What will it cost to bring your store online?
Pick your size. The answer updates as you go: what it costs to start, the money to have ready, and when it pays for itself.
Planning estimates for an independent multi-brand store, in Canadian dollars. ThreadCloud is a Shopify app, so they assume your store sells on Shopify.
How many products are in your store?
Count each style in each colour once, not every size.
Fine-tune the numbers+
About $26,000 to get online with a site set up by a freelancer. ThreadCloud's part is $750 USD a month.
Where the setup money goes
- Photos for what the brands don't supply$12,500
- Website$8,500
- Launch: email your customers, a first ad test$3,000
- Packing station and first boxes$2,000
Your first three years
Money in and out of the online store, added up month by month. Below the line, it still owes you.
A month online
First months
Sales $6,000
- Marketing$1,500
- Photos of new stock$2,083
- Packing and customer service$1,323
- ThreadCloud$1,028
- Shopify, apps and site upkeep$650
- Shipping, after what customers pay$240
- Returns$86
- Card fees$180
- Boxes and tissue$96
Two years in
Sales $30,000
- Marketing$3,600
- Photos of new stock$2,083
- Packing and customer service$2,283
- ThreadCloud$1,028
- Shopify, apps and site upkeep$650
- Shipping, after what customers pay$1,200
- Returns$432
- Card fees$900
- Boxes and tissue$480
How we got this+
These are planning estimates, not quotes. They come from a real three-year plan for an independent multi-brand store, scaled to the number of products you choose. Your numbers will differ.
- Online sales start near $6,000 a month for every 1,000 products, reach about $15,000 after a year and $30,000 after two, then $30,000, $55,000 or $80,000 by year three on the cautious, steady or strong path.
- You keep 48% of sales after markdowns, on an average order of $250.
- Photos: the brands' own photos cover the share you pick; a studio shoots the rest. New stock adds about two products for every one in the store each year.
- Per order: card fees about 3%, $10 of shipping after what customers pay, $4 of boxes and tissue, and one order in five coming back at $18 to handle.
- People: about 10 hours a week of packing and customer service for 1,000 products, plus 24 minutes an order, at $25 an hour.
- Marketing is a share of online sales, with a floor while sales are small.
- ThreadCloud is the monthly price for your store's size, at 1.37 Canadian dollars to the US dollar.
- Left out: extra stock bought only for online, your own time, and taxes and duties customers pay at checkout.
Six things stand between a store and selling online. ThreadCloud takes on the first three.
- 01 ThreadCloud does this
Typing every product in
Five to twenty minutes a product. About 120 hours for one season of new stock.
ThreadCloud reads each brand's order form and builds the product: title, sizes, fabric and photos.
- 02 ThreadCloud helps
Photos
Shooting every product is the biggest bill in going online.
Use the brands' photos first. ThreadCloud lists what is missing, so you shoot only the gaps.
- 03 ThreadCloud does this
One size, written four ways
50, 40R, IT 50 and M can be the same jacket. A filter that shows four sizes loses the sale.
ThreadCloud records what each size means, so one click finds everything that fits.
- 04 Plan it first
Stock on the shelf and on the site
Sell a jacket on the floor, and the website has to know before someone buys it online.
Decide how your till and your website share stock before the first online order.
- 05 Plan it first
Brands that limit online selling
Some brands restrict where and how you sell online, or set minimum prices.
List them early. A brand you can't sell online is one you don't need to photograph.
- 06 Plan it first
Shipping, duties and returns
US duty rules on small parcels changed in 2025. Plan for about one order in five to come back.
Start with Canada and add the US once the site is steady. Check the current rules with a customs broker first.
Where is your store today?
Pick the one that sounds like you. Each page is short.
- No website, or no cart No website yet, or a website that doesn't sell
- Online, but thin On Shopify, but only some of the store is online
- Online, but hard to shop Online, but shoppers can't find their size
- Moving to Shopify POS Moving the till to Shopify POS
- Taking over the store Taking over the family store
Get a plan for your store.
Tell us where your store is today. We'll reply with a plan: what to put online first, what it costs, and when it pays.
- 1You send a few lines about your store.
- 2We reply by email and ask for one real order form.
- 3You get your plan and your number. Then you decide.
Already on Shopify? Bring one buy and see your own products come out the other side.