Compare ecommerce development costs across platform setup, headless storefronts and custom workflows. Include migration, fulfilment and ownership.
Catalogue & inventory
Checkout & payment
Fulfilment & returns
An online store estimate should follow an order from discovery to fulfilment and refund. Product pages are only the visible part. Catalogue quality, variants, inventory, payment states and business integrations often create the difficult work. Decide whether a standard platform can support the operating model before paying for a custom storefront or backend. A distinctive design alone is not evidence that the whole commerce stack must be custom.
Start with the scope, not a headline price
| Option | What you are paying for | What changes the estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Platform storefront | Theme configuration, catalogue setup, checkout configuration and launch testing. | Product data, market settings, apps and non-standard merchandising rules change the effort. |
| Headless storefront | A separate frontend connected to a commerce platform and its checkout. | Preview, caching, search, analytics and operational ownership need additional integration work. |
| Custom commerce workflow | Specific B2B pricing, ordering, inventory or fulfilment behaviour. | ERP contracts, reconciliation and partial fulfilment require defined error and recovery paths. |
Costs to include before you compare quotes
- Product migration includes variants, images, redirects and data validation. Agree whether the supplier cleans the source data or only imports it.
- Include payment and fulfilment tests for rejected transactions, cancellations and refunds. A successful test purchase covers only one branch.
- Track platform, application and payment-provider charges separately from development. Check who owns accounts, integrations and ongoing updates.
Where to simplify — and where to keep the work
Choose a standard platform when it meets the operational requirements. Headless adds control but also more integration surfaces to own. Start with the essential selling markets and fulfilment paths, then expand. Do not simplify by leaving stock updates or payment reconciliation dependent on undocumented manual fixes.
Turn the scope into a budget
Ask for hours by work package: discovery, design, implementation, testing and release. Multiply each package by its agreed rate, then add external services and an explicit allowance for unresolved risks. Compare quotes against the same acceptance criteria, currency and tax treatment. Calendar weeks are not person-weeks: two engineers working together change the effort and coordination cost. For ongoing work, choose a monthly period. Keep one-off setup separate from recurring fees, and ask who approves changes before additional work starts.
A brief that gets you a useful estimate
- Describe catalogue size, variants, languages, markets and the quality of existing product data.
- Map payment, tax, shipping, returns and inventory responsibilities with the relevant vendors.
- Agree migration validation, order lifecycle tests, account ownership and post-launch support.
Check your own budget assumptions
Labour budget
Hours × rate × (1 + contingency / 100)
Planning arithmetic using your inputs, not a quote or a market price. Excludes tax, hosting, licences and other third-party costs. Use one currency throughout; changing it does not convert amounts.
Frequently asked questions
When does a headless store justify its additional cost?
When specific presentation, integration or channel requirements outweigh the extra implementation and maintenance. Compare it with a platform storefront using the same buyer journeys and operating requirements. Headless is an architecture choice, not an automatic conversion improvement.
Can we reuse an existing commerce platform?
Yes, where it supports the catalogue and order workflow. Compare configuration and app costs with custom integration and long-term maintenance.
How much work is product migration?
It depends on variants, images, URLs and source quality. Sample the data first, assign cleanup ownership and reconcile imported counts and key attributes.
Should refunds and failed payments be in launch testing?
Yes. Verify payment failures, retries, cancellation and partial refunds, including inventory and fulfilment consequences. A successful checkout covers only one path.
What ongoing costs belong outside the build quote?
Track platform subscriptions, paid apps, payment fees, hosting and integration support separately. Use the provider's current terms rather than assuming a universal percentage.
Bring the scope. We will help make it buildable.
Share the user journey, integrations and launch constraints. We can clarify the scope and prepare an estimate with assumptions and exclusions.
Further reading
Website development cost: how to compare scope and quotes
Plan website development costs around templates, content, integrations and launch checks. Compare quotes and calculate your own labour budget.
Website maintenance cost: what a monthly plan should cover
Compare website maintenance plans by included work, response coverage, restore testing and ownership. Separate onboarding from the monthly budget.