Start with the platform decision — it's mostly Shopify
For a typical Melbourne retailer — homeware, fashion, food, parts — Shopify is the right default: checkout, hosting, security and speed are handled, apps cover almost everything, and it rarely breaks at 2am. Expect $2,500–$8,000 for a proper freelance build and $720–$3,600/year in platform costs depending on plan.
WooCommerce earns its place when you need deep customisation, complex B2B pricing, or you already publish serious content on WordPress. It's cheaper to run and more powerful — and more fragile. The honest test: if nobody technical is on call, pick Shopify. My longer comparison, including Wix's commerce tier, is in the platform guide.
The five things that decide whether it sells
- Speed on a phone. Most Melbourne shopping happens on mobile. If your product page takes four seconds, your customer is on a competitor's. Green Core Web Vitals is the baseline, not the flex.
- Category structure that mirrors search. People search "linen bedding australia", not your internal collection names. Category pages are your biggest SEO asset — most stores waste them.
- Product pages that answer questions. Dimensions, materials, shipping cost and time, returns — above the fold. Every unanswered question is an abandoned cart.
- Product schema. Clean structured data gets your price, stock and reviews into the search results themselves. It's free advertising Google offers and most stores don't take.
- A checkout with nothing clever in it. Every extra field costs sales. Guest checkout, obvious shipping, no surprises.
A real number instead of a promise: an Australian homeware retailer I work with grew +40% Google clicks in 28 days (with click-through rate up 59%) from technical cleanup, people-first content and search-intent fixes — zero ad spend, measured in Search Console. That's what structure does for a store.
The traffic engine: organic beats renting
Melbourne ecommerce margins are too thin to rent every visitor from Meta and Google Ads forever. The organic alternative is unglamorous and it compounds: category pages targeting real search phrases, collection descriptions written like a person wrote them, buying-guide content that catches "best X for Y" searches, and internal links that move authority to the pages that convert. Month one is slow. Month six is a sales channel you own.
What to ask any Melbourne ecommerce designer
- Show me a store you built and its Search Console numbers. Design without traffic is decoration.
- Who owns the store account? (You should. Walk away if not.)
- What's included in writing: product schema, meta, category copy?
- What happens after launch — and what does it cost?
If the answers are vague, the quote will be too. Every Mkista build ships with the search plumbing included and a fixed written quote before anything starts — details on the Melbourne web design page.
FAQ
What does an ecommerce website cost in Melbourne?
Freelance Shopify builds typically $2,500–$8,000; agencies $8,000–$30,000+; plus $720–$3,600/year platform fees. Catalogue size and custom design move the number most. Full market breakdown in the Australian pricing guide.
Shopify or WooCommerce?
Shopify unless you have a technical person on call and a specific reason. Reliability is a feature.
How long does a store build take?
Three to six weeks with products and photos ready; the catalogue content is almost always the bottleneck, not the build.
Can you fix an existing store instead of rebuilding?
Often, yes — structure, speed and schema fixes on an existing store are cheaper than a rebuild and usually where the +40% style wins come from. That's a strategy-call conversation.
Want a store that sells while you sleep?
Bring your store — or your idea for one — and I'll tell you honestly what it needs and what it costs.
Or call +61 468 030 786