E-commerce · Costs
Prices run from a few hundred dollars for a theme store to tens of thousands for custom work. Platform, catalog and integrations decide where you land.
Build cost and running cost differ
Integrations drive the biggest jumps
Budget a year, not just launch
Tell us what you need and we’ll get back to you. Or book a free 30-minute call. Or call 954-539-5678.
An ecommerce website can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to well over $20,000 to build, plus monthly running costs. Shopify’s September 2026 cost guide puts prebuilt themes at $0 to $500 and custom-built ecommerce development at $2,000 to $20,000 or more, depending on complexity. WebFX’s web design pricing guide puts functionality, mostly ecommerce and online payments, at $5,000 to $10,000 of a website project’s cost. Ranges vary widely by provider and region.
Where your store lands depends on four things: the platform, how many products and options you sell, how custom the design and checkout need to be, and how many other systems the store must connect to. Running costs, including platform fees, card processing, apps and upkeep, continue every month after launch.
A hosted platform, a free or premium theme customized with your branding, a modest catalog, standard checkout and shipping. Low build cost; much of the work is product entry and photos.
Custom design on a theme or framework, structured collections and filters, content pages, email marketing setup, reviews, and a few integrations such as accounting. The most common choice for established small businesses.
Custom functionality such as product builders, B2B pricing, subscriptions or multi-store, plus integration with ERP, inventory, CRM or fulfillment systems. Highest cost and longest timeline.
Shopify’s guide estimates total monthly running costs on its platform at roughly $30 to $100 for a solo seller, $100 to $500 for a growing business and $500 to $2,500 or more for an established merchant. Treat vendor figures as a starting point, since each vendor frames costs around its own product.
Platform fees from each vendor’s pricing page, as of 2026:
A boutique with 60 products. A hosted platform on a premium theme, branded to match the shop, with collections by category, size and color variants, local pickup and shipping rules, a reviews app and email sign-up connected to an email marketing tool. Most of the effort goes into photos and product copy. This sits near the theme-based end of the published ranges, and running costs are mostly the plan, processing and two or three apps.
A distributor with 4,000 parts and trade accounts. A platform with strong B2B features, customer-specific price lists, quotes and payment on account, faceted search across technical specs, and a two-way sync with the ERP for stock, prices and orders. Data cleanup and the integration are the largest pieces of work. This lands at the custom end, and the timeline depends mostly on the ERP connection.
Book a free 30-minute call. We look at your products, systems and goals with you and tell you which platform and build level we would choose and what we would do first. No obligation. Pick a time.
JLB USA has built websites for growing businesses for more than 15 years, with 500+ clients and 1,000+ projects. We build on Shopify, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, Ecwid and OpenCart, so we recommend the platform that fits. You can edit your own store and keep it if you leave, and we set up redirects from old pages so rankings carry over. Our systems integration team connects stores to accounting, CRM and ERP systems. See our web design services and our guide to what a small business website costs if you do not need a full store.
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A store on a hosted platform with a free or premium theme can launch for little beyond the plan fee, theme and your time. Shopify’s guide puts prebuilt themes at $0 to $500, with plans from $29 a month billed yearly as of 2026.
Shopify’s 2026 guide puts custom-built development at $2,000 to $20,000 or more. Integrations, custom features and large catalogs push projects higher.
Platform or hosting fees, card processing, apps, email tools, maintenance and marketing. Shopify estimates $30 to $100 a month for solo sellers up to $500 to $2,500 or more for established merchants.
The plugin is free, but hosting, extensions and maintenance cost money. Totals are often closer than expected; the right choice depends on who maintains the store and how custom it needs to be.
A theme-based store can launch in a few weeks. Custom design, integrations and migrations take longer. Most custom WordPress sites JLB builds launch in 6 to 10 weeks.
