PHP E-Commerce Site Design

I need a full-featured e-commerce website built entirely in PHP. The project starts from a clean slate—there is no existing codebase to inherit—so you’ll handle both the back-end logic and the front-end presentation in tandem. I do, however, have a clear idea of the brand’s look and feel and will share logos, color palettes, and sample product photography to guide your UI choices.

Core objectives
• Build a responsive storefront where products can be browsed by category and searched quickly.
• Implement a secure customer account system that stores order history and supports password resets.
• Integrate at least one major payment gateway (Stripe is my current preference, but I’m open to PayPal or a local provider if you can justify the benefits).
• Provide an intuitive admin dashboard for inventory, pricing, and order management.

Technical expectations
• Pure PHP (Laravel, Symfony, or a well-structured custom MVC) with MySQL or MariaDB.
• Clean, modern HTML5/CSS3 and lightweight JavaScript for interactive elements—feel free to use Bootstrap or Tailwind if it speeds delivery.
• Code should be modular and documented so future feature additions—discount codes, user reviews, or a wish-list—can be slotted in without rewrites.

Acceptance criteria
1. I can add a new product, assign it to a category, upload images, and see it instantly on the live site.
2. A customer can register, place an order with a real or sandboxed payment gateway, and receive a confirmation email.
3. The site loads in under two seconds on desktop and mobile when tested with Google Lighthouse.

Please let me know which PHP framework or stack you prefer, examples of similar stores you’ve created, and an estimated timeline for a first working demo.