What an ecommerce website costs
Selling online adds work that a brochure site does not have: products, checkout, tax, shipping and payments. Here is what that costs to build and what it costs to keep running.
An ecommerce build is a brochure site plus a shop, and the shop is usually the larger half. Ranges are wide because "an online store" covers everything from twelve products to twelve thousand.
| Scale | Typical build cost | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Small store (under 50 products) | £3,000 – £8,000 $4,000 – $10,000 | Theme customised, products loaded, payments and shipping configured. |
| Mid-size (50–500 products) | £8,000 – £20,000 $10,000 – $25,000 | Custom design, product filtering, variants, tax rules, some integration. |
| Large or complex | £20,000+ $25,000+ | Custom features, ERP or inventory integration, multi-currency, wholesale pricing. |
Product count matters less than product complexity. Fifty products with three variants each, size guides and different shipping classes is a bigger job than five hundred identical items.
The ongoing costs that catch people out
With a brochure site, hosting is the only meaningful recurring cost. With a store there are several, and they scale with your revenue.
| Cost | Typical | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | £20 – £250 / month | Shopify and similar. WooCommerce has no platform fee but needs better hosting. |
| Payment processing | 1.5% – 3% + fixed fee | Per transaction, forever. This is usually your largest ongoing cost. |
| Hosting | £150 – £900 / year | Stores need more than brochure sites. Cheap shared hosting will struggle. |
| Apps and plugins | £0 – £200 / month | Reviews, email, subscriptions, shipping rules. These accumulate quickly. |
| Maintenance | £50 – £300 / month | Higher than a brochure site. A broken checkout costs money every hour. |
Model these before you commit. A store that costs £6,000 to build and £400 a month to run is a very different proposition from the build figure alone.
What makes an ecommerce quote go up
Product variants
Size, colour, material, bundle. Each dimension multiplies the setup work and complicates stock tracking. A shirt in five sizes and four colours is twenty stock items, not one.
Tax and shipping rules
Selling to one country at one flat rate is simple. Selling internationally, with VAT thresholds, zero-rated goods and weight-based shipping bands, is genuinely complicated and often underestimated.
Integrations with what you already run
Accounting software, an inventory system, a fulfilment partner, a POS in a physical shop. Each connection has to be built, tested and monitored.
Migrating an existing store
Moving products, customers, order history and URLs from an old platform is its own project. Done badly it destroys your search rankings overnight. Insist on a redirect plan in writing.
Common questions
01Shopify or WooCommerce?
Shopify costs more monthly but handles hosting, security and payments for you, and rarely breaks. WooCommerce has no platform fee but you are responsible for hosting, updates and security, which usually means paying someone for maintenance. For most small stores Shopify works out simpler; for stores that need unusual functionality WooCommerce is more flexible.
02How many products can I start with?
Start with fewer than you think. A store with twenty well-photographed products that are properly described sells better than one with two hundred thin listings. You can add more once the structure is proven.
03Do I need custom design for a store?
Not necessarily. Good ecommerce themes are well tested against real buying behaviour, and heavily customising them can hurt conversion rather than help it. Spend on product photography and clear descriptions before spending on bespoke layouts.
04What happens if the checkout breaks?
You stop taking money until it is fixed, which is why ecommerce maintenance costs more than brochure site maintenance. Agree before launch who is responsible, how fast they will respond, and what it costs. Get that in writing.
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