue is how many clicks it takes to find a specific product. With 30 items you can live without filters; with 300 you can’t; at 2,000+ items search and filters are the store — that’s how our ASB Catalog case works: 78 categories, 2,000+ items, search in seconds.
Cart and checkout
This is where most money is lost. Global statistics are stubbornly consistent: around 70% of carts are abandoned, and the top reasons are unexpected delivery costs, forced registration and long forms. So we design checkout to be short: minimal fields, guest checkout, delivery cost visible before — not after.
Payments
The payment module is chosen per country: in Georgia — bank gateways (BOG, TBC) and Apple/Google Pay; in Russia — YooKassa and analogues; for international sales — Stripe or Shopify’s built-in payments. Integration means not just a “pay” button but refunds, partial payments and notifications too.
Delivery
Zones, rates, pickup, courier-service integrations. The minimal version is a flat city rate; the grown-up version calculates by weight and address through a delivery service’s API.
Fiscal compliance — the bit everyone forgets
An online sale means a receipt. In Georgia — reporting through RS.ge; in Russia — law 54-FZ and an online cash register. If this isn’t planned at the start, the store will need rebuilding. We confirm the requirements at the brief — they depend on the country and business form.
Inventory and accounting
Once orders start coming, the question appears: “how much is left in stock?” Syncing with an accounting system (1C, spreadsheets, an ERP) is a separate job from 1,900 ₾ — but it’s exactly what turns a shopfront into a system where stock and prices update themselves.
Analytics
E-commerce analytics answers “where did the money come from”: which products get viewed, where carts get abandoned, which ads pay off. Without it the store is a black box.
What it costs
The price depends on the engine and on how many of the blocks above you need right now:
| Engine | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Tilda Store | up to ~100 products, quick start | from 3,800 ₾ |
| Custom stack (Astro + CMS) | any catalogue size, maximum speed | from 6,500 ₾ |
| WooCommerce | flexible mid-size e-commerce | from 6,500 ₾ |
| Shopify | international markets | from 5,700 ₾ |
| 1C-Bitrix | Russia, 1C integration | from 10,500 ₾ |
Full tables with timelines are on the home page. If your catalogue is small and the goal is simply to start selling, here’s the honest advice: don’t build an “Amazon” on day one. Launch the minimum (catalogue + cart + payments) and add inventory sync, promos and integrations once the orders flow.