How much does an online store cost to build?
A first Shopify or WooCommerce store commonly lands in the low-to-mid four figures; stores with big catalogues, migrations or accounting and shipping integration run higher. The storefront is the visible cost; the plumbing decides the real one.
The longer answer
In practice.
The base build
Theme set up properly rather than fought, catalogue structured so customers
and Google both navigate it, payments and shipping configured with the traps
avoided, and the keys in your name. Product volume matters mostly through data
quality: fifty tidy products load faster than five hundred feral ones.
The multipliers
Migration from an old store (the URLs and rankings must survive, per
redesigns and rankings),
integration with Xero or MYOB, per
store-to-Xero, stock sync with a
POS, and custom behaviour the platform resists.
The ongoing truth
Platform fees, apps and transaction margins are the store's rent; budget them
honestly against your margin per order before building anything. That arithmetic
is part of any quote from me, and the
calculator gives you the starting range now.
Same rabbit hole