E-commerce website cost in the UK spans a wider range than almost any other web project, because "e-commerce site" covers everything from a themed Shopify shop a founder could set up over a weekend to a headless storefront wired into an ERP and a custom checkout. The figure follows the platform choice and the integrations, not the number of products.
This guide gives realistic 2026 GBP bands for building an e-commerce website in the UK, from a customised Shopify store through to a custom or headless build. We build the application layer behind commerce — the integrations, the portals, the operations tooling — rather than churning out themed shops, so our framing leans toward stores that have real complexity behind the buy button.
The bands below are build totals in GBP for a senior team and exclude platform subscription and transaction fees, which you pay the platform directly. For many UK SMEs a well-configured Shopify store is genuinely the right answer, and we will say so — custom and headless earn their cost only when the operational complexity behind the storefront justifies it.
| Engagement | Range | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Customised Shopify / theme store | £3,000–£15,000 | A Shopify (or similar) store on a customised theme: brand design, product setup, payment and shipping configuration, and a few apps. The right route for most UK SMEs launching or relaunching a shop. |
| Bespoke Shopify build / Shopify Plus | £15,000–£50,000 | A custom-designed store with bespoke theme development, custom functionality, integrations to your systems, and the volume features of Shopify Plus. For established brands with real design and ops requirements. |
| Custom storefront / integrated commerce | £50,000–£120,000 | A custom-built storefront or a platform integrated deeply with your ERP, inventory and fulfilment, with bespoke checkout or B2B pricing logic. For operations where the storefront is the tip of a larger system. |
| Headless / enterprise commerce | £120,000+ | A headless build (a custom front end on a commerce API) or a large multi-region, multi-channel platform. Priced as a full software programme, justified by scale, performance or complex operational needs. |
Customised Shopify / theme store
£3,000–£15,000
A Shopify (or similar) store on a customised theme: brand design, product setup, payment and shipping configuration, and a few apps. The right route for most UK SMEs launching or relaunching a shop.
Bespoke Shopify build / Shopify Plus
£15,000–£50,000
A custom-designed store with bespoke theme development, custom functionality, integrations to your systems, and the volume features of Shopify Plus. For established brands with real design and ops requirements.
Custom storefront / integrated commerce
£50,000–£120,000
A custom-built storefront or a platform integrated deeply with your ERP, inventory and fulfilment, with bespoke checkout or B2B pricing logic. For operations where the storefront is the tip of a larger system.
Headless / enterprise commerce
£120,000+
A headless build (a custom front end on a commerce API) or a large multi-region, multi-channel platform. Priced as a full software programme, justified by scale, performance or complex operational needs.
The decision that sets the band. A themed Shopify store, a bespoke Shopify or Plus build, and a headless storefront are three very different cost profiles. For most UK SMEs a customised Shopify store is both the cheapest and the right answer, and we will not talk you up the ladder without a reason.
Connecting the store to your ERP, inventory, accounting and fulfilment is where e-commerce budgets really move. A standalone shop is cheap; a storefront that has to keep stock, pricing and orders in sync with back-office systems is a software project behind the buy button.
Tier-based pricing, account-specific catalogues, quotes and approval flows push a store well past a standard B2C build. If you sell to businesses with negotiated pricing, expect that logic to be a meaningful share of the cost.
A bespoke design with a coded component library, plus product photography, copy and content migration, separates a £3,000 store from a £30,000 one. Content and migration are quietly among the biggest variables in any e-commerce quote.
Headless and high-volume stores demand serious performance engineering — fast pages under load, edge caching, resilient checkout. That work is what justifies the top band, and it is not needed for most SMEs, so it should not appear in their quote.
Web apps and complex sites that do real work, not just look good.
We'll send back an itemised proposal in GBP — scope, line items, timeline, and the team that would run it.
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