eCommerce Website Development Cost: Comprehensive Guide (2024)

There are so many factors involved in deciding the eCommerce website development cost. In this article, I will guide you on how you can determine the cost of an eCommerce website by considering the important factors.

From a small startup to a big brand, every company gets benefits from an eCommerce website. In this Covid-19 pandemic situation making an eCommerce website is a good solution for both the buyers and businesses.

Important points to be considered when creating an eCommerce website:

1. Hosting Cost
2. Design
3. Functionality
4. Marketing
5. Maintenance

The above list gives you the number of head of expenses includes in creating an eCommerce website. If you are running a startup or not willing to spent a lot at the very beginning then you may cut the cost of design, functionality, and marketing cost. 

Now let’s discuss the above points one by one:

eCommerce Website Development Cost – Hosting Cost:

When building an eCommerce website hosting is one of the most important factors. Because you need a good server with lots of space. 

If you need to upload 50 products in your eCommerce store and if every product has 5 different angel images then the total number of images is around 250 pcs. So you must assume that how much space will consume by the product images. 

For the server specification, I strongly recommended the use of any cloud-based server. Because it is the most advanced technique in server technology. It has a data storage facility, a large amount of scalability of services, based on AI and machine learning techniques.

Now if you don’t want to go for more technical details about the server then you may go for some specific brands. Here are the lists:

• Cloudways
• A2 Hosting
• SiteGround
• Hostgator

I personally using cloudways server and I am very much satisfied with their services.

Apart from the server space, you need a good SSL certificate for making a secure transaction. Most of the cheap servers are providing you SSL certificates with fewer security layers. But for creating a perfect eCommerce website you need a well-secured SSL certificate.

You can buy good SSL certificates from leading companies in this industry. Here are the names:

• Cloudflare
• Godaddy
• Namecheap
• Bigrock

Design

If you want to give a great look to your eCommerce website then you can go for a custom design. If you hire any agencies they will ask you about your opinion on design. If you select custom design then they will charge you the cost based on the number of pages.

Now the cost-saving idea is that if you are using any commercial store builder like Shopify or WooCommerce then you will not bother for making a design page by page. This builder gives you many options to create your own pages.

There are lots of free themes and templates are available for creating your own store with some eye-catchy looks.

There are lots of tutorials available on the internet on this contrary. You just follow this tutorial and create your own Shopify or eCommerce stores step by step.

But remember one thing, this is a prebuild store builder. Every possible option available in this page builder. But if you want to customize the builder or customize any functionality then it will not be possible in some cases. But for the beginning and cost-effectiveness manner, this is the right option. 

These prebuild themes and plugins are fully mobile supported. If you get any theme design then make sure the theme is also mobile-friendly or not. Because remember one thing, the majority of your visitors to your eCommerce website comes from a mobile platform.

Functionality

When the design part is over then concentrate on eCommerce website functionality. If you are using any prebuilt theme or plugin even if you make any custom design some basic functionality should be present there.

Here are the lists you want to consider:

• Product Management
• Shopping Cart
• Payment Module
• Coupons & Discounts

If you using a woo-commerce plugin or Shopify theme then don’t worry. These functionalities already present in this theme or plugin. But if you are making a custom theme then be cautious that above mention functionality already implements in your theme or website.

Now the question may come to your mind that what is the importance of the above functionality. Let discuss it one by one –

Product Management – 

Product management in Woocommerce is a similar type of activity to WordPress posts and pages. If you install this woo-commerce plugin you will find the ‘product’ tab in the left sidebar. From this tab, you can easily add, edit & delete the products.

Shopping Cart –

Another default functionality in woocommerce is a shopping cart. When you add some products through product management this product will show on product listing pages under different categories. When someone wants to buy the product they will click the ‘add to cart’ button. When the buyer visits the add to cart page they will see the list of products added to their cart. Then they will click proceeds to ‘checkout page’ and after that, they will make payment through different payment methods and complete the purchase.

Payment Module –

Like every site, your website should have various types of options to pay the product price. Debit cards, credit cards, net banking, google pay are the most common ones. Apart from this many eCommerce websites‘ cash on delivery’, payumoney, and many other flexible payment options. So now you must make sure that every payment option is working properly on your website.

Coupon and Discounts –

People love coupons and discounts. Your website should include these features. It will also increase your conversion rate.

This is the very basic functionality should an eCommerce website include. Apart from this, there are lots of other functionality that should require to successfully run an eCommerce website. But the main thing is your goal. All the functionality depends on the business strategy. Functionality varies on the types of business.

Marketing:

According to Wikipedia 1,06,086, eCommerce websites are registered daily and more than 25% of sites are specific product-based. So you must assume the competition level between the eCommerce websites.

For this reason, if you want to make a successful website you should do proper marketing. You should do marketing your website in this digital world. You need a good digital marketing agency. Remember marketing is not a short-term investment. If you want to increase conversion go for a long-term marketing plan.

Read Also: A effective guide for Lead Generation by top lead generation companies in Kolkata in 2020

Maintenance:

Maintaining an eCommerce website not so easy. You need a good number of the workforce to run the website. Upload the products, maintain the product management, check the delivery status, fix the product return issue, check the payment status, etc.. involve with day to day various activities. So you will understand the importance of the workforce involves on an eCommerce website.

I am writing this article to help a small business owner who wants to start their eCommerce website on a very little budget. With 12+ years of experience in this industry I recommend the following breakup for eCommerce website development cost: 

Domain Price	Godaddy	$12 yearly
Hosting	Cloudways	$10/per month
Woo-commerce Plugin	Free
Woo-commerce Supported Theme	Free
Development Charges		$100
eCommerce SEO		$400

This is an approx idea of cost. There are many other things like functionality, SSL certificate pricing, cost of the configuration of the above items, payment gateway integration also come into consideration while calculating the pricing.

Conclusion: After reading this article I hope you will get an idea of the minimum cost for creating an eCommerce website. If you new or less budget then you can go for this plan. If you feel any difficulties then you can hire any professional from any freelance marketplace like Fiverr or Upwork. But if you successfully start your eCommerce journey after reading this article then writing this article is totally worth it.