E-commerce · Kenya

E-commerce development in Kenya.

Build an online store that sells in Kenya — Shopify Headless, Medusa.js custom, or WooCommerce when it genuinely fits. M-Pesa on checkout, Pesapal and Flutterwave as backup, catalogue that editors can actually update.

Every store we ship is tested on a real Safaricom 4G connection and a real mid-range Android phone. The site loads before your customer switches to WhatsApp.

Start a project See pricing
1.5–5 MShopify/Medusa cross-over (KES/mo)
3–5%Typical platform fees saved on Medusa
< 2sMobile LCP target
KESAll billing, zero dollar mark-up

E-commerce in Kenya has one hard, inescapable constraint: most of your customers pay with M-Pesa, and most of them shop from a 4G phone in a matatu on Thika Road. If your checkout takes 8 seconds to load or asks for a credit card first, you have lost the sale — not to a competitor, but to a WhatsApp group chat.

We design around that constraint. M-Pesa STK push is the default payment option, not buried in a "more options" dropdown. The mobile site loads in under 2 seconds on throttled 4G. Product images are AVIF, lazy-loaded, and sized exactly for the viewport. The cart survives network drops.

The right platform depends on your revenue and flow complexity. Under KES 1.5M / month in revenue, Shopify with a custom theme is almost always the right answer — you get a proven checkout, a working admin, and a team that doesn't need to maintain infrastructure. Above KES 5M, or with custom subscription/B2B logic, a Medusa.js build pays back in 12–18 months. We'll recommend which one honestly.

Why teams choose us

What you get.

M-Pesa as the default checkout

STK push on the checkout page, no redirect, no 3rd-party SDK bloat. Pesapal + Flutterwave + card as fall-backs. Cart survives the network drop.

Shopify Headless or Medusa — we pick what fits

Under KES 1.5M/mo revenue: Shopify. Above KES 5M/mo or with custom flows: Medusa.js self-hosted. We'll tell you which honestly, in writing, in your first proposal.

Real admin for your team

Upload products, manage stock, apply discounts, see orders — without a developer. For Medusa builds, we extend the admin with the dashboards your ops team actually uses.

Built for mobile Kenya

Core Web Vitals green on throttled Safaricom 4G. AVIF/WebP images, lazy-loaded, sized per viewport. Tested on Moto G4-class Android before launch.

Inventory, reports, receipts

Inventory sync, stock alerts, best-sellers dashboard, KRA e-TIMS receipt generation, and a weekly-sales PDF your founder actually opens.

Shipping to all 47 counties

G4S, Sendy, Pickup Mtaani, Wells Fargo — we integrate the courier APIs your operation actually uses, with cost calculation at checkout per county.

FAQ

Questions we hear often.

Shopify or custom — which should I choose?
Under KES 1.5M / month in revenue, Shopify is the honest recommendation: cheaper, faster to launch, less to maintain. Above KES 5M / month or with custom subscription / B2B / bundling logic, a custom Medusa build pays back in 12–18 months. In between, it depends on whether your differentiation is a flow Shopify can't do.
How much does an online store in Kenya cost?
Shopify with a custom theme: KES 450,000 – 1,200,000 one-off plus ~KES 20,000 / month run rate. Custom Medusa.js build: KES 1,500,000 – 4,500,000 plus ~KES 25,000 / month infrastructure. We publish a cost breakdown for both in our e-commerce journal post (linked below).
What payment methods can you integrate?
M-Pesa (Daraja direct, Pesapal, Flutterwave), Airtel Money, cards (Stripe, Pesapal, DPO), PayPal if you have global customers, bank transfer, cash-on-delivery with driver confirmation. Default checkout is M-Pesa STK push because that's what converts in Kenya.
Can you migrate me off WooCommerce?
Yes. We've migrated stores from WooCommerce and Magento to Shopify and Medusa without breaking SEO (full 301 redirect map) and with zero downtime. Product, customer and order history are preserved; CSV exports convert cleanly.
Do you handle KRA e-TIMS?
Yes — receipt generation that integrates with e-TIMS so you don't run into compliance issues on sales over KES 5M / year. For smaller operators we also handle VAT-exempt invoicing correctly.
How long does it take to build an e-commerce site?
Shopify with a custom theme: 6–10 weeks. Custom Medusa build: 8–14 weeks. We include two rounds of design revisions, real-content migration (not lorem ipsum), and a two-week post-launch warranty.
Keep exploring

Related pages.

Services

Further reading

Let's build
something quiet.

Tell us about the problem. We'll write back within one business day.

Start a project hello@thenodenest.com
Chat on WhatsApp