The case for a custom e-commerce platform in Lyon
Lyon is a commercial centre in France with a population of roughly 519,000, and one of the places where we build custom e-commerce platforms for local businesses.
Key sectors include healthcare, biotech and industrial software, with business districts such as Part-Dieu, Confluence and Gerland.
Logistics are supported by Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport, which matters when you promise customers fast delivery.
France has more than 4 million enterprises, almost all of them SMEs (INSEE). French shoppers are loyal to brands that offer pick-up-point delivery, CB payments and instalments. French-language UX and transparent return conditions are critical for conversion.
That is why more companies in Lyon are moving from phone, WhatsApp and spreadsheet orders to a proper custom e-commerce platform — one place where products, prices, payments, orders and customers are managed together.
Localised for Lyon, not translated into it
A store that works in Lyon respects local habits as well as local law. These are the details we configure first.
Currency and pricing
Prices, taxes, shipping and refunds are shown in euro (EUR), formatted the way Lyon customers read them.
Language and content
Content can be produced in French, so a Lyon customer reads the store in the language they use at home.
Local trust signals
Badges for Cartes Bancaires (CB) and Visa and Mastercard, La Poste Colissimo delivery and clear return terms reassure first-time buyers in Lyon.
Domain, phone and contact
Using .fr where it suits you signals a local business to shoppers and search engines. Contact buttons are pre-set with +33, so a customer in Lyon taps once to call or message.
Talent and partners nearby
Lyon draws on Université de Lyon and INSA Lyon, which means plenty of local staff, interns and technology partners to run the store after launch.
A custom e-commerce platform built around your Lyon business
Lyon businesses tell us what they sell and how they want to sell it; our engineers turn that into a custom custom e-commerce platform, an admin system and a mobile app shaped around their operations.
In Lyon we typically work with enterprises with complex catalogues, multi-brand groups, businesses outgrowing SaaS platforms and companies migrating legacy stores, and with sellers in categories such as fashion and luxury, beauty and cosmetics, home and DIY and electronics that have strong online demand in France.
Before any commitment you get a free requirements meeting, a demo built on your use case and a proposal priced to your budget.
Core modules we build for Lyon clients
These are the building blocks of a custom e-commerce platform. We scope them with you, so you pay for what your Lyon operation needs.
Custom workflows
Product configurators, made-to-order flows, approvals, contracts and industry-specific rules. Catalogues come in from spreadsheets, ERP exports or supplier feeds, so your Lyon team keeps its current way of working.
Headless architecture
API-first commerce with a fast front end, so web, app, kiosk and marketplace channels share one backend. Checkout is configured for Cartes Bancaires (CB), Visa and Mastercard and PayPal.
Multi-entity operations
Multiple brands, companies, warehouses, currencies and tax registrations on one platform. Couriers such as La Poste Colissimo, Chronopost and Mondial Relay plug in alongside your own fleet for Lyon orders.
Deep integrations
ERP, PIM, WMS, CRM, POS, accounting and legacy systems with reliable, monitored data sync. Stock can be held in Lyon or anywhere in France, with pickup and local-delivery options where they make sense.
Migration
Move from older platforms with product, customer and order history, SEO-safe redirects and parallel runs. Dashboards break sales down by product, customer and neighbourhood of Lyon, so you see what to promote.
Performance and security
Caching, CDN, load testing, security hardening, audit logs and cloud infrastructure as code. Storefront language, imagery and navigation are set up for Lyon shoppers and available in French.
Payments customers in Lyon expect
A custom e-commerce platform for Lyon must support the way people here actually pay: Cartes Bancaires (CB), Visa and Mastercard, PayPal, Alma and Oney instalments, Apple Pay and SEPA transfer.
Gateway selection depends on your category and merchant approval; we connect the provider, reconcile payments, automate retries and refunds, and never store raw card data. Prices, taxes and refunds appear in euro (EUR).
For Lyon customers ordering from Part-Dieu, Confluence and Gerland, cash-on-delivery and pay-on-pickup rules can be set per delivery zone.
- PayPal
- SEPA transfer
- Visa and Mastercard
- Alma and Oney instalments
- Apple Pay
- Cartes Bancaires (CB)
Shipping, couriers and local delivery in Lyon
Your custom e-commerce platform can book shipments and share tracking with La Poste Colissimo, Chronopost, Mondial Relay, DPD France, Relais Colis and GLS, or route orders to your own riders and stores across Lyon.
We set up shipping zones, cut-off times, free-shipping thresholds, cash-collection rules and returns so the promise on the product page matches what your team can deliver.
Connectivity in the area — Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport — makes regional and national dispatch from Lyon practical.
Selling online legally in France
On tax: French TVA is 20% standard with reduced 10%, 5.5% and 2.1% rates; e-invoicing obligations are being phased in for French businesses from 2026.
On privacy we design around the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy rules on cookies and marketing consent, enforced by the CNIL, which is particularly active on cookie consent; on consumer rights the store reflects the EU Consumer Rights Directive (14-day withdrawal right), the Digital Services Act and, from June 2025, the European Accessibility Act for online shops, the Code de la consommation and the AGEC anti-waste law on packaging and product information.
Controls we implement include compliant invoices, consent capture, policy pages, restricted staff access and audit trails. Please confirm the final legal and tax position with a local adviser in Lyon.
Your own store alongside Amazon.fr and Cdiscount
Amazon.fr, Cdiscount and Fnac Darty are where many shoppers in Lyon start, which is why sellers list there. The trade-off is commission, limited branding and rules the platform can change overnight.
Your custom e-commerce platform becomes the hub: marketplaces and social shops become extra outlets fed from one catalogue, while repeat customers buy directly from you at better margins.
Industries in Lyon we work with
Popular online categories in France include fashion and luxury, beauty and cosmetics, home and DIY, electronics, food and wine and second-hand goods. Local demand in Lyon is shaped by healthcare, biotech and industrial software, so we often design catalogues and B2B ordering around those sectors. In Lyon, we most often build custom e-commerce platforms for:
Enterprises with complex catalogues
We map how enterprises with complex catalogues sell today and digitise it end to end — from enquiry and order to payment, dispatch and repeat purchase.
Multi-brand groups
For multi-brand groups, we usually start with multi-entity operations, then add PIM and DAM once orders are flowing.
Businesses outgrowing SaaS platforms
Catalogue, pricing and fulfilment rules designed for businesses outgrowing SaaS platforms in Lyon, connected to the systems you already use.
Companies migrating legacy stores
Companies migrating legacy stores get deep integrations plus performance and security workflows tailored to their operations.
Regulated sectors
We map how regulated sectors sell today and digitise it end to end — from enquiry and order to payment, dispatch and repeat purchase.
High-traffic retailers
For high-traffic retailers, we usually start with custom workflows, then add identity and SSO once orders are flowing.
Take your Lyon store onto customers' phones
Because the platform is API-first, customer, staff and partner mobile apps can be added at any point without rebuilding the backend.
One backend serves the website and the apps, and the apps ship under your own Google Play and App Store accounts — so what you change once appears everywhere.
Order alerts, offers and abandoned-cart reminders go out on Lyon time (UTC+2), in French if you want.
- WMS and 3PL systems
- BI and data warehouses
- POS and store systems
- SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics and Odoo ERPs
- Identity and SSO
- Search engines (Elasticsearch, Algolia)
- PIM and DAM
- Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Integrations above are examples; we connect any system that offers a suitable API, database access or approved import and export process.
How we phase your custom e-commerce platform
We launch the journeys that create value first, then add depth. A typical roadmap for a custom e-commerce platform in Lyon:
| Phase | What goes live |
|---|---|
| Foundation | Architecture, core commerce, priority integrations and migration. Configured for EUR, Cartes Bancaires (CB) and La Poste Colissimo from the start. |
| Differentiate | Custom workflows, configurators and automation. |
| Optimise | Performance, new channels, apps and continuous enhancement. Reviewed against how Lyon customers actually buy. |
Success is measured on page load and API response times, uptime, order-sync accuracy, manual-work hours saved, release frequency and total cost of ownership — tracked on a dashboard you can see from launch day.
Support hours and communication for Lyon
Our team covers UTC+2 — 3h 30m behind India (IST) — through three 8-hour shifts, so a Lyon client always reaches someone during the local working day.
We work in English and can deliver storefront content in French. NDAs are signed on request, and you get a named project lead plus direct access to the engineers building your custom e-commerce platform.
Our head office is in Chhapi, Gujarat, with an office in Hyderabad and representation in Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia and Zambia; Lyon clients are served remotely with on-site workshops when the project needs them.
