The Ultimate Guide to eCommerce Website Cost (2025)

You have come up with a killer business idea and can’t wait to turn it into a reality? Great! The multicolored world of eCommerce awaits you. But we have to address the elephant in the room: how much does it cost to build an eCommerce store? Since this question has popped up in every merchant’s head, we have decided to create the ultimate guide to eCommerce website costs to answer this question, once and for all. If you want a full picture of what to expect financially, keep reading to find out.

How Much an eCommerce Website Costs: An Estimation Overview

eCommerce Website Cost Breakdown: 10 Most Prominent Factors

1. Chosen Platform

The platform you choose plays a pivotal role in determining your eCommerce store’s performance in the long run.

Estimated costs: $0 - $50/month (Basic), $20k - $100k+ (Premium).

You are welcomed to build an eCommerce website from the ground up, but why take the hard route when you can simplify the whole process by opting for a host platform? The household names like Shopify or Wix are widely available for online sellers around the globe to jumpstart their eCommerce journey without burning through time, effort, and capital.

That said, if you have the means to churn out a fancy custom website, there are multiple options to hire experienced developers to polish every detail and provide constant support throughout your business operation.

More from GemPages: 10+ Best Personal Website Builders (Paid & Free)

2. Domain Name

There is a large chance that you will have to pay for a domain name to run a long-lasting eCommerce business.

Estimated costs: $10 - $30/year (Basic), $100 - $500+/year (Premium).

Your domain name may seem trivial, but its impact on customers’ impression of your brand is significant. It is important to cherry-pick domain names that stay true to your brand while still being memorable. This digital address can cost as little as $10 and go up to $500+ based on your demand. In case your desired domain name is already registered by someone, bids or negotiations could happen.

3. Payment and Transaction Fees

When operating online, payment and transaction fees are to be expected as a recurring cost for merchants.

Estimated costs: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (Basic), $1k - $5k+ (Premium).

Regardless of which platform and payment processors you use, handling credit card transactions costs money. The typical rate is around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, but it can vary based on your volume and platform used. Some platforms even go so far as to charge an extra fee if you don’t use their default processor.

While these charges are usually baked into your checkout flow, they directly impact your bottom line on each order. It’s easy to ignore them early on, until your growth starts contradicting the economies of scale because you start bleeding cash on fees. So, always factor them into your pricing strategy.

4. Design and Customization

There are countless pre-built templates, but to avoid blending into the crowd, merchants are tasked with upgrading the design and customization of their eCommerce websites.

Estimated costs: $0 - $200 (Basic), $2k - $50k+ (Premium).

Don’t judge a book by its cover, but this ain’t a book, so customers absolutely will. Design and customization form your store’s first impression, and in eCommerce that impression happens fast. Clean and professional themes are widely available on most builders, but to really stand out and showcase your brand, it’s the details that matter: tailored layouts, custom color, unique fonts, and purposeful imagery.

The catch? While basic tweaks might be enough early on, next-level customization often requires premium tools or developer help. Good design is as much about looking nice as it is about improving navigation. Online, looking sharp isn’t just optional - it’s strategic.

5. Features and Functionality

A simple eCommerce store can be materialized in minutes, but to be able to house a certain number of features and functionality, it requires more capital from your end.

Estimated costs: $0 - $100/month (Basic), $1k - $50k+ (Premium).

A store without additional features and functionality is like a shopping cart with no wheels - it looks fine, goes nowhere. Essentials like product filtering, wishlists, customer reviews, and advanced search are now expected by customers as standard.

From the other side of the aisle, the basic ability to manage inventory, discounts, shipping, and taxes should be equally essential to you. But serious growth usually means upgrading with apps or integrations to streamline your operations, like ERP systems, and improve the overall shopping experience, think multilingual support or subscription billing.

6. Number of Products

The bigger your product collection is, the higher the cost that goes into building an all-around eCommerce store.

Estimated costs: $0-$100 (Basic), $1,000-$10,000 (Premium).

The number of products is not only a determinant for inventory cost, but it is directly tied to the way your eCommerce website operates. More products equate to more work - uploading images, writing descriptions, organizing different categories, etc. While it’s possible to do it yourself, managing a large quantity of SKUs could be overwhelming as your business progresses. Consequently, other add-ons are needed to keep the flow going.

7. Marketing and SEO

The success of your eCommerce store largely depends on your marketing and SEO strategies - a set of factors that are staples in the merchant’s guidebook.

Estimated costs: $0 - $200/month (Basic), $100 - $20k+/month (Premium).

By now, you may have a polished storefront and a full product lineup, but marketing and SEO are what turn that store into a sales engine. Basic SEO tools - meta tags, sitemaps, and clean URLs - are available on builders like Shopify and WooCommerce. They can then be integrated with apps/plugins for email and paid marketing, namely Klaviyo or Google Ads.

But real growth lies in consistent SEO work, content creation, and ad strategy. Whether through blog posts, email flows, or retargeting ads, your marketing can sometimes cost, and even matter, more than the website itself. Without them, even the best-looking store stays invisible.

Learn everything about SEO with GemPages: The New Playbook of SEO for eCommerce Websites.

8. Security Setup

A well-rounded eCommerce not only needs to excel at delivering a frictionless shopping experience, but is expected to have a proper security system as well.

Estimated costs: 0$ - $50/year (Basic), $200 - $1250+ (Premium).

Many people say they hate losing money more than they like earning money, and that’s exactly why a security setup is critical and a must-have for any eCommerce website. Most platforms automatically include an SSL certificate, which encrypts your customer data during transmission, especially the checkout.

Others (like PCI compliance, fraud detection, firewalls, etc.), though less conspicuous to the customers, are also offered and work behind the scenes nonstop to prevent data theft, chargebacks, and reputational damage. Don’t let the fact that they’re offered out-of-the-box fool you - these protections are worth more than their weight.

9. Third-Party App Integration

Extra services add more convenient functions to your website, and they can be easily integrated if you are based on a host platform like Shopify.

Estimated cost: $10 - $50/month (Basic), $200 - $500/month (Premium).

Happened to be based on one of the most reputable host platforms? Congratulations, you are blessed with a plethora of third-party apps that can be integrated with your website in minutes. Without the need for custom development, these integrations can expand your store’s capabilities in every way.

Standing out is GemPages, a powerful drag-and-drop website builder that allows you the ability to fully customize your storefront without ever writing a line of code. While many integrations are plug-and-play, some do come with monthly fees. So be mindful in strategizing your app stack.

10. Maintenance and Support

To keep your eCommerce store in its best shape, website maintenance is a must

Estimated costs: $0-$500/year (Basic), $3k - $60k/year (Premium).

Last but not least, we have website maintenance and support. While you have possessed a full-fledged eCommerce store, the work does not end there. Similar to a brick-and-mortar shop, it is crucial to have regular maintenance regarding every facet of the store to ensure that things are running smoothly. This task includes timely updates, bug fixes, security patches, and, of course, customer support. Keep in mind that it is better to fix a problem when it’s only noticeable to you rather than via a customer’s feedback.

Useful Tips to Lower Your eCommerce Website Cost

Make full use of free services such as Shutterstock to alleviate certain tasks that are required while building an eCommerce store.

Pick a Template-Ready Platform

To cut down website-building costs, picking a platform with an extensive template library is the way to go. By having available templates and themes at your disposal, you will have the liberty to customize features, color scheme, text and font, as well as the layout of your websites to your liking.

Moreover, these templates have a wider range of pricing, so you can experiment with a free theme in the beginning and move your way up to other premium options. For instance, Shopify is notorious for having a comprehensive theme library that users at all stages can take advantage of. Most of them come with a basic list of features, quick setup, and seamless integration so that you can launch faster without compromising quality.

More on Shopify themes via GemPages’ article:  Emerging Trends in eCommerce: The Best Shopify Themes to Dominate.

Focus on the Key Features

When we say key features, you might have a different idea of what they could be. In most cases, this includes components that make up your store’s performance at launch, such as the most essential pages (e.g., homepage and product page), checkout process, payment gateways, shipping system, and the like. To get the full list of what the most vital, focus on factors are that affect conversion and the user experience the most. By looking through the customer’s lens, you will be able to identify these features that benefit your website the most. As a result, extra fees that stem from services that did not make the list will be eliminated.

Make Use of Free Services

When in doubt, look for free services that can add to your store, no matter how minimal. By putting effort into scouting the web, you will see that there are plenty of tools and resources at zero cost that can help you find your footing in the industry. Shutterstock and Freepik for free image downloads, Canva for basic photo editing, Google Analytics for performance tracking - just to name a few.

Furthermore, host platforms like Shopify have a multitude of built-in features and integrated apps that help you kickstart your store without the need to look outward. To become a seasoned business hustler, being resourceful with these free services sets the groundwork for building a brand that lasts.

Build the Perfect eCommerce Website without Spending a Fortune with GemPages

A powerful page builder is the ultimate tool that helps you build a functional eCommerce store quickly and securely.

Now that you have had the full picture of how much an eCommerce website costs, why not find a solution that helps you build the ideal version of your online store that won’t burn a hole in your pocket? Among the sea of similar page builders, GemPages rises above as a versatile, code-free, and low-cost tool that is made specifically for Shopify-powered stores.

While our primary mission is to build head-turning pages, every component will be optimized so that your website will not only look good but operate smoothly as well. Our app is designed to create a well-rounded customer experience, so everything from the 200+ CRO templates, drag-and-drop editor, mobile-first designs, to A/B testing and SEO support is made in order to create high-converting landing pages.

Having nearly a decade of eCommerce experience under our belt, GemPages knows how to empower businesses of all sizes by delivering features that are not only easy to use but have been proven effective for long-term growth as well.

Start your eCommerce endeavour with GemPages: GemPages Landing Page Builder.

Final Words

Being aware of the estimated costs for building an eCommerce website is the very first step in the journey of launching a thriving business, and we hope that we were able to break it down to the nitty-gritty with this blog post. In such a saturated sector like eCommerce, every wrong move can introduce risk, so by following our guide, you will find yourself keeping these mistakes at bay. Now get out there and embark on your journey to success today!

FAQ about eCommerce Website Cost