How much does an online store cost?
Build prices, platform fees, and the hidden costs nobody quotes. The whole market, then our numbers.
Updated July 2026
A small business online store typically costs $2,000 to $15,000 to build, plus platform and payment fees of roughly $40 to $300 a month once it is running. At A Visual Identity, online stores start at $2,500, quoted fixed before any work begins.
Ecommerce pricing confuses people because there are two bills: the build and the platform. A beautiful store on Shopify still pays Shopify every month, and a cheap build often costs more later in transaction fees, apps, and rework. Here is how the whole picture prices out.
What the market charges for an online store
| What you buy | Typical price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| DIY on Shopify or Square | $40 to $100 a month plus your time | A stock theme and your own labor. Genuinely workable for a handful of products if you enjoy the fiddling. Product photography, descriptions, tax, and shipping setup are all on you. |
| Freelancer theme setup | $1,000 to $3,000 | A configured theme, your products loaded, payments connected. Quality varies wildly. Ask who handles the shipping matrix, tax settings, and email receipts, because that is where DIY handoffs fall apart. |
| Professional studio build | $2,500 to $10,000 | Custom design on a solid platform, products and variants organized properly, payments, tax, shipping, and order emails all tested, plus training so you can run it yourself. |
| Custom or headless build | $15,000 to $50,000+ | A store built from scratch for unusual needs: complex configurators, wholesale portals, thousands of SKUs, or integration with warehouse systems. Most small businesses do not need this. |
What moves the price on a store
Product count and variants
Twenty products with two sizes each is an afternoon. Eight hundred products with size, color, and material options is a data project before design even starts.
Photography and product copy
Products sell on photos and words. If they do not exist yet, someone has to make them, and that can rival the build cost.
Payments, tax, and shipping rules
Flat rate shipping is simple. Weight based rates, local pickup, and multi state tax each add configuration and testing.
Integrations
Syncing with Etsy, a POS system, inventory software, or an email platform is real engineering, priced per connection.
Platform choice
Shopify charges monthly forever but maintains itself. Custom builds cost more up front and less per month. The right answer depends on your margins and volume.
Who runs it after launch
Stores need more aftercare than brochure sites: orders misfire, inventory drifts, apps update. Budget for a support arrangement or the time to learn it cold.
What we charge
The checkup is free and the quote is fixed. If you are choosing between Shopify and custom, we will tell you honestly which fits, including when the answer is the cheaper one.
An online store
from $2,500Design, products loaded and organized, payments, tax, shipping, and order emails tested end to end, plus training.
Automation for the busywork
from $750Order notifications, inventory syncing, and the repetitive tasks that eat your evenings.
Common questions
Keep reading
The service behind these numbers, and what everything else costs.
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