How much does an ecommerce website cost

How much it costs to build an online store. Price and timelines.

The e-commerce market has been growing fast for the last 20 years. This is driven by the growing number of Internet users, the development of online payment technologies, the influence of social media on users and the simplification of delivery services.

Moreover, since 2019 we have seen steady growth in the sale of goods through online stores. Even despite the pandemic, which hit retail hard.

Below is a chart of global online retail sales with a forecast up to 2025 (according to the portal Emarketer)

If your business sells any kind of goods, an online store is simply a must.
Advantages of having an online store:

• the ability to sell products across the country and abroad;
• no need to rent retail space;
• no need to involve a large number of staff;
• the ability to sell any number of products;
• an online store sells around the clock;
• growth in the number of regular buyers.

We have looked at the advantages, but what about the cost of building an online store?
Further in the article we will cover this in more detail.

The price of building a turnkey online store

In the table we will show which types of work are included in building an online store and their cost. We did not include the cost of internet marketing in the calculation, everything there is individual and depends on the competition and the budget.

Next we will look in detail at the factors that affect the price of building an online store.

The factors that affect the price of building an online store

In this section we will look at the main factors that affect the cost of building an online store

Market research and competitor audit

The zero stage of building an online store. Why zero? Because not all studios and agencies that build online stores include it in the project process. And that is a pity! The absence of this information can lead to negative consequences for the future store. You can get far fewer visitors to the site than you would like. Or, worse still, get none at all!

This stage does not include full-scale market research. It assumes that you have already studied your products and advantages from a marketing point of view.

Market research and analysis when building an online store includes studying competitors' websites and the target audience we plan to sell the products to.

1. Audit of competitors' websites.
   It is needed to get information, even before the prototyping stage, about the approximate budgets for the further promotion of the online store and the various "hooks" competitors use to warm up their visitors and nudge them towards a purchase.
   It includes the study and evaluation of:
   • pages of competitors' websites;
   • the traffic of competitors' websites and their most popular pages;
   • the link profile of competitors' websites;
   • which client acquisition channels competitors use;
   • the marketing decisions competitors use to increase sales and keep visitors;
   • the amount and quality of the text and photo content.
2. Target audience analysis.
   It is needed to get an idea of the needs, fears and objections of future clients. To develop a unique selling proposition (USP). And also to understand the overall visual style of the online store.
   Studying the target audience for B2C includes the following data: gender, age group, financial situation, social status, their needs, fears and objections. For the B2B segment: status (company executives, owners of medium or small businesses, managers and so on), their needs, fears and objections.

Creating a prototype and UI/UX design

The first stage of building an online store includes prototyping and UI/UX design. It is developed based on the brand book (name, logo, main colours, font) and the target audience the site is being built for.

1. Prototyping the pages of an online store
   It is needed to understand how the elements will be placed on the pages of the site. Where on the page the heading will be, where the call-to-action button will be, which blocks the page will contain (reviews, services, a descriptive block, a feedback form and so on).
2. UI/UX design
   UI/UX design is the combination of 2 areas of digital product design – UI design and UX design.
   UI (user interface) is the design of the visual appeal of the pages and elements of the website.
   UX (user experience) is how convenient your website will be to use, how easily a visitor can reach the goal they came to your resource for.
   UX design is especially important when building an online store.
   Not all designers have these two skills developed equally well.
   So when developing the design for an online store choose a designer who has extensive experience in UX design.

Basic and extended functionality of an online store: what it includes and how much it costs

In this section we will look at the basic (mandatory) functionality of an online store. And the extended functionality that lets you make your site more convenient both for the user and for yourself.

Basic (mandatory) functionality of an online store

1. Responsive markup. The website must be built in such a way that it looks attractive and correct both on computers and on mobile devices.
2. Product list page. It is like the window display of a "live" shop. Here all your products are presented and you can browse and pick the one you need.
3. Product card. It is like the product itself in a "live" shop. It contains images of the product from different angles, the price, specifications, a description, reviews from those who bought it, a video review and the "Buy" and "Buy in one click" buttons.
4. Product search. Needed to find the right product by name quickly.
5. Product sorting. The ability to sort products by price, rating, popularity and novelty.
6. Product filter. Filtering can contain plenty of parameters (brands, sizes, colours, seasonality, technical specifications and so on). Filtering, like sorting, is needed to find the product you need conveniently in an online store.
7. Product rating and reviews. Most people are socially oriented, so they read reviews of the product they are about to buy. That is why the rating and visitor reviews of products must be there.
8. SEO functionality. It is needed for the search engine optimisation of an online store. Without optimisation it is very hard to promote a site in search engines like Google or Yandex.
9. Online chat. In case of any difficulty a visitor to the site will be able to ask a question quickly in the online chat. This will help you not to lose a potential client.
10. Connecting analytics. Without analytics you will not be able to understand how many visitors come to the site, the channels they come from, whether the site's traffic is growing and so on. For an online store analytics is very important!
11. The admin panel of an online store. A convenient admin area for the site is a must. The more convenient it is, the less time you will spend working with content. And as we know, time is money!

Extended online store functionality

1. Multilingual support. If needed, your online store can be in several languages.
2. The user's personal account. It extends what a visitor can do on the site. It builds the visitor's loyalty to the site. Through a personal account a user can view the history of their purchases, save a delivery address, receive personal offers and so on.
3. Product comparison. Product comparison on a site is not mandatory but is a convenient addition for the user. It lets them compare the technical specifications of products and pick the right one.
4. Sending news and special offers. It builds client loyalty. Plus you can increase sales with email newsletters.
5. The «Request a call from the site» widget. It offers a visitor a call back within a certain time and automatically connects them with your manager. It helps keep visitors on the site and convert them into clients.
6. Integrations with third-party inventory systems. If a third-party inventory system is used, it can be integrated with the online store.
7. 360 ° product view. A fairly labour-intensive but useful addition to the product card. With it a visitor can examine the product from every angle.
8. A PWA version of the website (progressive web application). This technology lets you load a website onto a phone and use it like a regular mobile app. A client will be able to go straight to your site from an icon on their phone. There will be the option to send notifications. You do not have to upload it to Google Play Market and the AppStore, it works faster than a site and works without internet. A very cheap alternative to a mobile app!

Online store testing

Testing an online store is the set of actions aimed at finding errors in the work of the website and mismatches between the markup and the design.
Testing is divided into 3 stages:

1. Markup testing
2. Functionality testing
3. Testing on the client's server

The cost of testing an online store is from 100 to 5500 USD. It depends on the scope of the project.

How much text and photo content for an online store costs

Photo content is one of the most important elements of an online store. Your visitors must see the highest quality product images to get the visual stimulus to buy.
Text content helps you tell the advantages of a product and describe it in a more attractive way. The website should also have proper headings and clear texts that are interesting to visitors and help promote your store in the search results.
It is very important that the photo and text content are unique.

How much photo content for an online store costs

Here everything depends on the level and pricing of the photographer, as well as on the number of photos that need to be put on the website. For 5 photos of one product for an online store photographers may ask from 2 to 30 dollars.
Of course, you can take photo content from the websites of manufacturers or competitors, but you need to be careful because the photos may be protected by copyright. And of course these will not be unique images, which is bad for website promotion.

How much text content for an online store costs

Depending on the level of the copywriter, the price of writing a text will be from 1 to 10 dollars per 1000 characters. And that is only Ukrainian or Russian. Writing texts in English costs 2-3 times more.
For product cards you can take texts from the manufacturers' websites. But descriptive texts on the rest of the site's pages must be unique, so that it is easier to promote them in search engines.

On-page SEO optimisation of an online store: what it includes and how much it costs

On-page optimisation of a website helps search engines understand its topic correctly and index it. Also, without on-page optimisation it is extremely hard to promote a site in the search results.
In this section we will briefly explain what on-page SEO optimisation of an online store includes and how much it will cost.

1. Building the semantic core for a website. The semantic core is a set of words and phrases (key phrases) that reflect the topic of the website. The most important stage of on-page website optimisation.
2. Clustering the collected semantic core and distributing it across the pages of the site. Clustering is the grouping of key phrases by similarity. The grouped keywords are then distributed across the pages of the site.
3. Optimising the Title, Description and H1-H3 meta tags and image alt tags. These meta tags are needed so that search engines understand the topic and the content of the online store pages correctly. They are written based on the collected semantic core.
4. Optimising the URLs of the online store pages. Needed so that search engines understand the topic of the site page better.
5. Optimising the robots.txt file. This file serves as an instruction for search robots on which pages of the site to index and which not to.
6. Optimising the sitemap.xml file. This file exists so that the bot sees which new pages have appeared on the site and how often the pages are updated.

The cost of on-page SEO optimisation of an online store depends and ranges from 300 to 8000 dollars.

How much a domain, hosting and technical support of an online store cost

1. Domain
   This is the address of the site. The cost of a new domain is from 5 to 100 dollars. When buying, do not forget to choose the right domain zone. It is highly advisable to name the domain the same as your brand.
2. Hosting
   This is a service for renting server resources or renting a whole server to host and store the website.
   If we compare an online store with a regular shop, then the domain is its address and the hosting is the plot of land where it will be placed.
   The right choice of hosting determines both the stability of the online store's continuous operation and its speed. Good hosting for an online store will cost from 200 to 2000 dollars per year.
3. Technical support
   This is a set of activities aimed at keeping an online store working stably and correctly. It includes both work with the server where the site is hosted and work with the online store itself (core updates and so on). The cost of technical support for an online store is from 100 to 3000 dollars per month.

How much content management of an online store costs

This includes filling the online store with content (images and text information) provided by the owner.

A content manager's work costs from 10 to 15 dollars per hour.

Good luck and big sales!