eCommerce Developer in Chennai — OpenCart, PrestaShop, WooCommerce & Custom PHP

1. Two extensions fighting over the same checkout hook

Whether it's two OpenCart extensions editing the same controller, two PrestaShop modules hooking into the same checkout step, or two WooCommerce plugins competing for the cart action, the pattern is the same — the conflict often fails silently, and checkout breaks for customers while the admin dashboard looks fine. I trace this by going through logs and the active extension list directly, rather than reinstalling everything and hoping the problem goes away.

2. A host forces a PHP version upgrade

GoDaddy, Hostinger, and similar hosts periodically push PHP upgrades for compliance reasons, without asking. Older store installs and their extensions often weren't written for the stricter newer PHP, so you get a blank page or a 500 error overnight with no warning. I go through the codebase and fix the compatibility issues directly, so you don't have to rebuild the store just because the host changed something.

3. The catalog outgrows the original database setup

Once a catalog passes a few thousand products, unindexed queries and bloated log or session tables start showing up as real page-load delays — sometimes 6-12 seconds on mobile. I fix this by optimising the slow queries, adding missing indexes, and setting up proper caching so the same lookups aren't repeated on every page view.

4. Payment goes through but the order doesn't show up

If a customer pays but the order never appears in your admin, the webhook call from the payment gateway is usually failing quietly — often an SSL certificate issue, a wrong callback URL, or a security plugin blocking the request. I fix this by checking server headers directly and tracing exactly where the call is failing, for gateways like Razorpay and PayU.

Note: These are typical ranges, not quotes, and apply across all four platforms. You'll get an exact estimate after a free review of your store's extensions, hosting limits, and customization history.

OpenCart. Custom extension development following its MVC-L structure, version upgrades and migrations across 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x, and Journal/Poco theme customisation. Good fit for straightforward catalogs that need to launch fast on lighter hosting.

PrestaShop. Custom module development on its hook system, multi-store and B2B feature configuration, and theme customisation using its Smarty templating. Good fit for larger, more complex catalogs that need strong features out of the box.

WooCommerce. Store builds on WordPress with Kadence or a custom theme, custom plugin development using WordPress's hook system, and Core Web Vitals tuning for plugin-heavy stores. Good fit for businesses already investing in WordPress content and SEO.

Custom PHP. Fully bespoke store logic — often on Laravel — for businesses with pricing, approval, or inventory rules that don't map cleanly onto any off-the-shelf platform's data model. More upfront cost, but no fighting a platform's assumptions later.

Core Web Vitals. Removing render-blocking scripts, deferring tracking tags that aren't needed immediately, and setting explicit image dimensions — the specific things Google's LCP and INP metrics actually measure.

Server-side caching. Caching expensive database query results so the platform isn't re-running the same lookups every time someone loads a popular category page.

Image compression. Converting product images to .webp, setting up lazy loading, and serving properly sized images instead of full-resolution files scaled down in the browser.

Database cleanup. Clearing old session logs, archiving stale search data, and indexing the tables that actually get queried on every page load.

Being based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu means we work in the same hours. When checkout breaks during your morning sales rush, you get a reply in minutes — not a response from an outsourced queue the next day.

I work with stores across Anna Nagar, Velachery, Adyar, Guindy, Ambattur, Porur, and OMR, and I'm familiar with the Indian payment gateways and delivery services most Chennai stores actually integrate with.

I'm also available across Tambaram, Avadi, Chromepet, Perambur, KK Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Sholinganallur, and Medavakkam — and remotely for businesses in the Middle East, Europe, and the US, entirely over WhatsApp and email.