Being the most concerning topic when it comes to building an online store, the total ecommerce development cost cannot be estimated directly and varies from site to site. The variables of associated costs are the reasons. Anyway, businesses can still get prepared within an estimated range.
Before starting, don’t be surprised by these factors’ impacts on the final cost to build an ecommerce website.
- Ecommerce platform/software used: Each platform/software was developed to best suit a set of business features, so they are also different in pricing.
- Website complexity: When talking about web design and functionality, there’s no limitation in complexity. More feature-rich websites go with higher charges. It’s also right for web design.
- Integrated 3rd-party solutions: Similarly, the ecommerce development cost depends on the number of integrated solutions and their providers.
- Outsourcing agency’s location: Hourly rates in countries like the US, the UK are usually much higher than those of Asian countries. However, quality is not compared this way.
I – How Much Does It Cost to Build An Ecommerce Website?
Table of Contents
1.1 Domain name
*Estimated: Start from $10 to $500.
A domain name usually falls into one of two most common types: Top-level domains (.net, .com, .edu, etc.) or Country code top-level domains (.as, .uk, .fr, etc.). Guessed easily, a TLD domain is often more expensive than a ccTLD one.
Whatever type of domain you choose, you can register for one in 2 ways: a brand new domain or an aged domain.
A brand new domain
Depending on which domain registrar you work with and what kind of domain you want to register, a new domain generally costs between $10 to $20 per year. The following table shows the leading registrars’ pricing for a domain name.
Some registrars will offer different annual rates based on how long you register a domain for, so you may be able to save money by committing to a few years upfront instead of paying annually.
An aged domain
An aged domain is a registered domain but isn’t renewed after the contract ends, now available for registration.
The price of a pre-registered domain generally varies between $20 to $500 based on its popularity.
The upside of using an aged domain includes SEO benefits from good site metrics of that domain like Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA). However, you’d better carefully examine those benefits when purchasing this kind of domain.
1.2 Web hosting
| Small project | Medium project | Big project |
| $10 – $300 / month | $300 – $1000 / month | $1000 – $2000 / month |
The website files are allocated on a remote server called the host. Hosting service, hence, is vital to make your ecommerce site available and accessible on the Internet. There are 3 options of hosting servers to select from: shared server, virtual private server, and dedicated server.
- Shared-hosting: Many sites are hosted on one server, which means your site will share resources with other sites. Activities of a site within the shared server can affect others with more risks of hacking, virus, or blacklisting.
- Virtual private server (VPS): You still share one server and resources with other sites. However, the technology includes several isolated virtual machines on a single physical server, so you still have control at your root level. This is a quite good option for e-commerce website development.
- Dedicated server: Your website is hosted on one server and does not share with any other sites. This option provides you with full control over the server and the highest security. With these features, it’s usually used for big portals with massive traffic.
1.3 SSL certificate
*Estimated: Usually range between $0 and $700.
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate has become a must to enhance security for websites nowadays, especially ecommerce sites. The technology allows browsers and servers to transmit and receive in a secure way with HTTPS. In modern browsers like Chrome, a non-HTTPs website will be marked as “not secure.”
In many cases, the cost of an SSL certificate is covered in the hosting fee. If separated, there are many price levels to get one, depending on your hosting provider or Certificate Authority (CA) and your needs. For detailed pricing information, you can visit popular addresses SSL.com, Comodo, DigiCert, etc.
1.4 UX & UI design
Generally, there are 2 ways to design an ecommerce website: using a ready-made theme or creating a unique custom design.
Ecommerce website design theme
*Estimated: Start from $0 to $200.
Using a ready-made ecommerce website theme is the simplest and fastest way to design your website. Themeforest, for example, is a huge store of thousands of ecommerce themes and templates for different ecommerce platforms, starting from $17. Ready-made themes are very diverse in terms of price. Whatever budget you have, you can easily find satisfying options, from free to premium themes.
Available themes do not require any development time and can be applied instantly right after you purchase them. For this reason, many small startups opt for this cost-saving solution on the development stage.
GRASP 73+ Free and Premium Themes for Magento 2 to kick off your store!
Custom ecommerce web design
Average designing cost offered by agencies:
| Small project | Medium project | Big project |
| < $5000 | $10,000 – $20,000 | > $20,000 |
While many websites can use the same pre-made theme, a custom design gives your online store a unique look and custom functionality as close as your intentions. In most cases, a custom design is always better for branding than a pre-made one to help your online store stand out from others.
The custom designing cost depends on how engaging you want the website’s UX to be. As of 2020, the ecommerce website design cost can reach as high as $100,000 and even higher, decided by the following factors:
- Number of web pages
- Level of design customization
- Web interactivity
- Web responsiveness
- Amount of branded materials provided by you
Hiring an ecommerce web design agency often comes with a higher cost level than working with a freelance designer, whose service charge can start from $1000. If you want to tighten your web design budget, consider hiring a freelancer on platforms like Upwork, Freelancer.com, or opting for a professional agency.
1.5 Ecommerce platform/software
Fundamentally, an ecommerce platform functions as the backbone of your online store, allowing businesses to manage their online sales operations with a core business process. Throughout the world, there are a bunch of ecommerce platforms and each one is most suited to a set of business features. Therefore, they do not come at the same cost.
This section breaks down the cost of the two most widely compared: Magento and Shopify.
| Magento | Shopify |
| Community Edition: $0
Enterprise Edition: $22,000+ / year Commerce Cloud: $40,000+ / year |
Basic Shopify: $29 / month
Shopify: $79 / month Advanced Shopify: $299 / month |
Magento
Magento is one of the leading ecommerce platforms most preferred by middle-size to large businesses. While Magento Community Edition is free to use with all necessary ecommerce features, the Enterprise and Commerce Cloud edition charge companies annually based on their gross sales revenue of the year. We agree that they’re not low prices. However, Magento’s totally worth the money if the business has a huge inventory, complicated products, or manages several stores or brands.
Breakdown all must-know Magento Costs to build a basic website to a custom one.
Shopify
For online stores that offer simple products, it’s recommended to choose the $79 or $299 option of Shopify’s pricing plan. And as this is a hosted platform, there’s no need to care about hosting service or hosting fee.
Shopify seems much cheaper than Magento at first glance, but it will charge your business transaction fee for external payment gateways. In return, Magento offers richer core functionalities and more robust inventory management.
Quick compare: Magento vs. Shopify – Which one is suitable for you?
1.6 Ecommerce functionalities
Add-ons/Extension
Fundamentally, the core feature set of ecommerce platforms is enough to handle a primary business process but cannot satisfy every custom business needs. For that reason, ecommerce websites usually install third-party add-ons/extensions to expand ecommerce features.
Like ready-made themes, an extension allows you to configure it right after installed, which wastes no more customization time. Depending on the CMS you use, you can easily find compatible extensions. For example, Magento Marketplace provides a huge store of 3,516 extensions developed for Magento websites.
Some simple extensions are free, others will charge you some money, usually from hundreds of dollars. However, super feature-rich extensions or extension packages might cost thousands of dollars.
Custom development
Custom development comes to add features or functionalities to your website without the use of third-party extensions. There are no boundaries in terms of features, cost, and time in custom development, depending on your scope and requirements. Thereby, it’s difficult to set a specific range of the final ecommerce development cost.
BONUS CONTENT: 29+ Critical Features of a Well-Functioning Ecommerce Site.
1.7 Third-party integrations
Operating an online business involves not only inventory and order management. There are more things to cover, such as marketing, customer relationship management, and more. Businesses can integrate relevant third-party solutions into the ecommerce sites to fulfill different ecommerce management needs from one center.
Here are some most popular integrations, examples for each type, and price ranges:
- Shipping management software (e.g., Shipping Easy, Shippo): $0 – $500+ per month
- Customer relationship management system (e.g., Salesforce, Zoho): $12 – $300 per month
- Live chat (e.g., LiveChat, Proprofs): $0 – $50 per month
- Email and marketing automation system (e.g., Mailchimp, Hubspot): $0 – $3200 per month
- …
The explanation to 10 Critical Ecommerce Integrations to get your business.
1.8 Project management
Average project management cost:
| Small project | Medium project | Big project |
| Up to $5000 | $6000 – $20,000 | > $20,000 |
When working with a professional ecommerce web development company, there are developers in a project. In addition, the project manager’s involvement is necessary to take control of the process and make sure every task is completed within their timeline. Accordingly, project management cost also contributes to the total cost to build an ecommerce website.
II – B2B Ecommerce Development Cost Breakdown
(Source: Ionos)
Doing a B2B business very differs from running a B2C model: the one targets organizational customers, while the other serves individual customers. Besides the mentioned associated costs, an ecommerce website oriented B2B usually comes with more exceptional features, such as:
- Restrict access
- Manage corporates
- B2B complex pricing
- Lighten wholesales order placement
- …
When it comes to B2B ecommerce website development, those features might cost you in different ways, like under custom development costs or charges for B2B extensions.
If your website is based on Magento Commerce (Magento Enterprise Edition), you can take advantage of some fundamental B2B functionalities and out-of-the-box features supported by the platform. As mentioned, you will have to pay at least $22,000 per year for the ownership of a Magento Commerce site. In case your business can’t afford this price, BSS Commerce can make a B2B site more affordable by our Magento 2 B2B Module, starting from $599 at one payment.
Get estimated cost for B2B Ecommerce Development Cost if you use Magento!
III – Let’s Sum Everything Up
After all, there’s no exact answer to the question “How much does it cost to build an ecommerce website?”. The cost breakdown makes more sense in helping businesses to estimate their ecommerce website cost.
Share your ideas and requirements with an E-commerce Web Developer to estimate your project.
IV – How Can BSS Commerce Help to Build Your Ecommerce Site?
Building an ecommerce website is as important as laying the bricks to build a house. On top of that, a reliable and experienced partner is the best mechanic to handle the work. When it comes to ecommerce web development, BSS Commerce is one of the leading agencies in Vietnam to get it covered.
4.1 Ecommerce Web development
With 8 years of experience in the industry, we’ve nourished dedicated teams with excellent humans who have worked on 500+ projects and delivered experience-driven ecommerce websites that drive conversions.
(Café du Cycliste – One of BSSCommerce’s close clients)
As long as you need an online store, BSS Commerce will tailor our Magento Development Service to your business needs and keep everything affordable within your budget.
EXPLORE BSS Commerce’s on-going support for Magento Development Service right now!
4.2 Progressive Web App development
Progressive Web App (PWA), a more mobile-friendly version of an ecommerce website, is shaping the future of mobile commerce.
Conquering mobile shoppers seems hopeless with a responsive website, but an app is costly and wastes much time to complete. PWA technology solves this problem with a more engaging ecommerce experience and a new UX/UI level across devices, especially on mobile.
(PWA examples)
In BSS Commerce, we also help with creating progressive web apps from scratch customized to each business. This ensures our clients can take advantage of cutting-edge ecommerce solutions to optimize their businesses.
If you are interested in Progressive Web App for your business, don’t hesitate to CONTACT US and let us know. Our consultants are always here to have you covered.
