Direct answer
Shopify gives you a maintained platform, theme ecosystem and apps, with platform and often app fees. Custom e-commerce gives you a store shaped to your checkout and catalogue, with you (or a vendor) owning change and hosting. Shopify is often faster to start; custom can be cheaper or cleaner later if you were paying for a pile of apps. It is not always cheaper.
How it works
Add the monthly platform fee, paid apps (COD, advanced checkout, SEO extras), and theme constraints. Compare that to a scoped custom build plus hosting and a maintenance contract.
Key considerations
- Team: custom needs someone who can ship changes.
- Markets: US/UK D2C constraints differ from Indian COD/pincode flows.
Avid’s approach
India custom stores: Avid e-Commerce (example: Viral Crafts). Separate D2C campaign page: /d2c-commerce — not a duplicate of the India product story.