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A custom e-commerce back office makes sense when your teams work around the limits of Shopify or WooCommerce with spreadsheets, re-keying and stacked apps. Allow $6,800 to $22,400 (€6,000–€20,000)excl. VAT for a focused module connected to the store, and $16,800 to $56,000 (€15,000–€50,000)excl. VAT for a tool that handles orders, stock, purchasing and after-sales.
Shopify and WooCommerce are excellent tools for selling online. They become less comfortable as a company grows: several warehouses, business customers, marketplaces, fulfillment rules specific to your trade. At that point, many teams stack apps and spreadsheets. Here is how to tell whether it is time to build a custom back office, what it costs, and what you should keep.
Signs that a custom back office would help
The storefront is almost never the problem. The problem is everything that happens after the order. The signs I look for in a first conversation:
- Re-keying. Someone copies orders into a spreadsheet, the accounting software or the carrier’s tool.
- Stacked apps. One app for stock, one for returns, one for labels, one for B2B invoices, each with its own subscription and logic.
- Rules you cannot configure. Batch picking, stock reserved for a business customer, an approval flow for refunds: the platform cannot do it, or only partly.
- Numbers nobody can find. Margin by channel, truly available stock or average shipping time take half a day of exports.
- Dependence on one person. The process works because one employee knows all the workarounds.
If two or three of these sound familiar, the question deserves a proper calculation.
Keep the store, replace what blocks you
The classic mistake is wanting to rebuild everything. I recommend the opposite: the store stays in place for what it does well (public catalog, checkout, payment), and the custom back office takes over operations.
Both platforms lend themselves to this. WooCommerce offers a documented REST API for creating, reading, updating and deleting orders, products and customers. Shopify publishes what each plan allows; for example, assigning B2B catalogs to a specific company is limited to the Plus plan, according to its page on B2B features by plan (checked October 2026). Shopify Plus is listed as starting at $2,300 per month on Shopify’s pricing page (checked October 2026). That is a useful benchmark for comparison.
In practice, the back office reads orders in real time, enriches them (warehouse, priority, customer rules), drives fulfillment and sends statuses and stock levels back to the store.
What goes into an e-commerce back office
| Module | What it solves |
|---|---|
| Centralized orders | A single queue for the store, marketplaces and phone orders |
| Multi-warehouse stock | Available, reserved and in-transit stock, by site |
| Picking and shipping | Pick lists, scan checks, carrier labels |
| Returns and after-sales | Requests, reasons, credit notes, restocking |
| Purchasing and replenishment | Thresholds, suggested supplier orders |
| Dashboards | Margin by channel, lead times, stockouts, returns |
| B2B area | Customer-specific prices, quick ordering, invoices |
Nobody needs everything on day one. We start with the module that costs the most hours each week.
Budget and timelines
These ranges exclude VAT and cover a first version running in production. They come from my public price list; the quote becomes fixed after scoping.
| Scope | Example | Indicative budget | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focused module | Centralized orders and statuses, connected to the store | $6,800 to $22,400 (€6,000–€20,000)excl. VAT | 1 to 3 months |
| Operational back office | Orders, multi-warehouse stock, picking, dashboards | $16,800 to $39,200 (€15,000–€35,000)excl. VAT | 3 to 5 months |
| Complete back office | The above + purchasing, after-sales, B2B area, ERP or accounting connection | $39,200 to $56,000 (€35,000–€50,000)excl. VAT | 4 to 6 months |
| Multi-brand or multi-country platform | Several stores, several entities, partners | Custom quote | 6 months and more |
As a benchmark, each connection to another tool counts for about $2,300 (€2,000)excl. VAT in my estimator, a dashboard $1,700 (€1,500)excl. VAT and a data migration $900 (€800)excl. VAT. The estimator calculates a range from the building blocks you select. For a line-by-line breakdown, see how much a custom e-commerce back office costs.
You still pay for hosting (a few tens to a few hundred euros a year), third-party services billed by usage and your e-commerce platform subscription, which you keep.
When it is not the right choice
I would rather be clear: a custom back office does not make sense for everyone.
- Modest volume and a standard process. If two or three off-the-shelf apps cover your needs without re-keying, keep them.
- A process that is still changing. If your organization shifts every three months, building now means freezing a temporary way of working.
- Needs covered by an off-the-shelf ERP. If a standard ERP already covers 90% of your operations, configure it, and add a focused extension if needed. The comparison Shopify Plus or custom goes through these cases.
- A budget under $6,800 (€6,000)excl. VAT. Below that, you get a prototype, not a tool a logistics team can rely on.
Where to start
- A 30-minute call (free): we walk through your flows, from order to shipment, and your current tools.
- Scoping (1 to 2 weeks): flow mapping, choice of the first module, requirements document, fixed quote and schedule.
- Clickable mockups (1 to 3 weeks): your pickers and customer service test the screens before development.
- Development in batches, each tested by your teams on real orders.
- Go-live, data migration, training, then three months of included support.
The source code and rights are transferred to you once the project is paid in full: you stay in control of the tool. To see how I approach business software, visit the business apps page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to leave Shopify or WooCommerce to get a custom back office?
No, in most cases. The store remains your storefront and payment tool, and the custom back office connects to it through the API to read orders and update stock. You only replace what is slowing your teams down.
How many apps do I need to replace for custom software to pay off?
There is no universal threshold. I compare the yearly cost of your apps and re-keying hours with the cost of development and maintenance over three years. If the gap does not show up in that calculation, I recommend staying with the apps.
What happens if Shopify or WooCommerce changes its API?
Both platforms publish successive versions of their APIs, which usually leaves time to adapt. Maintenance of the back office includes keeping up with these changes. It is a cost to plan for, usually small when the connector is isolated from the rest of the code.
Can my teams keep working while the back office is being rolled out?
Yes. The back office is delivered in batches, tested on real data before switching over. Your current setup stays in place until each batch is approved.