A business website presents: your services, your proof, your hours, and a way to reach you. An ecommerce site transacts: catalog, cart, payments, tax, shipping, refunds. That fork decides everything downstream — the platforms are different, the costs are different, and the upkeep is a different life. An agency-built presence site typically runs $2,000 to $15,000 (HubSpot Blog, 2025); commerce is its own world with its own platforms and its own ongoing operational work. The overlooked middle: most local businesses that want to "sell online" actually need a presence site that links out to wherever they already take money.
One presents. One transacts.
A business website is a storefront window. It says what you do, shows who you are, proves you're good at it, and hands the visitor one obvious next step — a call, a booking, a visit. Success is a conversation started. An ecommerce site is a machine that completes a sale with no conversation at all: product data, stock levels, a cart, payment processing, tax rules, shipping rates, a returns path. Success is a checkout finished by a stranger at midnight. The second is not a bigger version of the first. It's a different machine that happens to live at the same kind of address.
The fork decides your platform, your cost, and your week
A presence site can be plain, fast pages — no database, no accounts, nothing to administer. An ecommerce site needs commerce software: a catalog to maintain, payments to reconcile, shipping and tax to configure, orders and refunds to manage. That's not a build cost; it's a standing commitment — someone keeps products, prices, and stock current every week, forever. The money follows the same fork. Agencies typically charge $2,000 to $15,000 for a small-business site (HubSpot Blog, 2025); a store adds platform subscriptions, payment-processing fees, and that ongoing operational time on top of whatever the build costs. Choosing "ecommerce" when you needed "presence" doesn't just overspend the budget — it signs you up for a second job.
The overlooked middle: present on your site, transact where you already do
Here's the case the platform comparisons skip, and it's the most common one we see. The restaurant "wants to sell online" — it sells through delivery apps and the phone. The salon books through a scheduling tool. The contractor closes on a quote call. The maker sells on a marketplace or takes a payment link. None of these need a checkout on their own domain. They need a credible presence site with the selling channel one obvious tap away: a "book now" that opens the scheduler, an "order" button that opens the delivery app, a menu that loads fast on a phone. The transaction already has a home. The website's job is to look trustworthy enough to send people there.
A decision test you can run in one sitting
- Where does money change hands today? If the answer is a conversation, a visit, a booking tool, or a marketplace — you need a presence site that routes people there.
- Do you hold inventory with prices and stock that change weekly? Real catalogs need real commerce software. A services list is not a catalog.
- Would a stranger complete a purchase without ever talking to you? That's the honest test for needing a checkout. "It would be nice if they could" is not the same as "they would."
- Who tends the site after launch? A presence site can sit still for months and stay correct. A store demands weekly tending — if nobody owns that, the store decays in public.
If your answers cluster on the first side, the build path is settled: presence site, and put the budget difference back in the business.
| What you get | Typical cost | Timeline | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presence site, agency build | A custom site that presents the business | $2,000–$15,000 (HubSpot Blog, 2025) | Weeks to months |
| Ecommerce build | Catalog, cart, payments — plus the upkeep | Platform subscription + payment fees, ongoing | Its own project entirely |
| redesign.llc presence rebuild | Your existing content on a professional template, code you own | $49–$249 fixed | 48 hours standard |
Most "do we need ecommerce?" conversations are really "do we need to look credible online?" Answer the second question first. It's cheaper, it's faster, and for most local businesses it's the whole job.
Where we stand — and where we step aside
We rebuild presence sites. Your existing content and images, recreated on one of 6,600+ templates: $49 for the clean code, same day; $99 with 3 detailed revision rounds, standard 48 hours; $249 combining up to 3 templates with 5 revision rounds, hosting, SSL, and domain, live in 7 days. If you sell through a booking tool, a marketplace, or delivery apps, we make that channel the site's one obvious action. And plainly: we do not build checkouts, carts, or online stores. If strangers genuinely complete purchases on your site — inventory, payments, shipping — a commerce platform and a specialist who lives in it is the right call, and no fast redesign should pretend otherwise.
When this isn't right for you
- You run a real catalog — changing stock, shipping, refunds. That's a commerce build, not us.
- You need customer accounts or portals. Software project, different specialists.
- You're moving a store between platforms. That's a data job, not a design job — also not us.
If the test above said "presence site," you can see the answer before spending anything: a free preview of your site rebuilt with your own content, as a real page you can edit and publish in one click, no credit card. Get the free preview →
Frequently asked questions
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