Building an online shop is not as simple as signing up to Shopify and uploading your products, though for some businesses that is genuinely the right starting point. For others, that approach creates limitations within twelve months that require a rebuild. Getting your platform choice right from the beginning saves significant time and money.
This guide is for UK small businesses thinking about launching or relaunching an e-commerce website. It covers the decisions that matter and what to expect at each stage.
Platform choices: what they are and who they suit
Shopify is the dominant hosted e-commerce platform globally. It handles hosting, security updates, and payment processing infrastructure. The monthly cost is £25 to £65 for most small businesses, plus transaction fees if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments. Shopify is well-suited to businesses selling physical products with a standard product catalogue and checkout flow. Its constraints become frustrating when you need unusual product configurations, complex pricing rules, or deep customisation of the checkout experience.
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that turns a WordPress site into an e-commerce store. It is free to install but requires you to manage your own hosting, security, and plugin maintenance. It is highly flexible — almost any functionality can be added through plugins or custom development — but that flexibility comes with complexity. WooCommerce suits businesses that want more control, have technical support available, or need a level of customisation that Shopify cannot accommodate.
Squarespace Commerce and Wix eCommerce are options for smaller stores with simple product ranges and modest traffic. They are quicker to set up and easier to manage independently, but they have meaningful limitations on product variants, fulfilment integrations, and checkout customisation. They are better suited to service businesses selling a small number of products or digital downloads than to businesses with large catalogues or complex operations.
Custom-built e-commerce, typically on a framework like Next.js with a headless commerce backend, is the right choice for businesses with complex requirements — unusual product configuration, integration with warehouse management or ERP systems, very high traffic volumes, or a need for a fully tailored customer experience. Cost and timeline are significantly higher.
Payment processing: what you need to know
In the UK, Stripe is the most widely used payment gateway for e-commerce websites. It integrates with most platforms, handles 3D Secure authentication (required under Strong Customer Authentication rules introduced in 2021), and charges a straightforward 1.5% + 25p per European card transaction for UK businesses. There are no monthly fees.
PayPal is widely recognised by consumers but has higher fees and a checkout experience that redirects users away from your site — both are worth considering.
Apple Pay and Google Pay support improves mobile conversion rates meaningfully and should be enabled wherever your platform supports it.
Whatever gateway you choose, make sure your checkout is PCI compliant. Reputable hosted platforms handle this for you. Custom-built solutions require explicit attention to PCI DSS requirements.
Legal requirements for UK online shops
UK e-commerce businesses have specific legal obligations that your website needs to address.
You must display your business name, registered address, and company registration number (if you are a limited company) on your website. For sole traders, your name and trading address must be accessible.
Your terms and conditions need to reflect the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, which give UK consumers the right to cancel most online purchases within 14 days of receipt. Your returns and refund policy must be prominently accessible before and during checkout.
Your privacy policy must comply with UK GDPR and explain clearly what data you collect, how it is used, who it is shared with, and how customers can exercise their rights. Cookie consent must be obtained before non-essential cookies are set.
VAT registration is required once your taxable turnover exceeds £90,000 (2025 threshold). If you sell to EU customers, you may have VAT obligations in those countries depending on your sales volumes.
What affects the cost of an e-commerce build
The most significant cost variables in an e-commerce project are the number of products, the complexity of product variants and pricing rules, the level of design customisation, and the integrations required.
For a small UK business launching an e-commerce store with up to 100 products on Shopify or WooCommerce, a professionally designed and built store typically costs £3,000 to £8,000. This includes theme customisation or custom design, product upload and configuration, payment gateway setup, and basic SEO.
More complex stores — large product catalogues, custom fulfilment integrations, subscription products, trade and retail pricing tiers — sit at £8,000 to £20,000 or higher.
What to prepare before starting
Before approaching an agency, have clarity on the following:
- Your full product range and how products are categorised
- All product variants (size, colour, material) and how they affect price and stock
- Your fulfilment process: do you ship yourself, use a third-party logistics provider, or offer click and collect?
- Any platforms or software your store needs to connect to (accounting software like Xero, inventory management, email marketing)
- Your photography situation — product images are critical to conversion and need to be high quality
Product photography is frequently underestimated. Poor images are one of the most common reasons e-commerce stores underperform. Budget for it properly.
Ongoing costs and operations
An e-commerce website is not a one-time investment. Ongoing costs include hosting (if self-hosted), platform fees (if using Shopify), payment processing fees on every transaction, and periodic development work for updates and new features.
Operationally, someone needs to manage stock levels, process orders, handle returns, and keep product information current. These are not technical tasks, but they take time. Be realistic about the operational capacity your business has before committing to a large product catalogue.
Working with Ramdex
We build e-commerce websites for UK businesses using Shopify and WooCommerce, and take a practical approach to platform selection based on what your business actually needs rather than what is currently fashionable.
If you are planning an online store and want a straight conversation about what it involves and what it would cost, email us at info@ramdex.co.uk or message us on WhatsApp at +44 7931 272489.