Ecommerce is one of the fastest growing businesses in the world. It’s expected to grow by 15% by 2020 and reach $4.5 trillion in sales worldwide. If you want to start your own ecommerce business, it’s important to know how to build a website that can attract customers.
A good ecommerce site has a strong design but also has an intuitive layout that makes it easy for customers to navigate the site and find what they’re looking for. The best way to do this is by using user-friendly navigation menus along with clear product descriptions that include images of each item so customers can see what they’re buying before making a purchase decision.
What is An Ecommerce Website?
An eCommerce website is your online business home where customers order for your products via an electronic device. This could be physical products (shoes), digital products (eBooks), or services (Web Design).
When you’re building an ecommerce website, there are a lot of things to consider. You need to think about the design, how your products will be displayed, and how people will find out about your brand. You also need to figure out how you’ll get paid and what kind of payment options you’ll offer.
But before all that, you need to decide on whether or not you want to build the site yourself or use a platform like Shopify or Squarespace. If you’re just starting out and don’t have much technical knowledge, it’s probably best to go with one of these platforms—they’re made for easy set up and customization. But if you want full control over everything from front-end code to back-end administration and everything in between, then building from scratch is probably more up your alley—but it will take more time and effort.
Most traditional businesses in Nigeria need your presence before transactions can take place, thereby limiting your sales. Ecommerce has become part of our daily lives. We can see this in how we make orders online, use credit cards, and more.
How Much Does It Cost To Build An eCommerce Website?
On average eCommerce website design & development prices range from $10,000 to $250,000 or more. The website cost will ultimately be driven by the complexity of the project, the platform you select (Shopify, WordPress, Magento, etc.) the eCommerce features you need, and the type of eCommerce website company you select (U.S. based, or overseas, in-house, or outsourced).
Features of an Ecommerce Website
An ecommerce website should have the following features:
- Checkout process: You need to provide your customers with a clear and simple way to purchase your products. An effective checkout process will increase sales and reduce the number of abandoned carts.
- Product pages: Product pages should be well-designed and include all important information about the product. The page should also have reviews, shipping information, and social sharing buttons so that users can easily share it with their friends on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
- Categories: Different categories help you organize your products into groups which makes it easier for users to find what they’re looking for if they’re browsing by category instead of searching for individual items one by one through Google/Bing search engines or through some other kind of directory system (eBay).
eCommerce Website Pricing Factors:
| eCommerce Pricing Factor | Small Business | Mid-Size Business | Enterprise Organization |
| Website Design / Graphics | $5,000 | $15,000 | $35,000 |
| Back-End Programming | $2,000 | $25,000 | $75,000 |
| 3rd Party Integrations | $500 | $8,000 | $20,000 |
| Data Imports | $0 | $5,000 | $10,000 |
| Content Management System | $2500 | $20,000 | $50,000 |
| Website Hosting | $500 / year | $6,000 / year | $10,000 / year |
| eCommerce Website Maintenance | $3,000 / year | $12,000 / year | $60,000 / year |
| SEO Services | $12,000 / year | $50,000 / year | $120,000 / year |
Things to Consider Before Creating an Ecommerce Website
The actual eCommerce website cost is a large part of the decision-making process. However, you want to ensure you’re actually choosing an eCommerce solution that can meet your business needs. Plus, if you outline what you need now, you won’t end up paying for anything extra or need to purchase add-ons down the road.
1. What type of online store are you expecting to have?
The type of online store you’re envisioning is an important factor in the building process. A store that sells products is different than one that sells services. If you’re planning to sell products, approximately how many different products or models will you include in your online store? Are you selling to other businesses (B2B) or to consumers (B2C)? Be as specific as you can during this portion of the planning process. Some services or products may have different needs for features in your online store. These needs will help you narrow down the list of ecommerce platforms to consider. For example, will you need a store with multiple languages? Or will you need a store that has separate login capabilities?
2. Do you plan to sell your products online? Or, do you already have a brick-and-mortar store?
Many brick-and-mortar retailers are adding an online store, especially in 2020. Selling products online in addition to having a physical storefront allows small businesses to go global if they wish and/or provides customers an option of buying online and picking up in-store (BOPIS). Either of these options can expand a business’ reach, but it’s also something you’ll want to keep in mind when looking for an ecommerce solution.
Selling products online also means managing inventory and handling shipping (more on this in a bit). If you’ve already got an inventory management system that works for you, look for an eCommerce platform that will integrate with it — unless you’re willing to use a new solution that’s already a part of the platform.
3. What is your ecommerce development budget?
Once you begin researching eCommerce solutions, it’s really easy to get sidetracked by all of the different custom design and features options. This is why it’s important to nail down your eCommerce development budget ahead of time.
What features do you absolutely need? Which add-ons would be nice to have? Create your list and stick to it so you stay within your budget.
4. What are your shipping options?
It’s time to think about the shipping options you want to offer once your online store opens. What is your capacity to handle shipping needs? Will you outsource shipping or manage it in-house? Will you have global shipping options? It’s up to you what you want to offer. Additionally, you’ll want to make similar considerations when it comes to the payment options in your online store.
Domain Name
The domain name is the website address that customers will type into their browser to access your store. For example, if you have a website like http://www.example.com, then your domain name would be example. The cost of buying a new domain varies depending on where you purchase it from (i.e., GoDaddy vs Bluehost). The average cost for a new domain name registration is about $12 per year; however, some can be as low as $4 or $5 per year and others are much higher depending on the extension used (.com vs .co) or if there are other characters added to the end of it such as .net or .info etc.
Web Hosting
Web hosting is the place where your website files are stored. It’s one of the most important parts of your ecommerce website, because it’s where all the files that make up your store and its content will be stored.
Your web host is basically like a big remote server that holds all of your data for you and serves them to people on the internet when they visit your site. For example, if someone visits an ecommerce site hosted on HostGator, their computer will ask “Where is this file called ‘awesome-product1.jpg’?” In response, HostGator sends back a copy of awesome-product1.jpg from its servers which are located somewhere else in another state or country (or even continent).
SSL Certificate
SSL Certificate is one of the most important things to consider when building a website. It is also known as HTTPS and it stands for secure socket layer. It is basically a security measure that encrypts the data sent from your website to the browser.
As you know, when information is transferred over the internet, it travels in plain text and can be intercepted by hackers who want to steal confidential information like credit card details or passwords. This is where SSL comes into play by encrypting this data so that only those with permission can view it. In short, SSL allows users of your website to remain anonymous while paying for products or services online
Home Page Design
The Home Page Design section is one of the most important parts of your ecommerce website. It includes the logo, navigation bar, product images, and videos. The main goal of this section is to make a great first impression on your visitors by providing them with clear information about who you are and what kind of products or services you offer them.
A good home page design should be able to communicate all these elements in an organized manner so that visitors can find all relevant information quickly without having to navigate through other pages on your site.
Payment Processing Costs
Payment processing is an important part of every ecommerce site. You want to make sure your customers can easily checkout and pay for their purchases—but what’s the cost involved?
There are many different ways to process payments for your online store. Some popular options include PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, and Authorize.net. The costs vary depending on which processor you choose; but generally speaking, they charge 2%-3% per transaction (plus various other fees).
Store Theme and Designs
Store theme and designs are the most important part of your store. You can get a free store theme or hire a designer to create one for you.
If you want to keep it simple and cheap, then use an existing template for your store theme. There are plenty of good themes available for free in the Shopify app marketplace, so why pay someone else?
A premium theme will cost between $100-300 depending on its features and complexity. This is generally more money than hiring a freelancer directly, but not as much as hiring an agency would cost.
You could also try creating your own store’s design from scratch using HTML/CSS (HyperText Markup Language/Cascading Style Sheets).
Add-ons and Extensions
Add-ons and extensions are used to add new features to your website. These include shopping carts, payment gateways, and customer relationship management (CRM) software. Some common add-ons include:
- Shopping cart: The most basic add-on is a shopping cart. This allows you customers to browse your products and make purchases online with ease. These can range from the free Shopify app store versions all the way up through custom-built ecommerce platforms costing hundreds or thousands of dollars per month.
- Payment gateway: A payment gateway allows you accept payments online through credit cards or other forms of payment like PayPal or Google Checkout. You’ll need this if you want people to be able to purchase items on your site without having to contact you first through email or phone calls with their card information in hand (which isn’t exactly secure).
The average cost for these types of features ranges anywhere from $5-$20 per month depending on which ones they are using as well as what type of hosting package they have chosen when starting up their project.”
Product Pages
Product pages have a lot of moving parts to them. You need to create a design that’s intuitive for your customers, ensure the content is informative and engaging, and optimize it for search engines.
But what about the actual cost of building these pages? We’ll dig into each item in more detail below, but here are some general rules of thumb:
Cart & Checkout Process
The cart and checkout process is the most important part of an ecommerce website. It should be easy to use, have a smooth checkout process, and have a good cart abandonment rate. The cart abandonment rate is how many carts are abandoned when customers don’t complete their purchase. A good conversion rate means that you are getting your potential customers to buy from you by increasing the number of people who complete their purchases on your site.
Third Party API’s Integration
API integration is the process of integrating a third-party application into your website. It is an important part of any ecommerce website as it helps in integrating payment gateways, shipping carriers and marketing automation software. APIs are used to connect with other applications and services. For example, if you want to use Stripe as your payment gateway, then you need their API integrated onto your website or platform so that users can pay via Stripe.
Cost To Build A Ecommerce Website is $15000
You might have found it difficult to find a specific cost to build an ecommerce website.
The reason behind this is that there are many factors involved in determining the cost of building your own custom ecommerce website. The main factors include:
- the features and functionalities needed on the site;
- the design of the site; and
- the development of your custom e-commerce project
In conclusion,
We hope this article has given you a better understanding of how much it costs to build an ecommerce website. If you’re interested in learning more about the cost of building a website, head over to our blog where we have tons of helpful tips and tricks to help you save money on your next project.
