WordPress online shop with WooCommerce
We build online shops with WooCommerce, Vipps, Klarna and Bring.
NEWA WooCommerce shop thathandles campaign traffic
An online shop gets most of its traffic right after the campaign email goes out, and that's when weaknesses in the setup show. Typical faults are a Vipps window that won't load, a checkout that stops responding, or a shipping price from Bring that never arrives.
WooCommerce can handle ten orders a day or ten thousand, as long as the database and server are sized for it. When a shop slows down, the cause is usually the server, the database or the caching around WooCommerce, and a plugin update rarely fixes it.
We run WooCommerce shops with annual sales in the millions of kroner, and none of them sit on shared hosting. Some we built ourselves. Others we moved from a setup that had become too slow for the traffic.
fjellsport.nolive- WooCommerce shops worldwide
- 4M+
- NOK spent in Norwegian e-commerce in 2025
- 82 bn
- Load time on our product pages
- <200 ms
- Basket, including shipping lookup
- <400 ms
Why WooCommerce suits Norwegian e-commerce
More than 4 million online shops use WooCommerce. The code is open, you can change anything, and there are plugins for most of what a Norwegian shop needs, from Vipps, Norway's mobile payment app, to accounting links with Visma and Tripletex. Out of the box, though, WooCommerce is more a framework than a finished shop, so the setup decides how well it works.
You own the data
Products, customers and order history are stored in your own database. If you want to change platform later, you take everything with you without paying an export fee.
Norwegian integrations
Vipps, Klarna, Nets Easy, Bring, Posten and Helthjem all have ready-made WooCommerce plugins. Plugins made for the US market often handle Norwegian organisation numbers and VAT rates poorly.
VAT handling
You set up Norway's 25% standard VAT rate and the reduced rates directly in WooCommerce, without an extra plugin. You control tax classes and reporting yourself, down to individual products.
Articles and products on the same site
WordPress started as a publishing tool and is still strong at it. When guides, articles and product pages live on the same WordPress website, you can link straight from an article to the product. Put the blog on a separate subdomain and you lose that connection.
When the catalogue growsto 50,000 products
500 products run fine on almost any setup. At around 5,000 things start to slow down, and at 50,000 a default setup no longer holds up. It usually goes the same way: the range grows, variants and filters multiply, and the admin panel gets slow long before customers notice anything. In the example further down, the product page took 4.7 seconds to load.
With 10,000 variants and no proper indexing, a single page view can mean several hundred database lookups. So we index the database, which brings a product lookup down to milliseconds, and set up Redis from the start. Redis is an in-memory cache that speeds up repeated lookups.
Fjelljakke ProNOK 3,499
Softshell vestNOK 1,149
Light down jacketNOK 2,799
Coastal rain jacketNOK 1,899
Fjelljakke Pro, womenNOK 3,499
Vidde shell jacketNOK 2,299SELECT post_id FROM wp_postmeta WHERE meta_key = '_price' AND meta_value …1,284 msSELECT … FROM wp_term_relationships JOIN wp_term_taxonomy … pa_colour862 msSELECT * FROM wp_postmeta WHERE post_id IN (48211, 48212, 48213 …)611 msImages are the next bottleneck. 50,000 products with three images each comes to 150,000 files. Without a CDN, they're all served from one server in Norway, and customers far away notice. A CDN is a network of servers that keeps copies of the images close to customers. A nearby server like that answers in 40 ms, while the main server takes 400. The shop itself runs on FrankenPHP, the application server we use for WordPress online shops, with response times under 200 ms even on large catalogues.
If your shop slows down when traffic picks up, we're happy to look at the setup with you.
WooCommerce and Shopify compared
| Shopify | WooCommerceRecommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed monthly fee | From NOK 289 a month, billed yearly | NOK 0 (open source) |
| Transaction fee | 0% with Shopify Payments, 0.2–2% on other payment methods such as Vipps | Payment provider fees only |
| Vipps | Limited, third-party app | Full support via plugin |
| Klarna | Full support | Full support |
| Nets Easy | Limited | Full support |
| Shipping with Bring/Posten | Limited, needs a third party | Direct connection with real-time prices |
| Room to customise | Limited to Shopify's template system (Liquid) | Full access to the code (open source) |
| Data ownership | Shopify owns the infrastructure | You own everything |
| ERP connection | Through third-party apps | Direct connection |
| Norwegian VAT | Supported, limited | Built in, full control |
| Content and SEO | Basic blog | Full publishing tool |
| Scaling | Automatic, expensive | Depends on the server setup |
Choose WooCommerce when
- The shop is an important part of your business, however large or small the range
- The shop depends on Vipps, Bring and other Norwegian services
- An ERP, warehouse system or till system needs to talk to the shop
- Guides and articles do part of the selling
- You want to own your data rather than rent space on a platform
- A lot of your sales go through Vipps, where Shopify takes 0.6–2% of every order on top of the card fee
Choose Shopify instead when
Shopify is a good product and a better fit in some cases:
- You want to run the shop yourself without thinking about servers and updates
- The launch has to be ready within a couple of weeks
- No Norwegian business systems need to be connected
- Transaction fees matter little to you, and the budget is under NOK 50,000
If you're unsure, our pricing guide shows what both options cost over a few years.
When the shop outgrowsWooCommerce
WooCommerce covers what most Norwegian online shops need. Some projects are still better suited to a headless setup, where the commerce engine and the content live in separate systems and the website pulls data from them. That applies mainly to large catalogues with complex pricing, sales in several countries and shops that need full freedom in how systems connect.
For those, we build with MedusaJS as the commerce engine and Sanity for content. It gives more freedom, but the project gets bigger and there are more systems to maintain.
If your team already works well in WordPress and Gutenberg, that's a strong argument for staying on WooCommerce, because the skills and content carry over. If you're starting from scratch and want to sell in several markets, look at the alternatives before anyone writes code.
Sanity StudioContent
MedusaJSCommerce<80 msTTFB1.2 sLCP14edge nodesPayment options
Most shops don't need all four. Which ones you need depends on order value and audience, and Vipps and Klarna are often enough. The integrations need updating when payment providers change their systems, and we handle that as part of maintenance.
Vipps MobilePay
The payment app most Norwegians have on their phone. We set up Vipps Checkout, Vipps Express or Hurtigkasse (Vipps express checkout), depending on how the checkout should work.
Klarna
Customers can pay by invoice or spread the payment. That can mean more completed purchases on orders over NOK 1,000.
Nets Easy
Card payments with Visa, Mastercard and BankAxept, Norway's domestic debit card, and a common choice for Norwegian online shops.
Stripe
Suits payments from customers outside the Nordics and subscriptions with recurring payments.
NOK 3,499Bring, letterbox parcelNOK 59Total incl. VATNOK 3,558Pay with VippsShipping options
Customers should see the shipping price and delivery time in the checkout, so they know the total before they pay. We fetch the prices in real time directly from the carriers.
Bring/Posten
Real-time shipping prices based on weight, dimensions and postcode. The customer chooses between a letterbox parcel, a pickup point and delivery to the door.
Helthjem
Evening home delivery, with the best coverage in the big cities.
Porterbuddy
Same-day delivery in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger, for shops that compete on delivery time.
PostNord
Parcels to and from the rest of the Nordics, useful if you have customers in Sweden and Denmark.
2317 HamarThe servers behind the shop
Shared hosting is enough for many smaller WooCommerce shops as long as traffic is steady. Big campaigns need more capacity than shared hosting provides. We set up online shops on the same platform as our other WordPress projects.
- 01 / 05
FrankenPHP
FrankenPHP keeps WordPress in memory between page views (Worker Mode), so WordPress doesn't have to start again for every visit. It's measurably faster than the usual setups many providers use.
- 02 / 05
Caching with Redis
Redis keeps frequently used data in memory, including for the basket and logins. Without it, the database becomes the bottleneck when thousands of customers shop at the same time.
- 03 / 05
Page caching
Product pages can be stored ready-made and shown the same to everyone, while the basket and checkout have to be built for each customer. The caching rules tell them apart, so product pages load as fast as static files and no customer sees someone else's basket.
- 04 / 05
CDN
We use Bunny.net, with servers in the Nordics. Product images come from the server closest to the customer, so the main server doesn't have to deliver every image.
- 05 / 05
Automatic scaling
Server capacity increases automatically with traffic, and the setup can handle ten times the normal load without anyone stepping in. That leaves room for the peaks in campaign weeks such as Black Friday.
40 ms195 ms97% hits18 queriesThe same shop on two different setups
Fjelljakke Pro Gore-TexNOK 3,499Fjelljakke Pro Gore-TexNOK 3,499One extra second of load time can cost up to 7% of conversions [1]. Apply the same figure to the four extra seconds in the example above and you get up to 28% fewer purchases. For an online shop with NOK 5 million in annual sales, that's more than NOK 1 million. It's a rough estimate, but it shows that load time affects sales even when products and prices stay the same.
Online shop prices at PXL
The prices are a guide. The final estimate depends on catalogue size and the integrations you need, and you get it after a first conversation. The pricing guide goes into more detail.
Simple online shop
FromNOK 150,000
Standard theme with Vipps, Klarna and Bring
Mid-sized project
FromNOK 250,000
+ Custom design, ERP connection, extended shipping setup
Enterprise
FromNOK 400,000
+ Large catalogue, headless, multiple countries, heavy integrations
Maintenance and SLA
FromNOK 2,500a month
Monitoring, security, updates and an agreed response time
Online shop security
An online shop handles payment data and personal information around the clock, and you're responsible for it. That's why the security setup is there from day one and included in the price.
PCI DSS
Card data is stored by the payment provider and never in WooCommerce. The rest of the shop is still your responsibility, so firewall rules, updates and monitoring are part of our setup.
HTTPS and SSL
An SSL certificate that renews automatically, and encryption of all traffic. We also check that all images and scripts load over HTTPS, so the browser doesn't warn about insecure content.
Norwegian privacy rules and GDPR
We set up consent before marketing, deletion routines for customer data, data processing agreements with every third party and cookie handling that follows the guidelines from Nkom, the Norwegian communications authority.
Two-factor authentication
Every administrator account has to use two-factor authentication. We also restrict the admin panel to specific IP addresses and block repeated login attempts. It takes five minutes to set up and stops most attempts to guess passwords.
If a new shop needs to be ready for a big campaign, work should start well before launch.
What it costs over three years
WooCommerce is free, but development, hosting and maintenance cost money. Once the shop has some volume, the total cost over three years is still usually lower than with Shopify.
The difference lies in the payments. Shopify charges no transaction fee when customers pay through Shopify Payments, which has been available in Norway since March 2025. Vipps isn't part of it, and on every payment outside Shopify Payments Shopify takes 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced, on top of the payment provider's fee. WooCommerce takes no cut.
- Shopify Basic, 2%
- NOK 20,000
- Shopify Grow, 1%
- NOK 10,000
- Shopify Advanced, 0.6%
- NOK 6,000
- WooCommerce
- NOK 0
Applies to Vipps, among others. The payment provider's card fee comes on top on both platforms.
Every NOK 1 million that goes through Vipps therefore costs NOK 20,000 a year on Basic, NOK 10,000 on Grow and NOK 6,000 on Advanced. Over three years that comes to NOK 18,000–60,000 per million. The monthly fee comes on top, from NOK 289 on Basic to NOK 3,370 on Advanced when billed yearly. With us, a maintenance agreement for WooCommerce costs from NOK 2,500 a month, and building the shop comes on top.
The pricing guide shows the full calculation, item by item.
Last updated 8 October 2026
Frequently asked questions
What does a WooCommerce online shop cost in Norway?
A simple WordPress online shop with WooCommerce starts at NOK 150,000. That gets you a standard theme, Vipps, Klarna and Bring. Mid-sized projects with custom design and an ERP connection start at NOK 250,000, and large shops with big catalogues and heavy integrations start at NOK 400,000. The price depends mostly on catalogue size and how many systems the shop has to connect to. Our pricing guide shows the figures item by item.
Is WooCommerce free?
The plugin itself is free and open source. Hosting, payment integrations and a couple of premium plugins for shipping or subscriptions come on top, but that's rarely where the big costs are. Most of the money goes on development and design, and on hosting and maintenance after launch.
Can WooCommerce handle large product catalogues?
Yes, if it's set up properly from the start. We run WooCommerce shops with well over 50,000 products without the pages slowing down. What it takes is a properly indexed database, caching with Redis and a server with enough capacity for the catalogue. On shared hosting a catalogue that size gets noticeably slow, because the server doesn't have the capacity for it.
Does WooCommerce support Vipps?
Yes. The official Vipps plugin for WooCommerce supports Vipps Checkout, Express Checkout and Hurtigkasse (Vipps express checkout), and we set it up as standard on Norwegian projects. A customer Vipps recognises can pay with a couple of taps without entering their address again. Filling in an address on a phone is a step where many purchases are abandoned.
Is WooCommerce better than Shopify?
It depends on the shop. WooCommerce is more flexible, you own the data, and the integrations with Vipps, Bring and accounting systems are better. Shopify is quicker to get started with and needs less technical upkeep. If the shop is an important part of your business, with integrations, plans to grow or margins that can't absorb a transaction fee, WooCommerce is usually the better choice. That applies to niche shops with a small range too. If you'd rather run the shop yourself without technical help, Shopify may suit you better.
Do I need developers for WooCommerce?
You can set up a simple online shop yourself with a ready-made theme and some patience. If the shop has to connect to ERP and stock systems, handle many variants and cope with campaign traffic, get help from someone who has done it before. The costly mistakes usually involve the database, caching, payment flow and security, and they're cheaper to avoid than to fix afterwards. That's the part we can help with.
Talk to us about your WooCommerce shop
Tell us how large the catalogue is and which systems need to connect, and we'll give you an estimate of cost and time.