BUILD
An online shop you can run without calling a developer
Set up around how you actually sell, so customers find what they want and get through checkout quickly. Built lean and properly documented, so the admin doesn’t eat your week.
Who it’s for
A lot of shops get harder to live with after launch. Only the person who built it can change anything, and every fix comes with a bill. This is likely a good fit if:
- Your shop has become hard to change or costly to run
- You’re opening your first shop and want it set up properly
- You also sell in person and want stock kept in one place
- You want to update products yourself and see what’s selling
Who it isn’t for
Some shops don’t need me, and I’d rather say so now. This probably isn’t the right fit if:
- You sell a handful of things and Etsy or a buy button already does the job
- You need custom software or a team on call around the clock. That’s agency work
- You want the cheapest build. Cheap shops tend to cost more to run later
What you can sell with your new e-commerce site
Physical products: including size and colour variations, with stocked adjusted as orders come in
Digital downloads: files sent to your customers automatically once they’ve paid
Bookings & gift vouchers: for hospitality and training businesses, where people book a time-slot/date or buy a gift they can send to a loved one
Subscriptions & memberships: regular orders and paid access that renew without you having to chase anyone
If what you sell doesn’t fit neatly into one of these, get in touch anyway.
What’s included.
The commerce work, on top of everything in a standard build.
Platform choice
The right platform depends mostly on where you ship and how big your range is. We settle it together before any build work starts.
- A plain recommendation, and the reasons behind it
- Any paid apps or extensions you’ll need, flagged before you commit
- If you’re already selling, a look at what moving involves first
Products & stock
Your catalogue is set up properly once, with a structure you can keep adding to. Variations and stock levels behave the way your stockroom does.
- Categories and filters that make sense to your customers
- Products brought in from a spreadsheet or your old shop
- Stock kept in step with your till or marketplace listings where you need it
Payments and delivery
Checkout is set up and tested with real payments before launch, including the tax and delivery rules people usually only discover afterwards. Delivery and collection options are chosen around what you sell and where your customers are.
- Card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and pay-later options
- Delivery rates and collection options set to suit how you sell
- Tax settings and order emails checked end to end
After launch
A shop has more moving parts than a brochure site, and an update that breaks checkout costs you real sales. If you’d like me to look after it, that’s a separate plan that picks up from launch.
- Updates handled, and fixed if one breaks something
- Checkout monitoring, so a broken basket gets noticed quickly
- Separate from the build price, and entirely optional
How an online shop build runs.
First conversation
A call or a form about what you sell and how orders reach you now. If a marketplace or a simpler setup would serve you better, I’ll tell you so straight away.
Review and recommendation
I look at your current shop, or your plans if you’re starting out, and what it costs you to run. Then I recommend WooCommerce or Shopify, with my reasons.
Scope and quote
I write up what’s included, what isn’t and a fixed price, including any paid apps or extensions you’ll need to buy yourself. Nothing starts until you’ve agreed it.
Booking and kickoff
Typically a 50% deposit books the work in. We agree who supplies what and by when, product photos and descriptions included, and I set up your private staging shop.
Structure and design
We agree how products are grouped and filtered, and how the pages look, before anything is built. Your catalogue then goes in from a spreadsheet or your old shop.
Build
I build on a password-protected staging site, so you can see the shop taking shape, checkout included, without anything being visible to customers. Delivery and tax rules are set up here too.
Review and changes
You go through the shop on staging, place test orders and send me your changes. One round is included, while major reworking or deviation from the original scope is billable.
Testing and launch
Checkout is tested with real payments. Once you’ve settled the balance, it goes live. For an existing shop, I time the switch for your quietest trading period, with redirects in place first.
Handover and aftercare
You get full admin access and a written guide to handling orders. On a brand-new shop, I watch the first orders through with you. Ongoing help is available through my hosting and care plans.
First conversation
A call or a form about what you sell and how orders reach you now. If a marketplace or a simpler setup would serve you better, I’ll tell you so straight away.
Review and recommendation
I look at your current shop, or your plans if you’re starting out, and what it costs you to run. Then I recommend WooCommerce or Shopify, with my reasons.
Scope and quote
I write up what’s included, what isn’t and a fixed price, including any paid apps or extensions you’ll need to buy yourself. Nothing starts until you’ve agreed it.
Booking and kickoff
Typically a 50% deposit books the work in. We agree who supplies what and by when, product photos and descriptions included, and I set up your private staging shop.
Structure and design
We agree how products are grouped and filtered, and how the pages look, before anything is built. Your catalogue then goes in from a spreadsheet or your old shop.
Build
I build on a password-protected staging site, so you can see the shop taking shape, checkout included, without anything being visible to customers. Delivery and tax rules are set up here too.
Review and changes
You go through the shop on staging, place test orders and send me your changes. One round is included, while major reworking or deviation from the original scope is billable.
Testing and launch
Checkout is tested with real payments. Once you’ve settled the balance, it goes live. For an existing shop, I time the switch for your quietest trading period, with redirects in place first.
Handover and aftercare
You get full admin access and a written guide to handling orders. On a brand-new shop, I watch the first orders through with you. Ongoing help is available through my hosting and care plans.
“Steve has been a great person to go to for advice on digital, e-commerce and website queries. Professional, knowledgeable, and always happy to help. I’d highly recommend speaking with him.”
– Sahar Asvandi, Founder & Designer, S.JOON
What it costs.
Most of my web work is quoted after a conversation, because no two sites need quite the same thing. These two figures give you somewhere to start.
Shopify or WooCommerce projects
from £3,600
E-commerce builds from £3,600. Where yours lands depends mostly on how many products you have, how you take payment and deliver, and whether you need extras like gift vouchers or bookings. Moving an existing shop over from another platform may potentially offer time savings, which would be reflected in the quote.
Once we’ve talked it through, I’ll give you a fixed quote. If the scope ever looks likely to change along the way, we agree to anything before I do the additional work.
For a WooCommerce shop, I’d suggest supplementing your new e-commerce store with my Hosting & Care plan at £950 a year, where I keep an eye on uptime and fix anything a plugin or core update might break. Moving your WooCommerce store to my hosting service is free for most sites.
For a Shopify build, I quote support and growth work after launch to suit what your shop needs.
Hosting with me is optional for WooCommerce shops, from £250 a year.
Build times depend on the size of your catalogue. Your launch date is agreed once your product details are in
Choosing a platform.
I build shops on both WooCommerce and Shopify, so I can recommend whichever suits what you sell.
Shopify is usually the better fit if you ship worldwide or carry a very large range. WooCommerce has no monthly platform plan to pay, so it usually costs less to run, though it takes more work to set up at the start.
You’ll get a straight recommendation before you spend anything on the build.
I also move shops between the two, and onto either one from Wix, Squarespace, Etsy or eBay. Products, images, customer accounts and order history all come across. Old links are redirected, so you keep what you’ve built up in search.
Frequently asked questions.
A few questions that usually come up before a new e-commerce project.
Shops start from £3,600, and I’ll give you a fixed quote once we’ve talked it through.
The build price covers my work. Running costs, such as platform fees and payment charges, are separate, and you pay those directly.
On Shopify, you pay a monthly plan, plus extra transaction fees if you use a payment provider other than Shopify’s own.
WooCommerce itself is free, so you pay for hosting and any paid extensions, which are usually billed yearly.
On either platform, your payment provider takes a fee on each card payment. I’ll point you to the current prices for whatever your shop needs before you commit.
Yes. I move shops between WooCommerce and Shopify, and onto either from Wix, Squarespace, Etsy or eBay.
Your products, images, customer accounts and order history come across, and old links are redirected so you don’t lose what you’ve built up in search.
I’ll quote it once I’ve seen what you have.
Usually, yes. Stock can be managed in the online shop itself or kept in sunc with your till/POS system. Orders can flow into accounting software such as Xero, and customer details into popular CRM tools like HubSpot, Klaviyo or Salesforce.
Listings can also sync with marketplaces. What’s possible depends on the system, so I’ll check yours before quoting.
You do. I’ll walk you through handling orders and refunds, and you get a written guide to keep.
If you’d rather hand some of the admin over, I’m happy to quote for help on an ongoing basis.
It depends on the shop and on how quickly content comes back, so I don’t publish a standard timeframe. You will get accurate time-estimates and clarity on the dependencies at the time of quoting.
Product data is what most often moves the date, especially photos and descriptions – so store migrations will naturally come together much quicker than brand new e-commerce site builds.
Completion dates tend to move back if content or feedback arrives late, but I’ll work closely with you and your team to identify and minimise any potential delays. It’s in both our interests to get you selling online as quickly as possible.
A 50% deposit books the work in to my schedule and the other half is due before the shop goes live.
On larger builds I’m happy to agree a different split, and it goes in your quote.
Changes beyond the one round of pre-launch-feedback I include on all my projects are billed hourly in half-hour units.
Writing is a separate paid service, and I’ll quote it alongside the build if you want it. If you already have descriptions and photos, send them over and I’ll build around them.
Yes. Your domain is registered in your name, and you get full admin access. On WooCommerce, any theme licence required is included in the build price and I’ll transfer it to you upon completion.
For Shopify sites, the shop account is in your name from the start.
Any paid apps or extensions are bought by you directly, with my guidance and support if required.
Let’s look at your shop
Send me a link to what you’ve got now, or a rough idea of what you want to sell. I’ll come back with a realistic scope.
