Why a Custom E-commerce Site Starts at NT$400,000: Where Every Dollar Goes

Our e-commerce builds start at NT$400,000 (≈US$12,500). The first reaction we usually get: "Hosted store platforms cost a few thousand a month — what exactly am I paying for?" It's a fair question and deserves an honest answer. We run our own brand e-commerce operation — taking orders, shipping, issuing invoices every single day — so here's where every dollar goes.

E-commerce isn't a website; it's a system that moves money

When a brochure site breaks, you lose face. When an e-commerce site breaks, you lose orders and trust. A store that can actually operate includes, at minimum, these modules:

• Payment integration: credit cards, convenience-store payment codes, cash on delivery, mobile payments. Each has its own callback logic, failure handling, and reconciliation format. The pitfalls ECPay's documentation doesn't spell out — we've stepped on every one.
• Government e-invoicing: auto-issuing on order creation is just the starting point. Amount changes mean void-and-reissue; corporate tax IDs and carriers need separate handling; refunds require credit notes. Get this wrong and your accountant will come for you at month-end.
• Logistics integration: generating tracking numbers for convenience-store pickup (7-Eleven/FamilyMart), shipment status tracking, and the void-and-reissue flow when a cash-on-delivery amount changes.
• Membership: registration and login, order history, store credit and points — and, if you go deeper, tiers and quest mechanics.
• Admin back office: order management, inventory, product listings, reports. Staff should be able to use it without reading a manual.

Each of those five is real engineering. NT$400,000 doesn't buy pages — it buys this entire interlocking machine, where one wrong step costs actual money.

Platform vs. self-built: not which is better, but which stage you're at

We often advise clients whose monthly revenue is still in the early stage to start on a hosted store platform. A few thousand a month, payments and invoicing included — validate that your product actually sells first. The time to build your own is when your order value and repeat rate can carry the margin, when platform commissions start costing more than amortized development, or when you need custom flows the platform can't give you (subscriptions, group buying, gamified membership).

Development cost is one-time; payment processing fees are forever, on every single order. Only when you run the total math do you know which path is actually cheaper.

What you'll pay beyond the NT$400,000

In the interest of honesty, the ongoing costs too: payment processing fees (roughly 2–3% for credit cards), e-invoicing service provider monthly fees, hosting and CDN, SMS costs, and post-launch maintenance. None of these are in the development quote, but your P&L will see them. For the details, read our piece on the hidden costs of digital projects.

How to judge whether a quote is reasonable

Ask the vendor to walk you through the exception flows for payments, invoicing, and logistics: What happens when a card is declined? How is an invoice handled when the amount changes? Can a convenience-store shipping number be reused? Vendors who can answer in detail have actually done this; vendors who only say "we can integrate anything" will be debugging on your first real order.

We take our own orders every day on an e-commerce system we wrote ourselves, so every line on our quote has been battle-tested. If you're evaluating a custom build, or wondering whether it's time to move off a platform, book a free 30-minute consultation — we'll tell you the honest answer, including "you don't need a custom build yet" when that's the truth.