Ecommerce development for Australian businesses

What a custom store gets you that Shopify does not

The business outcome first: more of every sale in your account, a store that looks like your brand instead of a theme, and no subscription that keeps running whether you sell anything or not.

• No platform commission. Shopify and similar platforms take a percentage of every transaction on top of your monthly plan. A custom build has no platform in the middle — Stripe's processing fee is the only cut, and that goes to Stripe, not us.
• Your inventory, your rules. Products, variants, stock levels and pricing live in a database you control, not inside a third party's data model that you lose access to the day you stop paying.
• Checkout that matches your brand. Stripe handles the payment securely, but the page around it is built to your design — not a templated checkout flow that looks like every other store on the platform.
• An admin dashboard built for how you actually work. Add products, see orders, update stock — screens built around your catalogue, not a generic admin meant to fit every merchant on the platform.
• Order automation. Confirmation emails, stock updates and order handoffs wired together so nothing needs to be typed twice.

Where Shopify is the right answer

Said plainly, because most developers pitching a custom build will not. If you are validating a product idea with a handful of SKUs and no development budget, a $30-a-month Shopify plan gets you selling this week — a custom build cannot compete with that speed at the very beginning.

Custom development earns its cost once you have real product volume, a workflow the templates cannot express (we compare the platforms in Wix vs a custom website and Squarespace vs custom), or the transaction fees are large enough that removing them pays for the build within a year or two. If you are not there yet, we will tell you honestly and point you at the cheaper option.

What it costs

A standard store — up to around 100 products, Stripe checkout, inventory management, order emails and an admin dashboard — is $4,500, delivered in 4–6 weeks. Stores with heavier requirements — unlimited products, multi-currency, custom configurators, AI-driven recommendations — are scoped per project from $5,000.

Ongoing costs after launch are Stripe's processing fee (roughly 1.7–2.9% + a fixed fee per transaction, paid to Stripe directly) and hosting, typically under $50 a month on Vercel for most stores. No platform subscription, because there is no platform.

How we build it

• Next.js 15 storefront with server-rendered product pages — fast, and indexed by Google without waiting on client-side JavaScript
• Stripe for payment processing — PCI compliance and card handling stay with Stripe, not with code we write
• A database built around your actual product structure, not a generic schema stretched to fit
• Admin screens for the day-to-day tasks your team actually does — adding stock, checking orders, issuing refunds
• Deployed to Vercel, repository in your name — you can hand it to another developer at any point

Ecommerce builds we have shipped

HS Race Gear — a full custom store for an Australian racing gear brand, with a 3D product viewer, custom measurement forms, Stripe checkout and an admin dashboard built from scratch. Mobile Armour — an AI-enhanced accessories store with OpenAI-driven product recommendations and Stripe payments.

Further reading

Related reading before you commit: what a website costs in Australia, fixed prices.

Common questions