An eCommerce website cost in the UK can range from a low-cost self-build with no supplier labour invoice to a professionally planned store costing tens of thousands of pounds. Our current cost model allows 34–87 person-days for an online shop with up to 250 products, before extra design, content, migration or integration work. Applied to the model’s published UK rate allowances, that base scope produces an indicative supplier build range of about £15,000–£43,900 for a freelancer, £22,500–£70,400 for a specialist agency or £29,000–£92,500 for a larger multidisciplinary agency, excluding VAT.
Those figures are calculator outputs, not UK market averages, Opace prices or a promise that every store requires that budget. A small catalogue built from clean customer-supplied data and a standard theme can need less work. A B2B, subscription, multi-market or heavily integrated store can require much more. Use the UK website cost calculator to change the platform, supplier route, design, content, migration and support assumptions for your project.
The broader guide to how much a website costs in the UK compares an online shop with brochure, business and custom-application routes. This page deals specifically with catalogue data, commerce platforms, payment fees, integrations, migration and the cost of operating a store after launch.
eCommerce cost at a glance
An online store quote should separate the work required to build the service from the charges incurred while trading. A low subscription price does not cover product preparation, design, implementation, testing or business-system connections. A large development quote may not include card fees, apps, hosting or support.
| Cost area | How it is charged | What changes the figure |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and planning | Fixed phase, day rate or part of a project fee | Markets, tax, shipping, fulfilment, returns, customer accounts and integration risk |
| Store build | Fixed scope or person-days | Theme work, templates, catalogue structure, checkout, search and testing |
| Product content | Per item, per variant, person-days or customer-supplied | Data quality, descriptions, photography, attributes, translations and approvals |
| Platform and apps | Monthly, annual, usage-based or one-off | Plan limits, staff access, markets, reporting, app dependencies and renewal terms |
| Payments | Percentage plus a fixed fee, sometimes with other charges | Card type, provider, currency conversion, disputes, refunds and sales volume |
| Integrations | Setup project plus maintenance | Accounts, stock, warehouse, delivery, CRM, marketplace and data ownership |
| Operation and support | Monthly allowance or retained time | Updates, monitoring, incident response, change requests and trading hours |
The useful comparison is the one-, three- and five-year ownership cost for the same accepted requirements. Comparing a theme installation with a researched and integrated retail service will produce a misleading saving even when both suppliers call their proposal an eCommerce website.
How the Opace eCommerce planning model works
The calculator methodology version used for this guide is 2026.08.05-r4, researched on 5 August 2026. Its eCommerce base scope covers an online shop with up to 250 products and allocates the following effort before selected additions.
| Workstream | Base planning allowance |
|---|---|
| Discovery and project management | 4–9 person-days |
| UX and visual design | 5–11 person-days |
| Development and configuration | 12–30 person-days |
| Content, entry and search preparation | 6–20 person-days |
| QA, accessibility and launch testing | 5–12 person-days |
| Launch, training and handover | 2–5 person-days |
| Total base effort | 34–87 person-days |
The cash ranges in the introduction multiply those role days by the calculator’s freelancer, specialist-agency and larger-agency rate allowances. The model then adds selected design, content, features, migration, platform, apps, domain and support costs. Payment processing, stock, fulfilment, advertising, photography and unknown third-party implementation work remain outside the estimate unless stated.
The 250-product label is a boundary, not a claim that every product takes equal time. Ten products with complicated variants, bundles and custom pricing rules may need more design and testing than hundreds of simple records imported from reliable data. Replace the planning allowance with a scoped backlog and supplier quote once the catalogue and trading rules have been examined.
Platform subscriptions are only one cost line
Shopify and WooCommerce use different commercial models. Shopify combines hosted software and commerce features in a subscription, with plan-specific payment and staff terms. WooCommerce is an open-source WordPress plugin, while hosting, extensions, implementation and support are obtained separately.
Shopify’s official UK pricing, checked on 26 August 2026, displayed the following monthly prices when billed annually. It also displayed promotional introductory terms, so procurement should use the normal plan price and the terms shown at checkout rather than treating a temporary offer as a permanent cost.
| Shopify plan | Published annual-billing price | Published online card rate from |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | £19 a month | 2% + 25p |
| Grow | £49 a month | 1.7% + 25p |
| Advanced | £259 a month | 1.5% + 25p |
| Plus | From £1,800 a month on a three-year term | Confirm against the proposed payment arrangement |
Prices and card rates can change, and the word “from” matters. Check billing frequency, eligible card types, third-party payment-provider charges, currency conversion, VAT and the current checkout before approval.
The official WooCommerce plugin listing, checked on 26 August 2026, confirms that the core plugin is open-source software. Free core software does not make a configured store free. Budget for WordPress hosting, technical setup, design, commercial extensions where required, payment processing, backups, security work and support. Our WordPress website cost guide explains that wider CMS cost structure without duplicating the store-specific work covered here.
Catalogue size is a poor measure on its own
Product count is visible and easy to ask for, but it does not describe the condition of the catalogue. Each record may carry an SKU, title, long and short description, category, price, tax class, stock status, dimensions, shipping class, attributes, variations, images, documents, related products and search metadata. A clean source file with consistent identifiers can be mapped and tested. Data spread across old exports, supplier spreadsheets and manual notes requires analysis and correction.
WooCommerce’s official product CSV importer and exporter documentation, checked on 26 August 2026, shows that the core tool can import, export and bulk-update product records. It also documents practical limits. Images must already be available or accessible at direct URLs, the core importer cannot update product-image alt text, unrecognised columns are not imported by default, and larger catalogues can be constrained by server memory and processing time.
Ask for a sample migration before the full import. The sample should cover a simple product, a variable product, representative images, categories, stock, tax, shipping and at least one record containing awkward data. A successful row count does not prove that variants, URLs, image rights, metadata or customer-facing presentation are correct.
Product content and photography
Supplier data is rarely ready to publish without review. Manufacturer descriptions may be duplicated across other retailers, images may have uncertain rights or dimensions, and attributes may not support the filters customers need. Decide who writes, edits, photographs, crops, enters and approves each field.
Content pricing is clearer when the unit is explicit. A quote can state the number of supplied products, the included fields per product, the treatment of variants and the number of review rounds. Open-ended wording such as “product upload included” leaves both parties exposed when the source material changes.
Search, filters and merchandising
Basic category navigation may be enough for a small range. Larger or more technical catalogues can need faceted filters, synonyms, product relationships, bundles, trade pricing, customer-specific catalogues or search connected to an external index. Each rule requires data, interface decisions and tests.
Merchandising also creates ongoing work. Featured products, promotions, landing pages and seasonal ranges need a named owner and a publishing process. Treat that operational time separately from software maintenance so the budget shows who keeps the shop commercially current.
Payment fees change with the order mix
Payment processing is normally charged per successful transaction rather than as part of the website build. Stripe’s official UK pricing, checked on 26 August 2026, listed 1.5% + 20p for a standard UK card under its standard pay-as-you-go pricing. The same page showed different rates for premium UK, European and international cards, plus separate terms for currency conversion, disputes and other payment methods.
At that published standard UK-card rate, 1,000 successful £50 orders would produce £950 in processing fees. This is an arithmetic illustration, not a forecast. The actual total depends on the provider contract, card and payment-method mix, average order value, refunds, disputes, currencies and whether the commerce platform adds a separate fee.
Payment scope also extends beyond placing fields on a checkout page. Test successful and failed authorisation, duplicate submission, refunds, partial refunds, order status, stock adjustment, confirmation messages, webhooks and reconciliation. Subscription, marketplace, deposit and split-payment models require additional commercial and technical work.
The PCI Security Standards Council merchant guidance, checked on 26 August 2026, explains that PCI DSS applies to entities that store, process or transmit cardholder data and to systems that could affect payment-account security. A hosted payment component can reduce the card data handled by the store, but the chosen integration and merchant responsibilities still need to be confirmed with the payment provider or acquiring bank.
Integrations turn a shop into an operating system
The checkout may need to exchange data with accounts, stock, warehouse, shipping, CRM, email, product-information, marketplace or customer-service systems. “Connect to the ERP” is not a testable requirement. The quote should identify the records, field ownership, direction of travel, frequency, error handling and recovery process.
Integration costs rise when identifiers conflict, APIs impose limits, source data is unreliable or no test environment exists. Real-time stock may need a different design from a nightly product update. An accounting export that a person reviews is different from an automated two-way posting process. Ask what happens when either service is unavailable and how failed records are found and corrected.
Third-party services change independently. Budget for API version changes, credential rotation, monitoring and regression tests after updates. If an app or connector is central to trading, record the account owner, renewal term, data export and replacement plan.
Migration includes more than product rows
A store migration may involve products, variants, images, customers, order history, vouchers, reviews, redirects, tax settings, fulfilment rules and integrations. Not every source platform exports every item in a form the new platform accepts. Passwords and payment tokens may have specific restrictions, while app-managed data can sit outside standard exports.
The calculator has two relevant catalogue migration profiles. Its standard profile covers up to 100 products and adds 4–15.5 person-days across project work, development, content and QA. Its larger profile covers 31 or more pages or products and adds 9–32 person-days. These overlapping labels reflect uncertainty in an initial answer, not a tariff. The source fields, transformations, exceptions and acceptance sample should replace the generic range during discovery.
Preserve old URLs where possible and map necessary redirects before launch. Test totals, variants, stock, tax and customer-facing content rather than relying on an import completion message. Keep the original export and migration scripts until the new store has passed acceptance and recovery checks.
Trading rules, privacy and customer service carry costs
The GOV.UK rules for online and distance selling, checked on 26 August 2026, set out information that must be provided before an order, information required after an order and cancellation rights. Your own obligations depend on the goods, services, customer and trading model, so obtain professional advice where needed. The build scope should still identify who supplies approved business details, delivery terms, cancellation information and returns content.
The Information Commissioner’s Office cookie guidance, checked on 26 August 2026, explains the consent requirements for non-essential cookies and similar technologies. Commerce sites can add tags through analytics, advertising, chat, reviews, personalisation and payment services. Inventory those technologies before selecting or configuring a consent tool.
Security and continuity are operational responsibilities rather than one-off launch tasks. The National Cyber Security Centre’s asset-management guidance, checked on 26 August 2026, advises organisations to maintain an accurate view of the systems, services and data they rely on. For an online store, that register can include the domain, DNS, platform, code, apps, payment accounts, mail delivery, analytics, fulfilment connections and backups.
Use the UK website maintenance cost guide to define support hours, renewals, monitoring, backups and response arrangements. Content updates, merchandising and customer service should remain visible as separate operating work unless the support agreement expressly includes them.
How to compare eCommerce proposals
Put each proposal against the same requirements and use current supplier terms for subscriptions and transaction charges. A useful comparison records the included person-days, named deliverables, customer dependencies, acceptance tests, exclusions and price-change process.
- Define the trading model - Record products, markets, currencies, tax, delivery, fulfilment, returns, customer types and sales channels.
- Audit the catalogue - Count products and variants, then sample data quality, images, identifiers, categories and required transformations.
- Map every integration - Name the source of truth, fields, direction, schedule, failure handling, credentials and owner.
- Model transaction fees - Apply current provider rates to the expected order values, card mix, currencies, refunds and disputes.
- Separate setup from operation - Show platform, apps, payments, hosting, support, content and internal staff time across several years.
- Write acceptance tests - Cover orders, stock, tax, shipping, refunds, emails, analytics, consent, accessibility and recovery.
- Confirm ownership and exit - Record control of the domain, accounts, data, code, themes, licences, exports and documentation.
Smaller organisations can use the small-business website cost guide to decide which scope belongs in the first release and which work can wait. If the store already has unusual integrations, B2B rules or a difficult catalogue, a discovery phase is safer than forcing uncertain work into a fixed build price.
Opace’s eCommerce development services cover WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, B2B and headless projects for organisations across the UK and internationally. The service page explains our commercial capability; it is not evidence for the prices in this guide.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an eCommerce website cost in the UK?
Our planning model assigns 34–87 person-days to a store with up to 250 products before extra design, content, migration or integration work. At the model’s rate allowances, the base supplier build is about £15,000–£92,500 depending on the supplier route, excluding VAT. This is a broad model output, not a national average or quote.
Is Shopify cheaper than WooCommerce?
There is no dependable answer without a scope. Shopify bundles hosted software into a subscription and publishes plan-specific payment terms. WooCommerce core is open-source, while hosting, extensions, implementation and maintenance are separate. Compare the configured store, current payment rates and three- to five-year operating costs against the same catalogue and integration requirements.
How much should product upload cost?
Product count alone is insufficient. Pricing should name the source format, fields, variants, images, descriptions, categories, transformations, validation sample and approval process. Clean records with stable SKUs can be imported efficiently, while incomplete or inconsistent data requires content and technical work.
Are payment processing fees included in the website price?
Usually not. Build quotes may include payment-provider configuration and testing, while successful transactions, currency conversion, disputes, refunds or specialist payment methods are charged under the provider’s current terms. Ask the supplier to separate implementation from trading fees.
What should an eCommerce maintenance plan cover?
It should name the platform, extensions, integrations and customer journeys being checked, together with update handling, backups, monitoring, response targets and included change time. Product entry, promotions and customer service are operational tasks and may sit outside technical maintenance.
Sources and checking date
The factual supplier and public-body sources below were checked on 26 August 2026. Prices, fees, rules and platform features can change, so verify the current page and proposed contract before procurement.
- Shopify UK pricing
- WooCommerce core plugin listing
- WooCommerce product CSV importer and exporter
- Stripe UK pricing
- GOV.UK online and distance selling rules
- ICO cookies and similar technologies guidance
- NCSC asset-management guidance
- PCI Security Standards Council merchant guidance
The calculator’s labour and effort method is documented on the calculator result screen. The base eCommerce effort and migration allowances are Opace editorial planning assumptions, not independently observed national averages.
