Topics: Website design & costs, Costs & pricing
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Quick answer: A properly built ecommerce website in India typically costs ₹1,50,000–₹3,00,000 or more, plus 18% GST. Year one then adds a platform plan or hosting, paid apps or plugins, gateway fees on every order (Razorpay's standard rate is 2% plus GST on the fee), shipping and COD return costs, and maintenance of roughly 15–25% of the build.
The build invoice is the figure everyone asks about. It's also the only cost that happens once. Everything else on an online store's bill repeats, and several lines grow with every order you take. That's why we price stores on a year-one basis: build plus twelve months of running the thing.
This guide gives you that model with India-specific lines (GST, COD, return-to-origin losses, shipping aggregators and UPI checkout), so you can fill it in with your own numbers before you speak to any agency.
What does an ecommerce website cost to build in India?
Most agency-built online stores in India land between ₹1,50,000 and ₹3,00,000 before GST; custom platforms and marketplaces are priced as software. These are the typical ranges GRWW quotes against:
| Store type | Typical build cost (before GST) | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| DIY store on Shopify or WooCommerce with a stock theme | Your own time, plus plan and theme costs | Testing a product with a small catalogue |
| Agency-built Shopify or WooCommerce store | ₹1,50,000–₹3,00,000+ | Most D2C brands and retailers |
| Custom Shopify app or integration added to a store | ₹1.5–5 lakh | Stores needing logic Shopify apps can't provide |
| Headless storefront on Shopify | ₹4–12 lakh | Brands needing unusual front-end speed or design control |
| Custom commerce platform | ₹12–35 lakh | Complex pricing, B2B ordering, unusual checkout |
| Multi-vendor marketplace | ₹35 lakh–₹1 crore+ | Platforms where other sellers list products |
There's also a lighter option many small sellers overlook: a catalogue site in the ₹15,000–₹60,000 small-business band, with products listed and orders taken on WhatsApp rather than through a full checkout. Our guide to clothing brand websites shows how that works in practice. For how these bands relate to other kinds of sites, see our overview of website pricing in India.
What will you pay in year one beyond the build fee?
Expect a dozen cost lines in year one, and only two of them are one-off. Copy this worksheet and fill in the right-hand column.
| Cost line | How it's charged | Your figure |
|---|---|---|
| Build fee | One-off | |
| GST on the build | 18% of the build fee | |
| Platform plan (Shopify) or hosting (WooCommerce) | Monthly or yearly | |
| Theme licence | One-off or yearly | |
| Paid apps or plugins | Monthly or yearly, per app | |
| Payment gateway fees | A percentage of each payment, plus 18% GST on the fee | |
| Shipping aggregator charges | Per shipment, by weight and zone | |
| COD handling and return-to-origin losses | Per COD order, and per refused order | |
| Product photography and data entry | One-off, per product | |
| Domain and business email | Yearly, and per user per month | |
| Maintenance | Roughly 15–25% of the build per year | |
| Marketing | Ad spend plus management; SEO from ₹15,000 a month |
An illustrative example, not a client figure: a ₹2,00,000 store build carries ₹36,000 GST. Maintenance at 15–25% adds ₹30,000–₹50,000 over the year. If the store takes ₹10,00,000 in prepaid online payments at a 2% gateway fee, that's ₹20,000 in fees plus ₹3,600 GST on them. Plan fees, apps, shipping and marketing come on top.
If your business is GST-registered, the GST on the build and on gateway fees can usually be claimed as input tax credit. Confirm the treatment with your CA.
How do Shopify, WooCommerce and custom builds compare on total cost?
Shopify trades a monthly bill for less upkeep; WooCommerce trades lower software costs for more responsibility; custom trades a large upfront cost for control.
| Shopify | WooCommerce | Custom build | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software cost | Monthly plan, rising with tier | Plugin is free; premium extensions extra | Paid for in the build |
| Hosting and security | Included in the plan | Your responsibility, on your host | Your responsibility |
| Updates | Platform handles the core | You update WordPress, theme and plugins | Your developers maintain it |
| Feature gaps | Filled with paid apps | Filled with plugins or custom code | Built to order |
| Platform transaction fees | May apply on top of gateway fees, depending on plan and gateway | None from WooCommerce itself | None |
| Best for | Fast launch, small team, standard selling | WordPress users wanting control | Unusual checkout, pricing or catalogue logic |
On Shopify, app subscriptions are the line that creeps: each one looks small, and a store can quietly collect a dozen. On WooCommerce, the creep is labour: plugin conflicts, security patches and hosting that needs upgrading as traffic grows. Before going fully custom, read when to move from Shopify to custom; most stores aren't there yet.
How do payment gateway fees, COD and shipping change the maths?
These are the costs that scale with orders, so they matter more each month the store succeeds.
Gateway fees. Per Razorpay's published pricing, its standard plan charges a 2% platform fee on domestic payments, with 18% GST on that fee, and higher rates for some international and corporate cards. Cashfree, PayU and others publish their own rates, and larger stores can negotiate. Don't assume UPI is free to you because it's free to the customer; check how your gateway's plan treats it.
Cash on delivery. COD lifts conversion in many categories, but it carries three costs: the courier's COD charge, the wait before cash is remitted to you, and return-to-origin (RTO) losses when customers refuse the parcel. On a refused order you typically pay shipping both ways and lose the packaging, and the stock is out of circulation for days. Work out your own cost:
COD cost per order = COD fee + (refusal rate × (forward shipping + return shipping + packaging))
Then compare it with the margin on an average COD order. Common fixes include a small discount for prepaid orders, WhatsApp confirmation before dispatch, and disabling COD for pin codes with high refusal rates.
Shipping. Aggregators such as Shiprocket and Delhivery charge per shipment by weight slab and delivery zone, and volumetric weight catches out stores selling light but bulky items. Budget for the integration too: automatic shipment creation, tracking links and handling of failed deliveries take build time.
How does catalogue size change the price?
Catalogue size and variants drive cost more than page count does. A store with 40 products and a store with 4,000 might share the same handful of templates, but the work behind them is very different.
What grows with your catalogue:
- Product data entry. Titles, descriptions, specifications, size charts and HSN codes for every product and variant.
- Photography. Consistent shots per product and per colour, plus editing.
- Filtering and search. Larger catalogues need filters by size, colour, price and material that stay fast.
- Collections and navigation. Structure that lets shoppers find a product in a few taps on a phone.
- Imports and syncs. Bulk CSV imports, or a sync with your inventory or billing software so stock levels stay accurate.
If your product data lives in spreadsheets today, cleaning it before the build starts is the single cheapest way to reduce the quote.
Which features are worth paying for at launch?
Launch with what helps someone find, trust and buy a product; defer what helps you retain them later.
| Launch with | Add once orders flow |
|---|---|
| Fast checkout with UPI, cards and (if you need it) COD | Loyalty points and referral schemes |
| Search and filters that work on mobile | Subscriptions and repeat-order plans |
| Product reviews | A dedicated mobile app |
| Order tracking with WhatsApp or SMS updates | Multi-currency and international shipping |
| GST-compliant invoices | Complex bundles and personalisation tools |
| Shipping aggregator integration | Recommendation engines |
A mobile app in particular can wait. A fast mobile store does the same job for most young brands without a second codebase to maintain.
How do you get an ecommerce quote you can compare?
Give every agency the same brief, then compare the answers line by line. Include:
- Product count, variants per product and how often the catalogue changes
- Payment methods, including whether you need COD
- Shipping partners or aggregator preference
- Software the store must connect to: billing, inventory, CRM or an ERP
- Who supplies product photos and descriptions
- Platform preference, or a request for a recommendation
- Your target launch date and budget range
Then read each reply for the store-specific gaps that general website quotes rarely mention:
- Product upload. Is entering your catalogue included, and up to how many products and variants?
- Gateway and shipping set-up. Does the quote cover account configuration and testing, or only installing a plugin?
- Invoices. Will order invoices carry your GSTIN and the details your CA needs?
- Paid apps and extensions. Which ones does the design depend on, and what do they cost each month or year?
- Test orders. Will the agency place real test orders through each payment method, including COD and a refund?
- Ownership. Are the store account, gateway account and domain registered to your business, not the agency?
A quote that answers all six in writing is easier to trust than a lower one that answers none. Our line-by-line quote checklist turns the replies into a comparison table. GRWW's ecommerce website development work starts with the same brief, and we price stores on the year-one basis described here.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopify cheaper than WooCommerce in India?
Not always. Shopify usually costs less in effort but more in monthly fees and apps; WooCommerce costs less in software but more in hosting and upkeep. Fill in the year-one worksheet for both with your expected order volume before deciding.
How much do payment gateways charge per transaction in India?
Per Razorpay's published pricing, its standard plan charges 2% on domestic payments, with 18% GST on the fee, and more for some international and corporate cards. Other gateways publish their own rates, and stores with steady volume can often negotiate lower ones.
Can I launch an online store for under ₹50,000?
You can launch something. A DIY store on a stock theme, or a catalogue site with WhatsApp ordering in the ₹15,000–₹60,000 band, can work while you test demand. A store with full checkout, shipping integration and proper testing typically sits in the ₹1,50,000-plus band.
What monthly running costs should an Indian online store expect?
Platform or hosting fees, app or plugin subscriptions, gateway fees on each payment, shipping and COD charges, email and maintenance. The total depends heavily on order volume and how many paid apps you run, which is why the worksheet works better than a single number.
How long does an ecommerce website take to build?
Longer than the 1–4 weeks most small-business sites take, because payments, shipping, product data and testing all add time. Catalogue size and how quickly product content is ready usually decide the timeline more than design does.
Get your year-one number before you commit
Send us your catalogue size, payment and shipping needs and the systems the store must connect to. After a free call you'll get an itemised store quote, usually within one business day, with the running costs listed beside the build fee.