---
title: "Ecommerce Website Design Sydney: Shopify & Headless | Croissant & Baguette"
description: "Custom Shopify themes from $9k, headless storefronts from $15k. Sub-second, brand-true, editable by your team, yours to keep. Built in Sydney."
url: "https://croissantbaguette.com.au/web-development/ecommerce/"
---

# eCommerce

https://croissantbaguette.com.au/web-development/ecommerce/

Custom Shopify themes from $9k, headless storefronts from $15k. Sub-second, brand-true, editable by your team, yours to keep. Built in Sydney.

**Service:** Ecommerce development (Web development)

Headless storefronts and custom Shopify themes on Shopify checkout, designed and built in Sydney and owned by the client (storefront code, content and store).

- **Headless storefront** from A$15000 — Custom storefront on a modern JS framework, Shopify checkout, Sanity content. From $15,000, typically $18–35k.
- **Custom Shopify theme** from A$9000 — Built from a clean base, launched in weeks, editable in the theme editor. From $9,000, typically $9–16k.
- **Care plan** from A$250 — Monitoring, updates, small changes and a monthly performance snapshot. From $250 a month.

## Shopify under the hood. A store that's actually yours on top.

Two ways in: a headless storefront when speed, brand and freedom matter, or a custom Shopify theme when time to launch does. Both fast, both editable by your team, both built in Sydney.

**Spec ticket**

Fixed quote after one call.

- **Runs on** Shopify checkout, always
- **Storefront** headless · or custom theme
- **Typical build** 3–10 weeks
- **After launch** care plan optional

- **<1s every page** — POP Local · 10k SKUs, from 20 seconds
- **33% conversion rate** — Made Quiet · headless Shopify, built in six days
- **AU+NZ one theme, every store** — Constellation Brands
- **Double digit growth in sales** — Quitine · since moving off the theme

## Most stores are slowest where it costs the most.

Product and collection pages carry the weight: apps stacked on a theme, a script from every tool you ever trialled, images nobody resized. POP Local's category pages were the slowest thing on the site, and those are the pages people shop from. Karis Life's and Kea Health's WooCommerce stores fell over under the traffic they'd worked to earn. A store that's slow at the moment of buying is paying for visitors it can't convert.

## Two ways to build it.

We'll recommend one after a 20-minute call. Both keep Shopify's checkout, and both are yours.

- **Headless storefront** speed and brand are the point, you want custom features a theme can't do, you have a lot of content around the products, or the store is one part of a bigger site. — POP Local (343 makers, under a second on every page, moved from Square with the point of sale) · Made Quiet (built in six working days after a week of design) · Quitine (off a Shopify theme, now edited by asking Claude)
  - A custom storefront on a modern JS framework, pre-rendered and served from the edge. Sub-second product pages.
  - Shopify keeps cart, checkout, payments, inventory and orders. Nothing customers trust gets rebuilt.
  - Content in Sanity with live preview; products stay in Shopify. No overlap, no confusion.
  - No theme limits on layout, search or filtering. If you can draw it, we can build it.
- **Custom Shopify theme** you want to launch in weeks, your team lives in Shopify admin, and the design fits inside what themes do well. — Constellation Brands: one enterprise theme across their Australian and New Zealand stores, dozens of custom sections, all editable by their team.
  - Built from a clean base, not a marketplace theme with your logo on it.
  - Sections and blocks your team rearranges in the theme editor without calling us.
  - Only the apps that earn their place. Every app is another script on your product page.
  - Multi-region and multi-currency through Shopify Markets when you need it.

## Headless or theme?

Go headless when you want freedom: any layout, search and filtering built your way, content around the products, sub-second pages. Pick a theme when launching in weeks inside Shopify admin matters more.

- **Speed** Sub-second by design | Fast for a theme; each app added costs a little
- **Time to launch** 6–10 weeks | 3–6 weeks
- **Design freedom** Anything | Within what sections and Liquid allow, which is a lot
- **Editing** Sanity for content, Shopify for products | Shopify's theme editor, all in one admin
- **Apps and integrations** Shopify apps for checkout and back office; storefront features built by us | The whole Shopify app store, drop-in
- **Best for** Brand-led stores, custom features, content-heavy catalogues, stores inside a bigger site | Teams who want everything in one admin and a launch in weeks

## Whichever way, you get this.

- **Shopify checkout.** Payments, fraud, tax, shipping and Shop Pay, handled by the platform that processes billions. We don't rebuild the part customers trust.
- **Speed measured, not promised.** Core Web Vitals checked before launch and in every care-plan report.
- **Built to be found.** Product structured data, clean collections, fast pages: what Google Shopping and AI shopping answers reward.
- **Migration handled.** Products, customers, orders and URLs moved across; old links redirected so nothing you've earned is lost.
- **Connected to the back office.** Accounting, shipping, email, reviews and point of sale.
- **Yours to keep.** Theme code in your repository, store in your Shopify account. Any Shopify developer can take over.

## Stores we've shipped.

- An enterprise Shopify theme across Australia and New Zealand, cleared to US corporate standards. (https://croissantbaguette.com.au/projects/constellation-brands/)
- 343 Australian makers, under a second on every page, and a portal that pays them. (https://croissantbaguette.com.au/projects/pop/)
- A headless store built in six working days after a week of design. First sale in week one, 33% conversion rate. (https://croissantbaguette.com.au/projects/made-quiet/)
- A Shopify theme replaced by a headless store the client runs by asking Claude. Double-digit sales growth since. (https://croissantbaguette.com.au/projects/quitine/)
- WordPress for content and Shopify for sales became one store. (https://croissantbaguette.com.au/projects/growing-spaces/)
- A WooCommerce store that kept crashing, replaced with one that doesn't. (https://croissantbaguette.com.au/projects/karis-life/)
- A store that buckled under demand, rebuilt to keep up with it. (https://croissantbaguette.com.au/projects/kea-health/)

## Scope. Design. Build. Launch.

- **Scope.** A 20-minute call, then a fixed quote. Headless or theme, and why, in writing.
- **Design.** Home, collection, product and cart designed on your real products, not placeholders.
- **Build and migrate.** Storefront built, apps connected, catalogue and customers moved across, checkout tested end to end.
- **Launch and after.** Redirects, analytics, Search Console, and a month of watching the numbers. Then a care plan if you want one.

## Ranges.

Fixed quote after a scoping call. No calculator; the interesting variables are never on a form.

What moves the price within those ranges:

- **Headless storefront** from $15,000
- **Custom Shopify theme** from $9,000
- **Care plan** from $250/month (monitoring, updates, small changes, monthly performance snapshot)

- catalogue size and how much moves across
- number of custom sections or page templates
- integrations (accounting, shipping, email, reviews, POS)
- multi-region or multi-currency

## Ask away.

Six things people ask before they book. The full numbers are in our Shopify cost guide. Still one missing? Ask us.

- **Do we have to use Shopify?** No. We've built on BigCommerce, and custom setups on Stripe and Square. Shopify is the default because it's the one we'd pick for ourselves: checkout, payments and fraud handled by a platform that does it at scale.
- **We're on WooCommerce, Squarespace or Wix. Can you move us?** Yes. Products, customers, orders and URLs come across, with redirects so you keep your rankings. Karis Life and Kea Health both came from WooCommerce stores that couldn't take the load.
- **Headless or theme?** Headless when you want freedom over layout, search, filtering and custom features, when there is a lot of content around the products, or when the store lives inside a bigger site. A theme when launching in weeks inside Shopify admin matters more. We'll tell you which on the first call.
- **Can we start with a theme and go headless later?** Yes. The store, products, orders and customers stay where they are. Headless replaces the storefront, not the shop.
- **Will our team be able to update it?** Yes. Theme builds use Shopify's editor. Headless builds use Sanity for content with live preview, and Shopify admin for products, the way your team already works.
- **Why is our current store slow?** Usually apps. Each one adds scripts to every page. We audit what's installed, keep what earns its place, and rebuild the rest into the storefront. Then we measure it.

- **Websites.** Pre-rendered and sub-second, or WordPress built properly.
- **Web & mobile apps.** Portals, bookings, dashboards, and the app your team carries.
- **AI Automation.** Orders, enquiries and stock levels handled without a person re-keying them.

## Tell us what you sell and where it's slow.

Two lines is enough. You'll get a headless-or-theme recommendation and a fixed quote within a business day of the call.