How much will it cost in dollars to start an online store in 2023?
How much does it cost to create and host an online e-commerce store? As you may have guessed, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. In fact, the cost can range from $100 to over $3 million, depending on the platform, requirements, and goals.
Also, keep in mind that when initial development is complete, you should continue to invest in improving the functionality and experience of your online store (don't forget to spend on marketing, of course). Waiting until everything is out of date and then dealing with it right away is not a successful or proactive ecommerce strategy .
So, the cost can range from about $100 to several million dollars, but we're only using $1,000 as a theoretical upper limit for phase one. We generally recommend breaking the work into manageable chunks, regardless of scope, and even if the overall project is much larger, a thousand dollars is a manageable chunk.
Beginners who will work on the project themselves and want to store the cost of creating an online store of about $ 100 or more depending on their desires and goals. As for owners and small or large companies in the field, their goals are also large. Depending on the goal as well as the size, the cost of setting up an online store in this scenario can run into millions of dollars.
To reduce costs a bit depending on your needs, read the main areas that affect costs below, and then review the cost summary table at the bottom of this article. To see how much a custom app costs in another industry, try our web app cost guide.
Cost of Starting an Online Store: Ecommerce Platforms
Depending on how simple or complex your e-commerce platform is, and licensing costs, the cost of similar features can vary widely. There are industry-specific solutions, turnkey solutions based on ERP systems, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings designed to make setup and configuration easier for business owners.
If you'd like to know more details about an ecommerce platform , we've put together a handy guide on how to choose an ecommerce platform .
Most of the configurable and customizable products like Magento and Magento Enterprise are not designed to setup (inexperienced) business owners, so you should probably spend at least $500 on a good local provider just to set up your store and do some basic configuration and training, I'm talking about people who They want to dig deep and perfect. As for the beginners, they can open a shop and do it themselves for an amount not exceeding $100.
Cost to set up an online store: The cost of designing your store
Many platforms, especially SaaS offerings, have design galleries, themes, or templates that you can apply to your website yourself. While these templates may not fit your business perfectly, or make you distinctly different from other companies that might use the same design, these templates are a quick and inexpensive option. Expect to spend between $0 and $60 for a.
When you're into custom builds, the sky's the limit for potential expenses. Again, a custom theme can cost $10,000 to $100,000 depending on specifications, requirements, and depth of workmanship. Most people choose to buy themes.
The Cost of Creating an Online Store: Custom Ecommerce Programming and Features
Many platforms (especially good ones) offer module or plugin support that can add functionality developed by others to your site (much less than if you developed it yourself).
Before writing custom code, first check out what extensions are available. However, be prepared that some of the add-ons are written wrong or poorly implemented. Our company always reviews/evaluates add-ons for quality, security, functionality, and support before recommending them to clients.
Outside of well-known extensions, custom development can quickly become prohibitively expensive. A good team/company will develop code that has been rigorously tested, secure and reliable. While this is more expensive than getting it all together ASAP, your custom code will hold up better in the long run. Extensions can break when you upgrade your platform, so bad code can cost you more money, even if it works initially.
Hosting an e-commerce website
- Hosting is included in the cost of creating an online store
Hosting is more predictable than other variables. SaaS offerings often include some level of hosting in their package. You need to check the built-in limits for Storage, Traffic, Products, Customers, and Requests. These solutions start out cheap, but as your sales and needs grow, so does the cost. You can plan for at least $20 to $250 in hosting costs before going out with the typical solutions.
Hosting for a dedicated ecommerce platform can start at around $500 per month for decent services and support, but may not offer true PCI (credit card security) compliance.
We've written a helpful introduction to e-commerce payment security to help you understand what you need to know. For a successful, busy website (with average frequency, speed, size, and security requirements) hosted in a cloud or web environment, hosting costs can be $1,000 to $2,000 per year.
Finally, if you're a beginner, you can start with Shopify's free options, or you can buy hosting, a domain name, and then install and use WordPress for less than $20 per month.
How to Determine the Cost to Build Your Own Online Store: 11 Questions to Ask
Unfortunately, there is no way to determine exactly how much it will cost to set up an online store because every business is different. However, when you think about your company, your goals, and what you want to achieve, you will be able to define a general scope of football.
After answering the questions below, take another look at the items we mentioned above. Determine how each of them can help you achieve your business goals.
Better yet, find out how much of each element you need to grow your website.
Because when you're in e-commerce, your goal shouldn't just be to be successful - your goal should be to outperform your competitors.
These are some of the most common questions new ecommerce website owners have to ask themselves.
If you don't have the answers to your ecommerce site pricing questions right now, don't worry - it's important to take the time to find out before you spend too much on your ecommerce site . Determining the answers to these questions can help you determine your initial costs for your ecommerce website .
Common questions and problems in building an online store
Do I need hosting support?
- If yes, use an affordable host.
- If not, look for free hosting options.
What should my CMS do?
- If you need a lot of versatility and functionality, choose the best in the business.
- If you only need to add products occasionally, start with something basic.
What type of web design do I need?
- If you want to stand out from your competitors, choose a world-class design.
- If you're just trying to sell and compete, start with the more expensive stuff.
How many product pages do I offer?
- Be prepared to buy a lot of pages if you need a lot.
- If only a few are needed, downgrade appropriately.
How many pages of text do I need?
- If you want to target many different segments in your customer base, you will need a lot of text-only pages.
- If you're happy to only target your existing customer base, you don't need a lot of text-only pages.
How often should my pages be text only?
- If you want the page to rank in the search engines, your page must contain thousands of words.
- Your page can be significantly shortened if you want your page to answer questions quickly.
What type of SEO job do I need?
- If you want to beat all of your competitors, you will need a lot of SEO support.
- If you just want to compete, basic SEO may suit your needs.
Should the site have database integration?
- If you want to store any information about your customers, you absolutely need database integration.
- Unfortunately, there aren't many options here - your ecommerce site needs to have some level of integration.
Do I really need website maintenance?
- Website maintenance is essential if you want to be consistently profitable and provide your customers with a positive user experience.
- It is basically an insurance policy against all possible problems that may arise.