Cost + timeline + your credentials, what should I budget?

Realistic ranges for a tools + hardware merchant at $500k, $20M GMV:

• Audit: $499 fixed-fee, 5 business days, ~20h @ $25/hr. Catalog brand mix + cordless platform spread + trade-pro % + refurb structure + drop-ship SLA + lifetime warranty workflow gap analysis. Written 12-18 page deliverable.
• Build: $4,999 fixed-fee, 6 weeks, ~200h @ $25/hr. Catalog architecture + cordless-platform filter + trade-pro account verification + Net-30 + 1 drop-ship vendor + lifetime warranty + Hyvä storefront. Targets 95+ Lighthouse mobile.
• Multi-brand enterprise: quote in 24h, multi-week. Stanley B&D + TTI + Snap-on drop-ship wired, 5+ state license verification, refurb auction, lifetime warranty automation, PIM (Akeneo) + ERP (NetSuite / SAP). Typically $25k, $80k.
• Hosting: $300, $1,200/mo on Cloudways / dedicated. Multi-brand catalogs need over-provisioning for category-page caching.
• Ongoing: $1.5k, $5k/mo retainer for drop-ship reconciliation, license-renewal sweeps, refurb-margin tracking, lifetime warranty automation tuning.

My credentials: Adobe-Certified Magento + Hyvä developer; 7+ years of DTC + trade-pro builds shipped across the US, UK, EU, and India; stores ranging from a single-brand Klein Tools reseller to a 40,000-SKU multi-brand (Stanley + TTI + Snap-on + Hilti + Ridgid + Klein) catalog with refurb + lifetime warranty automation. I do not push Magento on every merchant, if you’re a single-brand seller under $500k GMV, I’ll tell you Shopify is enough.