Who an online shop really suits
An online shop makes sense when several of these are true:
- You've got a catalogue of physical products you can ship.
- Your average order is big enough to absorb transaction fees (2–3%).
- You have the logistics to handle shipping, returns and customer questions.
- You can give time to keeping stock levels and product pages up to date.
- Your product sells fine without being seen or handled in person.
And it's probably the wrong move when:
- You only sell two or three high-priced items. A direct enquiry converts better.
- You sell services — coaching, consulting, therapy. A simple form is enough.
- Your products need customising or a quote. Automating that is fiddly and expensive.
- You expect fewer than five orders a week at launch.
What an online shop really costs
Plenty of small shop owners are caught out by the gap between the first quote and the total cost over twelve months. Here's what to budget for:
Building the shop
From €1,800, before tax, and up to around €3,500 depending on how many products you have and what the shop needs to do. That's the starting cost, not the total. Tax is added at checkout where it applies.
Hosting and domain name
A shop asks more of its hosting than a brochure site does: speed, security, proper backups. Budget roughly €80–120 a year from the second year, plus about €15 a year for the domain. A busy shop with thousands of products will cost more.
Payment gateway
Stripe and PayPal take somewhere around 1.4–2.9% plus a small fixed fee on every transaction. On €10,000 of sales, that's roughly €300 a year gone.
Maintenance and security
A shop needs regular updates to stay safe. Budget €500–1,000 a year, or put it on a care plan — ours start at €29 a month.
“An online shop doesn't sell on its own. It takes as much work as a shop on the high street — just a different kind of work.”
Alternatives to a full shop
If you've only got a handful of products, or your budget is tight, there are smarter places to start:
Stripe and PayPal let you create a payment link in about five minutes. It's ideal for selling one to five items without building a whole shop, and you can drop the link into any page on your site.
A brochure site with one well-made sales page and a payment button built in. Around €600–1,200 instead of €1,800 and up. It works well for digital products, courses and services.
Etsy, Amazon, eBay or whichever marketplace is big where you are can be a good way to test demand before you invest in a shop of your own. The commission is higher (15–25%), but the traffic is already there.
When to take the plunge
Build the shop once you can tick these off:
- You're already selling regularly, through marketplaces or directly.
- You've got more than fifteen products, enough that people need to browse by category.
- You can handle the logistics: stock, shipping, returns.
- Your margin can absorb the transaction fees and the maintenance.
Don't build an online shop just because everyone else has one. Look at whether your customers actually buy online, or whether they'd rather pick up the phone. For a lot of small local businesses, a good brochure site with the phone number in plain sight brings in more money than a half-finished shop.
