Budgeting An E-Commerce Website

With the Covid situation in every part of the world, eCommerce touches the sky with jet speed. Every single retail owner is diverting business online. To get one up and running like a money-making machine, you need to plan out the budget. Have you ever thought about the sort of costs included in building up an online store that stands alone against your competitor?

1) Article

How much an online shopping website cost, though? Well, one can not precisely determine the budget of any digital store. Yet, some variables are there to contribute to defining the cost of an online powered store. The average range of a usual eCommerce store is between $1500 to $6000. Still, this range is not specific and reflects many variables to choose from.

Building an eCommerce website is a whole new business. It requires money, human resources, and assets to get the ROI. The cost of the Store fundamentally reflects from two perspectives:

• How much sales target have you aimed for?
• How much customization would you like to have to ease the customer cycle?

The answers vary greatly, depending on the business’s size, the industry you are serving, and the offerings you will be selling. Right? Now, let’s focus on the costs to assess the budget.

2) How much does an eCommerce website cost?

The cost is driven by the factors, including the platform you select, features you want, and resources to craft the one. The simplistic break down of any eCommerce store includes:

• eCommerce Platform
• Resource
• Design
• Features and Functionality
• SEO and Marketing
• Server & Hosting
• Third-party Payment and Shipping gateways
• Maintenance and Upgrades

Let’s consider each pricing factor to have an in-depth explanation.

3) eCommerce Platform

eCommerce platform cost depends on the novel features they provide and the level of support they aid. Several eCommerce platforms are available in the market like Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and the list continues. These platforms are subscription-based, holding the authority and power of flexibility to depend on their unique quantity.

On the flip side, platforms with open-source functionality and licensed-based are enriched with added features. They aid you with support and maintenance and give that extra edge with licensing. Licensing is expensive, yet support is spectacular. For instance, Magento comes with an Open-source (Free Version) and a Licensed one ( Enterprise Edition) with $22,000.00 yearly.

Ultimately, choosing the eCommerce platform affects your budget inescapably.

4) Resource

There are three kinds of resources to craft your digital Store: In-House Dev Team, Agency, and Freelancers. Each option has its pros and cons.

4.1) In-house Development team

Many mid-sized and large enterprises are willing to have their in-house team for the sake of good speed, Non-disclosure policies for Highly confidential data, and quick updates. This option costs you starting from $60,000 yearly, depending on the resource’s expertise. Moreover, highly experienced resources are way costly, and overhead costs are too accountable with the infrastructure setup they demand to work.

4.2) Agency

This is the most high-priced option one can have. Still, a high price tag comes with spectacular outcomes with diversified knowledge and expertise. Agencies can charge from $15 to $200 per hour. Depending on the experience and certification of the resources, they impose more and beyond $200 per hour. However, Agencies tend to add value to your stores with robust and scalable solutions via consultation. Agency is an added advantage to have your team of core expertise from the entire development cycle.

4.3) Freelancers

The cheapest option by far is hiring a freelancer. This option does not guarantee a quality outcome unless your freelancer is certified, dedicated, and accountable for his work. Region-wise, freelancers have different hourly rates. UK & USA lead in this category by charging $150 to $200, similar to agency rates. In contrast, Asian freelancers tend to have affordable rates ranging from $5 to $20. Though, Freelancers sometimes are risky to invest in being irresponsive and lack diversified knowledge.

5) Design

Store design plays a notable role in budgeting. It is the Heart of every online Store that depicts your appearance to your customers. Custom design of your Store following brand guidelines gives an unparalleled experience to your customers that differentiates you from your competitors. We do urge to have a custom design for every client we come across. At the same time, the custom design asks a massive amount of effort and time.

To ease and speed up the development cycle, one can use readymade templates available in the marketplace. But, one needs to put the effort to customize the templates according to brand look and feel. These templates are ranging from $0 to $200.

6) Features and Functionality

Crafting your envisioned Store is not limited to what eCommerce platforms provide you inbuilt. Depending on how personalized and stellar experience you need to give your customers, you have to add extra features and functionality.

For added functionality, extensions are available n the market starting from $50. There are extensions available free of cost in the market. You must consult with your technical consultant or developer before purchasing any module.

Moreover, One Store requires several extensions in general, and you have to make sure that they do not conflict. Even one can customize the module as per needs that cost you thousands of dollars.

7) SEO and Marketing

Your online business is not limited to only development. The actual game begins to be on the top of your industry. Google is the market where everyone needs to strive to be on the front page. Generally, eCommerce platforms have a standard SEO setup. On top of that, one needs to have an expert to give rigorous efforts. If your Store is not available to lead your customers, it will ruin all efforts done so far.

With a proven track record, an expert helps you to have site audit, Keyword research, Social media marketing, Google analytics, and so on. This service cost around $46,500 per year.

8) Domain & Hosting

Your customers recall you based on your domain name. So, the domain represents a store name. Choose the domain name wisely that should be easy to remember and attractive. You can choose a brand new domain or acquire the expired one starting from $2.

Collectively, Hosting defines the future of your Store. Hosting allows how your website will react at peak season and with added functionality. Selecting trustworthy and expertise for hosting your Store makes immense sense! With the platform of your eCommerce store, a DevOps engineer can define the service provider. Skilled DevOps resources are tagged as $96,000 yearly.

By selecting the hosting plan, you can calculate your budget from shared hosting to a dedicated one. Plans vary from store size, Server security, and automation process like auto backups.

9) Third-party Payment and Shipping gateways

With the initial focus on expanding online presence, one always underestimates these costs. In the beginning, it seems little compared to other expenses, but costs significant when calculated for a longer run.

Opting for the third-party providers, they charge service fees. In payment processing, the conversion rates differ too with a service charge.

10) Maintenance and Upgrades

Hold On! It is not over once you have your store ready and started with ROI. Like physical store needs maintenance, Online stores too demand it. To sustain in a highly competitive world and get the added benefits, you must upgrade your store.

Maintenance and support from the dedicated resources allow you to run the store seamlessly. Constant support allows having hassle-free operations. For instance, to update patches, minor design changes, Bug fixes, and so on. Make sure to have your backbone available in an emergency.

11) Winding Up

In, all in all, the price of building an eCommerce website is not fix. For such uncertainty, the reasons are diverse from resources, platforms, features, and SEO. To add on a larger note, connecting your physical store and database with an online store and other systems like ERP, CRM, IMS, APIs seeks more efforts.

Budgeting is crucial for business owners to achieve their craved digital store. One needs to consult an expert to define the roadmap.

Schedule a call with our representative to define yours!