E-commerce
Creating an ecommerce site: what decides whether it sells or stays a brochure
An ecommerce site is not a platform choice. It is who runs the catalogue, payments, shipping and support, and what stays on the bill every month.
"Create an ecommerce site", "build an online shop", "set up an online store": they are versions of the same question, and together they are worth a few thousand searches a month in Italy. The answer you find is almost always a list of platforms (Shopify, PrestaShop, WooCommerce), as if the choice of tool were the decision. It is not.
An ecommerce site is a system that has to do four things without breaking: show products, take money, ship, and answer whoever has a problem. The platform is only the container for those four jobs. Below are the three realistic setups, the costs that never go away, and the points where shops that have been stuck for months got stuck.
The three possible setups
The four jobs that decide whether it sells
Before you open an account on any platform, have an answer for each of these. If one is missing, the shop is not ready, however good the theme looks.
The costs that stay even when the platform is "free"
No ecommerce site is free, not even the one that starts on a zero-cost plan. The fixed items are nearly always the same: domain, platform fee or hosting, payment fees (usually 1% to 3%), any platform commission on sales, theme or template, product photos, copy, and the time of whoever updates the catalogue. The first four you can forecast. The last three are what sinks the project, because nobody budgets for them.
Add the cost of acquisition: a new shop gets no traffic just by existing. Without a plan to bring visits (content, ads, email, social channels, customers you already have), the problem is not the platform, it is distribution.
"Ready-made" ecommerce sites: when they pay off and when they do not
Preconfigured shops exist (theme, checkout, legal pages, automatic emails) and they go live in an afternoon. They pay off when the product is standard, the catalogue is small and the goal is to test demand within a few weeks. They do not pay off when the buying experience is your advantage: unusual configurations, made-to-measure products, very rich product pages, B2B flows with a different price list per customer. There a ready theme turns into an obstacle you work around with code, and at that point you may as well start from components.
Design: the three screens that matter
Ecommerce SEO: where you win
An ecommerce site ranks on pages that answer one need: the product page for whoever wants that product, the category for whoever wants that family, a guide for whoever is still deciding. The three technical things that matter are the same as on any site (a distinct title and description per page, Product structured data with price and availability, speed), plus two that are specific to retail: handling variants without generating duplicate pages, and handling sold-out products without losing the URL ("out of stock, notify me" beats a 404).
The route I recommend
Start with five products, one payment method and one courier. Put the shop online, make three real sales, measure where people stop in the checkout. Only then add variants, languages, payment methods and automation. Every feature added before the first sale is a guess you have not tested, and every wrong guess costs time you could have spent selling.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to build an ecommerce site?
The realistic floor is a few hundred euro a year for domain, hosting or platform fee, and theme. On top come payment fees (around 1-3% per transaction) and, if you do not build it all yourself, photos, copy and setup. The real cost is maintenance: updates, support and catalogue work.
Shopify, PrestaShop or WooCommerce?
Shopify if you want to hand off infrastructure and maintenance and accept the fee plus commissions. PrestaShop or WooCommerce if you already have hosting and technical skills and want a lower variable cost. There is no universally right answer: it depends on who updates the shop in six months.
Can I build an ecommerce site for free?
You can open a shop on a free plan or a trial, but a permanently free ecommerce site does not exist: domain, payments and shipping all cost money. A free plan is for testing the idea, not for running a business.
Do I need a VAT number to sell online?
If you sell regularly and in an organised way, yes: trading requires a VAT number and a suitable tax regime. Occasional sales follow different rules. Check your own case with an accountant, not with an article.
How many products do you need to open an ecommerce site?
Five presented well are enough to start selling and to learn what works. A big catalogue with thin product pages sells less than a small one with precise photos, descriptions and stock.
Is a ready-made ecommerce site a good idea?
Yes when the product is standard, the catalogue is small and you want to test demand fast. No when the buying experience is your edge: custom configurations, B2B price lists or very rich product pages need code, and a closed theme becomes a limit.
How do you reduce cart abandonment?
Show shipping costs before the checkout, allow buying without an account, cut required fields, state real delivery times, and save the cart for people who come back. Most abandonment starts with an unexpected cost or a pointless step.
Is WooCommerce slow?
Not by definition: WooCommerce can be fast when hosting, caching and plugin count are under control. The risk is piling up extensions that load scripts on every page. Measure speed on the real shop pages, not on the demo theme.
Do you need Product structured data?
Yes: Product with price, currency and availability helps search engines show price and stock in results. The data must be true and match the page, otherwise the markup gets ignored.
Should the shop be multilingual from day one?
Only if you really sell abroad. Each language adds URLs, translations, currencies and support. Adding one later costs less than keeping an empty one for months.
How long does it take to put an ecommerce site online?
With a ready theme and five products, from a few days to two weeks. With a large catalogue, multiple payment methods, stock integration and original content, weeks or months. The bottleneck is rarely the platform: it is photos, copy and shipping rules.
Can you start from components instead of a platform?
Yes, with your own frontend and external services for cart, payments and catalogue. It pays off when design is part of the product or the catalogue is unusual, but it needs technical skill or somebody who maintains the code.