A website built for an Indian business has to work the way Indian customers buy: on a mid-range Android phone, paying by UPI or cash on delivery, and asking questions on WhatsApp before they order. Templates designed for the US or Europe get most of that wrong. Here is what to get right, whether you need an online store, a lead-generation site for a service business, or custom software.
I'm Ritesh Kumar Giri, a full-stack developer based in Lucknow. Through my own studio, NextGen Fusion, which has teams in Lucknow and Mumbai, I've shipped 68 live websites for businesses across India and abroad: e-commerce stores, B2B platforms, institutes and service businesses.
What Indian customers expect from a website
UPI first, cards second, COD always. Most online payments in India now go through UPI, but a large share of shoppers still want cash on delivery for a first order from a brand they don't know. A checkout that only takes cards loses those buyers. I set up gateways like Razorpay with UPI, cards, net banking and wallets, and configure COD rules, including taking a small advance on COD orders to cut fake orders and returns.
WhatsApp as the support desk. Indian customers message before they buy. A WhatsApp button on product pages, order updates on WhatsApp, and a catalogue they can share with family are worth more than a contact form.
Fast on a ₹12,000 phone over 4G. If your site is only tested on a laptop with office Wi-Fi, it's slow for most of your customers. That means compressed images, fewer plugins and scripts, and pages that render on the server instead of waiting for JavaScript.
Trust signals. Clear return policies, GST details, a real address and phone number, and reviews. A first-time buyer in India decides whether you're legitimate within seconds.
Which platform: WooCommerce, Shopify or custom?
- WooCommerce (WordPress): You own everything and pay no per-order platform fee. It's the right default for most Indian retail brands, and most of the stores I've built run on it, from silk sarees (Samaraha) to farming supplies (Krushi Doctor).
- Shopify: Less to maintain, with hosting and security handled for you. It suits brands that would rather pay a monthly fee than manage a server.
- Custom software (Next.js, Node.js, PostgreSQL): For business models a platform can't handle: multi-vendor marketplaces, B2B quoting, role-based dashboards and real-time messaging. TatVivah Trends, a wedding-wear marketplace, and MariBiz, a marine procurement platform with thousands of vendors, are both custom builds.
Where AI actually helps an Indian business
AI is useful when it saves your team time or answers customers faster, not as a badge on the homepage. The practical uses I build:
- Support assistants that answer questions about products, shipping and returns from your own catalogue and policies, around the clock. I built JARVIS AI, a chat platform with long-term memory using Google Gemini and Pinecone.
- Multilingual content in Hindi and regional languages, drafted with AI and checked by a human.
- Smarter search that understands "red silk saree for wedding under 5000" instead of needing exact keywords.
- Planning and recommendation tools. Explore Fusion, my travel app, generates trip plans with the Groq AI SDK.
City guides
Businesses in different cities need different things: a Jaipur jeweller, a Bengaluru startup and a Varanasi saree weaver are not buying the same website. These guides cover what I'd build for each:
- Website development in Delhi: service businesses, coaching institutes, retail
- Website development in Mumbai: D2C brands and fast-delivery retail
- Website & software development in Bengaluru: startups, MVPs, SaaS and AI
- Website development in Kolkata: handloom, sweets, family businesses going online
- Website development in Chennai: manufacturers and B2B
- Website development in Hyderabad: IT, pharma, food brands
- Website development in Jaipur: jewellery, handicrafts, heritage tourism
- Website development in Agra: tourism, leather, marble handicrafts
- Website development in Varanasi: Banarasi sarees and spiritual tourism
- Website development in Goa: villas, homestays and direct bookings
- Web developer in Lucknow: where I'm based
How working together works
Most of my projects run remotely: a call to scope the work, a fixed quote, a staging site you can click through as it's built, then launch and handover with access to everything (hosting, admin, code). I stay available afterwards for maintenance. Location matters less than whether you can reach the person writing the code, and with me you can.
If you're planning a website or custom software for your business, tell me what it needs to do.
