--- title: "Online Stores, Shopify and Stripe · 316Software" description: "Shopify and Stripe handle the hard parts of selling online better than anything I’d write from scratch, so I build on them. The real question is how far to go on top, and that depends on what you sell and who you sell it to." canonical: "https://316software.com/services/online-stores" last_updated: "2026-10-21" --- # Online Stores, Shopify and Stripe Shopify and Stripe handle the hard parts of selling online better than anything I’d write from scratch, so I build on them. The real question is how far to go on top, and that depends on what you sell and who you sell it to. ![A shop counter with goods on shelves behind it, a tablet showing a checkout screen, a wrapped parcel with a shipping label, and a card reader.](https://316software.com/img/services/online-stores-1536.webp) The checkout, the parcel and the card reader: a store covers everything from the order to the shipment. ## How far it goes - **Set up on the defaults**: Shopify and Stripe configured properly the first time: catalogue and variants, shipping zones, Canadian tax, payouts, and a good theme lightly adjusted. The cheapest option on this page, and often the right one. - **The storefront reworked**: The theme reshaped to fit your catalogue, instead of your catalogue squeezed into the theme: trade pricing, bundles, minimums, B2B accounts, and the collections your buyers shop by. - **The checkout and the flow**: Customized beyond what the settings allow, where you need it: a quote before a price, an approval step, a deposit, different terms per account. - **The parts no app covers**: The pricing rule, the integration, the back-office job that’s specific to you. I only build it after checking nobody already sells it, because usually someone does. - **Someone to run it, if you want**: Products, prices, promotions and app updates handled every month, so the store stays current between launches. One order through a store set up properly: Shopify works out the tax at checkout and Stripe takes the payment. The shipping label, the accounting entry and the payout follow from that order without anyone typing it in again. ## Pricing Fixed prices for the common jobs, and a quote after discovery for anything bigger. Prices in CAD, plus GST. - 01 Fits most businesses **On the defaults** Set up properly the first time. Often all you need. $4,500 fixed · 2 weeks Shopify or Stripe configured properly the first time: up to 50 products with variants, shipping zones, GST and PST, payments and payouts, a good theme adjusted to the brand, domain, legal pages, and a training session for your team. - Up to 50 products with variants - Shipping zones, GST and PST, payments and payouts - A good theme adjusted to the brand - Domain, legal pages, and a training session [Start with On the defaults](https://316software.com/contact?service=online-stores) - 02 **Reshaped** The theme reworked to fit your catalogue. $20,000 fixed · 4 weeks The storefront reshaped around the catalogue: collections, trade and retail pricing, B2B accounts, bundles and minimums, up to 300 products, and migration from the old platform. - Collections your buyers shop by - Trade and retail pricing, B2B accounts - Bundles and minimums, up to 300 products - Migration from the old platform [Start with Reshaped](https://316software.com/contact?service=online-stores) - 03 **Custom** A checkout that goes beyond what the settings allow. from $20,000 after discovery A quote before a price, approvals, deposits, terms per account, the pricing rule no app covers, the back-office integration. Custom software, quoted as such. - A quote before a price, an approval step, a deposit - Terms per account - The rule no app covers, built after checking nobody sells it - Orders flow into accounting and fulfilment without retyping [Talk about Custom](https://316software.com/contact?service=online-stores) - **Run plan · from $3,000 a year**: The infrastructure it runs on, kept up, backed up and watched. The server it runs on. Storage, and backups you can be restored from. Dependency and security updates. Monitoring, and someone who notices. Cancel at any renewal. You own the software either way. - That’s the starting price. A busier or more complex system costs more to run, and we agree on the number in writing along with the build, so it never comes as a surprise. - Not included: what you pay other companies. AI model and API keys, third-party licences and app subscriptions stay in your own accounts, at cost. I don’t mark them up. - The plan doesn’t include hours for changes. Each change gets its own price, agreed before I build it. - I’ll never take a percentage of what you sell: no royalties, no cut of transactions, no per-user fees for software you own. 40% **Shipping, tax and fees lose more checkouts than anything else.** Baymard asks US shoppers who abandoned a checkout in the last 3 months why they left. Setting aside those just browsing, 40% said extra costs like shipping, tax and fees were too high, 18% that the site wanted them to create an account, and 12% that they couldn’t see the total up front. Where shipping and tax show up, and whether an account is required, are settings rather than code. The entry tier gets them right the first time. [Baymard Institute, checkout abandonment survey of US shoppers, 2026.](https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate) ## When it’s the right choice - You’re starting out and want it set up right the first time, without a year of tinkering. - You’re on Shopify and the theme fights you on pricing, variants, minimums or trade accounts. - Trade and retail customers need different prices, terms or catalogues. - The store works, but nobody has time to run it and the catalogue and prices have drifted. - Orders get typed into accounting or fulfilment by hand once they arrive. ### When it isn’t A store won’t get people buying online if they don’t already. Tradespeople who phone in their orders, buyers on account, anyone who wants a quote before a price: you’re better off improving the way they already order than building a checkout nobody uses. ## Get in touch [Talk about online stores](https://316software.com/contact?service=online-stores) I’ll read your message myself and reply within 2 business days. ## Related services [All 8 services](https://316software.com/services) - ### [Integrations](https://316software.com/services/integrations) When orders get typed into accounting or fulfilment by hand. - ### [Web Development](https://316software.com/services/web-development) When the store sits beside a site that does more than sell. - ### [Software Development](https://316software.com/services/software-development) When the way you take orders is too specific for any store platform. --- Page: https://316software.com/services/online-stores The whole site for agents: https://316software.com/llms.txt