What Does a Custom E-commerce Website Cost in India?

"How much does an online store cost?" is the first question most retailers ask, and the honest answer is: it depends on a handful of things you can work out before you talk to anyone. This guide walks through them, shows what you'll pay up front and every year, and explains when a custom store is worth it — and when it isn't.

First, decide which kind of store you need

There are three broad ways to sell online, and they cost very different amounts:

A hosted store platform (Shopify, Wix and similar). You pay a monthly subscription, pick a theme and add apps. It's the fastest and cheapest way to start.
A customised template. A developer sets up a platform or open-source store and adjusts the design and a few features for you.
A custom store with its own back office. The storefront, orders, stock, offers and reports are built as one system around how your business works.

If you're still testing whether your customers will buy online at all, start with option 1. Spending lakhs on custom software before you know online sales will work is a mistake we'd talk you out of.

What actually drives the cost of a custom store

When we quote a custom store, these are the things that move the number:

Catalogue size and structure. Fifty simple products is a very different job from two thousand products with sizes, colours and technical specifications.
How you sell. Cash on delivery, online payment, store pickup, express delivery, B2B pricing for dealers — each one is a set of screens and rules.
What happens after the order. Shipping in parcels, tracking, returns and refunds, stock across several shops or warehouses, and reorders by supplier are where most of the real work is.
Integrations. A payment gateway, a courier, your accounting software or an existing ERP each need careful connecting and testing.
Who manages it. Staff roles and permissions (who can refund, who can change prices) and an audit log matter more as your team grows.
Content and data. Someone has to prepare product photos, descriptions and specifications. If that's us, it's part of the quote.

Our starting prices

We publish starting prices so you can plan:

A product catalogue website (up to about 300 products, filters and an enquiry or WhatsApp button on every product) starts from ₹30,000 when you supply the product data in a spreadsheet.
A full business system — which is what a custom store with its own back office is — starts from ₹1,00,000.

A complete store with checkout, payments, shipping, stock and reports sits in the second group. The exact figure depends on the points above, which is why every project gets a written scope and a fixed quote before any work starts. See our pricing page for the full list.

What you'll pay every month and year

The build is only part of the cost. Plan for these too:

Domain and hosting. Registered in your name, paid to the provider.
Payment gateway fees. Gateways charge a small percentage per online transaction. Check your gateway's current rates.
Maintenance. Updates, security fixes, backups and small changes. Ours is 15–20% of the project value per year, and it's optional.
Your own time. Adding products, answering customers and packing orders doesn't go away, but good software makes it faster.

A custom store has no platform subscription and no per-app fees, which is one of the main reasons growing retailers switch.

When a custom store is worth it

A custom build usually makes sense when several of these are true:

You already sell online and know there's demand.
Your stock lives in shops or warehouses, and the website keeps selling things you don't have.
You're paying for several apps or plugins that don't talk to each other.
You want to own your customer relationships instead of relying on marketplaces.
Your way of selling (store pickup, dealer prices, bundles) doesn't fit a template.

If only one or two are true, a hosted platform is probably the better choice for now, and that's what we'll tell you.

Questions to ask any developer before you pay

Will I get a written scope listing every screen and feature?
Is the price fixed, and what counts as a change?
Who owns the code, domain and hosting after I pay?
What happens if something breaks after launch?
Can I see a store you've built working, not just screenshots?

You can see ours: InitCore Commerce is our own online store and back office, with a full video walkthrough.