Exploring an eCommerce Website Development Cost: A Brief Guide 

An ecommerce website offers a lucrative way to make more money online. But in order to build a feature-rich ecommerce website and keep it running, you have to invest in professional design and development, web hosting & much more things. Well, it’s hard to figure out any exact cost of ecommerce website development as it influences too many factors like design elements, features, integrations, etc, especially if you’re choosing custom website development.

Experts suggest you do a chronological breakdown of ecommerce website elements to get a definitive price. However, it’s only possible if you’ve objectified the business goal & extent of all aspects of making a custom ecommerce website.

In this blog, we are going to break down every cost of an ecommerce website, how crucial it is & how the cost varies among several business sizes. Therefore, you will get an accurate financial plan to make a custom eCommerce website.

Global eCommerce Statistics

The growth of the ecommerce industry is completely astounding. Here are the top stats that show the latest state of the entire eCommerce industry. Have a look at the data and find ways to build strategies for your business.

• Online retail sales are estimated to surpass approx 7 trillion USD by 2025 globally
• More than 89% of eCommerce agencies start investing in personalization
• Mobile commerce contributes more than 67% of online sales
• 54% of customers need video content from ecommerce businesses they prefer
• By 2024, B2C marketplaces are projected to generate approx $3.5 trillion in sales

What Is Ecommerce Web Development Cost?

As the name suggests, it refers to the overall cost estimated for ecommerce website development and it depends on the number of elements and factors. Website-making cost also relies on the complexity level of your online store – this means, the more features & functionalities you would like to add, you need to pay for them. Based on the types of different business scales, the time & cost of ecommerce web development cost also vary.

If you would like to outsource development, you may follow two popular website pricing models – pay-as-you-go & project fixed price. The first one is the best choice for support & maintenance projects and the second one helps you make a complete project scope & allocate a fixed budget estimation for your project. Minimizing development time & improving project accuracy always helps in saving ecommerce prices. 

For your convenience, we have shared a element-wise list of cost breakdown of an ecommerce website

The above-mentioned table shows how the average ecommerce website development cost varies. You can cut website making costs by using SaaS platforms like Shopify. They will help you save your time & effort, but if you are planning for large-scale development, you need to find alternatives.

When it comes to custom development, there are no limits. Even though you can easily personalize different aspects of your SaaS-based ecommerce store, custom website development will be more effective and flexible.

Types of Ecommerce Websites

As we already discussed above, there are different categories of e-commerce sites that can differ in complexity levels, way of running businesses, directions, etc. Therefore, the choice of your platform will affect the overall cost of developing an ecommerce website directly. Common website types include:

1. Single-brand websites: Single-brand e-commerce platforms or websites are easier and less expensive to develop as they are dedicated to a particular brand. It mainly refers to an entity or business where products are sold & delivered to individual customers. This approach can simplify the possible functionalities to estimate the cost to build an ecommerce website.

Some of the best examples of single-brand e-commerce platforms are Nike, Puma, Lego, etc. For instance, when you go to the official website of Nike, you will only explore the range of footwear and clothing products offered by this brand.

2. Online retailers: An online retailer is a platform that is designed to sell a large variety of products from different brands. These e-commerce websites are quite difficult to build as additional tasks on the server side are required to run the website smoothly. To calculate the cost of a custom online retailing website for your business, you need to make some strategies to avoid unexpected burdens.

One of the best examples of an online retailing website is Dick’s Sporting Goods. It specializes in sportswear and it offers a diverse range of sports accessories of different brands. For instance, on this website, you can find a wide variety of products from different popular brands like Nike, Adidas, Elite, etc.

3. Online marketplaces: Last but not the least, online marketplaces are such giant e-commerce platforms where sellers and private entrepreneurs put their products or goods up for selling online. Amazon and Etsy are the best examples of online marketplaces that allow sellers to manage their accounts, and on-site analytics for product selling, refunds, returns, and much more. Apart from that, with online marketplaces, sellers can easily handle their product pricing, interact with their customers, control shipping and return policies, etc.

Developing an online marketplace is much more difficult than ecommerce platforms and it also requires huge costs for development. Moreover, due to more high server capacities, they also need complex feature implementations such as shipping management, stock control, analytics, and more. To accurately estimate the cost of making a marketplace, you need to take the assistance of IT professionals or ecommerce developers.

What to Ask For Determining Ecommerce Website Costs?

Well, there is no proper way that helps to determine the accurate cost of making an ecommerce website since every business model is different. To determine your ecommerce website cost, you have to focus on your goals and project requirements properly. For more convenience, you can ask the following questions to your developers.

1. Is hosting support necessary?

If you need proper hosting, use an accurately-priced host

If not, go for free hosting options

2. Do I need CMS?

If you want a lot of functionality and versatility, go with the CMS

If you want to add a product only, go for the basic options

3. How much control do I offer to the users?

If you wish to offer complete control with personalization, go for database integration & maximum functionality

If you give minimal control only, store passwords and usernames

4. What type of design do I want?

If you need to stay ahead of your competition, go for top-notch custom web design

If you only want to sell your product, go for something affordable options

5. How many pages do I provide?

If you want to offer a lot of pages, prepare to develop them separately

If you want to offer a few only, appropriately downgrade

6. How many text-only pages do I offer?

If you would like to target different niches in your target audience base, you will need a number of text-only pages.

If you only want to target your existing customer base, you need a few text-only pages

7. What will be the length of text-only pages?

If you need to rank your pages in search engines, pages must include more than thousands of words.

If you need a page to quickly answer several questions, pages can be shorter significantly

8. What type of SEO do I need?

If you would like to beat your competitors & stay on top of the search engine ranking page, you need proper SEO support for your business

If you don’t have high requirements, basic SEO can be perfect for your needs

9. Should my website have database integration?

If you would like to store information & data of your customers, you should need a database integration

Unfortunately, you don’t have any alternative option here— your website needs a few degrees of integration.

10. Do I focus on web maintenance?

If you would like to generate a profit continually & offer an excellent user experience to your potential customers, proper web maintenance is important

If you only need to sell your product within a limited customer base, basic maintenance can be best for you

Ecommerce Development Pricing For Popular Platforms

With several options to consider when budgeting for ecommerce development platforms, pricing can be confusing. Whether you choose a cloud-based or an open source e-commerce platform, you can see different price structures of different platforms. For your convndenience, we have discussed cost of ecommerce website development for the most popular platforms:

1. Magento: Magento is one of the powerful systems that offer excellent website performance & helps to expand your sales opportunities. The average cost of making a Magento ecommerce website design price ranges from $5,000 to $100,000 and it usually takes approx 1 to 4 months of process execution. The Magento website development cost is mainly driven by two crucial factors – the developer’s rate & website features.

If you consider the hourly rates, there is not a huge difference among the average developer’s hourly rates for Magento & other platforms. The average hourly rates of Magento developers range from $100 to $175 in the US – Canada region and $40 to $85 in the EU regions.

2. Shopify: For the Shopify platform, you don’t have to hire professional coders to create a custom ecommerce website from the beginning. Earlier, the average ecommerce website cost usually ranged between $500 to $1,000 for Shopify graphics and store design services. In the all-new Shopify 2023 updated pricing structure, the Monthly pricing plan consists of:

• The Basic plan ($29) increased to $39
• The Shopify plan ($79) increased to $105
• The Advanced plan ($299) increased to $399

3. WooCommerce: For a basic ecommerce business, a WooCommerce website costs between $500 to $3000. This offers the best value for money options as it’s the most flexible, robust & quick to use platform. WooCommerce making costs also depend on several factors such as domain name, web hosting, SSL certificate, plugin setup, theme & design, third-party plugins for extending functions, etc.
4. BigCommerce: For a standard plan, a BigCommerce store price usually starts from $29.95/month. On the other hand, the Plus plan and Pro plan generally start from $79.95 and $249.95 per month respectively. BigCommerce offers a 15-day trial absolutely free which is the best option for testing. One of the best advantages of using the BigCommerce platform is that it offers too many features in its standard plan whereas other platforms provide the same in the higher plans.

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Influential Factors for an E-Commerce Website Making Costs

There are too many factors that play a significant role in considering website development ecommerce costs. They include:

1. Web hosting: Web hosting is one of the crucial elements that effectively influence your e-commerce development costs. It usually depends on your domain name, anticipated website site traffic, and whether you go for self-hosting or use a SaaS platform.
2. Payment processing: Payment processors allow you to manage any transaction on a purchase made in your store. Based on your chosen ecommerce platform, the overall costs linked to payment processing can vary or fluctuate.
3. UI & Architecture: A visually appealing ecommerce website with engaging content will help your business grow and stay competitive. However, purchasing template-based sites may cost little that is suited to the budget. But if you would like to give an unparalleled shopping experience to your users, you have to invest in custom ecommerce website development.
4. Updates and maintenance: Updates & maintenance costs are important when you are estimating the average ecommerce website cost. Generally, you need to pay for the following website updates

• Bug fixes
• Security updates
• General maintenance
• New features updates

5. Add-ons: It’s crucial to work with an online platform that helps you add trustworthy third-party apps and that is built to properly optimize the overall performance of your web store. Some important add-ons include:

• Payment service providers
• Email marketing solutions
• Product feed integrations
• Product info management systems
• Configure price quotes or CPQs

6. Additional costs: The above-mentioned costs are important to make the website live and stand out from the crowd. But there are also some additional charges crucial for adding new functionalities & keeping the website running smoothly. Additional costs are associated to:

• Search engine optimization or SEO
• Data backup for preventing information loss
• Design elements like colors and brand logos
• Content development including resources, banners & titles
• Live chat functionality
• Security software updates

2023’s Top Ecommerce Trends That Will Affect Your Development Cost Estimation 

Nowadays, a number of modern enterprises are shifting towards powerful ecommerce platforms at a good pace to experience amazing online business outcomes. No doubt, ecommerce solutions help today’s business owners save a lot of money on sales & reach a larger audience base that can’t be possible through offline.

Over the last two decades, ecommerce development has witnessed phenomenal growth and massive changes. New features, customer oriented approaches, and sophisticated elements help in business policies. Have a look at some of 2023’s top ecommerce trends that you can consider before making the ultimate website cost estimation.

1. Buy now pay later: As the name suggests, this trend enables customers to pay for any product or item in regular installments, over a time period. Since the buy now pay later model is interest-free, customers often use it over their credit card payments. As per the report, the total number of BNPL users is estimated to reach approx 77 million by 2025 in the US. Moreover, retailers are consistently adopting this model to:

• Minimize the rate of cart abandonment
• Drive more sales
• Accelerate the checkout process
• Enhances the order value size

2. E-commerce royal programs: Shoppers love loyalty programs as they get rewards for repeat purchases. They receive multiple rewards such as discounts, cash-back, freebies, next-purchase coupons, and so on. On the other hand, many ecommerce businesses use information from loyalty programs to clearly understand the buying behaviors of their potential customers & provide special offers based on their purchase history. Benefits of ecommerce loyalty programs include:

• Enhances customer retention
• Drives more sales
• Improves customer experience
• Promotes sales
• Offers valuable info about consumer behavior

3. Sustainability: Ecommerce sustainability refers to making a business that supports several environmentally-friendly practices, from eco-friendly packaging to sustainable shipping. It’s not only important for the planet but also important for consumers. Moreover, ecommerce sustainability may help you grow your overall market share. Many ecommerce tech giants like Amazon & Apple are investing in sustainability because of too many potential benefits.
4. Sales in the metaverse: No doubt, metaverse technology is going to represent one of the most powerful marketing channels for e-commerce sectors. For instance, Facebook has already rebranded its organization with the name Meta. Moreover, worldwide brands like Vans, Nike, Gucci & Coca-Cola start adopting a metaverse virtual world to sell their products to consumers.

Apart from that, many gaming systems have opened their platforms to ecommerce sales. For instance, Nike introduced Nikeland on Roblox, where users can easily purchase virtual Nike accessories for gaming avatars. Key benefits of ecommerce business entering metaverse virtual words include:

• Limitless opportunities in this new and innovative space
• It offers high visibility to reach younger demographics

5. Video Marketing

Video marketing is an ongoing ecommerce trend that helps small and large-scale businesses grow. As an e-commerce business owner, if you pay attention to content marketing strategies, you may notice video content can help in boosting more engagement.

According to the report, more than 67% of customers are influenced by video content reviews. It occurs due to the skyrocketing popularity of social platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Some crucial benefits of video marketing include

• Dynamic and easy engagement
• Gives the opportunity to show authentic customer reviews
• Demonstrate social proof

USP of Customized Online Stores for E-Commerce Website

If you are completely new in the ecommerce market, the very first thing you have to consider is whether you choose a pre-made or a fully custom-made ecommerce solution. Although pre-made websites are easily available at a lower price, they have some design limitations. Moreover, you may compromise with some functionalities as well. Here are some reasons that will help you know the benefits of investing in custom ecommerce website development solutions.

1. Design customization: Did you know that the design of your website accounts for 95% of first impressions? You can find a number of design templates online but you never get the perfect one that meets all your design concepts, color schemes, and budget.

With a custom ecommerce website, you’re given more freedom to create something unique that is completely aligned with your organization. Therefore, design customization is extremely important to make your ecommerce website highly impressive and enhance its credibility by up to 75%.

2. Continuous assistance: We know that the entire e-commerce industry is evolving at a good pace, so, it’s impossible for anyone to predict exactly what is going to be trending in the next month. That’s why to maintain a proper competitive edge and stay on top of the competition, you should be prepared for executing a number of adjustments & updates as well. While the pre-made website templates only do offer a limited set of capabilities with zero extensions, you can build a groundwork for your website customization to get the best results.
3. Enhanced SEO: Search engine optimization is a process that plays a significant role in making your website stand out from the crowd. No matter how much you invest in developing your website, without proper SEO and content optimization, your website never gets high organic traffic. However, the minimum options provided by pre-made website templates, might not be enough for a proper launch of an e-commerce site. Cheap design & content may affect its caliber.
4. Endless possibilities: Last but not the least, you can easily implement any kind of feature & concept you have for a customized website that will help your business grow. The responsibilities of any ecommerce store can be finished with the help of functional integrations as well as technologies.

No doubt, the overall quality of any ecommerce website is massively impacted by custom website development, but only custom-made designs offer you infinite options. Pre-made templates help you create a website but it never turns out to be highly competitive in today’s market.

What to Expect From a Reliable Website Development Company?

Be it making a custom ecommerce website, developing an online store on Magento, or working on the Shopify platform, trusted companies like Sphinx Solutions have it covered. Experts use agile development approaches and advanced methodologies for quick and assured project delivery.

Moreover, during every stage of development, experts will allow you to track your project & you can also remain aware of its progress with weekly demos. From responsive web design to maintenance, they will fulfill all your needs. Apart from that, reliable companies also help you with the right cost estimation and ecommerce development services.

Experts usually follow 5 definitive ways to help in different eCommerce projects

1. Ecommerce consulting and strategy planning: Before starting the development process, experts and developers help their clients with the best strategy and consulting solution. Getting practical plans and realistic quotations help to take your online store to new heights.
2. Custom storefront design: Professional developers build visually pleasing templates that can drive more sales & increase traffic. They deeply focus on all design elements of your website to improve brand image and visibility.
3. Shopping-cart development: Professional developers also help with custom ecommerce shopping-cart development solutions. This may lead to more customer engagement and drive more sales.
4. CMS development: A CMS or content management system allows users to build, manage, and modify website content with ease. Many developers create & integrate content management systems into your online store.
5. 3rd-party app integrations: In many eCommerce websites 3rd party plugins are required to enhance user experience. Many website development companies help with 3rd-party app integrations for adding new features & functionalities.

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Final Words

Based on the e-commerce website development solutions you select, the total cost can add up quickly. It is clear that different platforms have different pricing structures and setups. Experts suggest taking advantage of an ecommerce website calculator as it will help you come up with the estimated cost of ecommerce website development.

Whether it’s a basic or a complex ecommerce website, always keep in mind that a refined and well-optimized ecommerce website is fully worth the investment. It will give you a great chance to witness huge traffic, engagement, and ROI conversions.

Do You Want To Start Developing A Website For Your Ecommerce Business?

Get in touch with our experts at Sphinx Solutions. If you have doubts about ecommerce website pricing structures or want a great idea of how much your website will cost, we will help. Reach us today.

FAQs

FAQ 1. How much does it cost to maintain an eCommerce website?

The overall maintenance cost of an ecommerce website highly depends on several factors such as website complexity levels, features and functionalities, business size, and more. Though there is no exact figure for the web maintenance cost, it usually ranges from $50 to $200 per month for basic websites. If you have a complex ecommerce website, the cost may range from $500 to $1000 monthly. Moreover, you also need technical expertise for this task.

FAQ 2. What is the cost of an e-commerce website in India?

The cost of e-commerce website development greatly varies region-wise. In India, on average, making a feature-rich e-commerce website may cost around ₹50,000 to ₹70,000 & it totally depends on your project requirements. Apart from that, you also bear some ongoing costs including web hosting & domain, web maintenance, plugin & theme costs, etc.

FAQ 3. How Much Does it Cost to Create an eCommerce Website?

The cost of developing a custom eCommerce website significantly varies based on your project needs & the platform you select. If you consider month-wise estimation, the development cost depends on your website type, site complexity & the development services you need. Technically, a website with basic hosting, security & some additional features may range from $5 to $50 monthly. On the other hand, a complex website with advanced design features and functionalities may range from $500 to $5,000 monthly.

FAQ 4. How much does it cost to hire a professional to build an e-commerce website?

When you hire a development company they usually provide a team of developers for developing your project. They generally do front-end & back-end development tasks to make your website appealing and impressive. For the entire website development ecommerce process, development companies usually charge approx $40,000. However, this is not the exact amount, because the developer’s charges depend on too many factors.

FAQ 5. What is the best eCommerce platform?

Ecommerce platforms make it very affordable and easy to design and develop a successful store online. Of course, there are too many options in the market, so choosing the perfect one for your business can be a challenge. For convenience, we have shared a list of top ecommerce platforms in 2023:

• Squarespace: The best option for overall ecommerce solutions
• Shopify: Best choice for dropshipping
• BigCommerce: Best choice for driving more sales
• WooCommerce: The best option for versatility
• Ecwid: Good for existing websites
• Shift4Shop: Best free ecommerce platform
• Square Online: The best option for omnichannel Selling
• Weebly: Offers the best value
• Wix: Best drag-and-drop editor
• Big Cartel: The best option for creative