How We Scope and Price Projects
From brief to launch. Discover our proven process behind our
#NoSurprises promise.
Our Collaboration Process at a Glance
Reach out by email or phone. If you already have a brief or a documented project scope, great! If not, we’ll set up a meeting (online or in person) to gather the key information we need.
Based on this, you’ll receive a project estimate along with a plan for the discovery phase. If you decide to move forward, we’ll sign an agreement to carry it out.
The discovery phase is a series of workshops where your team (Project Owner, department heads, etc.) meets with ours (business analyst, PM, developers) to discuss and flesh out the project scope, point by point.
These sessions result in a discovery document along with a final quote. This is another decision point — you choose whether to move ahead with the project (with us or another agency) or shelve it.
As part of the discovery phase, we always recommend defining an MVP — the minimum scope that delivers business value once live. This could simply be a store or platform with core functionality that gets you to market quickly and generating revenue. Everything beyond the MVP can be delivered as ongoing development work, informed by feedback from your first customers.
Moving forward? Great! Once the agreement is signed, you’ll meet your delivery team, get access to Jira and Slack, and we’ll agree on a shared meeting cadence (demos, daily standups, strategic check-ins).
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You send us an inquiry
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We have an initial call, you fill out a brief
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You receive our estimate
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Decision time — ready to proceed?
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We meet for joint workshops
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We run the discovery phase
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We review the completed discovery document together
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We present our quote and agreement
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Decision time — ready to sign?
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We hold the kick-off meeting
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The project begins!
“Start with an MVP to validate your assumptions before you spend serious money. First find out what actually works, then scale. That way, your budget goes toward what delivers results.”
Marek Kich on the Sztuka E-Commerce podcast
Watch the full video
Online Store Pricing Models
Three common ways to structure billing with an agency
Estimate vs. Quote: Key Differences
They may sound like synonyms, but in practice…
Estimate
Provided at the very start
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A cost approximation, often given as a range
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Based on the brief
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Includes assumptions and unknowns
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Useful for initial budget/market orientation
Quote
Provided after the discovery phase
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An accurate, detailed cost breakdown
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Based on the discovery phase
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Includes specifics: acceptance criteria, full scope
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Forms the basis of the contract
Key Cost Drivers
What has the biggest impact on your budget?
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Integrations
Connections between your e-commerce platform and other systems (ERP, OMS, WMS, etc.) typically account for the largest share of the budget — especially when no suitable connector exists and the integration has to be built from scratch.
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UI and Checkout Process Customization
Any deviation from the platform’s out-of-the-box functionality adds cost. Examples include: backorder handling, product substitution logic, a quoting module, advanced product bundling, and a returns module.
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Combining B2C and B2B Sales
Magento’s multistore feature lets you run several storefronts from a single admin panel — for example, separate ones for retail and business customers. Building two or more storefronts with different business logic is always a significant investment.
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Functionality Not Covered by Any Off-the-Shelf Module
Magento, Shopify, and PrestaShop all offer ready-made modules covering common storefront functionality. If your requirements include a process that no off-the-shelf module supports, costs will increase to cover custom development of that feature.
Watch Out for This When Comparing Proposals!
Avoid these common pitfalls
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Are the quotes based on identical scope?
Check that every proposal covers exactly the same elements. Ideally, each quote should be built on the same brief. Otherwise you’ll be comparing apples to oranges — and won’t be able to make a rational decision about who to work with.
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Does the agency plan to run a discovery phase?
Larger e-commerce projects require an in-depth discovery stage, where you work with a business analyst and developers to map out the full implementation scope. Only work like this can produce a realistic project cost breakdown. If an agency doesn’t plan for this stage, that’s a major red flag.
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Did you get a quote on the spot, without an in-depth discussion?
Another red flag. No e-commerce agency that takes its projects seriously will name a figure based on a general statement like: “I need a store, I have 100 products, how much will it cost?”
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Do the quotes differ radically in scale?
Rates across the e-commerce agency market tend to be fairly similar. So if one proposal is a major outlier, treat that as a red flag — and ask the agency to explain the discrepancy.
“A consistent brief is the only way to truly compare proposals. When one agency quotes 16 hours and another quotes 40, it’s usually not dishonesty — just a different scope (e.g. product variants, integrations). Without a shared set of assumptions, you’re comparing apples to oranges.”
Marek Kich on the Sztuka E-Commerce podcast
Watch the full video
Myth Busting
5 common misconceptions about pricing:
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Subscription-based solutions are always cheaper
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Not always. Implementation cost can indeed be lower, but once you calculate TCO (total cost of ownership) over several years, the savings tend to disappear.
For example: a B2B platform on Shopify Plus involves a 3-year subscription commitment of $82,800, on top of which come transaction fees.
The same project built on open-source Magento, despite higher upfront costs, can end up being more cost-effective overall.
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Not always. Implementation cost can indeed be lower, but once you calculate TCO (total cost of ownership) over several years, the savings tend to disappear.
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Magento is expensive… because it’s expensive
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There’s a persistent myth that Magento always means a high implementation cost. In reality, it all comes down to the complexity of the business processes you want to reflect in your e-commerce platform.
A complex store will always be complex, regardless of which platform you build it on.
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There’s a persistent myth that Magento always means a high implementation cost. In reality, it all comes down to the complexity of the business processes you want to reflect in your e-commerce platform.
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The subscription fee is the only cost of going SaaS
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Implementation costs money too. And as you’d expect, the more complex the project, the more time — and therefore money — is needed to get it off the ground.
SaaS e-commerce providers often leave this out of their messaging, highlighting only a pricing page with a few subscription tiers.
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Implementation costs money too. And as you’d expect, the more complex the project, the more time — and therefore money — is needed to get it off the ground.
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Open source is completely free
- You don’t pay for a license, that’s true — but alongside implementation costs, you also need to budget for maintenance, infrastructure, and ongoing development. On top of that come updates: security patches and new versions of the platform and its modules.
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Relying on plugins is the cheapest option
- Usually not. The fact that a plugin exists on the market to handle a given e-commerce feature doesn’t mean installing and maintaining it will take just a token hour of a developer’s time.
Sample Project Costs
See how this can play out across different project sizes, planned functionality, and chosen technologies.
