How Much Does an Online Store Actually Cost to Run in Australia?

If you’ve read my guide on how much a website costs in Australia, you might be thinking an online store is roughly the same. It’s not. It’s a whole different level of complexity — and cost.

A standard business website is like a digital brochure. Five to ten pages, your services, an about page, a contact form. Mostly static information that doesn’t change much day to day.

An online store has all of that, plus a whole lot more that you don’t realise until you start building one. Product category pages. Individual product pages. Shopping carts. Checkout flows. Shipping rules and policy pages. Payment gateway integration. Stock management so you don’t oversell. Automated emails for order confirmations, shipping updates, and abandoned carts. Tax calculations. Returns handling.

I love setting up online stores. But the reality is they are significantly more work — and more ongoing cost — than a standard business website. Here’s what you’re actually looking at in Australia.

What’s the short version?

A basic online store in Australia costs $1,200–$5,000 to build and $1,500–$5,000+ per year to run — depending on the platform, how many products you sell, and which tools you need. The build cost is just the start. The ongoing costs are where the real budget lives.

How much does it cost to build?

How much it costs to get your online store up and running depends on who builds it and which platform you’re on.

The reason WooCommerce builds tend to cost more than Shopify is that WooCommerce gives you more flexibility — but that flexibility means more custom development work. Shopify is more opinionated about how things work, which makes it faster to set up but less customisable.

For most small businesses selling under 100 products, a well-configured Shopify store or a WooCommerce build handles everything you need without getting into five-figure territory.

Online stores are also where cheap builds cause the most damage. A $199 template website might pass as a basic brochure site — but an online store built without proper attention to shipping logic, payment configuration, tax settings, and inventory management will cause real problems. Overselling stock because the inventory isn’t synced. Incorrect shipping charges that either cost you money or scare off customers. Broken checkout flows that lose sales silently. These aren’t cosmetic issues — they cost you revenue and customer trust. This is one area where getting it right the first time genuinely saves money.

What’s the platform fee?

This is your monthly subscription to the platform that powers your store.

Shopify (hosted — they handle the tech)

Shopify includes hosting, SSL, and their payment system in the subscription. It’s the simpler option — less to manage technically, but less flexibility and you’re paying Shopify every month regardless of how much you sell. All Shopify plans in Australia are billed in AUD and GST is added at checkout on top of the listed price.

WooCommerce (self-hosted — you manage more)

WooCommerce itself is free. But you’ll need:

• Hosting: $15–$60/month for decent e-commerce hosting
• Premium plugins: $0–$500/year depending on what you need (subscriptions, bookings, advanced shipping)
• Theme: $0–$90 one-off for a premium theme

WooCommerce gives you full control and no monthly platform fee, but you’re responsible for hosting, security, updates, and maintenance — or you’re paying someone to handle that for you.

What are the hidden ongoing costs?

This is where online stores get more expensive than people expect. Each of these is small on its own, but they compound.

Payment processing fees

Every transaction has a fee. There’s no way around this — it’s the cost of accepting online payments.

All of these are for online card-not-present transactions — which is what you’re dealing with in an online store. Some providers like Square offer lower rates for in-person payments (1.6%), but that’s a different situation.

On a $100 sale through Stripe, you’re paying about $2.05 in processing fees. That doesn’t sound like much until you’re doing 200 sales a month — suddenly it’s $410/month just in payment fees. Factor this into your pricing from day one.

If you use a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments on a Shopify store, Shopify adds an additional transaction fee on top — 2% on the Basic plan, 1% on Grow, and 0.6% on Advanced. That’s worth knowing before you choose your setup.

Shipping and fulfilment

If you’re shipping physical products, you need to account for:

• Shipping rates: Either you absorb them (free shipping), pass them on to the customer, or split the difference with flat-rate options
• Packaging materials: Boxes, mailers, labels, tape — it adds up
• Shipping platform fees: If you’re using a shipping calculator or integration (like Shippit or Australia Post’s eParcel), some charge monthly fees

For most small Australian stores, shipping costs are the biggest ongoing expense after the platform fee itself.

Apps, plugins, and tools

Both Shopify and WooCommerce rely on add-ons for functionality that isn’t included in the base platform. Common ones include:

• Email marketing: Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or built into your CRM — $0–$100/month
• Reviews and ratings: $0–$30/month
• Advanced shipping rules: $10–$50/month
• Abandoned cart recovery: Built into Shopify, may need a plugin on WooCommerce
• Accounting integration: Xero or MYOB connection — $0–$30/month
• Backup and security: $0–$20/month (WooCommerce — Shopify handles this)
• Inventory management: For larger catalogues or selling across multiple channels, a dedicated tool adds $30–$100/month

A typical small Shopify store might run 3–5 paid apps at $10–$30/month each. That’s an extra $30–$150/month in tools that aren’t included in your platform subscription.

Automated emails and notifications

A good online store doesn’t just take orders — it communicates throughout the process. Order confirmations, shipping notifications, delivery updates, review requests, abandoned cart reminders. Most of these can be set up through your platform or a CRM, but some require paid tools or custom configuration.

What are you actually paying per year?

Here’s what a small Australian online store actually costs to run per year, across two common setups:

These estimates assume a small store doing roughly $5,000/month in revenue. Scale up the revenue and the payment processing fees scale with it. All prices are in AUD and exclude GST unless noted.

A note on GST

If you’re registered for GST (which you need to be once your turnover hits $75,000), you’ll be charging GST on your products. Both Shopify and WooCommerce handle Australian GST calculations automatically for domestic sales — you just need to make sure it’s configured correctly during setup. The platform fees themselves also attract GST — Shopify adds it at checkout on your subscription, and your hosting provider should be doing the same.

The big picture

An online store is a genuinely different beast from a standard business website. The build is more complex, the ongoing costs are higher, and there are more moving parts that need attention.

That doesn’t mean it’s not worth it — selling online can open up a whole new revenue stream for a small business. But going in with realistic expectations about the costs means you can price your products properly, choose the right platform, and avoid the “I didn’t realise it would cost this much to run” surprise six months in.

If you’re comparing standard website costs to online store costs, the simplest way to think about it is: take everything a normal website costs, then add the platform fees, payment processing, shipping logistics, inventory management, and the tools to automate it all. It adds up — but so does the revenue when it’s set up properly.

Key takeaways

• An online store costs significantly more to build and run than a standard business website
• Budget $1,500–$5,000+ per year in ongoing costs, on top of the build
• Payment processing fees apply to every single transaction — factor them into your product pricing
• Shopify is simpler to manage; WooCommerce gives more control but needs more hands-on maintenance
• Shipping costs are often the biggest ongoing expense after the platform fee

Thinking about selling online and not sure where to start? Book a free 15-minute chat — no pitch, just straight answers about what you’d actually need.