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What an online shop costs to build.
The build price is the part everyone quotes. The fees are the part that decides whether the shop makes money, and almost nobody puts those in the proposal.
An online shop in the UK costs £0 to £8,000 to build in 2026 and £300 to £2,000 a year to run before transaction fees. Payment processing takes a further 1.4% to 2.9% plus 20p to 30p of every order. For a shop under roughly £3,000 a month in sales, the fees matter more than the build price.
Where the money goes.
| Cost | Typical | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Platform subscription | £19 to £79/mo | Every month, whether you sell anything or not |
| Payment processing | 1.4% to 2.9% + 20p | Every order, and it is charged on the postage too |
| Build and setup | £0 to £8,000 | Once, and it scales with catalogue size rather than design |
| Apps and plugins | £0 to £120/mo | Reviews, subscriptions, shipping rules, email |
| Product photography | £8 to £40 per item | The cost people forget, and the one that sells the product |
The costs that are not in the quote.
Three lines that decide whether a small shop is viable.
Fees on postage
Payment processors charge their percentage on the whole order, delivery included. On low-value, high-postage items that is a meaningful slice of the margin.
Per-product photography
Forty products at £20 each is £800, and it is the thing that actually converts. Budget it before you budget the design.
App creep
Reviews, abandoned cart, subscriptions, shipping rules. Four apps at £25 a month is another £1,200 a year on top of the platform.
Questions.
Is it cheaper to sell on a marketplace than build a shop?
At low volume, usually yes. Marketplace commission of 10% to 15% beats a platform subscription until you are selling a few thousand pounds a month. Past that, your own shop wins and keeps the customer relationship.
What is the cheapest way to start selling online in the UK?
A single page with a payment link, which costs almost nothing. It stops working once you need stock control, variants or shipping rules, but it is a perfectly reasonable way to find out whether anyone wants the product.
Does Avago do e-commerce?
Yes. A shop is included on the published site, so there is no separate e-commerce tier. You still pay your payment processor their percentage, because everyone does.
Other costs.
What a small business website actually costs. →
Five pages, a contact form and somewhere to put your phone number. Here is what each route to that actually charges, and where the money goes.
What a website redesign costs. →
Usually more than the original, because someone has to work out what to keep. Here is the 2026 range, and an honest test for whether you need one at all.
What is actually in a website design package. →
Packages exist so agencies can quote without a call. That makes them useful for comparison and easy to misread, because the tier names mean nothing across two suppliers.