Starting a new eCommerce business can be a daunting task, especially when you have unique needs like wanting to sell products that may not be supported by most payment systems. In this article, I'll share my experience of planning a new eCommerce site for a company that helps smokers, and the challenges and solutions I've encountered along the way.

One of the biggest obstacles I faced was finding a payment system that would support my business. Stripe and other popular providers don't allow for this type of payment, so I had to look for alternatives. After researching various options, I decided to go with Amplify by AWS, along with Siteground and WooCommerce. I'm not sure yet how these systems will work, but I'm excited to see what they can do.

Another important factor for me was ensuring that my server would be in constant uptime. Most server-hosted sites are not suitable for this, so I decided to go with the cloud. The cloud offers the benefit of being almost everywhere, as well as the ability to deploy websites as lambda functions. This should help ensure that my site is always available and reduce costs.

Ease of deployment was also a key concern for me. With infrastructure as code, it can be difficult to know whether you're writing code or deploying it. Amplify offers the advantage of making it easy to set up your backend, but it comes at the cost of some functionality. If you don't use Amplify, you may be left with a lot of backend code that won't make you any money, but you'll have the cheapest bills and the most scalable site.

Hosted options like Railway, Hostinger, and SiteGround may be good alternatives, but they come with their own drawbacks. Shared hosting can result in slow speeds, and dedicated servers can be expensive. Docker sites may be a good option, but they also come with their own set of challenges. Ultimately, the best solution will depend on your specific needs and goals.

I'm still in the process of setting up my eCommerce site, and it remains't yet been tested with high spikes or anything similar. But from what I've seen so far, the setup I've created should be sufficient for my business. I'll be sharing more updates as I continue to work on the site and experiment with different tools and techniques. Stay tuned!