TL;DR
Building an e-commerce website in 2026 means choosing between three paths: Shopify (fastest, easiest, best for most retailers), a custom build on Next.js with Stripe or Medusa (most flexible, best performance, higher cost), or WooCommerce on WordPress (best for content-led stores or businesses already on WordPress). Cost ranges: Shopify store $3,000–$15,000 + $79–$399/month; custom e-commerce $25,000–$100,000+.
The E-Commerce Platform Decision
This is the most important decision in an e-commerce project. It affects cost, performance, SEO, ongoing maintenance, and your ability to customise.
Shopify
Best for: Most DTC (direct-to-consumer) brands, stores selling 1–10,000+ SKUs, merchants who want to manage the store themselves without technical knowledge.
Strengths:
- Fastest time to market (days to launch vs months)
- Built-in payments, shipping, inventory management
- 8,000+ apps in the app store
- Excellent uptime and scalability
- Shopify Markets for multi-currency and multi-language
- Shopify Plus for enterprise ($2,000/month, removes transaction fees, unlocks custom checkout)
Weaknesses:
- Monthly fees ($79–$399/month + transaction fees)
- Limited customisation on Liquid themes (vs custom code)
- SEO limitations on large catalogues (faceted navigation handling is imperfect)
- Less flexible than a custom build for complex business logic
When to choose Shopify: You’re a product-first brand, you want simplicity, you’re launching within a tight timeline or budget.
Custom E-Commerce (Next.js + Medusa / Stripe)
Best for: Brands with unique business requirements, B2B commerce, subscription products, high-scale marketplaces, or brands where performance is a competitive advantage.
Stack options:
- Next.js + Stripe: For relatively simple stores with a small catalogue. Direct Stripe integration handles payments, Next.js handles the storefront.
- Next.js + Medusa: Medusa is an open-source headless commerce engine (Shopify alternative). Handles cart, inventory, orders, discounts. Next.js handles the frontend. Self-hosted or managed.
- Next.js + Shopify Storefront API (Headless Shopify): Shopify backend (inventory, payments, fulfilment) + Next.js frontend. Best of both — Shopify reliability with custom frontend performance.
Strengths:
- Full control over design and UX
- Superior performance (100 Lighthouse scores achievable)
- Custom business logic (bundles, subscriptions, complex pricing rules)
- No platform limitations or transaction fees
- SEO-optimised by design
Weaknesses:
- Significantly higher build cost
- Ongoing development required for new features
- No app ecosystem — every feature must be built or integrated manually
When to choose custom: You have $30,000+ budget, you need features Shopify can’t provide, or performance and SEO are critical competitive advantages.
WooCommerce (WordPress)
Best for: Businesses already on WordPress, content-led stores (where blogging and SEO are primary acquisition channels), small catalogues.
Strengths:
- Free core plugin
- Huge extension ecosystem
- Native WordPress content management (ideal for content + commerce)
- Familiar to most developers
Weaknesses:
- Performance degrades with catalogue size and plugin count
- Security vulnerabilities from outdated plugins
- Doesn’t scale as gracefully as Shopify or custom solutions
Must-Have Features for Any E-Commerce Site
Product Pages
- High-quality images with zoom (at least 4 angles per product)
- Clear pricing (include VAT where applicable)
- Stock availability (or pre-order option)
- Size/variant selection
- Social proof (reviews, star ratings)
- Delivery estimate
- Clear returns policy link
Checkout
- Guest checkout option (mandatory — requiring account creation kills conversion)
- Multiple payment methods (card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Buy Now Pay Later)
- Address autocomplete
- Order summary visible throughout
- Progress indicator
Performance
E-commerce sites with slow product pages lose revenue directly. Every 100ms of additional load time reduces conversion by ~1%.
- Target LCP under 2s on product pages
- Lazy-load product images below the fold
- Use Next.js image optimisation or Shopify’s built-in image CDN
E-Commerce SEO
Category Pages
Category pages (e.g., “Women’s Running Shoes”) are the highest-value SEO pages. They must be:
- Properly titled and described (keyword-rich, not generic)
- Indexable (check that filter combinations aren’t creating duplicate content)
- Internally linked from the homepage and navigation
Product Pages
Each product page needs:
- Unique title tag (not just the product name)
- Unique meta description
- Product schema (JSON-LD) — enables rich results with price, ratings in Google
- Unique product descriptions (not manufacturer copy, which is duplicate content)
Faceted Navigation
Filter pages (“red shoes”, “shoes under £100”) create hundreds of URL combinations, most of which are thin content. Use canonical tags or parameter handling to prevent these from being indexed while still being crawlable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Shopify or WooCommerce for a new store?
Shopify for most new stores. It’s faster to launch, easier to manage, and scales more gracefully. WooCommerce makes more sense if you’re already on WordPress or if content-led SEO is your primary growth channel.
How long does it take to build an e-commerce site?
Shopify with a customised theme: 3–6 weeks. Custom-built e-commerce: 2–6 months depending on complexity.
What’s a reasonable e-commerce conversion rate?
Average e-commerce conversion rate: 1–4%. Fashion and luxury: 1–2%. Beauty and health: 2–5%. Well-optimised stores with targeted traffic: 3–8%.
Do I need a mobile app for my store?
Not usually. A mobile-responsive website with a fast checkout covers 90% of mobile shoppers. Native apps are valuable when you have a large, loyal customer base where push notifications and offline browsing would meaningfully increase revenue.
Final Thoughts
The right e-commerce platform is the one that matches your current needs and has room to grow. Don’t over-engineer in year one; don’t under-invest in a platform you’ll outgrow in 12 months.
We build custom e-commerce storefronts and Shopify headless builds →