eCommerce Website Development Cost: A Detailed Guide
Some of the best ways to make money on the Internet are through eCommerce websites. To get one up and running, though, you will need to spend money on things like a professional eCommerce website design, web hosting, and maybe even more. When making a budget for the creation of an eCommerce website, pricing can be a little confusing. This is because there are so many different things to think about. So, how much does eCommerce website development cost?
In this article, we’ve put together a guide that tells you how much an eCommerce website costs. In addition, you can also find info on what factors affect the cost. First of all, let’s look into the reasons why we should put money into eCommerce websites.
Why Invest in eCommerce Website Development?
The establishment of an eCommerce website is a good business plan in today’s world that is dominated by the internet. It is not only about e-commerce, but about having a strong and efficient tool that can be used for enhancing the sales and the income.
First of all, the application of the eCommerce platforms makes the business to be on operation all the time and not be restricted by geographical or time zone. This is an advantage over the physical shops that are limited by time and the places they are located.
Secondly, the market of eCommerce is growing at the present time at a very fast pace in the global environment. It is expected to reach $4.2 trillion in 2024 and internet retail will be responsible for 23% of the total retail sales by 2027. These statistics show that there is a new trend of going for online shopping and this is a good chance for companies to capitalize on this.
Besides, a good eCommerce website can also improve the site’s usability for the customers to locate the products they want to buy. This can lead into high customer satisfaction and therefore customer loyalty which are some of the key determinants to business success.
Finally, it is important that we inform you about the cost that is incurred in the development of an eCommerce website. Of course, it may seem that the initial investment is very costly, but based on the type of business, the company can earn very huge revenues. However, the price is likely to differ depending on the design, customization and the platform to be used.
The Costs of Some Solutions
The prices for the eCommerce website development in 2024 depend on the platform and the requirements of your business. Here’s a look at the updated price range for some popular solutions:
- Shopify: In 2024, the pricing plans of Shopify are $29 to $299 per month if billed annually. This cost can further go up depending on the extra add-ons and services which are offered by the company.
- WooCommerce Starter: The approximate cost of a basic WooCommerce store can cost from $500 to $3,000. This includes sharing hosting, limited plugins and extensions, and premium design. The cost may also differ depending on the hosting provider and the plugins and extensions that you decide to use.
- WooCommerce Custom: A custom WooCommerce store can cost between $5,000 and $10,000. This consists of managed WordPress hosting, additional designs that are customised for eCommerce, and paid plugins and services.
- WooCommerce Enterprise: For an enterprise level WooCommerce store, the costs may go above $10,000. This includes paid plugins and services, dedicated hosting servers, custom functionality and design.
- BigCommerce: BigCommerce pricing begins at $29 per month and can go up to more than $2,000 per month for large-scale sites. You will be charged more as your sales grow and you may be required to pay for a higher subscription plan.
- WooCommerce: The price of creating the first version of an eCommerce store using WooCommerce ranges from $500 to $3,000. The price will depend on the chosen host, plugins/extensions, and the level of complexity of the store.
It is also important to note that these costs are approximate and the actual cost can be higher or lower based on the complexity of your store.
5 Factors that Determine eCommerce Website Development Cost
Now that we have examined the current context of eCommerce website development and why one should invest in it, let’s take a closer look at factors that go into the pricing of an eCommerce website.
1. Marketing & SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) for eCommerce is one of the most important factors regarding costs. If you want to make more money, you need to be able to get customers who use search engines to buy from you. If you don’t have a steady flow of new and returning customers, you won’t be able to keep your business at the same level.
The price of the build will go up if you add a fully integrated digital marketing plan. That might mean monthly investment for SEO and getting a regular flow of people to visit your website. After your website is up and running, you may want to use the Google Ads consultation or the services of an SEO expert to make sure that your search marketing campaigns are always at their best.
2. Website Design
All websites should have a design that is easy to use and focused on the customer, but eCommerce websites may need this design even more. You can’t walk around with your customers and hold their hands while they shop, but you can work to improve their experience at the register by making it as warm and inviting as possible. All customers should be able to use the page layouts, and they should be responsive so that they can be used on any device or screen size.
Recommended reading: 6 Best eCommerce App Development Companies
You will need a design that is clean and easy to use, a copy that is well-written, fast load times, and a simple way to pay for things. This last point is the most important of all. Did you know that every year, 4.6 trillion dollars’ worth of sales are lost because people leave items in their shopping carts? This is according to Business Insider.
3. Database Integration
Most of the time, adding a database to a website is optional, but eCommerce platforms must have this feature. When you connect your databases, you can store information about your customers, employees, and products in one place.
Database integration is necessary if you want all of your employees to be able to access a central hard drive with all of the company’s information on it. However, you will also need to connect your customers’ databases. If you use a database, your customers will be able to sign up for accounts, change their preferences. In addition, they also have a more personalized experience on your website.
You can also store customers’ credit card numbers by integrating them with a database. This will keep customers from having to enter their information more than once. If you don’t want to go to the trouble of barking up that tree, you could just use it to store your customers’ usernames and passwords.
4. Content Management System (CMS)
Your website requires some sort of content management system (CMS). The price of an eCommerce-specific content management system can range from free to “ca-ching,” but it often provides more capability than other CMSs.
Some of the characteristics of a SaaS eCommerce platform can include shipping connectors, payment functionality, or scalable security solutions, just to name a few of the possibilities. Some of them have functionality that is more extensive than others. Your decision may be influenced by a variety of factors, including the number of products you sell, the volume of those sales, the level of protection required, and the integrations.
5. Number of Pages
The number of pages you want on your site can also determine how much it will cost. When talking about eCommerce sites, the answer to this question is often more than 250. This means that the cost of a page on your website will be much higher than the cost of a page on a website with a small number of pages that bring in business leads.
On the other hand, if you end up selling a lot of products, each page will quickly pay for itself. It would be a good idea for your online store to give each of its products its own page. When your business starts to do better and you start to grow, you might even get more than that.
Recommended reading: How to Build an eCommerce Website Fastest in 2023
You’ll also need category pages on your site so that you can show off all of your products. After a customer signs up for an account on your site, you could even give them a personalized profile page.
How to Calculate the Cost of Building an eCommerce Website
The best way to determine eCommerce website development costs is to compare the various eCommerce platforms, tools, add-ons, and additional services that your company will require. You can do this after having determined which types of costs you need to focus on.
To keep this article on track, we’ll divide the costs of running and building an eCommerce website into five categories.
1. Hosting
Website hosting is a major component in ecommerce website development cost. It’s the area of the Internet where your online store’s files are stored. The cost of hosting can be fairly low. It can start from as low as $2.49 per month and rising to $1,000 and above. This cost is variable and depends on the amount of traffic your store receives and any other services that you may require.
There are two common types of web hosting used by ecommerce brands: hosting through a SaaS model and hosting the application on one’s own server. If you decide to host your ecommerce website through a SaaS-based like Shopify, it will cost you about $39-$399 monthly depending on the package you select.
For people who have little or no technical skills or those who want to set up a site as soon as possible, ecommerce website builders are often the cheapest way to create an online store. Although using free and open source platforms may look cheaper, you are required to pay for hosting, themes, plug-ins and even a developer if you need custom one – all these can add up your overall cost.
Just remember that every website requires hosting to store the files of the particular site. You will also require a domain name, this is like the street address for your online business. Domain registration normally ranges from $10 to $30 per year.
2. Payment Processing
The payment processing is one of the most significant aspects for ecommerce website development cost. It is the system that allows online business to be paid for the goods and services offered through electronic means. It entails the transfer of transaction information between the customers, merchants, and payment service providers.
The fees of payment processing can vary. It depend on the selected service provider and the number of transactions. Some of the well-known payment processors are PayPal, Stripe, and Shop Pay. All of these providers have a transaction fee that is between 2% and 3% plus a fixed fee.
It is therefore very crucial to select the right payment processor for your ecommerce website. It can affect the usability and the conversion and therefore the revenues. For example, a smooth payment process that is also secure will help in developing the buyers’ trust.
However, the payment processor that you select must also offer the payment options that are preferred by your target customers. Some of these are credit and debit cards, mobile payments, bank transfers, and buy now, pay later (BNPL) solutions.
Recommended reading: B2B eCommerce Platform and 10 Important Features
3. Development & Design
The main focus of any eCommerce website is in the development and design. This is the implementation stage where all the efforts of actualization are done to transform the idea into an actual online store. The cost of developing an ecommerce website therefore depends on the following factors as explained below.
First of all, the selected platform is one of the main parameters that define its price. Some of the most used ones are WooCommerce, Magento, and Shopify. WooCommerce and Magento are both open-source, meaning that they are free to download and use but require a domain and proper hosting. Shopify is however a paid platform where you get to host your online store.
The cost of hosting an eCommerce website in 2024 can range from $40 to $4000 monthly. Website design can be done for as low as $1,500 up to $30,000. The cost on average is most probably going to range from $10,000 to $100,000 or even more than that.
The design trends of 2024 are also expected to impact on the development process. These are the technologies that are being employed by the businesses; artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and smart chatbots. These trends do not only change the look of the store but also help to attract the customers’ attention, and boost sales.
For instance, experimental navigation is one of the trends that makes the shopping process not only a click-and-buy process. This approach also makes the store unique, and at the same time, it is helpful to stress the technological and creative approach of the brand.
4. Add-ons & Extensions
The add-ons and extensions are some of the most crucial elements of the eCommerce website. They are utilitarian, assist in enhancing the use and can significantly influence the ecommerce website development cost.
For instance, a simple eCommerce site may not require complicated extensions like a shopping cart or a payment processor. However, a more complex site may call for more advanced plug-ins. All of these add-ons come with a price, which may range from free to several hundred dollars per year.
However, do not forget that add-ons are useful and, therefore, can help to raise the eCommerce website development cost. Selecting the right extension can lead to improvement of speed of a site, customer experience and therefore the sale. Therefore, one has to be very careful on which add-ons are necessary for the website and how to budget for them.
5. Marketing Tools
The ratio of the marketing cost of the ecommerce businesses in the year 2024 is comparatively higher. Small to mid-sized ecommerce firms are expected to spend $1000-$10000 on marketing monthly while the large firms are expected to spend $5000-$15000 monthly. This is a clear indication that there is need to embrace marketing tools in the ecommerce business.
Marketing is a very broad field and there are various approaches to it. One of them is social media marketing. HubSpot reports that 68% of social media marketers use social media to guide people to products on their own website. Also, 87% of the sellers have agreed that social selling has been effective for the business. The above statistics indicate that there is the potential of using social media as a marketing strategy in ecommerce.
The other method is also the email marketing. It also helps business to directly market products and services to the customers. The price of the email marketing tools depends on the size of the email list and the features required.
Others which are equally important are the Search Engine Optimization tools. They help in improving the ranking of the ecommerce website on the search engines hence increasing the traffic from the search engines. Some of the SEO tools are cheap and can be bought at $30 while others are very expensive, and one has to pay $500 per month.
Finally, the metrics and analytics are employed for the assessment of the ecommerce website and the efficiency of the marketing promotions. They provide a clue on the likely behavior of the customers in the marketplace. This can be very useful in the development of the marketing strategies.
3 Tips from Designveloper for Saving on the eCommerce Website Development Cost
At Designveloper, we have been at the forefront of web and software development services in Vietnam for more than 10 years. More than 100 projects completed and over 500,000 hours of work in 20+ industries have helped us accumulate valuable knowledge and practical skills. There is one service that we offer where we are particularly strong and that is eCommerce website development.
The eCommerce website development cost in 2024 may be from $40 to $4000 per month with the setup fees of $1,500 to $30,000. These costs can be quite high and can be a big turn off for any startup or small business. That is why we have decided to share with you three best tips to save on your eCommerce website development cost.
1. Focus on Customer Retention
At Designveloper, customer retention is something we pay a lot of attention to. It is also one of the most effective ways of minimizing the cost of ecommerce website development. It is not a secret that maintaining relationships with the existing customers can result in higher sales and reduced expenses.
The statistics show that it is 5x more expensive to acquire a new customer as compared to retaining an old one. This is why we focus on the development of a long-term cooperation with clients ourselves.
We also suggest that you should include customer retention techniques in your ecommerce website. Such aspects as product recommendations and customer rewards can help in bringing back customers, thus minimising on the costs that are incurred in acquiring new customers.
2. Look for Discounts
At Designveloper, we know how crucial it is to balance the cost when it comes to eCommerce website development. That is why our second piece of advice on how to save on eCommerce website development cost is the following: Look for Discounts.
As it is known, web development is a rather active and evolving field, and therefore, it is not surprising that there are often discounts or some special offers. These can help to bring down your eCommerce website development cost to a large extent. For example, most hosting services and domain registrars provide special price cuts for the first-time buyers or for the services which are bought in large quantities.
However, some of the web development tools and platforms offer some discounts for non-profit organizations or to the startups. It is always advisable to take time and search the internet to look for these opportunities from different service providers.
3. Make Adequate Investments
Selecting the right areas for investment from the onset can help you avoid future expensive redesigns and rework expenses. For example, the choice of a solid and easily expandable technology stack can save money on possible future costs due to website crashes or slow loading speed.
Also, getting professional services in UX/UI design can improve the experience of the users on your site and hence increase on the number of customers and sales. We are proud to have a team of professional UX/UI designers at Designveloper who have completed more than 50+ projects with elegant and functional designs.
Conclusion
You now know the answer to the question, “How much does eCommerce website development cost?” As you can see, there are a lot of complicated factors that make it hard to come up with an accurate estimate for an eCommerce website.
If, after reading this article, you still can’t figure out how much it will cost to build an eCommerce site, you might want to think about asking Designveloper for help. We always have a team of experts on web development on hand, so we will definitely be able to help you figure it out.
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