An Online Store Built to Turn Browsers Into Buyers

The cost depends on the size and complexity of your store. At Upforge, a custom Shopify storefront or a headless WooCommerce storefront on Next.js runs $10,000 to $20,000, a high-volume build on Shopify Plus or headless WooCommerce runs $15,000 to $30,000, and a fully custom storefront on our own commerce stack runs $25,000 to $50,000. Most stores land in that first band. Every tier includes a custom design, your product catalog set up, payment processing, and post-launch support. We give you a detailed, fixed price after a free consultation, with no hidden fees.

We build on both, so the honest answer is: it depends on what you want to own. Shopify is reliable and hands-off, and you pay platform rent for that convenience. WooCommerce is open source with no monthly platform fee, and we only build it headless: your products and orders stay in WooCommerce while shoppers use a fast Next.js storefront we build. We don't maintain WordPress, so you or your host keep the WooCommerce backend updated. And there's a third lane: a fully custom storefront on our own commerce stack, the one running live client stores today, with no platform rent at all. It handles ticketing, memberships, deposits, and standard catalog sales, and the module set keeps expanding to replace Shopify outright when a business wants that. We'll recommend the lane that fits, and we'll tell you plainly when the cheaper one is the right call.

Timeline depends on the size of the store: a standard Shopify or headless WooCommerce store takes 7-10 weeks. Shopify Plus with custom features takes 10-12 weeks. A fully custom storefront takes 12-16 weeks. For a standard store, our process runs one week for strategy and choosing the right setup, 2-3 weeks for design, 3-5 weeks for the build and connecting your tools, and a final week for testing, moving your products over, and launch. We can move faster for a time-sensitive launch without cutting corners on quality.

We integrate with all major payment processors. Shopify Payments (powered by Stripe) has the lowest fees, PayPal and PayPal Express add customer trust, Apple Pay and Google Pay make mobile checkout easy, and Shop Pay speeds checkout up. Klarna and Afterpay cover buy-now-pay-later, Square suits businesses with physical retail, and we build custom gateway integrations as needed. On Shopify builds we recommend Shopify Payments to eliminate the platform's extra transaction fee; on headless WooCommerce and custom builds, Square or Stripe keep it simple. Multi-currency support is available for international selling.

Yes, store migration is one of our specialties. We migrate stores between WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Shopify, and custom platforms, in whichever direction fits your business. When WooCommerce is where you land, it runs headless behind a Next.js storefront, never as a WordPress theme we maintain. Our migration process preserves: all product data (variants, images, descriptions), customer accounts and order history, SEO rankings via 301 redirect mapping, inventory levels and tracking, and discount codes and gift cards. We plan migrations carefully to minimize downtime, typically 2-4 hours of maintenance mode. Post-migration, we verify everything works before going fully live.

Conversion optimization is built into every store we create, and most of it comes down to removing friction. Product pages load in under two seconds. Checkout is one page wherever the platform allows it. The cart is designed for a thumb, not a mouse. Reviews and shipping and return policies sit where people actually look for them, and abandoned carts trigger a recovery flow instead of just disappearing. After launch we keep heatmap tracking and A/B testing running, because the real wins show up once you can see where people hesitate. Baymard Institute's research puts the conversion available from better checkout design alone at up to 35% for the average large store, and that's the lever we pull hardest.

Every e-commerce project includes: custom theme design (not templates), product catalog setup and optimization, payment gateway integration, shipping rate configuration, tax setup for your regions, inventory management training, technical integration with email platforms (e.g. Klaviyo) when you use them, Google Analytics 4 e-commerce tracking, mobile-optimized responsive design, 30 days of post-launch support, and team training documentation. Add-ons include a retainer for ongoing work, deeper technical SEO enhancements, and subscription/membership functionality.

Yes, on a retainer. A retainer is a deposit you pay up front. We bill against it at $150 an hour whenever we touch your project, for any reason, and send you a monthly report on what we did. That work covers app updates and compatibility testing, security monitoring and malware scanning, performance optimization, content and product updates, and conversion reviews. Automated uptime monitoring with immediate alerts runs around the clock, and backups run daily.

Yes. We regularly integrate stores with: ShipStation and Shippo for shipping, ERP systems (NetSuite, SAP Business One), warehouse management (Extensiv, Cin7), dropshipping (Spocket), 3PL providers (Amazon FBA, ShipBob), point-of-sale (Shopify POS, Square), accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero), and custom inventory databases. For complex multi-location inventory, we build real-time sync that prevents overselling. We document the integration setup for your team's reference.

Three things set us apart: 1) Sales focus: we build the checkout, catalog, and shopping experience around making the sale. 2) Speed: our stores load fast, and fast stores sell more. 3) Marketing-ready: we set up the analytics and connections your marketing tools need, so email, ads, and reporting all work from day one. We used to run a marketing and media agency, so we understand that side of the business. Today we sell development, and we make sure the store is built so your team or partners can run campaigns on top of it. Plus, we're a Greater Cincinnati team when you want to meet in person.

Yes, we're experienced Shopify Plus developers. Plus offers: checkout customization and branding, automated workflows (Shopify Flow), multi-currency native support, B2B/wholesale features, increased API limits, dedicated support from Shopify, and lower transaction fees at scale. We recommend Plus for stores exceeding $1M annual revenue or needing advanced features. Our Plus implementations include custom checkout experiences built to cut the steps between cart and confirmation, which is where most abandonment happens. Enterprise migrations from Magento are also a specialty.

E-commerce SEO is built into our development process: technical foundation (fast load times, clean code, proper indexing), product schema markup for rich snippets, optimized category page structure, internal linking strategy, canonical tags for variant handling, image optimization with descriptive alt text, and XML sitemap automation. Post-launch, we offer ongoing SEO services specifically for e-commerce: targeting product keywords, building authority, and optimizing for seasonal trends. We report on real ranking and traffic movement for your store rather than quoting an average that has nothing to do with your catalog.