The short answer: the cost of an e-commerce website has three layers. There is the build (design, product setup, payments, delivery rules), the platform (a monthly subscription on a hosted service, or hosting for a self-hosted shop) and the cost of each sale (payment processing). Our e-commerce website package covers the build for a fixed £1,080 incl. VAT, delivered in 7 working days, with the first year of domain and hosting included.
This article separates those layers and shows how the two most common platforms differ, whether you sell handmade candles from Leeds, coffee beans from Melbourne or spare parts from Ontario.
What an online shop needs before the first order
A shop is ready to trade when a stranger can find a product, understand it, pay for it and know when it will arrive. Behind that simple path sit several pieces that all have to work together:
- Product pages with photos, a description, price, variants (size, colour, weight) and stock status.
- Categories and search so customers can browse a range rather than scroll one long list.
- A checkout that accepts cards and, where your customers expect it, wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay through your payment provider.
- Shipping rules: zones, rates by weight or order value, free delivery thresholds, local collection.
- Order emails to the customer and to you, with a clear order number.
- Policy pages: delivery, returns, terms and privacy, linked from the checkout.
- An admin area where you add products, update stock and process orders.
Most of the design work in e-commerce is in making these pieces clear and fast on a phone. The visual style matters, but a product page that answers "how much, what size, when will it arrive" does more selling than any decorative element.
The three layers of e-commerce cost
| Layer | How it is paid | What changes the amount |
|---|---|---|
| Design and build | Once | Number of products to set up, variants, shipping complexity, languages |
| Platform | Monthly or yearly | Hosted subscription plan, or hosting and extensions for a self-hosted shop |
| Payments | Per transaction | Payment provider, card type, your sales volume |
| Domain | Yearly | The domain ending |
| Running the shop | Ongoing | New products, photos, promotions |
The build is the only layer you can fully fix in advance. Platform and payment costs depend on the route you choose and how much you sell, which is why it pays to understand them before deciding.
Hosted or self-hosted: two ways to run a shop
Shopify: a hosted platform
Shopify runs the shop software and the hosting for you, and you pay a subscription. On its official pricing page, viewed in November 2026 in US dollars, the plans are listed as follows:
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly (per month) | Fee when using a third-party payment provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 | $29 | 2% |
| Grow | $105 | $79 | 1% |
| Advanced | $399 | $299 | 0.6% |
| Plus | from $2,300 | not listed | 0.2% |
The page also lists a free trial followed by a reduced introductory price for the first months. Prices are shown in local currency in many countries and can change; the official page lists the current figures for each country. Card processing rates for Shopify Payments vary by plan and are listed separately.
Shopify website design usually means choosing and customising a theme, setting up collections and products, connecting payments and shipping, and adding apps where needed. It suits merchants who want the platform side handled for them and are comfortable with a recurring subscription.
WooCommerce: a self-hosted shop on WordPress
WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin for WordPress, published in the official WordPress plugin directory. The shop runs on your own hosting under your own domain. There is no platform subscription for the core plugin; your recurring costs are hosting, the domain, any paid extensions you choose, and payment processing through a provider such as Stripe or PayPal.
It suits merchants who want the shop, the product data and the customer records on hosting they control, and who like the flexibility of the wider WordPress ecosystem. We build shops on both WooCommerce and Shopify, at the same build price.
Which platform suits which shop
Both are capable platforms used by very large numbers of shops. The difference usually comes down to three questions:
- Do you prefer a predictable monthly subscription or lower fixed running costs? Hosted platforms bundle hosting into a plan; self-hosted shops separate them.
- How much do you want to adjust? Both can be customised; WordPress gives you access to the whole site, including content pages and blog, in one system.
- Who will run the shop day to day? Whichever platform you choose, the admin area should be set up so that adding a product or changing stock takes minutes.
What our e-commerce package includes
The E-commerce package is a WooCommerce shop on your own domain, built to be ready for the first order on delivery. It covers: product management, online card payments, shipping zones, stock and promotions, admin panel. It costs a fixed £1,080 incl. VAT, delivered in 7 working days, with the first year of domain and hosting included. Card payments run through the payment provider you open an account with; the provider charges its own transaction fee, which depends on your sales rather than on the website.
Product photos and descriptions come from you. If you have a large catalogue, a spreadsheet with product names, prices and variants speeds up the setup considerably.
Three example shops
A candle maker in Leeds with 30 products, three scents per candle and UK-only delivery. Simple variants, one shipping zone with a free delivery threshold, cards and wallets at checkout.
A coffee roaster in Melbourne selling beans by weight and grind. Variants for weight and grind type, shipping rates by weight, and a local pick-up option for customers nearby.
A parts supplier in Ontario with a few hundred items in clear categories. Here search and category structure matter most, and stock levels need to stay accurate, so the admin area is set up around quick stock updates.
All three fit the same package; what differs is the time spent on product setup, which is why preparing your product list early helps.
Next step
Send us the number of products, the countries you deliver to and the payment methods your customers expect, on WhatsApp. We will reply with how the shop would be set up. If you are still deciding between a shop and a standard business site, our article how much does a website cost? sets out the one-off and yearly items for both, and the pricing page shows all packages side by side.