Online store setup cost in India for a small business (2026)
Setup is the small number. Selling ₹1 lakh a month online, platform and payment fees run ₹2,890 to ₹8,456 a month — and the cheapest plan costs the most.
Setting up an online store in India costs ₹0 if you build it yourself on a hosted platform, and ₹30,000 to ₹1,50,000 if an agency builds it. The number that matters more comes every month: for a shop selling ₹1 lakh a month online, platform and payment fees run from about ₹2,890 to ₹8,456 a month, depending on the platform — and the plan with the lowest price tag is the dearest of them.
Every price below is from the provider's own page, checked on 22 October 2026.
What you will be quoted to set it up
| Route | Quoted | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Build it yourself on Dukaan or Shopify | ₹0 to build; a few hundred rupees to go live | Dukaan's free plan; Shopify's trial (3 days free, then ₹20 a month for 3 months) |
| An agency builds it, under 50 products | ₹30,000 – ₹60,000 | Amazon Smart Commerce cost guide |
| An agency builds it, 50–200 products | ₹60,000 – ₹1,50,000 | Amazon Smart Commerce cost guide |
| Custom features | ₹1,50,000 – ₹5,00,000+ | Amazon Smart Commerce cost guide |
Google's own summary for this search gives a range of ₹40,000 to ₹2,00,000 for a small business. That is a build price. It says nothing about the cut taken from every sale afterwards — which, for a shop that actually sells, overtakes the build price inside a year.
What each platform takes every month
There are two charges, and most comparisons show only the first:
- The plan — a fixed monthly or yearly price.
- A cut of every sale — charged by the platform itself, on top of the payment gateway.
| Platform | Plan price | Platform's cut of each sale |
|---|---|---|
| Dukaan Starter | ₹299 a month, or ₹2,500 a year | 4.99% per order, capped at ₹200, plus 18% GST — cash-on-delivery orders included |
| Dukaan Growth | ₹999 a month, or ₹8,000 a year | 3.99% per order, same terms |
| Shopify Basic | ₹1,994 a month, or ₹1,800 a month paid yearly, plus GST | 2% |
| Shopify Grow | ₹7,447 a month, or ₹6,700 a month paid yearly, plus GST | 1% |
| WooCommerce on your own hosting | Plugin free; hosting about ₹449 a month at renewal (Hostinger Premium), plus GST | 0% |
Shopify's percentage is not optional in India. It is charged on stores that use an outside payment gateway, and Shopify Payments is not available in India, so every Indian Shopify store pays it.
Then the payment gateway takes its own share on top of all of this. Razorpay's standard rate is 2% on UPI, cards and net banking, plus 18% GST on the fee — 2.36% of every online payment — with no setup fee and no annual charge.
One shop, three sales levels
Here is what a shop pays each month in plan, platform cut and payment-gateway fees, at three levels of online sales. It assumes an average order of ₹2,500, every order paid online through Razorpay, and yearly billing where it is cheaper. GST is included.
| Monthly online sales | ₹20,000 | ₹50,000 | ₹1,00,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dukaan Starter | ₹1,858 | ₹4,332 | ₹8,456 |
| Dukaan Growth | ₹2,081 | ₹4,201 | ₹7,735 |
| Shopify Basic | ₹3,068 | ₹4,484 | ₹6,844 |
| WooCommerce (own hosting) | ₹1,002 | ₹1,710 | ₹2,890 |
Three things fall out of that table.
The cheapest plan is cheapest only while you sell little. Dukaan Starter's plan costs ₹208 a month on yearly billing, but its 4.99% grows with every order. Above roughly ₹54,000 a month in online sales, Shopify Basic — with a plan ten times the price — costs less in total.
A site you own takes no cut at all. WooCommerce charges no percentage, so above about ₹5,500 a month in sales it is the cheapest of the four in fees. What it costs instead is upkeep: someone has to keep WordPress, the store plugin and the payment plugin updated, and paid plugins add their own fees. What that upkeep really costs is in website maintenance cost for a small business.
The payment gateway is the same on every platform. ₹2,360 on ₹1 lakh of sales. It is the one fee no platform choice removes.
UPI is not free through a payment gateway
Google's summary for this search says UPI is "typically cheaper". On a gateway's standard plan, it is not. Razorpay's own pricing guide says UPI carries a zero merchant discount rate by regulation — and that its 2% on UPI is a platform fee instead, the same as on a card.
A UPI QR code from your own bank costs nothing per payment. It has no cart and no checkout, but for a shop taking orders on WhatsApp, that is often enough.
Both large gateways are running free offers for new accounts in 2026, and both have limits worth reading:
- Razorpay: 0% platform fee on domestic payments for accounts activated on or after 1 July 2026, for 90 days or the first ₹5,00,000 of payments, whichever comes first. A ₹199 KYC fee plus tax may apply. GST on fees is not waived, and the offer can be withdrawn if credit cards make up more than 90% of your volume. At most it saves about ₹11,800.
- Cashfree: a 0% offer for new merchants who signed up on or after 21 July 2026, running until 31 March 2027. After that, its standard 1.95% plus taxes.
Shipping, and what cash on delivery costs
Shipping costs the same whichever store platform you choose. Shiprocket advertises an average shipment cost of ₹45 on its free plan (up to 5 orders a month), ₹41 on its ₹199-a-month plan (5–50 orders) and ₹39 on its ₹499-a-month plan (50–200 orders), before GST. At 40 orders a month that is about ₹1,839 — usually charged to the customer, but someone pays it.
Cash on delivery avoids the gateway fee, but not Dukaan's: its service fee applies to COD orders too, on every plan except Infinity.
GST: online, you need it sooner
The usual turnover limits — ₹40 lakh for goods in West Bengal — still apply if you sell only inside the state from your own site. Two things change that:
- Shipping goods to a customer in another state makes registration compulsory from the first rupee.
- Selling through Amazon, Flipkart or Meesho makes it compulsory too, with a narrow exemption for small sellers who stay within one state.
An online store that ships across India almost always needs GST registration on day one. The limits and exceptions are in do you need GST registration?
Before you pay for a store at all
A WhatsApp Business catalogue costs nothing, a bank UPI QR code costs nothing per payment, and an Instagram page costs nothing. Plenty of Kolkata shops sell this way for months. It stops working when orders arrive faster than one person can answer, confirm and pack them — and that, not the platform's marketing, is the sign you need a store.
The questions people ask Google
How much does it cost to start an online store?
₹0 to build if you do it yourself on Dukaan or Shopify; ₹30,000 to ₹1,50,000 if an agency builds a small or mid-sized store. Then, every month, the platform's plan, its cut of each sale, and about 2.36% to the payment gateway — roughly ₹1,000 to ₹3,100 a month at ₹20,000 of sales, and ₹2,890 to ₹8,456 at ₹1 lakh, on the platforms above.
Is GST compulsory for eCommerce?
If you sell through Amazon, Flipkart or Meesho, yes, apart from a narrow exemption for small sellers within one state. If you sell from your own site, it is compulsory as soon as you ship goods to another state. If you sell only within your own state, the normal turnover limits apply.
How much does Shopify cost in India?
Basic is ₹1,994 a month, or ₹1,800 a month paid yearly, plus GST. Because Shopify Payments is not available in India, Shopify also takes 2% of every sale on Basic (1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced), and your payment gateway charges its own fee on top.
Is Dukaan free?
There is a free plan. The paid plans start at ₹299 a month or ₹2,500 a year, and they take 4.99% (Starter), 3.99% (Growth) or 1.99% (the top plan) of every order, capped at ₹200 an order, plus GST — including cash-on-delivery orders.
Which is cheaper, Shopify or Dukaan?
It depends on how much you sell. At an average order of ₹2,500, Dukaan Starter is cheaper below about ₹54,000 a month in online sales, and Shopify Basic is cheaper above it. A WooCommerce store on your own hosting takes no cut at all, but needs maintaining.
Where we stand
We sell this, so weigh what follows accordingly. Our online store setup is ₹19,999, once: everything in our starter website, a catalogue of up to fifty products, online payments live and tested, your Google listing done properly, and Meta and Google ad accounts opened in your name with a first campaign built and tuned for two weeks. There is no monthly fee and we take no percentage of your sales. The platform, the payment gateway and the courier bill you directly, and the store, domain and accounts are registered in your name.
That is below every agency band in the first table, and above building it yourself — which is a perfectly good choice if you have the time. Either way, choose the platform by what it costs you each month at your sales, not by its price tag. If you want the table above worked out for your own products and expected sales, send them on WhatsApp — it costs nothing, whether or not you hire us.
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Every figure is from the provider's own page, checked on 22 October 2026: Shopify India's pricing page (plans, monthly and yearly prices, third-party payment provider fees) and its help article on GST on Shopify bills in India; Dukaan's pricing page (plans and service fees) and its help-centre article on service fees and gateway charges (₹200 cap per order, charges before 18% GST, COD included); Razorpay's guide to its pricing (standard 2% including UPI, 18% GST on fees, no setup or annual fee; updated 11 October 2026) and the terms of its 90-day 0% offer; Cashfree's payment gateway charges page; Shiprocket's pricing page; Amazon Smart Commerce's cost guide for building an online store. Shopify Payments' absence in India is from Razorpay's guide to Shopify payment gateway costs (May 2026). Hosting renewal is Hostinger's, as checked for our maintenance post on 3 October 2026. GST registration rules are from our GST post, sourced to the GST portal. The worked example is our own arithmetic: ₹2,500 average order, every order paid online through Razorpay's standard plan, yearly billing where cheaper, GST at 18% on every fee. Providers change prices without notice; check the live page before you rely on any one of them.
Questions are free, whether or not you hire anyone. Ask on WhatsApp or write to shyam@orderzone.in.
Written by Shyam Patra, who runs Orderzone from Kolkata. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell me and I will fix it — the date at the top changes when I do.