Choosing help to set up payments and delivery correctly

Payment and delivery systems are the heartbeat of an online store—they either work seamlessly or quietly hemorrhage sales. Many store owners discover too late that a developer prioritized design over the operational backbone. The real separation between providers isn't their portfolio or price, but whether they think operationally from the start.

Does the developer have payment gateway experience in your market?

South Africa's payment landscape is fragmented. Stripe, Payfast, Yoco, Square, 2Checkout—each has different settlement times, transaction fees, refund workflows and fraud protocols. A developer who defaulted to international gateways for their last five builds may not know the quirks that matter locally. Ask who they've integrated and how many live stores they've launched using each. Better still, ask them to walk you through what happens when a customer's payment fails, or when you need to refund part of an order—the quality of their answer reveals whether they've actually debugged these scenarios or just followed a tutorial.

The developer should also explain the difference between payment *processing* and payment *settlement*. If they can't articulate why bank account details, Proof of Registration and tax compliance matter for your merchant account, they haven't done this work often enough. Don't accept vague reassurances; ask them to show you the checklist they use before going live with a new store.

Can they handle delivery complexity without custom code for every scenario?

Shipping isn't just picking a courier. Different products have different rules—some can't ship to certain provinces, weight breaks trigger price jumps, some orders need signature on delivery. A developer who treats delivery as a one-time configuration will leave you stuck when your business grows. The difference lies in whether they've built stores that adapt shipping logic without code changes.

Ask how they approach multi-carrier management. If your store might use Takealot, Postnet and another service later, can the system be extended without pulling them back in? Find out whether they've used Shopify's built-in carrier integrations, WooCommerce plugins or custom APIs—each has trade-offs. Crucially, ask how the customer sees delivery costs at checkout. If they can't explain the flow—how price tiers feed into the cart, how weight calculations trigger, where tax sits—the setup will confuse buyers and harm conversions.

Who manages the relationship with payment and courier providers after launch?

Once live, things break. A payment gateway update blocks a payment method. A courier's API goes down. Your settlement account gets flagged by the bank for verification. If your developer vanishes at this point, you're stranded. Clarify upfront: will they handle initial troubleshooting, or will you own it? If they'll support you, for how long and at what cost? Some charge a retainer for six months post-launch; others offer one month free and then hourly rates. Neither is wrong, but you need to know before you sign.

Also ask whether they'll help you navigate payment processor requirements. Banks and payment gateways have compliance rules—they may ask for proof of trading, your business address, tax details. A developer who's walked multiple stores through this process knows the questions to pre-empt and the documentation to prepare.

Do they test with real transactions before handover?

Someone can build a checkout that looks flawless but fails under pressure. The best developers run end-to-end tests: real card declines, refunds, partial shipments, delivery failures. Ask what their sign-off checklist includes. If they say "I'll test it in staging," push back—staging doesn't reveal how a payment gateway handles your actual merchant account, or whether your bank's fraud rules will block legitimate transactions.

A solid provider documents test scenarios and shares results with you. They'll also explain which transactions you should test yourself post-launch—sometimes the first 10 live orders reveal snags that testing missed. If they hand the store over without this conversation, you're their first guinea pig.

When evaluating candidates, ask for references from store owners who've been live for at least six months. Ask those owners one specific question: "After the build was finished, did payment or delivery problems surprise you?" Their answers matter far more than any portfolio piece. On Strove, look for developers with verified case studies that detail payment and delivery architecture, not just aesthetic wins.