Ecommerce website cost in India: what you pay for
What drives the cost of an online store in India: number of products, payments, shipping, platform choice and running costs.
ToBrand team · 5 min read
Part of our complete guide: Business website guide: plan, build, launch, improve
The ecommerce website cost for an online store is never one fixed number. It depends on what you sell, how people pay, how you ship and which platform you use. Two stores that look alike on the outside can need very different amounts of work inside. This guide shows what drives the price, so you can compare quotes fairly.
What decides ecommerce website cost
Start with five things. Each one adds or removes work.
- How many products you have, and whether they have sizes, colours or other options.
- How customers pay: UPI, cards, net banking, wallets, cash on delivery.
- How you ship: one courier or several, and whether you charge by weight or by area.
- The platform: a hosted one like Shopify, or a custom-built store.
- Extras: discount codes, customer accounts, reviews, GST invoices, stock sync.
Number of products
A store with 20 products is a small job. A store with 2,000 products needs a plan for loading them, sorting them into categories and keeping photos consistent. Ask who will upload the products. Some agencies add only a few as samples and leave the rest to you.
Products with variants take more care. A shirt in five sizes and four colours is twenty combinations, each with its own stock count.
Payments
You need a payment gateway to take money online. The gateway charges a fee on each sale, and that fee is separate from what you pay your developer. Check the fee, the settlement time and the documents the gateway asks for before you start. Delays here often hold up a launch.
Decide early whether you will offer cash on delivery. It brings more orders, but also more returns and refusals.
Shipping and returns
Shipping rules take real setup. Do you ship across India or only nearby? Do you offer free shipping above a certain order value? Who handles returns? A shipping aggregator can connect your store to several couriers and print labels. Ask whether the quote includes this connection.
Platform: Shopify or custom
A hosted platform gives you a tested cart, checkout and admin panel. You pay a monthly plan to the platform, but build time is shorter. A custom store gives more freedom, but costs more to build and to maintain. For most small and mid-size sellers, a hosted platform is the sensible start. See how we work on Shopify store setup and on ecommerce website development.
Running costs people forget
The build is only the first bill. Plan for these as well.
- Platform plan or hosting, billed monthly or yearly.
- Domain name renewal.
- Payment gateway fees on each sale.
- Paid apps or plugins, if your store uses them.
- Product photography and new product uploads.
- Updates, backups and security care.
Questions to ask before you hire
- What exactly is included: how many products, which payment methods, which pages?
- Who owns the store, the domain and the customer data?
- What will I pay every month or year after launch?
- Is GST invoicing set up?
- Will you train my team to add products and manage orders?
- What happens if something breaks after launch, and who fixes it?
Our pricing, in short
Our Launch website starts at ₹24,999 plus GST for up to 5 pages, and Growth starts at ₹59,999 plus GST. Online stores, especially large ones, are custom work, so we quote them after a call about your products and how you sell. To get a rough idea first, try our website cost calculator.
Planning an online store? Tell us what you sell and we will tell you what it needs.
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