What is the cost to build and host an eCommerce website?
Developing an e-commerce website is not possible without breaking a sweat, and here we are with the cost and effort breakup to make the most of the available resources and get you going!
There is a corresponding digital solution every B2B or a B2C requirement for the small-medium-large businesses. There cannot be one single website to address B2B e-commerce/Mobile e-commerce. What makes them glisten is the ease to set-up, the features they come up with, the categories/subcategories they adorn, and their scalability to add new capabilities/features/product or service categories, free 24/7 support, SSL Certificate, Mobile Commerce Ready, the ability to handle frauds, the ability to work upon unlimited bandwidth, the unlimited 24/7 support.
Narrowing Down Straight to the Cost of an E-Commerce Website
The cost of an e-commerce website could range from $5 thousand to more than $5 million, depending on the choice of platform and requirements. It can be: Shopify for getting up and running quickly, Square for selling in-person and online, Selz for a full-featured drag-and-drop store builder, OpenCart for total customization, BigCommerce for access to multiple storefronts on one platform, Gumroad for selling digital products, 3dcart for built-in marketing and management features, Big Cartel for smaller stores with custom products, WooCommerce for adding a shopping cart to an existing WordPress site, PrestaShop for a free platform, E-junkie for selling across multiple platforms, Ecwid for selling on social media or Wix for simultaneously creating a store and a blog; there can be many more Platforms to Build an eCommerce Website in 2020.
Also, the e-commerce development companies should continue investing money to improve the function and experience of their online store when the initial development is completed. Plus, spend some part of it into marketing as well. Do not let it go off stream to take any action, jump right in and action your thoughts proactively.
Cost Estimation for E-Commerce Website Development
There is no exact cost to build an e-commerce website. It can go anywhere from about $5,000 to millions of dollars. As a theoretical first figure (upper-limit), we assume that the e-commerce website development cost is $3, 50,000.
- Ecommerce Platform: There are industry-specific integrated solutions based on ERP systems and software as a service (SaaS) offerings designed to be comfortable for business owners to set up and configure themselves.
- e-commerce Web Design: Often the SaaS offerings have design galleries, themes or templates that can be applied to the site. Minimal and clear interface, Highlighting the value proposition, Unique and product-specific UX, Custom web design for unique buying experience, Flat design/material design, High-quality stylish imagery, Design with conversion rate in mind, Highlight brand’s lifestyle/vibe and Lead to the product page with fewer clicks. These can cost around $0 – $250 – $1,000 – $2000 for making minor changes and customizations to advanced ones.
- Custom e-commerce Programming and Functionality: Many platforms provide module extensions support where third-party functionality can be added to your site.
- E-commerce Web Hosting: A typical SaaS-based hosting solution can start around $300 a month for decent service and support and cost upwards of $1,000 – $2,000 a month.
- Cost of an E-commerce Website: Considering all the variables discussed above, let’s see how much does an e-Commerce website cost:
| Small Catalog with light to medium traffic (B2C), No Custom programming, Off the shelf theme | Medium Customized Theme, Medium Traffic, Small Catalog, Light Custom Programming | Large (Systems integration, large catalog, custom programming, custom design, high traffic) | |
| Hosting (monthly) | $20-$60 | $60-$150 | $150+ |
| Design | <$1,000 | $1,000-$5,000 | $1,000-$5,000 |
| Custom Development | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Setup/Config | <$250 | $0–$1,000 | $0–$2,000 |
| Training | $0–$500 | $0–$500 | $0–$500 |
| Maintenance | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| TOTAL SETUP* | <$2,000 | <$6,500 | <$10,000 |
| TOTAL ANNUAL* | <$1,000 | <$1,800 | $2,000+ |
| Licensing | <$500 | <$5,000 | $5,000–$100,000 |
| Hosting (monthly) | $350 | $500 | $1,000-$2,000+ |
| Design | <$3,000 | $5,000–$10,000 | $10,000-$150,000+ |
| Custom Development | $500 | $2,000–$5,000 | $10,000–$150,000+ |
| Setup/Config | <$3,000 | $2,000–$5,000 | $2,000–$10,000+ |
| Training | $500–$1,000 | $500–$2,000 | $500–$5,000+ |
| Maintenance (monthly) | $500+ | $1,000–$2,000 | $2,000–$5,000+ |
| TOTAL SETUP* | <$11,000 | $15,500–$29,000 | $30,500–$422,000+ |
| TOTAL ANNUAL* | <$12,000 | $18,000–$30,000 | $36,000–$84,000 |
Reference: www.atlanticbt.com)
The cost estimation starts forth by checking the sales/traffic goals and required custom features. Additionally, factors like the (1) e-commerce platform like Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce etc. to be used, the number of products and product varieties that will there be, i.e. size, colour, etc.? (2) Check if the pricing is complex or standard? (3) Analyze whether you have the content/images ready and organized or do you have to prepare it? (4) Check if the type of hosting solution that you require for your business? (5) What payment gateway Paypal, Authorize, SecurePay, etc? (6) Is the site going to be responsive, i.e. optimized to view across all devices? (7) Is the site going to comprise blogs, social media, and other special features? (8) You’ll also want to have a third-party hosted or self-hosted platform.
Basic Components of E-Commerce App Development
The cost of making an online store depends on multiple things, including the following:
- domain/hosting
- web development services
- web design services
- features, CMS, database, integrations
- SEO/marketing
- ongoing maintenance and updates
Essential Web Store Features
- Customer registration
- Search / Navigation
- Complex pricing
- Product reviews
- Checkout – easy and flexible
- Multiple payment options
- Mobile-friendly
- Miscellaneous categories like order status, product variations, shopping history etc.
E-commerce Website Cost by Type
- The estimated cost to build a small web store $15,000 – $20,000.
- The estimated cost to build a mid-size e-commerce site $30,000 – $50,000 and more.
- Estimated cost to build a large web store $55,000 – $160,000.
What you must consider here is that these are just the initial costs and these can be proportional to the features and properties added in later stages of development, plus the additional expenses that are tagged during maintenance and hosting of the website. Often, some costs differ for small-medium-enterprise setups. These are:
| Small | Medium | Enterprise | |
| Domain / SSL / Setup | $1,000 | $2,000–$4,000 | $5,000–$10,000 |
| Hosting (Annual) | $3,000 | $8,000 | $12,000 |
| Database | $500 | $1,000 | $4,000 |
| Development | $5,000–$10,000 | $10,000–$20,000 | $20,000–$100,000 |
| Design | $3,000 | $5,000–$10,000 | $10,000–$30,000 |
| SEO (Initial) | $2,000 | $4,000 | $5,000 |
| TOTAL SETUP* | $14,500–$19,500 | $30,000–$47,000 | $56,000–$161,000 |
Conclusion
While there can be many different elements affecting the e-commerce website cost like the categories, product pages, related products, website cost and custom functionality development etc. The SaaS platforms like Magento or WooCommerce or Shopify would cost somewhere around $3K – $10K but the custom development can get expensive as extensions can often break while upgrading the core system. Imagine a poor code that can cost you more money than the amount that was originally invested. Also, businesses should feel free to interpret the cost and effort requirements as they best resonate with their current and estimated situation in coming future.
Note: All the price figures listed are illustrative but very closer to actual ones and are subject to change based on the demand in the market.