eCommerce Website Costs
The thought has come across every entrepreneur or small business owners how much will it cost to start an ecommerce website? The answer is somewhat convoluted and complicated and there is not a one-size-fits-all answer.
After considering sweat equity, eCommerce website costs could range from $5,000 and way upward to a few million dollars, depending on what type of requirements your business needs. There is a list of considerations that a business must make in order to understand how much their website will cost. The major considerations are: the eCommerce Platform, eCommerce Web Design, Custom eCommerce Programming and Functionality, and eCommerce Web Hosting.
The eCommerce Platform
This is one of the most important things to consider before deciding to build a website with a certain eCommerce platform. The costs vary depending how simple or complex the eCommerce platform you are using is. There are many different kinds of eCommerce platforms including: integrated solutions based on ERP systems and Software as a Service. Software as a Service or (SaaS) offerings are more user friendly for individuals to setup their own websites and cost anywhere from $20-$200. For eCommerce solutions that are not meant to be setup without expertise setup advice that will on average cost about $5,000 and upward. Depending of course on needs and configuration and training.
Web Design and Functionality
Ecommerce design and Functionality are two topics that go hand and hand on your eCommerce website. Your eCommerce design is dependent on the functionality of your eCommerce that you want to have. SaaS offerings usually provide free or paid templates that the customer can apply to their website. These templates have preexisting functionality and can be updated with different plugins that also could potentially cost some money. For further information, you can view this in-depth blogpost about templates. Pricing for templates are on average $0-$200. Custom website design can vary from anywhere from $10,000-$100,000, which has the upside of being completely customized for your own business, but can be very costly.
Functionality, are extensions that your eCommerce platform provides that will allow your website to perform certain functions. Developing these on your own, custom extensions, would be very costly, so ensuring that the ecommerce platform has the function your needs is important as well.
Hosting
The cost variable for hosting is a bit more predicative than the other costs when creating your eCommerce website. You want to make sure that you are aware of the number of things you need for storage, traffic, products, customers, and storage. You should be planning for a non-custom website about $20-250 and for a custom eCommerce system more around $300 a month. For a super busy website this could range from $1000-$2000.
These are just a few areas to consider when starting a new ecommerce site. For any ecommerce related questions, you can always reach out to our sales team and they can walk through the needs that your business may need for a successful eCommerce website. Contact us at (888) 398-4703.
