Ecommerce website design · UK
An online shop built round how you sell.
Most shop problems are not design problems. They are a checkout with one step too many, delivery costs revealed too late, and product pages nobody can find.
Werehouse Media designs and builds ecommerce websites for UK businesses on Shopify, on WordPress with WooCommerce, or fully custom, and the platform is chosen for how you sell rather than because it is the one we know. Every shop is built with the search work done from the first page: product and category pages written to be found, structured data and a fast checkout on a phone.
On our published price list a site with a shop is one of our larger builds, from £5,000, and every shop is quoted in writing after a short scoping call. We ran an ecommerce brand of our own for about two years, so the conversation about product pages, checkout friction and delivery costs comes from having lived with the numbers.
What does an ecommerce site need?
- A catalogue people can find their way round, with categories that match how customers search rather than how the stockroom is organised.
- A checkout that does not lose them, with delivery costs shown before the last step and guest checkout allowed.
- Delivery and returns rules that the site applies on its own, so nobody recalculates postage by hand.
- Stock that stays true, joined to wherever stock is really counted.
- Product pages that sell, with real photographs, plain prices and the answer to the question that stops people buying.
Choosing a platform
Shopify, WooCommerce or custom: how to choose.
| Route | Suits | Running costs | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Most small and mid-sized shops that want to run things themselves | UK plans from £25 a month billed monthly (£19 yearly), plus card fees from 2% + 25p on Basic | You rent the platform, and apps for missing features add monthly costs |
| WooCommerce | Businesses already on WordPress that publish a lot of content | The plugin is free; hosting, paid extensions and payment fees are not | Updates, security and speed are yours to look after |
| Custom build | Trade pricing, configurable products, unusual delivery rules, or a shop joined to systems you already run | Hosting and payment fees, with no platform subscription | More up front, and only worth it when a platform would need constant workarounds |
Shopify's prices are from its UK pricing page, checked October 2026; its higher plans run from £65 to £344 a month billed monthly, and Shopify Plus from £1,800. We are not tied to any platform, and if the honest answer is that you should set up Shopify yourself, we will say so.
Ecommerce SEO
A shop lives or dies on category and product pages that rank. That means writing them for the searches people actually make, marking up products so Google can show price and availability, and keeping filters from generating thousands of near-identical pages that waste the crawl. On WooCommerce and custom builds we control all of it; on Shopify we work within what the platform allows. Ongoing search work for a shop is part of our SEO services.
What does an online shop cost?
The build depends most on the number of products, the integrations with stock, accounts and delivery, and the platform. On our published price list a site with a shop is one of our larger builds, from £5,000, and every shop is quoted in writing before work starts. You own the domain, the code where there is code, and every account. Every published price is on the price list, and the wider picture of what websites cost is in our UK cost guide.
Looking after a live shop
A shop needs more care than a brochure site, because a broken checkout costs money by the hour. We look after shops we did not build as well as our own, from £49 a month: WordPress support for WooCommerce, and website maintenance for Shopify, where the platform handles its own servers and security. If the shop needs rebuilding rather than maintaining, a redesign keeps the rankings it has earned.
Straight answers
Ecommerce questions.
What is the best ecommerce website builder in the UK?
There is no single best one; there is a best fit. Shopify suits most small shops that want to run things themselves, because hosting, security and the checkout are handled for you. WooCommerce suits a business already on WordPress that publishes a lot of content. A custom build suits a shop whose way of selling does not fit either: trade pricing, configurable products or unusual delivery rules. We will tell you which, including when the answer is to set up Shopify yourself.
How much does it cost to design an ecommerce website?
It depends most on the number of products, the integrations (stock, accounts, delivery) and the platform. On our published price list, a site with a shop is one of our larger builds, which start from £5,000, and every shop is quoted in writing after a short scoping call. On top of the build there are running costs: Shopify's UK plans start at £25 a month billed monthly, or £19 billed yearly, plus card fees.
How much does a custom ecommerce website cost?
More than a platform shop, because the checkout, the catalogue and the admin are built rather than configured. It is usually only worth it when the way you sell cannot be made to fit Shopify or WooCommerce without constant workarounds, or when the shop has to be joined closely to systems you already run. We quote custom builds in writing after the scoping call, and we will say if a platform would do the job for less.
What are the disadvantages of WooCommerce?
You run it yourself. The plugin is free, but hosting, updates, security, backups and the performance of every extension are your responsibility, and paid extensions add up. A busy WooCommerce shop on cheap shared hosting is usually slow. None of that is a reason not to use it: it is a reason to budget for looking after it, which our WordPress support plans cover.
Do you do ecommerce SEO?
Yes. Product and category pages written to be found, structured data for products, a sensible structure for filters so Google does not index thousands of near-duplicate pages, and the Google Business Profile if you have a shop customers can visit. It is part of the build, and ongoing SEO is available on its own.
Can you take over an existing online shop?
Yes, whoever built it. The first look is free: what it runs on, what is installed, how fast it is and what is broken. Ongoing care starts from £49 a month, on website maintenance for Shopify and WordPress support for WooCommerce.
Next step
Tell us what you sell and how.
How many products, where the stock is counted, and what goes wrong at the checkout now. You will get an honest view of the right platform and a fixed price in writing.