Ask for work as you need it and pay for it at the end of the month, or agree a monthly retainer. We are flexible about how we invoice, we tell you what a piece of work is likely to cost before we start, and we cost a good deal less than a typical agency.
A lower rate, no account manager on top, and work that usually starts within days rather than at the next sprint.
Bronze, Ecommerce Awards 2025Best Ecommerce Boutique Agency Most merchants choose one of these. Some start ad hoc and move to a retainer as the store grows; some go the other way. Either is fine with us.
As you need usone invoice at the end of each month
For stores that need a senior team now and then: a fix, a change, a patch, some advice.
A set figurefor maintenance, development or both
For stores that change every month and want priority and a predictable cost.
Planning a project? An upgrade, a Hyvä build or a migration gets a written plan and estimate once we have examined the store, and payment is usually spread across the length of the project. Ask for an estimate
Each piece of work is priced as a whole, on what it takes to do well. You are told what it is likely to cost before we start, and the invoice lists each piece of work with its own price.
Our rate of £80 an hour plus VAT is the unit we price in, and it is the same for every merchant.
£0until you ask us to do the work
The same five steps whether you work with us ad hoc or on a retainer.
By email, in your own words. A sentence is often enough, and we ask what we need to.
Small requests are simply done. For anything larger, you know the likely cost before we start.
Never first on the live store. If the job turns out to be bigger than expected, we tell you before going further.
Tested first, deployed at a quiet hour, with a written note of what was done.
Each piece of work listed with its own price, so you can see exactly what you paid for.
Our rate is £80 an hour plus VAT, and it is the unit we price in, but we price each piece of work as a whole and not by a stopwatch. The price of a piece of work reflects its complexity, the expertise it needs, how urgent it is and any tools involved. You see an estimate first where you want one, and your invoice lists each piece of work with its own price.
Typical UK agency rates are £100 to £150 an hour, usually with account and project management on top. We have no account-management layer and low overheads, and our engineers work with AI tooling, so the same work generally costs less and comes back sooner. The engineers are senior either way.
Ad hoc suits stores that need us now and then: you ask, we do the work, and everything requested that month is on one invoice at the end of it. A retainer suits stores that change every month and want priority and a predictable figure. You can start with one and move to the other, and we will tell you plainly which we think fits.
A maintenance retainer covers upkeep: patching, housekeeping, monitoring, fixes and advice. A development retainer gives you a senior team working through your list of improvements each month. Many merchants have both, as one monthly figure. Each is sized to the store once we have looked at it.
A project, such as an upgrade, a Hyvä build or a migration, gets a written plan and estimate once we have examined the store. For a large scope we agree it in phases, so the estimate firms up as the detail does. Payment is usually spread across the length of the project.
No. Every price we give is an estimate, based on what we know when we give it, and it can change as the work shows more of the store. It is not a fixed price or a cap. If you need a ceiling for a month, tell us and we will plan the work to it.
Yes. Tell us a monthly ceiling and we will plan the work within it. A retainer does the same job by design.
Urgency is one of the things that decides the price of a piece of work, because other work has to be set aside to do it at once. There is no separate urgent rate to remember: if something is urgent, the estimate or the invoice line reflects it.
Yes. Refined Commerce Ltd is VAT registered, so UK VAT is added to every invoice at the standard rate, and UK VAT-registered merchants reclaim it in the usual way. Business customers outside the UK, including in Ireland, are normally invoiced without UK VAT under the place-of-supply rules; your accountant will confirm the treatment on your side.
Software licences, paid modules, hosting and third-party subscriptions, which you buy from their vendors and which stay in your name. We do not do paid media or PR in-house; we introduce trusted partners for those.