"How much does an online store cost?" is the wrong question asked in the right spirit. The honest answer lives in a range, not a number, and the range is wide because the label "e-commerce website" covers everything from a weekend Shopify setup to a headless platform handling thousands of SKUs across three currencies. In 2026, a real online store costs anywhere from roughly $3,000 to well over $150,000. That spread is not vendors being cagey. It is the difference between renting a template and building a system.
The number matters more than it looks. Underspend and you get a pretty storefront that never ranks, loads slowly, and quietly leaks sales at checkout. Overspend and you pay for a custom platform to sell forty products you could have launched on a template in a fortnight. Getting the estimate right is really about understanding which tier you actually need, and what pushes a project from one tier into the next.
The three tiers, and what each really costs
Most e-commerce projects fall into one of three bands. Knowing which one you are in tells you most of what you need about the budget.
Store typeTypical costBest forTemplated (Shopify, WooCommerce)$3,000 to $15,000Launching fast, standard catalog, proving demandCustomized platform$15,000 to $60,000Custom design, integrations, real brand differentiationBespoke / headless$60,000 to $150,000+High volume, complex logic, multi-market, performance-critical
A templated build on Shopify or WooCommerce is the right call for most businesses starting out. You are paying for design, product setup, payment and shipping configuration, and the polish that separates a store that converts from one that looks like a default theme. It is fast and it is proven.
A customized platform is where you go when the template starts fighting you: a bespoke design, a real integration with your ERP or inventory system, a checkout flow tuned to your product, content and SEO built to rank rather than bolted on. This is the tier most growing brands land in.
A bespoke or headless build is a different animal. You reach for it when volume, performance, or business logic outgrows what a platform can do gracefully: a decoupled front end for speed, custom pricing or subscription rules, several markets and currencies, deep back-office integration. It costs the most because you are building a system, not configuring a store.
What actually drives the price up
Two stores with the same catalog can differ by 5x, and it is almost never the number of products. The cost lives in these decisions:
Integrations. Connecting the store to your ERP, accounting, CRM, or fulfillment system is frequently the single biggest line item. Real-time inventory sync and clean order flow are where the engineering time goes.
Custom design versus theme. A tuned template is cheap. A distinctive, conversion-optimized custom design with a proper design system is not, and for some brands it is worth every euro.
Payments and tax complexity. One market, one currency, one payment method is simple. Multi-currency, local payment methods, and cross-border tax rules add real work.
Content, SEO, and performance. A store that ranks and loads fast is engineered that way from the start. Retrofitting Core Web Vitals and search visibility onto a slow template costs more than building it in.
Ongoing costs. The build is not the end. Budget for hosting, platform fees, payment processing (typically 1.5 to 3% per transaction), maintenance, and updates. A rough rule is 15 to 20% of the build cost per year to keep it healthy.
The cheapest store is rarely the cheapest
A $4,000 store that converts at 1% and drops off at a clunky checkout can cost you far more in lost sales than a $20,000 store that converts at 3%. Price the outcome, not just the build. Ask any vendor how their work affects conversion rate and page speed, not only what it costs.
Platform choice changes the math
The platform you pick sets the floor and the ceiling. Shopify gets you live fast with predictable monthly fees and a huge app ecosystem, at the cost of transaction fees and less control over the deep internals. WooCommerce on WordPress is flexible and has no platform cut, but you own the hosting, security, and maintenance. Headless setups, a commerce back end behind a custom front end built with something like Next.js, give you the best performance and total design freedom, and they cost the most to build and run.
There is no universally right answer. A business selling 30 products wants Shopify and should not think twice. A business whose store is the core of its operation, tied into inventory and fulfillment and needing to load instantly in every market, is usually better served by a customized or headless build even though the sticker is higher. The mistake is choosing the platform by price alone and discovering the ceiling six months after launch.
How to scope a build without overpaying
The way to control the number is to be honest about which tier your business is actually in, then buy exactly that.
Start from the outcome. How many orders a month do you realistically expect in year one, and what is an order worth? That tells you how much engineering the store can justify.
List your non-negotiable integrations. These drive cost more than anything. Knowing them up front stops the "we forgot about the ERP sync" surprise that blows the budget mid-project.
Separate launch from roadmap. You do not need multi-currency and a loyalty program on day one. Ship the version that lets you sell, then invest from revenue.
Get proposals that break down the line items. A vendor who quotes one lump sum is hiding where the money goes. A good proposal shows design, integration, content, and testing separately so you can trade scope against budget.
The businesses that spend well on e-commerce are not the ones who found the cheapest quote. They are the ones who knew which tier they needed, scoped the launch tightly, and left room to grow into the platform instead of paying up front for a size they had not reached yet.
If you want a straight answer for your specific case, tell us what you sell and where and we will give you a scoped range instead of a lump sum.
