ecommerce Website Cost [A Full Pricing Guide]
Over the years, the craze of the brick & mortar stores has been decreasing. At the same time, the demand for eCommerce stores is growing.
By considering this, various businesses, brands, and new-age entrepreneurs have started joining the eCommerce industry by launching a website.
If you also want to start an eCommerce business through a website, then one of the questions that might have appeared in your mind is, How much does an eCommerce Website Cost?
The average cost to build an eCommerce website ranges from $3,000 to $50,000. This cost depends on many factors. Moreover, you need to give answers to some of the essential questions to get the estimated eCommerce website cost. They are as follows:
- What type of eCommerce website do you want to develop?
- Do you want to build a custom eCommerce website or use a SaaS platform or CMS?
- What features do you want in your eCommerce website?
- How many products do you want to display on your eCommerce website?
By getting answers to these questions, you would be able to know the eCommerce website cost.
As a leading eCommerce website development company, we are familiar with what is needed to build a small to a big-scale eCommerce website.
Hence, in our blog, we will provide you with the estimated cost of creating an eCommerce website.
Before we move ahead with these things, let us breakdown the cost of eCommerce website.
How Much Does an eCommerce Website Cost?
The eCommerce website cost starts from $3,000 and goes up to $50,000 or more.
The most effective way to calculate the estimated cost of any eCommerce website is to consider the cost of eCommerce platforms, features, tools, domain, hosting, etc.
In other words, eCommerce website pricing depends on various factors.
To simplify your task, we have provided you with the essential factors affecting eCommerce website price.
9 Main Costs Involved in Creating an eCommerce Website
1. Domain & Hosting
A domain is the most important thing for your eCommerce website. Your visitors will reach your website using the domain. Besides this, it increases your visibility online and builds the professional credibility of your brand.
It would be best if you bought a domain name that is easy to remember and reflects your brand’s identity.
The average cost of a domain for your eCommerce website would be around $2 to $20 per year. Further, the cost of the domain varies based on the extension.
An authentic and secure hosting solution offers better engagement to users on your website. The eCommerce website hosting cost starts small and increases along with the increase in your sales and requirements.
Here, you need to purchase hosting depending on some requirements like storage, traffic, products, and orders.
When we talk about eCommerce hosting, we have two options available:
Hosting for SaaS platforms
The majority of popular eCommerce SaaS platforms offer built-in hosting with the plan. Hence, you don’t have to pay anything extra for hosting.
Hosting for rest of the platforms
Secondly, if you plan to develop a custom eCommerce website or with CMS, you get varied options to host a website online. It includes shared, dedicated, VPS, and Cloud.
The annual cost of hosting an eCommerce website starts from $30 & it goes up to $350 depending on the type of hosting you purchase.
Here, it is recommended not to go for cheap hosting for your e-commerce website because you will not get quality support. Instead of that, you should invest wisely and choose good-quality hosting. It will be beneficial to you in the long run.
2. eCommerce Website Platforms Cost
Mainly there are three platforms to create an eCommerce website. They are as follows:
Using SaaSBased on the kind of SaaS, and the licensing fee, the cost differs for the same features and functionality.
There are many eCommerce SaaS platforms available in the market. With the help of these platforms, you can configure and launch your eCommerce website. Examples of such eCommerce business platforms include Shopify Plus, Commercetools, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Dynamics 365 Commerce, Adobe Commerce, etc.
The cost of such eCommerce SaaS platforms starts at $30-300 per month.
Using Open-source PlatformThere are various open-source eCommerce platforms available online for making eCommerce websites. All of these open-source solutions are free. Some popular open-source platforms include WooCommerce, BigCommerce, OpenCart, Zencart, etc.
Custom DevelopmentIf you want to develop a custom e-commerce website, many options are available in the market, such as Laravel, Node.js, etc.
The cost to create an eCommerce website from scratch depends on the website’s features and complexity.
After looking at the types of eCommerce platforms, if you are unable to decide between a template or a custom website, you can refer to our blog on custom website vs template.
By deciding on this thing in advance, you will save a lot of your time and effort.
3. Website Design
In general, you have three options to design your eCommerce website.
SaaSIf you are looking for a cheap and quick option, choose a suitable theme from a wide range of themes available for eCommerce SaaS such as Shopify or WooCommerce.
You can integrate any theme you like into your e-commerce site. Here, there is a strong possibility that your site’s design looks the same as various other eCommerce sites.
The cost of the theme will range between $50 to $200. Later, if you want to set up/configure it, it will cost from $500 to $1,500. Further, the cost depends on the size of the e-commerce website.
Apart from this, you also have an option to create an eCommerce website design for a specific SaaS platform. For this, you can reach out to an eCommerce website design agency.
The cost to design a custom eCommerce theme for SaaS will be from $1,000-$3,000.
Using Open-Source PlatformIf you want to create a quality eCommerce website at a cost-effective price, you can find a lot of themes for open-source platforms.
However, to configure these themes, you have to take the help of an eCommerce website design expert.
The cost of eCommerce themes starts from $50-200. Later, if you want to configure & customize these themes, the eCommerce website design cost will be $500-$1,500. This cost depends on the requirement.
Besides this, if you want to create a theme for a specific open-source platform, it is possible. For this, you need to reach out to an eCommerce website design company. The cost of designing a custom eCommerce theme ranges from $1,000 to $3,000.
Custom DesignIf you want to create a custom design for your eCommerce website, then the cost can range from $2,000 to $5,000. It depends on various things like the total number of pages, features, and functionality.
4. Website Development
Similar to eCommerce website design, you have three ways to develop your eCommerce website. They are as follows:
SaaSFor SaaS platforms, there are many readymade themes & plugins already available in the market. So, you don’t need to do any development on your e-commerce website.
If you want to develop a custom theme for a SaaS platform, you can get it. For this, you need to contact an eCommerce website solutions provider. The cost of developing a custom e-commerce website theme will be around $2,000-$5,000.
Open-Source PlatformsFor open-source platforms, there are various themes & plugins available in the market. Hence, you can integrate ready-made solutions on your eCommerce website.
If you want to build a custom theme for open-source platforms, you can contact an expert eCommerce development company. The development cost of a custom theme for a particular open-source platform will be around $2,000-$5,000.
Custom DevelopmentYou need to approach a leading eCommerce website development company if you want to build an ecommerce website from scratch.
The cost of an eCommerce website development starts from $3,000 and can go up to $50,000. It is challenging to state the exact cost of eCommerce website development as it relies upon the scope of work and the hourly charges in a region. The hourly rates vary from $20-$150 as per the location, skill, and experience of the development team.
5. Functionality
For developing an eCommerce website, you need to include all the essential features.
Here, your eCommerce website should have basic functionality like quick product search, product listing & management, add to cart, payment, and more.
In short, your customers should be able to browse products and do shopping efficiently.
The price of integrating basic functionality in an eCommerce website starts from $2,000. If you want to include more features in your eCommerce website, the cost will be higher.
Further, the cost varies based on the platform & theme you choose and the plugins you want to integrate into your eCommerce website.
6. Third-Party Integrations
You will require third-party plugins in your eCommerce website in two scenarios.
Firstly, whenever you need to include unique features on your website, you need third-party plugins.
Secondly, when you want to fill anything that is left on your eCommerce website, you need plugins.
The cost of integrating third-party plugins in your eCommerce is nominal. For instance, the cost of integrating third-party plugins like SMS API is $10 for 1000 SMS and Google Maps API is charging $7 for 1000 request, however, they are providing $200 of free credits as well. So, no need to worry much about third-party costs.
7. Company Selection
The eCommerce website development company you hire will directly impact the cost. This cost varies based on the location & the experience of the company.
If you hire an eCommerce website development company from the US, UK, Australia, and Europe, the cost will be high.
On the contrary, if you hire an eCommerce development company in India, you will get a high-quality eCommerce website at an affordable cost.
Hence, we recommend you to hire an eCommerce website development company from India.
8. Marketing
After launching your eCommerce website, you think your task is over. Actually, it is not. People will not know about your eCommerce website until you do effective marketing.
There are a lot of things involved in website marketing. These include SEO, website copy, email marketing, and more.
Firstly, you need to invest in copywriting of the website. It is a one-time investment, and the cost depends on the total number of pages on your eCommerce website.
After website copy, you need to invest money in PPC campaigns, email marketing, search engine optimization, etc. The marketing cost starts from $500 for a small eCommerce website, whereas the marketing cost for a big eCommerce website starts from $3,000.
Based on the complexity of your eCommerce website and its goals, you can invest money in marketing.
9. Website Maintenance
To ensure that your eCommerce site runs at the optimum level, you should consider its maintenance.
Generally, eCommerce website maintenance consists of bug fixing, keeping website fresh and update, and ensuring that it’s working perfectly.
If you ignore maintenance, your eCommerce business website will face various user-experience issues. These include bugs, issues related to an image or a particular page, etc.
Hence, it is essential to allocate some budget for maintenance. The eCommerce website maintenance cost will range between 10% to 20% of your total project cost per year.
Conclusion
So, the average cost to build an eCommerce website starts from $3,000 and goes up to $50,000.
If you still have any doubts related to the eCommerce website cost, feel free to contact our experts.
Webyking is a leading web design & development company having expertise in eCommerce development. Hence, we can understand your business requirements and provide a free quote for your website. Besides this, we provide a free consultation in choosing a suitable platform for your eCommerce site.