An attractive and easy-to-use website is a must for any online business that wants to succeed. This is the only way to stay competitive in the current market. Yet, setting up and maintaining an eCommerce website is often a time-consuming and costly endeavor. If you want skilled professionals to take care of your online store, check out this eCommerce development company.
Meanwhile, in this article, we’ll break down the costs of building and running an eCommerce website. You’ll learn the average pricing as well as the main factors that affect the final cost.
Average costs of building eCommerce websites
Everyone would love to get the exact price of building an eCommerce website right from the start, but the truth is that there’s no standard pricing. Every project is different in terms of the number of products or transactions per month, design customization, etc. All of these factors impact the final price tag.
The average cost of building an eCommerce website with 1000 or fewer products will cost you between 5,000 to 55,000 thousand dollars. When it comes to maintaining the website, it will take from 15,000 to 30,000 thousand dollars per year. But then again, those are very approximate numbers.
If you are looking for a web development agency, don’t forget to ask what services they provide, including marketing ones. If you need some extra services, it will mean additional costs in the future. And now, let’s talk more about the exact services that complete the final pricing for eCommerce projects.
Typical costs of creating & running eCommerce website
While every project is different, there are a number of factors that remain constant, no matter if you are building a site for a local jewelry store or an international clothing brand. For instance, you need to figure out how to make the website design reflect your company’s values and products. Or find the right third-party integrations to ensure the smooth checkout process for all clients.
Let’s review some of the main parts of building an eCommerce site that you’ll spend your money on.
Website design
You need a professionally designed website where every element is in its place, helping your customers to navigate through it and make purchasing decisions. Functional websites result in a better user experience, which in turn leads to more sales. Website design consists of many parts that may or not be covered by different web development agencies. When searching for website design services, keep an eye out for such features:
- Graphic design
- Interface design
- User experience design
- Search engine optimization
Website development
Website design is an important part of eCommerce website building, but it’s only the first part. Website development is the process that will take your ideas and thoughts about the website and turn them into an actual website by coding.
You have several options when it comes to website development. The cheapest way is to use a website builder and do it by yourself. Even though it’s the cheapest option, it’s only suitable for those who have enough time and patience to learn all the ins and outs of the process.
Another option is hiring a freelancer to build a website. Building a website is a huge but usually one-time thing, so it makes sense to hire a freelancer who will charge you on an hourly basis. Some also offer maintenance services for a set monthly fee.
Hiring a web development agency is the most expensive option, but it’s your safest bet from a long-term perspective. It’s a way to go if you want to develop your business into a large eCommerce company and sell across multiple channels.
Domain and hosting
A domain name is the first thing users will see when interacting with your website on search engines. Think about it as your business identity representing your brand and providing credibility. It usually costs between $10 and $20 per year.
After you get a domain name, you’ll need to host it. Hosting services provide you with a physical server where your website resides, allowing all users to get access to it.
Website maintenance
Lots of business owners think that the major part of the work is done after they launch the website, but it’s a common mistake. Your website needs constant maintenance, fixing bugs and glitches, updating software, etc. This is a necessary part of ensuring peak performance. The common maintenance services include:
- Page loading speed
- Regular software updates
- Security and daily backups
- Analytics and SEO
Content management
For every online store, engaging and relevant content is among the main ways of promoting their business. Content management systems (CMS for short) are a technology that makes it easier to manage all the content. It includes blog posts, articles, videos, and graphic content.
Most of the eCommerce platforms have built-in CMS applications. They allow business owners to manage and control content even without profound technical knowledge.
Third party integrations and plugins
Installing third-party integrations and plugins allows you to enhance your website and make it more functional to manage orders and sales, organize shipping and transactions, etc. Generally, it helps assure a quality user experience for your customers.
There are lots of different plugins and integrations. The most common ones to use in the eCommerce world are:
- Payment processing gateways
- Inventory management
- Customer service
- Multichannel retailing
With various plugins, you can organize smooth order fulfillment or shipping solutions for your customers without extra effort or resources at your end.
Conclusion
The cost of building and maintaining an eCommerce website depends on numerous factors and can go as low or high as businesses’ needs and requirements. It’s affected by your company’s size, the choice of UI design, the number of integrations, etc. Also, you need a skilled workforce to implement the project quickly and efficiently.
Building and maintaining the website is a time-consuming and tedious process, but you don’t have to do it all alone. Find yourself a reliable and trustworthy website development agency, and things will get much easier. They’ll help to organize the process and run the website.
