Stores built to sell. Priced in the open.

Both bases are the same price — A$15,000 — so our recommendation carries no thumb on the scale. Shopify is our pick for most retailers: checkout, hosting, PCI compliance and app ecosystem are handled for you, and day-to-day running — orders, stock, discounts — is the easiest in the business. You trade that for monthly platform fees and transaction costs.

WooCommerce (on WordPress) is the ownership play: no platform fees, the whole stack on your hosting, unlimited customisation, and content and commerce living in one place — the right call for content-led brands and stores with unusual business rules. You trade that for owning updates, hosting and security, which is what our care plans exist for. If your project genuinely suits one over the other, we'll say so in plain words on the scope call — and if what you're really describing is a B2B portal with quoting and account workflows, that might be a custom web app wearing a store's clothes, and we'll tell you that too.

E-commerce quoting in Australia runs from A$2k template flips to A$100k+ agency builds, and almost nobody prints a number — which makes every buyer's first meeting a negotiation about budget instead of a conversation about the store. We publish ours because fixed pricing forces disciplined scoping, and disciplined scoping is what actually protects your budget. Flagship Web is a new studio, and we'll say that with a straight face: it's built by the senior team behind Digital One Agency — an established Sydney agency — with contracts under Australian law, A$39M public liability and A$30M professional indemnity cover, and 100% IP assignment in plain English on every store we ship. Weekly demos mean you watch the store take shape from week one; the first invoice is never the first time you see the work.