"How much does an online store cost?" is the question with the hardest answer on the web. An online shop can cost €500 on an all-in-one platform or €50,000 as a custom build — and in both cases the price can be right or wrong depending on the project. This guide gives you the real numbers for every scenario, the variables that determine the cost and the mistakes to avoid when assessing a quote for your
A professional online store usually costs €2,000–5,000 on Shopify or WooCommerce, plus €400–1,500 a year in running costs and payment fees; custom development starts at €15,000. My stores start at €750 for a catalogue of up to 50 products with a customised design: no agency overheads and an itemised quote. See the packages.
Sources: B2C eCommerce Observatory Netcomm – Politecnico di Milano (2025); Aberdeen Group (2008)
| Platform | Development | Running costs | Fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | €2,000–5,000 | from $39/month | 0.5–2% without Shopify Payments |
| WooCommerce | €1,500–8,000 | €500–1,500/year | gateway fees only (~1.5%) |
| Prestashop | €3,000–10,000 | hosting and modules | gateway fees only |
| Custom development | from €15,000–30,000 | variable | gateway fees only |
Indicative market ranges; my online stores start at €750.
Why an online store costs more than a brochure site
An online store isn't a website with a "buy" button added. It's a system that manages a product catalogue, cart, checkout, payments, stock (optional), orders, transactional emails, refunds and legal compliance (GDPR, right of withdrawal, invoicing). Each component has a development, configuration and maintenance cost. Comparing an online store quote with a brochure site quote is like comparing the cost of a restaurant with that of a café — they're different categories.
The variables that determine the price
The main factors:
Shopify: prices and what's included
Shopify is the most widespread SaaS model for e-commerce: you pay a monthly subscription and the platform includes hosting, updates and security. The cost of the subscription is clear — the total cost of the project less so.
Shopify's monthly subscription
The current plans: Basic at $39/month, Shopify at $105/month and Advanced at $399/month. The plans differ mainly in transaction fees (0.5–2% if you don't use Shopify Payments), the number of staff accounts and reporting features. For a small online store in Italy, the Basic plan with Shopify Payments is often enough to begin with.
Development costs on Shopify
A good-quality premium Shopify theme costs $150–350. Customising the theme with a freelancer: €800–2,500 for moderate customisation. A complete Shopify store with a customised theme, advanced configuration and integration with Italian couriers: €2,000–5,000. If you need specific features not covered by the Shopify ecosystem (custom ERP integrations, complex B2B pricing logic), the cost rises significantly.
WooCommerce: prices and what's included
WooCommerce is the world's most widespread e-commerce plugin for WordPress. It's free as software, but the total cost of the project depends on hosting, theme, premium plugins and development.
Development costs on WooCommerce
A WooCommerce store with a customised theme, basic configuration (products, cart, checkout, payment gateway) and mobile optimisation: €1,500–4,000 with a freelancer. A more complex project with a structured catalogue, advanced filters, integration with management software and structural SEO: €4,000–8,000. WooCommerce's main advantage over Shopify is full ownership of the code and no platform fees — at significant volumes, the saving can pay back the extra development cost within a few months.
WooCommerce recurring costs
Hosting optimised for WooCommerce: €15–50/month. Premium WooCommerce plugins (subscriptions, bookings, bundles): €50–200/year each. Maintenance and updates: €50–150/month if delegated to a technician. Total fixed annual costs: €500–1,500/year for a well-configured WooCommerce store.
Prestashop and custom development: when you scale up
For online stores with complex requirements — thousands of SKUs, ERP integrations, warehouse logistics, multi-vendor marketplaces or B2B with customer-specific pricing — SaaS solutions and standard plugins aren't enough.
Prestashop
Prestashop is open source and free, but it requires hosting, development and significant maintenance. Out of the box, it's more powerful than WooCommerce for complex catalogues, but it has a steeper learning curve. Development cost: €3,000–10,000 for a professional project. Many useful modules cost €50–300 each and quickly add up in the total budget.
Custom e-commerce development
An online store developed from scratch on a custom framework (Laravel, Next.js) only makes sense for very specific requirements that no existing platform meets. The cost starts at €15,000–30,000 and can grow significantly. It isn't the right choice for the vast majority of projects — mature platforms cover 95% of use cases at much lower cost.
- You want to launch quickly without in-house technical resources
- Your catalogue is relatively simple (under 1,000 products)
- You want hosting, security and updates included in the subscription
- You also sell in international markets (native multi-currency)
- You already have a WordPress site and want to add e-commerce
- You want full ownership of the code with no monthly fees
- You need advanced SEO customisation
- You expect volumes that make Shopify's fees expensive
Recurring costs and fees: the full calculation
The development price is one-off — but an online store has a structure of recurring costs that needs to be planned before you start, not discovered after launch.
WooCommerce: development €3,000 + hosting €600/year × 3 = €1,800 + maintenance €1,200/year × 3 = €3,600 + plugins €300/year × 3 = €900. 3-year total: ~€9,300 + payment gateway fees (~1.5% on every transaction).
Shopify Basic: development €2,500 + subscription €432/year × 3 = €1,296 + 0% fees (with Shopify Payments). 3-year total: ~€3,800 + gateway transaction fees.
For low volumes (under €5,000/month in sales), Shopify is often cheaper overall. For high volumes, the savings on fees and the absence of a monthly subscription make WooCommerce better value.
Logistics and shipping: the costs nobody puts in the quote
The development quote covers the software — but an online store selling physical goods has operating costs for order handling, packaging and shipping that have to be calculated separately and that directly affect the margin on every sale.
Couriers and shipping rates
Courier rates for a small online store without negotiated volumes: €5–9 for a standard parcel (0.5–2 kg) within Italy with BRT, GLS or DHL. Beyond certain monthly volumes you can negotiate dedicated rates. Aggregator platforms such as
Handling returns
The right of withdrawal (14 days) is mandatory by law for online sales in Italy and the EU. Returns have a cost: return shipping, checking the goods, restocking. In fashion and accessories, return rates can exceed 20–30%. Ignoring this cost in financial planning is one of the most frequent mistakes made by new online stores. A clear returns system (a dedicated page, prepaid labels, fast refunds) reduces friction and increases customer trust.
Packaging and materials
Boxes, tape, packing material, any branded inserts — packaging has a per-order cost that multiplies with volume. At low quantities, €1–3 per order is a realistic estimate. At high volumes with custom packaging, it can drop to €0.50–1. Careful packaging communicates quality and increases the likelihood of positive reviews and repeat purchases — but it has to be included in the unit margin, not ignored.
Recommended budget for an online store's first year
Launching an online store needs a budget that goes beyond developing the site. Planning the first year realistically avoids running short of resources at the critical moment — right after launch, when the site is live but sales haven't yet picked up.
- Site development: €2,000–5,000 (one-off)
- Product photography: €500–1,500 for 30–80 products
- Hosting and platform: €400–800/year
- Digital advertising (Google/Meta): €500–1,500/month — necessary in the first months without organic SEO
- Ad campaign management: €200–600/month if delegated to a professional
- Email marketing tool: €30–80/month (Klaviyo, Mailchimp)
- SEO and content: €300–700/month if you want to build organic traffic
Realistic total first-year budget (development + operations): €15,000–35,000 for a serious project with active advertising.
Payments and checkout: invest where the sale is decided
Checkout is where the sale is made or lost. A checkout that's slow, confusing or lacks the payment options the customer expects causes abandonment — and checkout abandonment is the most expensive loss for an online store, because it happens after the user has already decided to buy.
Which payment methods to integrate
In Italy, the payment methods with the highest adoption rates in e-commerce are: credit/debit cards (via Stripe or Nexi), PayPal (still widely used, especially by users over 35), Scalapay and Klarna (buy now, pay later — increases the average basket by 20–40% on products over €50), Satispay (growing fast, especially on mobile) and bank transfer (for B2B or high-value orders). You don't need to integrate them all from the start — but leaving out PayPal or credit cards to reduce development costs is a mistake you pay for in lost conversions.
Checkout optimisation: where you really win
The optimisations with the biggest impact on checkout conversions:
Mistakes to avoid when assessing an online store quote
If you're considering an e-commerce investment, a pre-launch strategic consultation helps you choose the right platform and define a realistic budget. For the professional online store development service, the process always starts from an analysis of the project — not from a fixed price list.
What to do before opening an online store: the preliminary checks
Many business owners start with the development quote without having answered strategic questions that affect both the choice of platform and the overall budget. Answering these questions before meeting your first developer saves time, money and rework.
Validating the product and the market
Before investing in an online shop, check that there's real demand for what you sell: search for your main keywords on Google (Google Keyword Planner provides search volumes for free), see whether competitors are already active online (a positive sign — it means the market exists) and assess whether competitors' reviews reveal gaps you can fill. A well-built online store selling a product with no demand is a wasted investment. Even a mediocre online store selling a product in strong demand can still work.
Legal and tax matters to settle first
An online store selling to consumers in Italy must meet precise obligations:
Your catalogue: ready to upload?
Uploading the catalogue is often the most underestimated phase in terms of time. For each product you need: high-quality photos on a white background or in context (at least 3–5 per product), optimised descriptive copy, weight and dimensions for calculating shipping, a unique EAN code or SKU and the correct category. For 100 products, preparing all these materials takes weeks — not days. Arriving at the start of the project with the catalogue ready lets you meet the agreed launch date.
Post-launch management: the cost of day-to-day operations
Launch is the beginning, not the finish line. A live online store requires continuous work that has a real cost — in personal time or in budget to delegate it. Ignoring this in planning is one of the mistakes that most often leads to online stores being abandoned 6 months after launch.
What needs ongoing management
Every active online store requires: catalogue updates (new products, variants, seasonal prices), order handling and communication with couriers, pre- and post-sales customer service (email, chat, phone), returns and refunds, publishing promotions and coupons, technical platform updates and performance monitoring (conversion rate, abandoned carts, most-viewed products, traffic sources). Allow 10–20 hours a week for a small-to-medium online store run without a dedicated team — the more orders, the more hours.
Automations that lighten the operational load
Some operations can be automated to reduce operational time significantly:
How to read and compare different online store quotes
Receiving three quotes for the same online store with prices ranging from €1,500 to €8,000 is normal — and often all three are right in their own context. The problem is comparing them without a proper framework for reading them.
What to check in every quote
Before comparing totals, check that each quote answers these questions: How many products are included in the initial upload? (uploading 500 products costs very differently from uploading 20). Is the design a modified theme or a custom layout? Are integrations with Italian couriers included or extra? Is the payment gateway configured and tested? Is setting up the transactional emails included? Who manages the site after launch, and at what cost? Quotes that leave out these items aren't cheaper — they're incomplete.
The most useful metric: cost per order processed
An effective way to assess an e-commerce investment is to calculate the expected cost per order in the first year. If you invest €4,000 in development + €1,200 in hosting/maintenance + €6,000 in advertising = €11,200 in total, and over 12 months you take 400 orders, the cost per order is €28. If your margin per order is higher than €28, the investment is already profitable in the first year — however high the initial quote seemed. This calculation brings the conversation back from cost to value.
Assessing an online store quote as if it were a brochure site leads to wrong decisions. Assessing it as an investment in commercial infrastructure leads to the right questions.
If you want to apply this to your own project, take a look at my e-commerce development service: clear prices from €750, a free quote and a reply within 24 hours.
