How much does an e-commerce website cost?

A Shopify theme will cost a few thousand euros. A bespoke platform built to scale can cost well into six figures. The gap between those numbers reflects different approaches, different trade-offs, and different outcomes.

If you're testing an idea or selling a small catalogue, a template might be all you need. But if your website is your business, if it's where you convert customers and generate revenue, the design and operations decisions you make can either support that growth or force you to rebuild later.

Migrating platforms?

Future-proofing your next e-com platform is the smartest move.

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The cost of scaling.

So you've started with a template and it works for a while, but once you start growing, limitations become expensive. The checkout flow wasn't designed for your audience. The template won't stretch to accommodate your brand. Performance degrades as you bolt on more apps to fill functionality gaps. Accessibility and security issues pile up because you're dependent on third-party plugins to hold everything together.

Templates work when you're learning. They become a liability when you're scaling, not because of the upfront cost, but because of what they cost later in lost sales, technical debt, and hours spent patching problems instead of building the business.

Strategic frameworks.

When you rebuild properly, you're doing more than swapping one platform for another. You're solving the problems that made the first one unsustainable.

That starts with research to understand who's buying, why they're buying, and what's getting in their way. Strategy aligns the platform with your business model, design structures the experience around conversion and usability, and development builds something scalable, secure, and fast enough to handle growth. Integrations connect payments, inventory, and analytics, while quality assurance catches bugs and UX problems before customers do.

Should you hire a Design agency?

Fresh capital that needs deploying fast, an in-house team stretched too thin, or products that have quietly outgrown their foundations. Sounds familiar?

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What this looks like in practice.

Hey Harper had initially built their waterproof jewellery business on a Shopify template that didn't scale. Their shop was slow, navigation was confusing, and customers abandoned carts because they couldn't find delivery costs until checkout.

We designed and implemented a platform using Storyblok for content and Shopify for product management, restructured navigation from eight entry points to two, moved trust signals like reviews and shipping information upfront, and conceived the entire experience mobile-first.

Conversion rate went up 17%, orders increased by 26%, average order value rose 18%, and returning customers grew by 28%. The platform generated approximately €3 million in additional revenue. Return on investment came in around one month, and the site won Best of the Year at the eCommerce Awards.

Design that fits.

Discover how we’ve redesigned Hey Harper’s shopping experience.

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mishmash, an office supply brand built on design and perfectionism, had a different problem. Their e-commerce functioned, but the design didn't match the care they put into their products; they had almost no commercial strategy, and operational inefficiencies consumed hours of manual work daily.

We redesigned the experience around their visual identity, pulling directly from their product details: colours, shapes, typography. We implemented swipeable thumbnails, built an immersive search for returning customers, added cross-selling and upselling throughout the journey, and gave them a block-based CMS so they could build and test pages without developers.

As a result, their conversion rate increased 34%, total sales went up 212%, orders rose 61%, and returning customers grew by 51%. Return on investment came in four months. The platform won awards from Red Dot, iF Design, and the German Design Council.

Take notes!

Discover how we’ve elevated mishmash’s shopping experience.

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Both projects cost between €100,000 and €180,000 upfront, reflecting the scope of work required to solve those problems and build platforms capable of supporting growth. That's the foundation. Continuous improvement and refinement over time add to the investment as the platforms evolve.

Closer than ever.

If you are looking for ways to have direct access to your customers, it might be time to invest in your own app.

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How we work.

We're designers, developers, product managers, and strategists who care about building great digital products and being good teammates while doing it. We're kind, curious, and collaborative. We bring over a decade of experience, solid skills, and the occasional dry joke to the table, then work closely with clients to create intuitive, scalable, user-centred platforms.

We build teams around your product's needs. Designers and engineers are allocated full-time to one project at a time, ensuring focus and momentum. Other roles, like project managers, product managers, tech leads, and creative directors, are brought in as needed. C-level support is available when it aligns with scope and budget.

Our estimates are based on the people involved, billed per diem or monthly, depending on project length. Cost reflects scope, duration, and team composition. We assess goals and deadlines upfront, then refine estimates during a discovery phase where we develop a detailed roadmap and tie efforts to specific milestones.

Most projects take between three and six months from kick-off to launch. We break things into phases so there's always clarity on what's happening, what's next, and when it's due.

We're transparent about billing. No inflated estimates, no surprise invoices. Clients know where their money goes and what each stage delivers. You can read our billing and invoicing policy for details.

Post-launch, we offer flexible retainers for continuous delivery or standalone support depending on what makes sense for your product and team. Whether you need new features, bug fixes, or just someone to call when something feels off, we're available.

Building trust in e-commerce.

Making users feel safe in your online shop is key to get them to convert.

Find out why

Investing properly.

You can spend less and get something functional. If you're still testing your offer or unsure the model will work, that might be the right move for now.

But if your website is your business, if it's your primary sales channel and the foundation of your growth, under-investing costs more than it saves. Lost sales, technical debt, and eventual rebuilds add up quickly. For Hey Harper, the rebuild paid for itself in a month. For Mishmash, in four. Both platforms are still driving growth.

The question here isn't what it costs to build an e-commerce website, it's what it costs not to build it properly.

FAQS.

What drives the cost of building an e-commerce website?

The cost reflects the problems being solved and the work required. Research, strategy, design, custom development, integrations, and quality assurance all contribute to scope. Template-based builds are cheaper because they don’t address complex business needs, whereas custom platforms cost more because they’re built specifically around your business model and users’ needs.

How much does it cost to build an e-commerce website in 2025?

Template-based builds typically range from €100 to €20.000€, depending on the chosen template and on the level of customisation needed. Top-tier, custom agency builds start around €100.000 and can exceed €400.000 depending on complexity, scope, business impact, among other criteria. Enterprise systems with multi-market, omni-channel integrations run from €600.000 upwards.

What about maintenance and support?

Maintenance depends on how actively you’re evolving the platform. We offer flexible retainers for continuous delivery or standalone support scopes, based on scope and frequency.