Three tiersWhat each figure buys
For a catalogue of up to about a hundred products and straightforward shipping.
For a larger catalogue with sizes, colours and stock that has to be tracked.
For a store that has to talk to the rest of the company: warehouse, accounting, wholesale.
What raises the priceSix things that move the quote up
Variants and stock
A hundred products is one job. A hundred products in five sizes and three colours is fifteen times the state to track and display correctly.
Shipping methods
One flat rate is simple. Pricing by weight, by zone and by carrier means rules that have to be written and tested.
Warehouse integration
If stock lives in another program, the store has to read from it. That is the most expensive part of most of these projects.
Languages and currencies
Every product needs its own description per language and its own price per currency. That is a doubled catalogue, not a translated interface.
Wholesale alongside retail
Different prices per customer, company invoices and payment against a quote mean a second buying flow running next to the first.
Migrating an existing store
Products, customers, orders and old URLs don't move themselves, and the old URLs have to keep working or the rankings go with them.
What isn't an extraThree things that come with the job
Your own admin panel
Products, orders and prices change without a developer and without renting a CMS. The panel is part of the delivery, not an upsell.
Verified checkout
The cart total is re-checked on the server before an order is written. Without that, a store is open to having its prices edited in the browser.
Speed and mobile
Most purchases arrive on a phone, and a slow store loses the buyer at checkout. That isn't a premium tier, it's the condition for the store working.
Custom or platformWhat Shopify actually costs over three years
Shopify and similar platforms are a fast, sensible start, especially while an idea is still being tested. The arithmetic changes as turnover grows: the monthly subscription, apps billed separately, and a percentage on every transaction if you don't use their payments. Over three years that can exceed the cost of your own store — and you still don't own it.