E-Commerce Website Development Cost: Analyzing Alternatives and Looking for the Best Option

E-commerce today is not only about online shopping. It is also about user experience and impressions, opportunities for which are created using technology. And if you glued your online store yourself using an online constructor, then, unfortunately, you have little chance — users are becoming more demanding on the brands and sites on which they want to buy. And the threshold of entry into the competitive space is quite high. That is why the cost of developing an e-commerce site is the first question that business initiators ask. In this article, we will help you make a preliminary estimate, plus we will tell you what pitfalls you need to pay attention to.

The Most Alarming Signal

The need to invest a large sum is always painful, especially if the success of your idea is at stake. Therefore, this is certainly a justifiable desire to immediately understand what you can count on and for what amount. However, our experience suggests that the exact amount voiced immediately is a bad signal.

Moreover, it doesn’t even matter if it is too low or too high. In the first case, be sure that the company wants to keep you at all costs (and gain experience using your project as a test, and money as an opportunity for its development). In the second case, this means that someone is looking for the most solvent customers, and money is their first and most fundamental goal.

Three Main Options to Choose From

The price of your project consists of many factors, and the model of working with developers that you choose is one of the keys. Here are three options you can choose to develop an eCommerce site.

In-house Team

This is the most effective, and according to the laws of the economy, the most expensive option. In this case, the organization of the whole process becomes your responsibility — you need to find specialists on your own, or hire an HR, rent an office, purchase equipment and the necessary programs for development, and constantly monitor everything yourself.

Freelancers

This option differs from the previous one only in the absence of the need to rent an office. However, you will have to control all processes even more tightly, constantly be in touch with the team, and make sure that team members are in touch with each other. In this case, you as HR and Project Manager at the same time. But there is a flip side to the coin — mostly, freelancers offer relatively reasonable prices.

Dedicated Development Team

But when you hire a dedicated team, you get an all-inclusive service. All team members have long been in their places, Project Manager smoothly leads the project through all stages of development and tells you about the results of sprints at your first request, and the team has long developed convenient ways to communicate with customers, even despite different time zones.

Four Stages of Creating an E-Commerce Site and Their Cost

The Initial Stage

At the initial stage, you will not need large investments, so, for now, you can safely keep your money in your pockets. However, it is still necessary to allocate a small part.

• A domain costs an average of $8 per year, depending on the provider you choose.
• Hosting. The cost of hosting can start from a few hundred and reach several thousand dollars a year, by analogy.
• Paid solutions for design and development. For example, the cost of simple SaaS solutions starts at $20, and a solution like Magento Enterprise will cost about 5 thousand dollars.

Product Development

At this stage, costs become more tangible, but overall they are still predictable.

Design

On average, the cost of a quality website design starts at two thousand dollars. But in any case, this is not the thing to save on, since it is the design that forms the user’s first impression. And as a rule, it is decisive.

Frontend

This is the client-side of the application, the development of which begins after the creation of the design. Everything here will depend on the frameworks and technologies that will be needed to realize the goals of your project. On average, the cost of developing a front-end part starts at $1,000 and can reach $10,000.

Backend

This is the server part, which is the basis for deploying all the processes in the application. As in the case of design, this is not the case when it is worth saving — an unsuccessful user experience due to technical flaws will always mean not only a non-return of investments but also huge losses. The price of this stage corresponds to its importance — from 5 to 20 thousand dollars.

Testing

The work of testers will cost from $2,000 to $5,000. However, it is impossible to skip this step, since it is a guarantee that everything was done correctly at the previous ones.

Essential Features That Require Investment

If we were just talking about a one-page site, then in general, we could already end our conversation. However, in the case of the online store, you need a whole set of additional functions that will provide a flawless user experience.

Payment Gateways

If you think connecting Braintree or Stripe to your e-commerce website is as easy as adding an extension to your Google Chrome, you should know that is it some more difficult task. Plus, here developers pay great attention to security.

Integration

For example, even the simple function of integrating a site with social networks will cost a few extra dollars.

Chatbots

A chatbot is a popular tool, which, incidentally, is not too expensive, but very effective in terms of reducing costs and maintaining constant communication with customers.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is a trend that works especially well for retail clothing. The simplest example is a virtual fitting room, which significantly saves the user time and allows them to make unambiguous decisions.

Mobile Migration

More and more purchases are made from mobile devices. By realizing this opportunity, you pay a little more but get substantially more — since this trend does not plan to disappear.

Website Promotion and Support

And even this cannot be the last step. An e-commerce site requires constant work on it — attracting targeted traffic, scaling and integrating new features according to trends and user requests. Clockwise has prepared in-depth research material that covers all questions regarding the price of developing an e-сommerce website and ways to overcome possible difficulties. Read the full article here and do not hesitate to leave reviews and ask your questions!