Things I learn shipping.

The setup is three commands. The interesting part is what you hand to an AI assistant and what you keep for yourself.

It compressed the boring 70% and left the hard 30% exactly where it was. That changes what you charge for.

The work didn't get smaller. The typing did. Here's where the time actually went, and what still takes as long as it ever did.

Three real options, one default. The deciding factor is usually session tokens, not framework preference.

Merchants run Shiprocket, Delhivery, Bluedart and a local rider network in four browser tabs. Here's what we built instead.

Sending a shopper to /cart ends the browsing session. A drawer doesn't. What changes when the cart stops being a destination.

It is sold as one-click checkout. The part that pays for it is what happens to your COD orders.

Three Indian checkout products that look identical on a feature grid and solve noticeably different problems.

All three resell the same WhatsApp Business API. What differs is the layer on top — and that's what you're actually buying.

Verify the HMAC, respond in under five seconds, and assume every webhook will arrive twice. Most webhook bugs are one of those three.

The CSV importer breaks on the things that matter — metafields, variant images, inventory across locations. A script doesn't.

Shopify has no concept of "can I deliver here in 60 minutes?" Here's what we had to build around it.

Shopify's order confirmation is not a tax invoice. For an Indian merchant, that distinction has consequences.

Sometimes a colour should be a variant. Sometimes it should be a separate product that behaves like one. Choosing wrong is expensive.

Hydrogen and Remix are excellent. They are also a permanent increase in what you are responsible for.

One is safe in a browser. The other absolutely is not. That single fact answers most of the question.

I have never been approved first time. Here is what the rejections were actually about.

Not minification. Images, third-party scripts, and how much of the page waits on JavaScript.

Metafields extend something that exists. Metaobjects create something that doesn't. Most modelling mistakes are picking the wrong one.

Razorpay, PayU, Juspay and Shopify Payments solve different problems. Success rate matters more than transaction fee.