Opening an online store can be a thrilling experience; however, considering the basic financials is fundamental when starting. It is important to note that the cost needed to build an eCommerce site can be influenced by several factors, including the design, development, platform, and features of the site.
This article aims to outline and discuss the essentials that can affect the cost and some strategies on how to create your very first cost-effective eCommerce store.
Factors Affecting the Cost Needed to Build an eCommerce Website
Website Design and Development
Website design and development are two of the most important factors as they define functionality and aesthetics and have a direct influence on costs and user experience.
- Custom vs. Template Design
With custom design, you have control over your website’s aesthetic and can build a distinctive image for your brand while implementing a user-friendly design. It is ideal for establishing your business as different, but it is time-consuming and requires professional touches, and as such, it is pretty expensive.
Conversely, template design comes with pre-designed layouts and features for a lower price, whereby it can be implemented faster. While it’s relatively affordable for small organizations to invest in, brand differentiation is not very versatile.
- Frontend Development
This involves the creation of what is popularly known as the “look and feel” of a website. The main factors affecting the development time and cost include the design, number of product pages and categories, interactivity, and animation. Therefore, a clean and simple layout of the site is likely to be cheaper to design than a complex and interactive one.
- Backend Development
Backend development deals with a website’s functionality and components, including product management, inventory control, order processing, secure payment methods, and users’ accounts. This means that the costs for development are based on the number and complexity of these features.
For instance, it will take longer and a competent team to design a sophisticated feature, such as a product recommendation engine, than to develop a simple feature, such as a shopping cart.
eCommerce Platform
Some eCommerce platforms are free or inexpensive but have limited functionality, while others are paid and have more features. Some of the current popular platforms include Shopify, WooCommerce, and Adobe Commerce (formerly known as Magento). Each has differences in terms of the provided features, price range, and degree of flexibility:
| Feature | Shopify | WooCommerce | Adobe Commerce |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription Cost | Starts at $25/month | Free | Not Public (Starts in $1000s) |
| Transaction Fees | 0.2-2% depend on the plan | Depends on the payment gateway | Negotiated |
| Additional Expenses | Themes, Apps, Developer (optional) | Themes, Plugins, Hosting, Developer | Themes, Extensions, Hosting, Developer |
Website Features and Functionality
Since features and functionalities mainly define the cost of website development, analyzing these aspects is imperative.
Basic features are often built into the base package provided to customers. On the other hand, advanced functionalities such as customer feedback and customer reward systems may be incorporated but require extra coding or term fees. Third-party services such as payment processors and marketing automation tools can also increase expenses.
Content Management System (CMS)
When selecting a CMS for your website, an essential factor to consider is the impact it might have on your budget.
It is important to understand that some CMSs are accompanied by licensing fees or would demand some development time. Self-hosted options such as WordPress are cheap but might require technical expertise in terms of upkeep.
Additional Costs to Consider
Now that you have been able to ascertain the answer to the question of how much cost is needed to build an eCommerce website, here is a step-by-step breakdown of some other additional costs.
Domain Name and Hosting
Your domain name is a specific and unique identifier of your online store on the Internet. Depending on the domain registrar and top-level domain (TLD) extension, the cost of registering a domain name ranges from $10 to $20 per year for an individual.
Furthermore, a suitable website hosting plan is vital so your online store is always available and operating well. For small stores, we recommend a cheap shared hosting plan. As the business expands and grows, it may be wise to move up to an expensive VPS or a dedicated hosting plan that offers much better performance, security, and flexibility.
SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate encodes information between your site and users’ browsers to safeguard customer data and their transactions. This is important for developing trust with customers and is usually obligatory for payment systems.
The pricing of an SSL certificate depends on the certification authority and the level of validation. It is possible to get one for as little as $50 per year or as expensive as $200 per year.
Website Maintenance and Support
It is also important to keep and maintain your eCommerce website to ensure that it runs efficiently, effectively, and, more importantly, safely. This includes regular backups, software updates, security patches, and general performance tuning.
You can personally manage these tasks if you have the capacity for the respective skills, or you can seek the assistance of other staff in your firm. The price will vary with the level of complexity of your website, the frequency of updates, and the level of support it requires.
Marketing and SEO
To encourage consumers to shop from your online store, you should consider having an efficient marketing plan. This could include search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), and social media marketing, among others. Implementing some money to be spent on marketing is a critical strategy for ensuring people visit a site and, more importantly, make a purchase.
Cost-Effective Tips for Building an eCommerce Website
When it comes to establishing a low-cost eCommerce website, there are potential ways that you can do to minimize the expenses. Here are some tips to consider:
- Utilize cost-effective eCommerce platforms: To select the most suitable eCommerce platform, focus on your distinct requirements, such as manageable inventory, appropriate payment options, and affordable customizable templates. There are many platforms in the market, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce, that can offer scalable pricing solutions.
- Opt for low-cost website hosting services: Make an evaluation of how web hosting is likely to affect your website in terms of functionality and pricing. Shared hosting is cheap for small companies with low traffic, while VPS or dedicated hosting might be required as the business expands.
- Implement efficient website maintenance strategies: Regular website maintenance is perhaps the best way of avoiding website crashes and other security issues. Automatically back up your website and update webpage content frequently. In addition, ensure that you employ SSL certificates and malware scans for your customers’ protection.
Implementing these specific, minimal-cost guidelines can help you establish and run an eCommerce store without ever overextending the company’s budget while simultaneously guaranteeing that the site can operate as a secure and stable platform for your business.
Conclusion
As you can see, the cost needed to build an eCommerce website can be huge, but many expenses can be minimized. Therefore, it becomes imperative to understand the forces that contribute to the cost and consider design, platform, and features that will not cause a development to go astray.
I want to stress that cost-saving does not necessarily have to come at the expense of quality. Select the correct solutions that will support your company’s needs while at the same time considering the amount of money that you have to spend.