Create a Low-Cost eCommerce Website with DomainIndia.com

You don't need a big budget to sell online. A small shop, a home business or a local brand can start with a domain name and one of two low-cost routes: the AI Website Builder with its built-in WhatsApp and UPI cart, or WordPress with the free WooCommerce plugin on shared hosting. This guide explains how to choose, what each route costs in the first year, and the steps that matter before you take your first order.

1. Choose your route

The right route depends on how you want customers to pay and how much you are willing to manage yourself.

Hosted platforms such as Shopify are a third option, but a monthly subscription plus app and transaction costs rarely makes them the lowest-cost start.

2. Register a domain your customers will remember

Your domain is the address you print on bags, cards and WhatsApp messages, so keep it short and easy to spell.

These are Domain India list prices on 19 September 2026, excluding 18% GST. Newer extensions such as .store or .shop look fitting but cost several times more each year. Search for a name on domain registration.

3. Route A: the AI Website Builder with WhatsApp and UPI orders

The AI Website Builder writes your pages, creates a logo and picks images from a short description of your business. On the Pro and Business plans, you can add a shop or menu with prices: visitors add products to a cart and send the whole order to you on WhatsApp, or pay the total by UPI to the UPI ID you set once.

The builder hosts only your website. It has no email inboxes or databases, so add Business Email if you want an address such as [email protected].

4. Route B: WordPress and WooCommerce on cPanel hosting

WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that adds products, a cart, a checkout, stock control, shipping and tax. On our cPanel hosting, you install WordPress in one form with Softaculous or WP Toolkit, then add WooCommerce from inside WordPress.

Every click and setting is in our full guide, installing WooCommerce on Domain India cPanel hosting. For a worked example with sizes and colours, see creating a garments store with WooCommerce.

5. Payments, shipping and GST

• Payments. Indian gateways such as Razorpay, PayU, Cashfree and PhonePe publish WooCommerce plugins for UPI, cards and net banking. Each one verifies your business before you can go live, and charges a fee on each transaction. Cash on delivery is built into WooCommerce. See integrating payment gateways into your online store.
• Policy pages. Most gateways ask to see privacy, terms, shipping and refund pages before they approve you. Publish them early and link them in your footer.
• Shipping. Create zones, such as your own state and the rest of India, with a flat rate or free shipping above an order value.
• GST. Intra-state sales use CGST and SGST; inter-state sales use IGST. Confirm your rates and whether you need to register with your accountant.

6. Speed, mobile and order emails

Most Indian shoppers buy on a phone, often on mobile data, so a light site sells more.

• Keep images small. Resize product photos before you upload them, or use an image compression plugin.
• Use the right cache plugin. Our shared hosting runs the Apache web server, so use WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache, not LiteSpeed Cache, and never cache the cart, checkout or account pages.
• Check order emails before launch. On our cPanel servers the socket functions that most SMTP mail plugins need are disabled, so WordPress sends through PHP mail(). Each cPanel account can send 200 messages per hour, which covers order confirmations; send newsletters through an email marketing service. See PHP disabled functions on shared hosting.

More tips are in my website is slow.

7. Security and backups

Free SSL comes with every Domain India hosting plan and every paid builder plan. On WordPress, keep the core, WooCommerce, your theme and every plugin updated, use one security plugin with two-factor authentication, and delete plugins you don't use. The WordPress hardening guide has the full checklist.

On our cPanel servers, Imunify360 runs a web application firewall for every account. On cPanel and DirectAdmin, JetBackup 5 takes a weekly backup every Sunday, keeping 5 copies that you can restore yourself.

8. Get your first customers

• Google Search Console: submit your sitemap so Google finds your product pages.
• Google Business Profile: free, and puts a local shop on Maps.
• Google Merchant Center: free product listings in Google Shopping.
• WhatsApp and Instagram: share product links with people who already know you.
• Measure: Google Analytics 4, or the builder's built-in visitor analytics, shows what people look at.

9. What it costs with Domain India

Domain India list prices on 19 September 2026, excluding 18% GST:

cPanel Starter is ₹125 a month with one website, 10 email accounts and 5 MySQL databases; AI Builder Pro is ₹599 a month with up to 5 sites and the WhatsApp and UPI cart. Add payment gateway fees, any premium theme or extension, and Business Email at ₹60 per mailbox a month if you need inboxes with the builder. Shared hosting has a full refund within 30 days for new purchases. The cards below show live prices.

Frequently asked questions

Ready to start selling? Try the AI Website Builder free, compare cPanel hosting plans for a WooCommerce store, or register your domain. Questions before you buy? Open a support ticket or use our 24/7 live chat.