This depends on the size and complexity of the website, the platform you use, the level of customisation required and more. We’ll break it all down below.
The headline figure is that for those wishing to do everything themselves, this can be done for a few hundred pounds, but with a huge number of hours of development. A simple ecommerce site where an expert is doing the work is more like £2,000 to £6,000. A more complex and better branded ecommerce site is £6,000 to £15,000. A fully bespoke site starts at £15,000 for something very basic and moves quickly upwards from there.
Being found for this matters as much as the build itself, and increasingly that means being found in AI search search results as well as on Google, so it’s worth keeping in mind throughout.
What actually decides the price
The number of factors is huge, but let me go through the main ones.
Who does the work?
You can do everything yourself, but it is a lot of work, and if you are new to ecommerce there is a lot you do not know and won’t think about, that could be very important.
If you are on a tight budget, working with an ecommerce professional in partnership can work well. Often this works by the professional setting up the systems and design, while you do more of the “grunt work” adding product details.
The third option is a professional building the site for you. This does mean you have someone with experience in the field getting the site right from the start for you.
Product count and complexity
Product count is simple: adding more products costs more. On top of that, more products means a more complex system for organising products on the website so users can find them, and shops with a large number of products will need higher-cost infrastructure to run.
Product complexity also affects the cost. Adding a simple product that users buy will cost a lot less than a t-shirt where users can choose the size, the colour and the writing to be added.
Other costs
Platform choice is another factor in cost, and I review the three main platforms later on. The level of customisation makes a big difference.
Many platforms come with templates: how much are you happy to use a template out of the box, and how much do you want to customise it?
This also links to branding and the level and quality of branding across the site.
Budget Builds: What You Get for £2,000 to £6,000
These will usually be built on WooCommerce or Shopify (details below). It will get you a basic templated ecommerce store that could have a range of products, organised in a relatively simple way, such as categories, or a smaller number of more complex products.
A template will have branding added to ensure the site has your brand colours and fonts and uses your logo. But the overall layout of pages, especially the checkout pages, will be as provided in the template.
At this price range you can get an ecommerce website that functions well, is branded for you and is up and running quite quickly.
Mid-Range Builds: What You Get for £6,000 to £15,000
This is a step up from the websites above. They will be built on a platform, usually WooCommerce at this level, but with much more customisation.
The product pages may be long and complex, with videos and other information. The site would be more customised, moving away from the default template look. All email notices and messages will be branded and customised.
Products can be organised in more complex ways with good product filtering and advanced search options. They can include integrations to email marketing software and accounting software, and can calculate VAT and provide VAT invoices for customers.
This is a site that looks and works on the next level, giving a more professional appearance and allowing for more complex functionality.
Bespoke and Enterprise Builds: £15,000 and Beyond
For the ultimate in speed, personalisation and functionality, a custom-built site is the way to go. This is not built on any platform, it’s hand-coded to do exactly what you want. For complex items and ecommerce needs that are very specific, this is ideal.
But it does come with a few issues and a high price tag. As everything is made for you, the cost is high. And as it is not built on a platform, every product, price or text change needs to go through your developer, so the costs aren’t just high at the start, but build over time.
Despite those drawbacks, your site will be fast and work in exactly the way you want.
Shopify, WooCommerce, or Custom: Which Platform Is Right for You?
Shopify
This is the DIY platform where costs seem low and the process easy. For small ecommerce stores you want to build yourself with the minimum of fuss and setup, this is perfect.
It does expand to quite a lot of functionality, but does have limits in what you can do, and once you hit them, there is nothing you can do but switch platforms. The technical side of the site is done for you, so security, software updates and so on are all handled behind the scenes.
The costs do seem low when you start on Shopify, but once your store grows, and you add some integrations and more advanced functionality, the costs soon grow, and you can find yourself paying several hundred pounds a month, instead of that being the annual cost, as it started out. Shopify also takes a commission on all sales unless you use their payment platform.
Finally, the platform isn’t yours, you’re renting it from Shopify.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is free software that is part of WordPress. This means you are building everything on your own platform (your website), and you own it. It does mean it’s a little more complex to set up initially than Shopify.
But once you are up and running, updating products, changing prices or information on the site is quite easy. There are a wide range of additional pieces of software, some paid for and some free, which work with WooCommerce to extend its functionality. And if you want something really unique, you can get some code written to work with WooCommerce, so there are very few limits as to what you can do.
As the site gets more complex, the costs don’t go up in the same way as they do on Shopify, although if the store becomes very popular, you will need to substantially increase your hosting budget to keep your site working well. You are responsible for security and software updates, and things can break, so maintenance is more complex than Shopify.
Once your business can afford it, a professional maintaining the site is usually the best way to go with WooCommerce. To me, the winning combination of full ownership and flexibility makes this a great way to go.
Custom build
This is the premium package for a site that runs very quickly and functions exactly the way you want. Some really unique ecommerce stores can be built this way.
But it comes with a high price tag, a long development time, and the lack of a system you can log into to make changes means you need your developer for every change along the way. In the future, changing developers, if needed, can also be a massive headache.
But if you want a store that is very unique, super fast and ready for lots of visitors, this is the way to go. For most stores, though, the upfront and ongoing budget isn’t justifiable.
The Costs Most Quotes Leave Out
It’s simple to get a quote for an ecommerce store, but is that the full cost?
It depends on what they include.
Websites have monthly fees for software, maintenance and so on, and you need to factor these in when working out your costs. Transaction fees and commission are another one: all payment providers have transaction fees, and some platforms also charge a commission on top of this. Be aware of these and factor them into your calculations.
Think also about success: if the store goes well, monthly costs may also go up, as they will if you are expanding the store. Not directly linked to the website, but related, shipping is another area where costs easily grow, or where the shipping costs you pay versus what you charge can move apart easily in the wrong direction.
To put that £150 to £400 a month figure into something more concrete: a typical mix might be a platform or hosting fee, one or two paid apps or plugins for things like email marketing or advanced search, and a maintenance retainer to keep everything updated and secure. None of those individually looks expensive, but together they add up to a real monthly cost that’s easy to miss when you’re only looking at the build quote.
What Should You Actually Budget?
If you are going to self-build, you should budget a huge amount of time for the setup, and then initially around £100 a month in costs, though these can rise quickly. If you want someone to do it for you, then the cost goes up and the time and frustration go down. Professionals have done this many times before, they know what works, and where the pitfalls lie.
We have outlined the upfront costs already: £2,000 to £6,000 for a basic build, £6,000 to £15,000 for a much more custom store, and £15,000 plus for a custom-written store. But what else?
Those monthly costs need to be taken into account too, and a professional who built the site can also look after it for you, which I would recommend. This reduces downtime, stress and frustration, and increases the customer experience.
For a small store this could be around £100, but for most stores it will be more than this once software, hosting and maintenance are included. Allowing £150 to £400 a month, depending on the size and complexity of the store, would make more sense.
Whatever stage you’re at, it’s worth costing the whole picture, build, running costs and all, before you commit to a platform or a quote. Get that right from the start, and the number stops being scary and starts being something you can actually plan around.
