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Developing and maintaining an eCommerce website is not so easy as it seems. There are so many factors that you need to consider when planning for eCommerce website development. The cost may initiate at as lesser as $2,500 and may exceed $5,000 and beyond. The overall cost for the eCommerce website design project depends upon the platform that you select and your specific design and functionality requirements
If you plan to develop a custom eCommerce website, its pricing could go beyond an initial web development price. Furthermore, the factors such as the cost associated with continued investments in improving the site’s functionality, the user experience enhancements, security, marketing, etc., are also counted while calculating the total amount.
So, how much does it cost for eCommerce Website Development with Arete Soft Labs?
Here is an insight into the total cost of developing an eCommerce website for your better understanding:
Choice of platform and cost of eCommerce website development
There are a variety of different eCommerce platform options available for you to select from. Here is the list of some of the most popular shopping cart/eCommerce platforms:
There are many other platforms out there. But for this post, we will focus on these platforms only.
The overall cost of an eCommerce website includes different parts as below:
- Platform
- Design
- Development
- Website hosting infrastructure
- Content creation
- Maintenance
Let’s explore the design, platform, development, and other costs for each shopping cart:
What is the cost of Shopify eCommerce website development?
With over 1.7 million Shopify stores in over 175 countries running on this fantastic platform, it’s the number one choice. So many brick-and-mortar stores have set up online stores with the recent pandemic, and Shopify was at the forefront of this eCommerce boom.
Platform
Shopify is a hosted shopping cart platform that offers all the features you will need to sell online for a fixed monthly fee. With Shopify, you can select from different plans based on your business needs and goals, starting from $39 per month and going up to $399 per month.
Shopify Pricing Plans
Most stores start with a Basic Shopify plan and go up to Shopify or Advanced Shopify as the business needs grow.
All Shopify plans offer options to sell unlimited products but limit based on the number of Staff Accounts, Locations, and other advanced features. However, the main driving force for the eCommerce store owner to upgrade is saving money on fees charged for each order as the sales pick up and the number of orders grows. The per-order fee with the Basic Shopify plan is 2.9%+ 30c USD, and it reduces to 2.4% +30c USD with an Advanced Shopify plan. Moreover, if you don’t use Shopify Payments, you will incur an additional 2% fee in the Basic plan, and it reduces to 0.5% when you upgrade to the Advanced Shopify plan.
Pro Tip– Work with a Shopify partner, like Arete Soft Labs, and save on Shopify plan fees while your store is under development.
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Design
This platform offers you some readymade templates to use as a starting point for your eCommerce website. You may also explore excellent built-in tools to customize the layout, colors, and various other settings.
Currently, Shopify has 12 free and 151 paid themes for you to choose from. These are very small in number when compared to the themes present on other platforms. But this doesn’t mean that they are inferior to their competitors. An average paid theme on Shopify may cost you USD 180. You may explore cheaper options on the third-party theme marketplaces where independent designers offer Shopify themes starting from USD 59.
Again, you may hire a Shopify website designer or developer to customize your Shopify theme. The overall cost of the custom Shopify website design ranges between $2,500 to $30,000 or more, depending on the feature and custom design options you require.
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Development
Do you need custom features or customization for the checkout process or any other customization in your online store? You can utilize custom development for your Shopify store.
With 100’s of apps available in the marketplace, you can pick up the right apps to extend the functionality of your Shopify store without burning a hole in your pocket. Some free apps are available too, but most of the apps are paid, and you need to sign up for a suitable plan with the selected app(s) based on the features you need. The paid app plans range from $3.99 and go up to $6,666 per month. However, most apps range between $3.99 to $50.00 per month.
However, suppose you have unique needs for your Shopify store that none of the readymade apps can fulfill. In that case, you may hire Shopify Developers for Shopify app customization or custom app development. The cost of such a development/customization project will depend on the features and customization you may require.
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Website hosting infrastructure
To run your online store, you will need a domain, hosting plan, and an SSL certificate to start with. Shopify being a hosted eCommerce platform, you don’t need to worry about your hosting. Shopify also provides a free SSL certificate to offer a secure shopping environment for your customers. You can use your existing domain or purchase your domain with Shopify. Overall, you don’t incur any additional charges for your hosting infrastructure for your online store.
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Content creation
I am sure you heard the phrase- Content is king, and it’s super apt when it comes to content for your eCommerce store. A lot goes into designing and building your eCommerce store, but your store is incomplete without an attractive and engaging copy. An excellent copy will be loved by both your customers and search engine bots alike.
Exceptional copy requires strategy and effort. Do not just copy the product description from your supplier’s website and paste it into your website. Hire a professional content writer to write engaging copy for the products that will not only appreciated by your customers but also boost your SEO rankings. So, work on the custom copy so your prospective customers can find your products quickly.
Most content writers charge based on a per word basis; others also work on a fixed project cost basis. You can hire a professional content writer from freelance marketplaces such as Fiverr, Upwork, Guru, etc. The cost of copywriting can vary from $0.10 to $1.00 per word or more depending on the content writer’s location, skills, and research involved.
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Content creation
It is crucial to keep your eCommerce website updated and relevant and make sure it is free from any technical issues and errors that can impact the customer experience.
Fortunately, with Shopify as your shopping cart platform, you don’t need to worry about a lot of technical maintenance for your online store software upgrades. But you surely need to keep your website content updated and relevant, make sure all links on the website are working correctly, and above all, the pricing information is current.
However, it is crucial to have a website maintenance plan in place for your online store. Most Shopify developers offer Shopify maintenance plans too and charge hourly, ranging from $30-$150 or more.
What is the cost of Shopify eCommerce website development?
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Platform
With more than 28% of online stores on the web powered by WooCommerce, it is the most popular eCommerce platform globally and is preferred by businesses of all sizes. WooCommerce, an open-source project, is 100% free software that you can download and use to create your eCommerce store. However, to set up your online store with this fantastic platform, you will need a hosting account, domain name, and an SSL certificate. We will cover more on the hosting, domain name, and SSL costs later under “website hosting infrastructure.”
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Design
The WooCommerce platform is developed and managed by AutoMattic. The platform builders offer three free WooCommerce themes that you can start with. However, many other websites provide free WooCommerce themes that you can use and personalize to your branding. Here are some other websites where you can find some more free WooCommerce themes.
However, if you are looking to create an impressive online store, you can invest in a paid theme. Fortunately, WordPress/WooCommerce has a huge active community of independent companies developing themes. You can explore a wide range of theme selections based on your industry, design preferences, and other functional requirements. The paid theme options start from USD 20 and go up to USD 150 or more. Below is a couple of industry-leading websites that have a collection of 100’s WooCommerce themes to choose from:
Can’t find a theme that matches your design preferences/need customization or needs a custom theme, you can hire a WooCommerce web designer to customize or create a custom theme to meet your design preferences. The cost of such a project will depend on the extent of customizations or features required. A theme customization project may range from USD 1000- USD 5000, whereas a custom theme development may be significantly higher. However, given the sheer number of themes available, you can easily find a WooCommerce theme that matches your preferences and can be further customized to meet your business goals while keeping project costs under check.
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Development
Does your business demand custom features for your eCommerce store? You are in luck. Being an Open Source software, you can customize the WooCommerce shopping cart software to amend the flow and functionality as required.
With an extensive ecosystem for WordPress and WooCommerce, there is a vast community of third-party developers and companies that offer free and paid plugins that you can use to extend the functionality of your WooCommerce store. You can explore the official WooCommerce store to find suitable plugins that meet your functionality requirements. Additionally, you can search the official plugin store on WordPress.org or check out third-party plugins marketplaces for affordable WooCommerce plugins or research on Google. The price for the paid plugins can vary widely and ranges from USD 20 – USD 500. However, unlike Shopify, most plugins for WooCommerce are available for one-time payment with free updates for the first year. Some plugins offer lifetime updates too.
None of the plugins meet your business requirements? Fret not. You may hire a WooCommerce developer to customize a ready plugin or develop a custom plugin from the ground up, fulfilling your functionality needs. Most developers will offer you a fixed cost based on the customization or functional requirements for such a project. The cost of the WooCommerce plugin customization project may range from USD 200 – USD 2000 or more.
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Website hosting infrastructure
With WooCommerce, you are responsible for managing the hosting infrastructure to run your online store. The hosting infrastructure will include buying a suitable hosting plan, a domain name, and an SSL certificate. On average, the cost of a domain is $20 per year, an SSL certificate costs $84.99 per year, and website hosting plans with decent power costs $17.99 per month.
There are numerous web hosting companies offering a variety of hosting plans. First, you can purchase a shared hosting plan and upgrade to a more powerful hosting plan (VPS server) or lease a dedicated server eventually when the traffic and order volume grows substantially.
A word of caution– never chooses a hosting plan solely based on the price. We recommend getting a hosting plan that offers ample processing power and resources for fast loading speed for the best user experience. After all, nobody likes slow-loading websites.
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Content creation
I am sure you heard the phrase- Content is king, and it’s super apt when it comes to content for your eCommerce store. A lot goes into designing and building your eCommerce store, but your store is incomplete without an attractive and engaging copy for the products. An excellent copy will be loved by both your customers and search engine bots alike.
Creating great content requires strategy and effort. Do not just copy the product description from your supplier’s website and paste it into your website. Hire a professional content writer to write engaging copy for the products that will not only appreciated by your customers but also boost your SEO rankings. So, work on the custom copy so your prospective customers can find your products quickly.
Most content writers charge based on a per word basis; others also work on a fixed project cost basis. You can hire a professional content writer from freelance marketplaces such as Fiverr, Upwork, Guru, etc. The cost of copywriting can vary from $0.10 to $1.00 per word or more depending on the content writer’s location, skills, and research involved.
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Maintenance
WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform. With one-quarter of online stores running on this fantastic shopping cart, it has an excellent support ecosystem available that you can use when required.
With an intuitive administration panel, extensive documentation, tutorials, guides, and numerous help guides and videos from independent developers and companies, you can find answers to your questions.
It is easy and affordable to find a developer to manage and fix your WooCommerce store. It is crucial to work out a website maintenance plan with a WordPress developer who keeps your WooCommerce store’s software and plugin updated and fix any issues as they arise. Most companies will work on an hourly basis or provide annual maintenance plans. The cost of maintenance plans’ hourly rate ranges from $30- $150 per month or more, depending on the size and frequency of changes required for your online store.
Final eCommerce Web development cost breakdown:
Summing up the eCommerce development time and cost of every stage described, you’ll get an approximate eCommerce development price.
How much does it cost to build an eCommerce store in Toronto, Canada?
| Costs | Shopify | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | $39 to $399 per month | Free |
| Design | $2,500- $30,000 or more | $2,000- $10,000 or more |
| Development | Shopify Apps cost- Free to $50 or more Installation & Customization- $500 to $5000 or more | Plugin cost- $20 to $200 or more Installation & Customization- $500 to $5000 or more |
| Website hosting infrastructure | Hosting & SSL certificate included with the plan Domain- $20-$35 per year (or more for newer domain extensions) | Hosting plans- $17.99 per month or more SSL certificate- $84.99 per year Domain- $20-$35/year (or more for newer domain extensions) |
| Content creation | Per word- $0.10 to $1.00 or more | Per word- $0.10 to $1.00 or more |
| Maintenance | $30-$150 or more per hour | $30-$150 or more per hour |
Conclusion
We hope this blog post helped you to find the answers to your questions for your eCommerce website that you are planning and the various costs associated. Now, do you want to get a quote for your eCommerce development project? Then, contact us for a free eCommerce quote for your project.
