What is the average cost of an ecommerce website

Note: Both BigCommerce and Shopify have limited themes both free and paid. WooCommerce gives you access to thousands of free and paid themes, large pool of developers, and a lot more flexibility in design. Even if they tried, things would get messy and the software would become difficult to use. To fix this problem, most eCommerce software are made with a modular approach. This allows the core software to be extended using add-ons and apps. These add-on or extensions allow you to add new features to your eCommerce website and extend its functionality.

Many of them are paid and buying them will increase your cost of making an eCommerce website. When it comes to add-ons and extensions, no other eCommerce platform comes even close to WooCommerce. There are thousands of both free and paid add-ons available for WooCommerce that you can use. Want to see some examples? See our expert-pick of essential WooCommerce plugins showcasing the most popular WooCommerce add-ons most of them are free.

Shopify is a SaaS platform and the core software is tightly integrated to provide maximum security and stability to all users. However, they do offer APIs for developers to integrate their own services and solutions into Shopify.

These addons are available as third-party apps on the Shopify app store. There are hundreds of apps available both free and paid. The prices for paid apps vary and most of them are available on a monthly subscription basis.

Shopify also allows you to add private apps made specifically for your store. Shopify Addon Costs: Free — Varied monthly subscription apps. Similar to Shopify, BigCommerce also allows you to install both free and paid apps. Many of these third-party apps are available on a monthly subscription basis. You can also hire developers to create custom apps for a single store. These apps are stored as a draft app and you can only use it on that particular store.

This one is hard to calculate because each online store will use different apps for their own needs. Ofcourse using more paid add-ons will cost more and increase your total costs significantly. Add-ons with recurring billing will be an ongoing expense for your business.

We are assuming that you will be careful with paid add-ons to give a very conservative estimate of the costs. As mentioned earlier that each eCommerce platform gives you the flexibility to choose how much money you would spend. This would obviously affect your overall costs. This gives you the best value for your money as it is the most robust, flexible, and easy to use platform.

If you would rather not maintain hosting by yourself, then BigCommerce saves you money by not charging you a transaction fee for using your preferred payment services. Lastly, Shopify could be a cheap option for making an eCommerce website but only if you use Shopify Payments to accept credit card payments on your website.

The real fun part comes when you start growing your eCommerce business. This part is painful and overwhelming for most beginners, but it is also the most rewarding. It is painful because it can be excruciatingly slow if you are not using the right tools. By using proper tools to grow your business you can boost your sales and skyrocket conversions.

While these tools will also add up to your overall costs, their ROI is so high that it automatically justifies the expense. Following are our top picks for the best marketing tools to grow your eCommerce business with their costs.

This is what OptinMonster does. It is the best lead generation software in the world because it helps you convert abandoning website visitors into leads and customers. OptinMonster works with any kind of website and all eCommerce platforms. For instructions and practical examples, see our article on how to convert visitors into customers.

Cost: We would recommend you to start with their Plus plan at least. Constant Contact. The best way to stay in touch with website visitors is by email, which is still the preferred mode of communication by customers.

You need to start building an email list on your eCommerce store from day 1. Basically, you are losing money each day you are not collecting emails. The easiest way to start with email marketing is by using Constant Contact. It is the best email marketing software on the market allowing you to send targeted messages to subscribers and increase your sales. For details and step by step instructions, see our tutorial on how to start an email newsletter.

Alternatives: We also recommend SendinBlue and Drip depending on the use-cases. The best source to get free traffic to your website is search engines. To utilize them, you will need to keep learning eCommerce SEO. It allows you to see the keywords your competitors are ranking for and how you can beat them by ranking higher. In just a few clicks, it provides you a ton of optimization ideas that you can implement with minimal effort.

For instructions and details, see our guide on how to properly do keyword research. Normally you can just add your landline or mobile number to your eCommerce website. Nextiva is the best business phone service on the market. It allows you to use one number on multiple devices, phonesets, mobile phones, and even computers.

It runs on voice over internet protocol technology also known as business VoIP. Compared to traditional landline phones, it is way cheaper and allows you to efficiently handle calls for your business. Alternative: RingCentral is a another popular virtual phone number app. PushEngage Push Notifications. One of the easiest way to increase your store revenue is to use push notifications. They allow you to communicate with customers after they leave your website. PushEngage is a leading web push notification software that makes it easy for you to add push notifications to your online store.

You can use it to send bulk push messages, cart abandonment notifications, automated drip messages, sale announcements, and more. Starting an eCommerce website will not instantly start making money for your business. It will take some time before you can get search traffic to your website.

PPC or pay-per-click marketing allows you to display ads for targeted keywords in search results. It is super-easy to use and even absolute beginners can get started without any help.

You can set a small budget, run a very targeted campaign, and then increase the budget to get more leads and sales. Basically, it depends on you. Your goal should be to find the right balance of tools start building upon it.

Keep trying new tools as your business grows and you have more budget to expand. We hope this article gave you a good idea of how much does an eCommerce website cost in real numbers. We recommend being thrifty and only spending when it is essential for your business. The main component of your expenses consists of salaries you need to pay to employees that work on the project.

In some countries, prices per hour are higher; in the others, they are lower. For example, it may cost you a fortune to hire a development team in the U. After that, you will be able to proceed with calculating the cost of setting up an e-commerce website. And yes, we will help you with this choice, too. This is a crossroad each entrepreneur comes to when he or she thinks about developing an e-commerce website.

We have to admit that the choice is rather challenging: it depends on your preconceptions, goals, experience, and plans for the future. To give you a more accurate vision of prices for the services, we will also analyze the salary of a JavaScript JS developer in the USA, on Upwork, and in several popular outsourcing destinations. Why JS? Well, according to GitHub , this is the most popular programming language. Additionally, it is one of the best tools for e-commerce website development.

And finally, we just love it. This is a quite convenient and, at the same time, greatly challenging option. An on-site team is a team that works right in your office, a team you can have a cup of coffee with and discuss critical project features face to face.

These are the factors that make the cost to build an e-commerce website grow:. So many needs, so few results. Depending on the market your business operates in, it may be really hard to find a senior specialist.

And on top of that, the salary may be shocking. Freelancing is a great occupation if a person has not only strong hard skills but also well-developed time management and other soft skills. Many of our customers complain about the low competence of the freelance specialists they have been working with; thus, you should pay attention to the following things:. Working with a team of freelancers, you need to be prepared to invest an enormous amount of time in team management. Of course, you can hire a competent project manager and delegate this task but keep in mind it will cost you a lot, too.

You must pay a salary to your on-site specialists as long as they work for you. At the same time, developers working on a freelance basis may leave you at any time, whether they have finished their work or not.

If you are ready to devote time to in-depth interviews and invest money in project management, cooperation with freelancers may be a convenient and affordable option for your business development.

Outsourcing is a convenient option ; both small companies and industry leaders are turning toward it as a viable solution for their e-commerce needs. It allows them to delegate engineering tasks and focus on critical business development processes, without having to keep an eye on what is going on with the sprint unless you want to, of course. You hire an entire team of experts at once, with no need to waste time on a bunch of interviews. You get a ready-made solution with minimum effort.

You sign all the essential agreements, contracts and non-disclosure agreements NDAs so the cooperation is reliable. As you can see, the destination you focus on may have a great impact on the cost of e-commerce websites. A software product launch is a multicomponent process; each step, each small decision, and each action require additional investments. Besides this, the complexity of the app you produce makes a difference, too. So make yourself comfortable and get ready for the next chapter, which describes each component and every expense you will face during different stages of website production from scratch.

First and foremost, let us make things clearer: the estimations we are ready to provide you with are pretty rough. No one can tell you the precise price an e-commerce site will cost until you design an idea and share it with the engineering team. If someone does, run away. They want your money, not your product launched.

However, we've done our best to increase your awareness. We cut the entire process into manageable chunks, and here, you can find information about how much you'll need to invest in each stage:. There are many domain name registrars, and we would like to recommend Bluehost or GoDaddy.

Hosting is a thing that keeps your website alive. If your hosting is down, no one can access your website. Along with this, the type of web hosting you choose may have an impact, too:. For hosting, we recommend choosing between HostGator or GoDaddy. Tools you pick for design and development have their prices, too. You need to pay for a domain name and hosting usage as long as you run your website.

Ecommerce solutions range in costs depending on their out-of-box features, the type of software they offer and their level of service. There are several platforms to choose from, and choosing the right one is an important step in opening an ecommerce store. Let's take a look at some of the platforms you might consider. BigCommerce is a leader in the ecommerce space.

The platform is feature-rich, easy to use, and helps businesses get up and running quickly. BigCommerce has a clean user experience that makes it easy to build beautiful websites even if you have never done it before. Another potential advantage of BigCommerce from a backend user standpoint is its headless offerings. BigCommerce is a software-as-a-service SaaS provider, which means you are essentially renting the software and the hosting from them.

SaaS platforms automatically make updates for you, so you always have the latest version without worrying about maintenance. Magento offers on-premise and cloud-hosted options, but many businesses are now also looking toward SaaS models because they provide continuous updates, including security patches. Magento does not come with training wheels. And there are no on-site developers for you to contact for help building your site.

You will need either a developer or a team of developers to build your site, a hosting partner that can host your site, and someone to integrate your tech stack. Brands that are just starting out in ecommerce may choose to start out on a Shopify store.

More established businesses, brands looking to grow and those with complex needs often choose BigCommerce for its flexibility and freedom of choice. Shopify was built to satisfy the needs of small businesses that want a user-friendly way to create online shops.

With drag-and-drop areas, it's fairly easy to build a site if you've never worked with code. You can get a simple website up and running quickly; however, if you want to add more advanced features, you will need to add additional apps or custom coding. Your domain name will be an annual cost unless you're able to pay for a few years upfront.

The price depends on where you purchase it from and the extension you get, such as. Purchasing from a private seller or through an auction will usually be more expensive. Once you register a domain name, it's time to find a web host. Solutions such as BigCommerce and Shopify are hosted on the cloud and offer web hosting as part of the subscription. While this may be one of the least inexpensive parts of your online store, it provides the security over a network that you'll need for customers to visit and shop on your website.

Sometimes, search engines use an SSL certificate as a ranking factor, too. Additionally, some hosting solutions offer this as part of their fee, so keep that in mind. It's easy to overlook the costs associated with payment processing, but they can add up fast. Payment processing costs depend on the type of payments you want to offer during checkout — such as PayPal or various credit cards — the type of currency you'll accept, and regions where you'll be selling.

You'll pay fees to each payment gateway you want to offer. Here's an example of how it breaks down :. This doesn't include any fees that might come from your bank. In reviewing the overall costs for payment processing , WooCommerce and BigCommerce offer the lowest prices in general.

They also provide some of the most flexible options for accepting payments. Part of developing your ecommerce store is creating a unique user experience with website design that reflects your brand and keeps customers coming back. The design of your online store comes with some standard costs. All of the major ecommerce solutions have ecommerce web design themes you can choose from.

Stores hosted on BigCommerce have access to a variety of free and premium themes to use. No matter how hard you look, there's not an ecommerce solution that's going to have every single thing you need for your online store.

This is where add-ons, plugins and extensions come into play, along with their costs. With BigCommerce, you can select add-ons for free or go with premium options. A premium add-on can range in cost and usually is a subscription pay model. Magento add-ons tend to require custom development, which can be pricey. Similar to BigCommerce, Shopify merchants can access hundreds of free and premium apps and those costs depend on the app itself. The cost of having a developer build your ecommerce site all depends on the features you need to run a successful ecommerce business.

If you're looking for options that are not out-of-the-box, you might consider hiring a professional ecommerce website development agency to create a site for you. Hiring an ecommerce development agency may not be a small price, but they'll get the job done for less than an in-house developer would cost. Some costs of having an online store are just upfront costs, but others are ongoing, whether they are monthly, annually or per transaction.

Most likely, you'll be able to forecast these costs each month or even per year so they don't come as a surprise.