A practical guide for Sri Lankan businesses

A website that does
more for your business.

How to plan the right website, from the first inquiry to AI assistants, online payments and the systems behind your business.

Desktop workspace with website design and code on a monitor

A retailer needs customers to find a product and place an order. An education provider needs to turn a course question into an inquiry. A business selling to other businesses may need quotation requests to reach the right team with the right information. These are different jobs, even when they all begin on a website.

Start with the customer’s next step. Then decide which pages, connections and ongoing support make that step work. This guide explains how we approach those choices for businesses in Sri Lanka.

1. Choose your starting point

A useful first website explains what you offer, establishes trust and makes it easy to get in touch. It needs clear content, responsive layouts, straightforward editing and search foundations. A campaign site may focus that same approach on a single offer.

As your business grows, the website may need deeper service pages, products, reservations or customer accounts. Our four website packages give that conversation a starting point:

Business Website
Core pages, a mobile-friendly inquiry journey, content editing, technical SEO, analytics and handover.
Search & Growth Website
Business foundations plus service and content planning, relevant structured data and conversion measurement.
E-commerce & Bookings
A catalogue or reservation flow, payments, notifications and the tools your team needs to manage orders.
Connected Website & Portal
Customer accounts and agreed workflows linked to CRM, inventory, accounting or ERP systems.

Mobile design belongs in every starting point. Sri Lanka’s Department of Census and Statistics reported that smartphones accounted for 79.7% of the devices used to access internet or email in its January–June 2025 bulletin. This is a device distribution, not a measure of smartphone ownership or your website’s traffic. It supports testing important journeys on phones, alongside your own audience data. Read the DCS bulletin (PDF).

For a local audience, review the information people need before acting: service areas, delivery districts, prices or quotation steps, contact routes and the languages they use. Sinhala, Tamil and English content should be scoped with people who can review it.

3. Plan the whole sale, not just the storefront

A store needs more than product photographs and a payment button. Decide how variants, stock, discounts, delivery charges and customer notifications should work. For bookings, define availability, deposits, cancellations and who manages the calendar.

Local payment options can include providers such as PayHere or WEBXPAY, depending on your business and platform. Merchant approval, account requirements, available payment methods and transaction charges need to be checked with the provider. A working integration does not replace merchant onboarding. See PayHere’s application process and WEBXPAY’s integration documentation.

Cash on delivery and bank transfer can also be included where they fit your operation. Make payment status, delivery rules and the next customer message clear for each method. Recurring payments and subscriptions require a separate review of provider support.

A useful checkout test

Choose a product on a phone, enter an address outside your usual delivery area, attempt payment and check what the customer and your team receive. Also test a failed payment and a cancelled order. The journey should make sense in each case.

Product migration, bulk imports, complex delivery logic and connections to external stock systems need their own scope. Agree who supplies and reviews the product information before setting the launch date.

4. Give an AI assistant a useful, specific job

An AI assistant can help a visitor find a product, understand a service or leave a more useful inquiry. Start with approved information and an agreed task. For example, a retailer might use an assistant for product and delivery questions; an education provider might use one to explain course options.

We scope the knowledge it can use, the information it can collect and the point at which a person should take over. If it does not know an answer, it should explain the limit and offer the appropriate contact route. It should not invent business policies, prices or delivery promises.

Illustrative conversation

Visitor “Do you deliver outside Colombo?”

Assistant “Choose your district at checkout to see the delivery options for your order.”

This answer would come from the store’s approved delivery policy. A question outside that policy goes to the team.

Sinhala, Tamil and English support can be assessed with reviewed source content and representative questions in each language. Translation, answer quality and local terminology need testing with your team.

Accessing live order information or taking an action in another system is a larger integration task than answering public questions. Define permissions, customer identification and human review before giving an assistant that access. AI usage charges, knowledge updates and ongoing answer checks are included or identified separately in the quote.

5. Connect the website to the way your team works

A useful connection reduces a specific piece of repeated work: sending an inquiry to the CRM, moving a confirmed order into operations or showing approved stock information online. Trangle, SAP and other business systems can be assessed around that workflow.

For SAP, the product, version and available interfaces matter. SAP Business One’s Service Layer exposes business objects through HTTP/OData interfaces, but that does not establish compatibility with every SAP setup. Review the actual installation and access with your internal or SAP support team. SAP Business One Service Layer guide (PDF).

Agree which system owns each record, the direction and frequency of updates, and what happens when a connection fails. Orders, customer details and stock do not necessarily need the same synchronisation rules.

Customer portals add another layer: account access, roles and permissions. Scope the information a customer can see, such as their order history or quotation requests, and test that private information stays private. A discovery review comes before the integration quote.

6. Work from a shared plan to a tested launch

Our process follows the same five steps across a first business website and a connected portal. The depth of each step depends on the work involved.

  1. Discover

    Understand your customers, offers and existing systems. Agree the goals, customer journeys and any feasibility questions.

  2. Plan

    Map the pages, content and connections. Establish the sitemap, content checklist, delivery plan and responsibilities.

  3. Build

    Design and develop in stages. Share responsive pages and working previews so your team can review real progress.

  4. Launch

    Test forms, payments, accounts and AI answers where included. Prepare the release, train your team and hand over access.

  5. Improve

    Review performance and feedback. Prioritise the next useful changes and agree optional care after launch support.

Content readiness and external approvals affect the schedule. Bring brand assets, approved business information, product data and relevant account access into the planning stage. If you already have a website, we review its platform, code and integrations before recommending targeted improvements, a redesign or a rebuild.

7. Choose care around what the website needs to keep doing

A brochure site, a frequently updated service website and an online store carry different ongoing responsibilities. Our maintenance packages reflect those differences.

Essential Care
Platform updates, security checks, uptime monitoring, scheduled backups, form and restore checks, a small-edit allowance and a monthly report.
Growth Care
Essential Care plus more time for content improvements, performance and search review, tracking checks and a prioritised improvement list.
Commerce & Integration Care
Care tailored to stores and connected systems, including agreed checkout, payment, order and integration checks, a developer allowance and recovery planning.

The plan sets out the supported platform, included work, support hours, response targets and backup schedule. New features and major redesigns are quoted separately. An existing website starts with a condition review so both teams understand what is being supported.

An AI assistant also needs care as products and policies change. Knowledge updates and answer checks can be added to the plan. Identify who approves new information and who reviews unanswered questions.

8. Make the quote and handover clear

We prepare website quotes in LKR around the agreed scope. Pages, content, additional languages, catalogue size, customer accounts and integrations affect the work required. Maintenance is quoted separately per month, with an agreed allowance and response terms.

A useful proposal distinguishes the initial build, optional ongoing care and third-party services. Hosting, domain renewals, paid tools, messaging, AI usage and payment transaction fees depend on the services selected. Confirm what is included and who pays each provider.

Your business should control its domain and core accounts. The proposal and handover explain access, code ownership and third-party licences. Ask for a clear account list and an explanation of how your team will manage content and request help.

To start a useful conversation, bring three things: what customers should be able to do, which systems you already use and what your team needs to manage after launch.

Discuss your website

Common questions

Websites & e-commerce

What does a website project cost?

We quote around your pages, content, selling or booking requirements and integrations. The proposal separates the initial build, optional monthly care and third-party charges, so you can see what is included before work starts.

Can you build an online store for a Sri Lankan business?

We can scope a store around your products, checkout, payment methods, delivery rules and order management. Product variants, bulk imports, discounts and customer accounts are agreed as part of the project.

Can customers pay online or choose cash on delivery?

We can assess a suitable gateway such as PayHere or WEBXPAY and include cash on delivery or bank transfer where your business needs them. Gateway availability, merchant approval and transaction charges depend on the selected provider.

Can we take bookings, sell services or manage subscriptions?

Yes, these can be scoped around your business model. Reservations, deposits and recurring payments have different requirements; we confirm the booking rules and payment-provider support before including them in the quote.

AI & search

Can you add an AI chatbot to our website?

We can scope an assistant that answers common questions, helps visitors find relevant products or services and collects inquiries. We agree its approved content, limits, human handoff and usage costs before launch.

Can the chatbot answer in Sinhala, Tamil and English?

We can assess multilingual support for your audience. Each language needs suitable source content and review with your team; language quality and any translation work form part of the scope.

What happens when the AI does not know the answer?

The assistant should make its limits clear and direct the visitor to an appropriate human contact route. We test representative questions and agree which information and actions it can access. It should not invent business policies or promises.

What are SEO, GEO and AEO, and are they included?

They describe work supporting discovery through search engines and AI-assisted answers. Every build includes agreed search foundations; deeper content planning and ongoing visibility work are scoped separately. Rankings and AI recommendations cannot be guaranteed.

Integrations & existing sites

Can the website connect to SAP?

We can assess the connection around your SAP product, version and available APIs. Possible workflows include product information, stock, customer records and orders. We define the data flow and testing requirements with your internal or SAP support team before quoting.

Can it connect to our CRM, inventory software or Trangle?

We review the available interfaces and the workflow you want to improve, then scope the required connection. This could include passing leads to a CRM or connecting orders and stock, where the systems support it.

Can you improve our existing website?

We start by reviewing the platform, code access, performance and current integrations. That shows whether targeted improvements, a redesign or a rebuild makes the most sense, and what can be safely retained.

Can customers log in to view orders or request quotations?

Yes, a customer portal can be scoped around account access, order history, quote requests and approved business information. Roles, permissions and the source systems are agreed before development.

Delivery, ownership & care

How long will the project take, and what do you need from us?

We confirm the schedule after agreeing the pages, content and integrations. Your team usually provides brand assets, approved business information, product data and relevant account access. Content readiness and external approvals affect delivery.

Who owns the website, domain and accounts?

Your business should control its domain and core accounts. The proposal and handover explain code ownership, access and any third-party licences, so you understand what you receive and how it is managed.

What do your maintenance packages cover?

Care plans can cover updates, monitoring, backups, agreed journey checks and an allowance for improvements. We set out the supported platform, included work and response terms in your plan. New features and major redesigns are quoted separately.

Are hosting, AI usage and payment charges included?

Your quote identifies which services are included and which are billed separately. Domain renewals, hosting, paid tools, messaging, AI usage and payment transaction fees depend on the services selected for your website.