How much does an e-commerce website cost?

A Shopify store costs $39 to $399/month plus $2,500 to $37,000 in first-year total costs including apps, themes, and transaction fees. A WooCommerce store costs $5,660 to $34,000 in first-year total costs including hosting, development, plugins, and maintenance. A custom e-commerce build costs $10,000 to $50,000+ in development plus $500 to $2,000/month in ongoing costs. The right option depends on your product count, required features, and technical resources.

Is Shopify or WooCommerce cheaper?

Shopify is cheaper for small stores with basic needs — the total cost of entry is lower because hosting, security, and infrastructure are included. WooCommerce can be cheaper for larger stores because you avoid Shopify's per-transaction fees and app subscription costs, but it requires more technical management and professional maintenance. At $20,000/month in revenue, Shopify's total cost (platform + apps + transaction fees) is roughly similar to WooCommerce's (hosting + plugins + maintenance).

What are the hidden costs of an e-commerce website?

The biggest hidden costs are: payment processing fees (3-4% of all revenue), Shopify app subscriptions ($100-500/month for essential features), product photography ($500-3,000 initially, ongoing for new products), tax calculation software ($19-350/month), shipping software ($10-200/month), email marketing ($20-200/month), and ongoing maintenance ($100-500/month). The platform fee is typically the smallest part of total e-commerce costs.

How much does payment processing cost for an online store?

Standard online payment processing costs 2.4 to 2.9 percent plus $0.30 per transaction. On $20,000/month in sales with $75 average orders, processing costs roughly $650/month or $7,800/year. On $100,000/month, it costs approximately $3,300/month or $39,600/year. You can reduce rates through volume negotiation, interchange-plus pricing, or offering ACH payment options for large orders.

Should I build a custom e-commerce site or use Shopify?

Use Shopify if your products are straightforward, you want to launch quickly, you do not have a developer, and your revenue is under $1 million/year. Build custom if your shopping experience needs unique functionality, page speed critically impacts conversions, you need deep integrations with warehouse or ERP systems, or you are scaling past $1 million and need infrastructure that grows efficiently. Custom costs more upfront but can deliver better performance and lower per-transaction costs at scale.

Do I need to collect sales tax on my online store?

If your business is in New Jersey, you must collect NJ's 6.625 percent sales tax on most physical goods sold to NJ customers. You may also have sales tax obligations in other states where you exceed $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions. Automated tax software like TaxJar ($19-99/month) or Avalara ($50-350/month) calculates the correct rate and handles multi-state compliance. This is a legal requirement, not optional.

How many products do I need before investing in e-commerce?

There is no minimum product count. Even a single product can justify an online store if the product has strong demand. However, the cost-effectiveness of different platforms changes with product count. Under 50 products: Shopify Basic ($39/month) is the most efficient. 50 to 500 products: Shopify or WooCommerce with professional setup. Over 500 products: Consider Shopify Advanced, WooCommerce with premium hosting, or a custom build depending on product complexity.

E-Commerce Website Cost: Complete Pricing Guide (2026)

Q: How much does it cost to run an e-commerce store per month?

The total monthly cost to run an e-commerce store ranges from $1,630 to $9,450 including platform/hosting ($29-500), payment processing ($600-700 on $20K revenue), apps and plugins ($50-500), shipping software ($10-200), tax calculation ($19-350), email marketing ($20-200), maintenance ($100-500), content and SEO ($200-1,000), and advertising ($500-5,000+). The $39/month Shopify price tag is just one small piece of total operating costs.

E-commerce website cost depends entirely on what you are selling, how you are selling it, and what platform you choose. A store selling 10 handmade products needs a fundamentally different setup than a store managing 5,000 SKUs with real-time inventory sync and multi-warehouse fulfillment.

We build e-commerce websites for businesses across New Jersey and nationally. We have worked with Shopify, WooCommerce, custom Next.js builds, and platforms in between. The costs vary wildly, and most pricing guides online leave out the expenses that actually add up — transaction fees, app subscriptions, payment processing, and the ongoing costs that hit your margin every month.

This guide gives you the real numbers. Every platform, every cost layer, every hidden fee. So when you make a decision, you know exactly what you are signing up for.

🔑

The bottom line: a basic e-commerce store on Shopify costs $39 to $399/month plus 2.4 to 2.9 percent per transaction. WooCommerce costs $20 to $100/month for hosting but requires more technical management. A custom e-commerce build costs $10,000 to $50,000+ upfront. The right choice depends on your product count, required features, technical resources, and growth plans. Most small businesses spending under $3,000 upfront should start with Shopify. Businesses needing custom functionality should consider a custom build.

E-Commerce Platforms: Cost Comparison

Shopify

Shopify is the most popular e-commerce platform for a reason — it handles the technical complexity so you can focus on selling. But it costs more than the sticker price suggests.

Monthly Plans:

**Basic Shopify:** $39/month. 2 staff accounts, basic reports, up to 77 percent shipping discount. Good for new stores.
**Shopify:** $105/month. 5 staff accounts, professional reports, better shipping rates. Good for growing stores.
**Advanced Shopify:** $399/month. 15 staff accounts, custom reports, calculated shipping rates, lowest transaction fees. Good for established stores.
**Shopify Plus:** $2,300+/month. Enterprise features, custom checkout, multiple stores, API access. For high-volume businesses.

Transaction Fees:

If you use Shopify Payments (Stripe-powered): 2.4 to 2.9 percent + $0.30 per transaction depending on plan. If you use a third-party payment gateway: add 0.6 to 2.0 percent on top of the gateway's own fees. This extra fee is Shopify's way of pushing you toward Shopify Payments.

App Costs:

Shopify's app ecosystem is both a strength and a hidden cost. Many essential features require paid apps:

Email marketing (Klaviyo): $20 to $150/month
Reviews collection: $10 to $50/month
Upsell and cross-sell: $10 to $80/month
Advanced filtering and search: $20 to $100/month
Subscription billing: $50 to $200/month
Loyalty programs: $20 to $200/month
Inventory management: $30 to $300/month

Most active Shopify stores spend $100 to $500/month on apps. Some spend more.

Theme Costs:

Free themes are available and functional. Premium themes cost $180 to $400 one-time. Custom theme development costs $5,000 to $20,000+.

Total First-Year Cost (Shopify):

| Store Size | Monthly Platform | Apps | Theme | Transaction Fees | Total Year 1 | |-----------|-----------------|------|-------|-----------------|--------------| | Starter (under 50 products) | $39/mo = $468 | $100/mo = $1,200 | $250 | ~$600 | ~$2,500 | | Growing (50-500 products) | $105/mo = $1,260 | $250/mo = $3,000 | $350 | ~$3,000 | ~$7,600 | | Established (500+ products) | $399/mo = $4,788 | $400/mo = $4,800 | $15,000 custom | ~$12,000 | ~$36,600 |

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that turns any WordPress site into an online store. The plugin is free. Everything else costs money.

Hosting: $20 to $100/month. WooCommerce requires WordPress hosting, and cheap shared hosting ($5/month) cannot handle e-commerce traffic reliably. Managed WooCommerce hosting from providers like Cloudways or SiteGround costs $20 to $100/month depending on traffic and storage needs.

Domain and SSL: $10 to $50/year for the domain. SSL is usually included with hosting.

Theme: Free to $200 for a premium WooCommerce theme. Custom theme development: $3,000 to $15,000+.

Essential Plugins:

Payment gateway (Stripe/PayPal): Free plugin, standard transaction fees (2.9% + $0.30)
SEO (Yoast or Rank Math): Free to $99/year
Security (Wordfence or Sucuri): $99 to $299/year
Backups (UpdraftPlus): Free to $70/year
Page builder (Elementor): Free to $199/year
Shipping calculation: Free to $99/year
Tax calculation (TaxJar): $19 to $99/month
Email marketing integration: Free to $50/month
Advanced product options: $50 to $200/year

Most WooCommerce stores spend $500 to $2,000/year on plugins.

Development Cost: Building a WooCommerce store from scratch (not just installing the plugin) costs $3,000 to $15,000 for a professional setup with custom design, proper security, and performance optimization.

Maintenance: WooCommerce requires regular updates to WordPress core, WooCommerce plugin, theme, and all installed plugins. Professional maintenance costs $100 to $300/month. For more on ongoing maintenance costs, read our website maintenance cost guide.

Total First-Year Cost (WooCommerce):

| Store Size | Hosting | Development | Plugins | Transaction Fees | Maintenance | Total Year 1 | |-----------|---------|-------------|---------|-----------------|-------------|--------------| | Starter | $30/mo = $360 | $3,000 | $500 | ~$600 | $100/mo = $1,200 | ~$5,660 | | Growing | $60/mo = $720 | $8,000 | $1,200 | ~$3,000 | $200/mo = $2,400 | ~$15,320 | | Established | $100/mo = $1,200 | $15,000 | $2,000 | ~$12,000 | $300/mo = $3,600 | ~$33,800 |

Custom E-Commerce Build

A custom e-commerce build uses modern frameworks (Next.js, headless commerce platforms like Shopify Hydrogen, Medusa, or Saleor) to create a store built specifically for your business.

When Custom Makes Sense:

You need checkout or shopping experiences that platforms do not support
Page load speed directly affects your conversion rate (every 100ms of delay costs roughly 1 percent in sales)
You need deep integrations with warehouse, ERP, or POS systems
You sell complex products with custom configurations
Brand differentiation requires a shopping experience no template can deliver
You are scaling beyond what Shopify or WooCommerce handle efficiently

Development Costs:

| Component | Cost Range | |-----------|-----------| | Discovery and planning | $2,000-5,000 | | UX/UI design | $5,000-15,000 | | Frontend development | $8,000-25,000 | | Backend/commerce engine | $5,000-15,000 | | Payment integration | $2,000-5,000 | | Shipping integration | $2,000-5,000 | | Inventory management | $3,000-8,000 | | Admin panel | $5,000-12,000 | | Testing and QA | $2,000-5,000 | | Total | $10,000-50,000+ |

Ongoing Costs:

Hosting (Vercel, AWS, or similar): $50 to $300/month
Payment processing: 2.4 to 2.9 percent + $0.30 per transaction
Maintenance and updates: $200 to $500/month
Infrastructure monitoring: $50 to $200/month

For more on custom website pricing across all project types, read our custom website cost guide.

Cost by Store Size

Your product catalog size significantly affects cost because it determines the complexity of navigation, filtering, inventory management, and content creation.

Small Store: 10 to 50 Products

A small catalog is the most straightforward e-commerce setup. You need basic product pages, a simple category structure, and standard checkout.

Recommended platform: Shopify Basic ($39/month) or a lightweight custom build.

Total cost range: $2,000 to $8,000 first year.

What you need: - Clean product photography ($500-2,000 for a basic shoot or $10-30 per stock image) - Product descriptions ($50-150 per product for professional copywriting) - Basic shipping setup - Standard payment processing - Simple inventory tracking

Medium Store: 50 to 500 Products

A medium catalog requires more sophisticated organization — multiple categories, filtering by attributes (size, color, price), and potentially product variants.

Recommended platform: Shopify or WooCommerce with professional setup.

Total cost range: $7,000 to $20,000 first year.

What you need (beyond small store basics): - Advanced product filtering and search ($50-200/month for apps or custom development) - Category pages with unique content (for SEO) - Product variant management - Automated inventory alerts - Email marketing integration (abandoned cart, post-purchase)

Large Store: 500+ Products

Large catalogs create complexity in every direction — navigation, search, inventory management, product data management, and site performance.

Recommended platform: Shopify Advanced, WooCommerce with premium hosting, or custom build.

Total cost range: $20,000 to $60,000+ first year.

What you need (beyond medium store basics): - Advanced search with faceted filtering - Product data management system (PIM) - Automated inventory sync with warehouse or supplier systems - Bulk product import/update capabilities - Performance optimization for large catalogs (lazy loading, pagination, caching) - Custom reporting and analytics

Payment Processing: The Cost Nobody Mentions

Payment processing is the single largest ongoing expense for most e-commerce businesses, and it is rarely discussed in platform pricing pages.

Standard Processing Rates

**Stripe:** 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction. 2.7% + $0.05 for in-person (if you use Stripe Terminal).
**PayPal:** 2.99% + $0.49 per transaction (standard). Lower rates available for high volume.
**Square:** 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction. 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person.
**Shopify Payments:** 2.4% to 2.9% + $0.30 depending on Shopify plan.

What This Actually Costs

On $10,000/month in revenue with a 2.9% + $0.30 rate and an average order of $75:

Transaction fees: $290 (percentage) + $40 (per-transaction) = $330/month
Annual processing cost: $3,960

On $50,000/month:

Transaction fees: $1,450 + $200 = $1,650/month
Annual processing cost: $19,800

On $100,000/month:

Transaction fees: $2,900 + $400 = $3,300/month
Annual processing cost: $39,600

These numbers are real. Payment processing eats 3 to 4 percent of every dollar in revenue. For businesses with low margins, negotiating better processing rates is one of the highest-leverage financial moves you can make.

Reducing Processing Costs

**Volume negotiation:** Once you process over $50,000/month, most processors will negotiate custom rates. Ask.
**Interchange-plus pricing:** Instead of flat-rate pricing, interchange-plus passes through the actual card network rate plus a fixed markup. This typically saves 0.3 to 0.5 percent for businesses processing over $20,000/month.
**ACH payments:** For B2B or high-ticket transactions, ACH transfers cost $0.50 to $2.00 per transaction (flat fee, no percentage). Dramatically cheaper than credit card processing for large orders.

Shipping Integration Costs

Shipping is the other hidden cost center in e-commerce.

Shipping Software

**ShipStation:** $9.99 to $229/month depending on order volume
**Shippo:** Free for basic, $10 to $200/month for premium features
**Pirate Ship:** Free (makes money on shipping label markup)
**EasyPost:** Pay per label ($0.01 to $0.05 per label plus carrier rates)

Carrier Rate Integration

Real-time carrier rate calculation (showing customers the actual USPS/UPS/FedEx rate at checkout) requires either a paid app/plugin ($20 to $100/month) or custom integration ($2,000 to $5,000 development cost).

Free Shipping Economics

Offering free shipping is almost mandatory for competitive e-commerce. But free shipping is not free to you. It either comes from your margin or you increase product prices to cover it. Most stores set a free shipping threshold ($50 to $75 minimum order) to increase average order value while managing shipping costs.

NJ-Specific E-Commerce Considerations

If you are running an e-commerce business in New Jersey, there are specific cost and compliance factors to address.

NJ Sales Tax

New Jersey has a 6.625 percent sales tax that applies to most physical goods sold online. Digital products and some services have different rules. Automated tax calculation is essential — TaxJar ($19 to $99/month) or Avalara ($50 to $350/month) handles this across all states where you have sales tax nexus.

Nexus Considerations

If your NJ e-commerce business ships to other states, you may have sales tax obligations (nexus) in those states based on your sales volume. Most states require collection once you exceed $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions in that state. Tax software handles multi-state compliance automatically, but it adds cost.

Local Fulfillment

NJ's proximity to major population centers (NYC, Philadelphia) creates fulfillment advantages. Same-day or next-day delivery to 25+ million people is possible from NJ warehouse locations. Third-party logistics (3PL) providers in NJ charge $3 to $8 per order plus storage fees ($15 to $40 per pallet per month).

Ongoing Monthly Costs Summary

Here is a comprehensive view of what running an e-commerce store actually costs per month, beyond the initial build.

| Expense | Range | |---------|-------| | Platform/hosting | $29-500 | | Payment processing (on $20K revenue) | $600-700 | | Apps/plugins | $50-500 | | Shipping software | $10-200 | | Tax calculation | $19-350 | | Email marketing | $20-200 | | Maintenance | $100-500 | | Product photography (ongoing) | $100-500 | | Content/SEO | $200-1,000 | | Advertising | $500-5,000+ | | Total monthly | $1,630-9,450 |

This table explains why the common advice of "start a Shopify store for $39/month" is misleading. The platform is $39. Running the business is $1,630 to $9,450/month. Understanding the full cost picture before you launch prevents cash flow surprises that kill otherwise viable businesses.

Which Platform Should You Choose?

Choose Shopify If:

You want to launch quickly without worrying about server management
Your products are straightforward (physical goods with standard variants)
You do not have a developer on your team
You are willing to pay higher per-transaction fees for convenience
Your annual revenue is under $1 million

Choose WooCommerce If:

You already have a WordPress website with content
You want maximum control over your store and your data
You have a developer or agency managing your site (including BKND — we manage WooCommerce stores for several clients)
You want to avoid Shopify's transaction fees
You have complex content needs alongside e-commerce (blog, resources, knowledge base)

Choose Custom If:

Your shopping experience needs to be fundamentally different from templates
Page load performance directly impacts your revenue (high-volume stores)
You need deep integrations with warehouse, ERP, or custom business systems
Your products are complex (custom configurations, made-to-order, B2B pricing)
You are scaling past $1 million in annual revenue and need infrastructure that grows with you

We build custom e-commerce solutions using Next.js and headless commerce architectures. Learn more about our development approach.

BKND's E-Commerce Approach

We have built stores on every major platform. We do not push one platform over another — we recommend what fits your business, your budget, and your growth trajectory.

We start with your business model. What you sell, how you sell it, and where you want to be in two years determines the right platform. We do not start with technology and work backward.

We account for total cost. Our proposals include every cost — platform fees, transaction fees, app subscriptions, development, maintenance, content. No surprises after launch.

We build for growth. The platform choice that works at 50 products may not work at 5,000. We help you make a decision that supports your growth without requiring a complete rebuild.

We handle NJ compliance. Sales tax, shipping regulations, and state-specific requirements are part of every NJ e-commerce project we build.

Ready to get an accurate cost estimate for your e-commerce project? Talk to BKND — we will evaluate your product catalog, business requirements, and growth plans and recommend the most cost-effective platform and approach.