What ecommerce development actually costs
The question always arrives as a single figure and always deserves a breakdown, because the same store can cost five thousand or a hundred and fifty thousand depending on three things: how many systems it touches, how strange your rules are, and who maintains it a year from now.
The ranges below are what we see in real quotes, not list prices.
Realistic ranges#
| Scope | Typical range | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| Hosted store, standard theme | $3,000–$15,000 | Catalogue setup, theme customisation, payments, launch |
| Hosted store with integrations | $15,000–$40,000 | Plus ERP or fulfilment connection, custom checkout logic |
| Custom or B2B store | $40,000–$120,000+ | Customer-specific pricing, approvals, audit trail, scale |
| Headless build | From $60,000 | Two systems, two deploy pipelines, content workflow |
| Running cost per year | 15–25% of build | Maintenance, updates, apps, hosting, small changes |
Where the money actually goes#
- Product data. Cleaning, structuring and importing it is the most underestimated line in every quote.
- Integrations. An ERP without a decent API turns a two-week task into a two-month one.
- Checkout edge cases: failed payments, partial stock, refunds, split shipments.
- Tax and shipping rules per market, each of which is a small project.
- Admin tooling your own team needs daily, which nobody demos and everybody needs.
What blows budgets#
Four things, in our experience: systems with no API, product data worse than anyone admitted, a B2B pricing requirement discovered in month two, and no single person empowered to decide what correct behaviour is.
Ask about these four before signing. A supplier who has not asked has not priced them.
How to keep it honest#
Scope to one catalogue, one market and one payment method for release one. Require the migration plan and the admin tooling as deliverables, own the repository, and set a decision point at six weeks where the project can be stopped without shame.
Frequently asked questions
Why do quotes differ so much?
Because scope differs. Compare integration depth, data migration and post-launch support, not the total.
Can a small team build it themselves?
On a hosted platform with a standard catalogue, often yes — provided someone owns it after launch.
What should a fixed price include?
Data migration, admin tooling, a runbook and handover. Without those you are buying a demo.
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