Creating an ecommerce website may look different for every company as it involves multiple variables determined by the business type and its corresponding audience.
Whether you are starting a new online business, shifting a part of your offline business online or simply redesigning your website, it will involve a specific cost that would vary depending on the complexity of your website and the functionalities you need.
In this article, learn what goes into the development and designing of a custom ecommerce website to understand the factors that determine the cost of ecommerce website development.
Cost Determining Factors for Ecommerce Website Development
1. Ecommerce platform
An ecommerce platform helps in creating a website to sell products/services online. The cost may vary depending on the required functionalities, specific business needs and the type of platform you choose (open source, headless, SaaS).
Every platform offers different plugins and extensions, varying degrees of customization and customer support. And some platforms offer more robust functionality than others.
WooCommerce is one of the widely popular, feature-rich, and free open-source ecommerce platforms powered by WordPress. It turns your WordPress website into a fully-equipped online store and offers a complete plugin and theme economy, enabling you to add various functionalities to your website.
You can even opt for paid ecommerce solutions like Shopify (cloud-based) and Magento (self-hosted). If you choose Shopify, the price of an ecommerce platform for a basic website will start from ₹ 1499 (approximately) and may go up to ₹ 23,000 depending on the complexity of your website and the additional functionalities you may need.
2. Domain name
A domain name should be one of the first things to consider while planning an online business. While domain names cannot be brought, they can be leased for a period of one year to as long as 10 years.
The price of a domain name usually depends on the extension (.org, .net, .com, etc.) you choose and the registrar you buy from. For example, Bluehost offers domains with popular extensions like .co.in, .com, and .net at a reasonably affordable price starting from just ₹ 399.
3. Hosting
Once you’ve registered your domain name, you need to find a reliable web host to keep your online store functional 24/7. A web host is a server where all the information related to your store is saved safely.
The cost of hosting depends on multiple factors such as the website traffic, operating system, bandwidth, data center location, type of storage, and others, and may vary across service providers.
Bluehost provides comprehensive WooCommerce Hosting solutions that offer a perfect mix of ecommerce plugins, tools, security, and expert guidance. The price for a single store hosting solution (ideal for new businesses to start selling online) starts from ₹ 449/mo and a multiple store hosting solution (ideal for growing businesses selling online) starts from ₹ 549/mo. These solutions offer some great features like:
- Free speed boosting CDN
- Free SSL certificate
- RazorPay payment gateway
- Pre-installed storefront theme
- Custom discount codes
4. SSL certificate
An SSL certificate authenticates the identity of a website and encrypts the information sent to the server. Sometimes, even search engines use SSL certificates as a ranking factor.
The cost of SSL certificates varies depending on various factors like the warranty level you need, the company and the type of certificate you choose and others.
However, if you opt for Bluehost’s WooCommerce Hosting solutions, you can get a free SSL certificate as a part of the plan.
5. Payment processing costs
Payment processing costs mainly involve the fees incurred when the transactions take place on the ecommerce website. This process is facilitated by a payment gateway (a service that allows businesses to accept payments from customers) and the fee depends on the payment method chosen by any customer.
For example, Bluehost provides RazorPay Payment Gateway integration with its WooCommerce Hosting solutions. You get multiple benefits with RazorPay, like low transaction fee (approximately 2%), easy integration and high performance. Bluehost offers an added advantage – you get credits worth ₹ 1 lakh, meaning, you can accept payments worth ₹ 1 lakh for free. This will be valid only for the first year when you sign up for a RazorPay merchant account via Bluehost.
6. Website costs
A website combines various elements, from the basic themes and design to extensions and plugins. Below we’ve briefly explained some of these elements:
Themes
Website design themes are usually a part of your ecommerce solutions, and you get a wide range of options to choose from. However, if you choose a theme that isn’t a part of your package, you might have to pay an additional amount.
Extensions
Your chosen ecommerce platform may not cover all the features and functionalities you need for your website. Herein, extensions and plugins (which can be free or paid) can help you customize your website and add extra functionalities.
Content
Besides banners, product descriptions, and call-to-action buttons, different pages on the website need corresponding content. And you might have to incur an additional expense for this content development.
Development and design
While the cloud-based platforms can help you build a website with little to no coding experience, you may need a developer and a credible website designing services provider (like Bluehost) to build and design a website with a free open-source platform like WooCommerce. This includes front-end web design, mobile design, UI/UX, and back-end web development.
While the factors mentioned above include mandatory primary features to take a website live, you also need to incur charges for search engine optimization, website maintenance and updates, design elements like brand logo and other things to keep the store running smoothly.
Conclusion
Conclusively, the cost of an ecommerce website development is determined by the choice of ecommerce platform, web hosting, domain name and other related factors. It is recommended to calculate the cost based on how each feature would benefit your business in the long run. For instance, an ecommerce platform that may seem reasonably priced initially may turn out to be costly as your business grows as you may have to incur additional expenses to add functionalities.
Therefore, with so many solutions available, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution that works for everyone. You just need to choose the right combination of all the factors that fit your product(s) and brand properly, and you’re all set to launch your ecommerce store.
