Ecommerce businesses are flourishing in every sector with a huge consumer base. People now prefer online stores for their shopping needs because of the varieties and choices they offer. It is influencing individual sellers or businesses that are ‘selling products’ to bring their offline stores on the internet to target customers who are shopping online. Having an e-commerce website is more than relevant today but building an e-commerce website is a bit tricky. Many sellers and businesses always wonder about the cost for eCommerce website development and how it is going to work. In this post, we will try to get an answer to it.
Ecommerce business is one of the best ways to earn money on the internet and increase the profitability of your offline store. But in order to build one and running successfully, you will need an eCommerce website development partner on your side. Before getting a rough estimate of your website development project from the developers, you should assess your requirements and do a little research yourself to get an idea about the eCommerce website development price in India.
As not all online stores are the same, eCommerce website development cost depends on many factors and varies from one store to another. While you are developing an e-commerce business plan to find out where to start, how to start, and what to consider for your online store, you should determine your goal, factors, and elements you will need during the website development process.
Factors That Influence Cost for Ecommerce Website Development
In your eCommerce business plan, you should include the following factors and elements to decide on your eCommerce website development cost:
Your goals and deliverables
Domain name and hosting
Website design and pages
Ecommerce functionality
SEO for website
Content Management System (CMS)
Database integration
Security
Promotional activities and live chat
Website maintenance
These are some common factors and elements that every eCommerce website needs to consider and integrate to serve its consumers better. With lesser functionality, minimum pages, and a smaller catalog, it will be more affordable to manage your online store than a website with a huge catalog and more functionality. Let’s discuss these things in detail, not in the same order, but yes, we will try to cover everything that you will need to develop a profitable eCommerce store.
Your goals and deliverables
Before you figure out your eCommerce website development cost and process, you need to determine your goals, what exactly you want to deliver, how you want to offer, how you will manage your catalog, and what your expectations from your resources are.
To start with your eCommerce development plan, just answer the following questions based on your business requirements and the idea of process flow:
What kind of eCommerce store do you want to build? Do you want to dropship, sell your own products, or want to have an affiliate marketplace?
What are your shipping options and what will be your delivery model?
How big are your product catalog and their varieties? Do you sell products with different variants?
What are your payment options and checkout process?
What kind of user interface and data management will you need to handle your eCommerce process?
How do you want to promote, market, and deliver your services?
What are your future goals?
What is your eCommerce web development budget?
Answers to these questions will well define your e-commerce business model and what kinds of elements and functionality you will need to start with.
Domain name and hosting
Domain name and hosting are the basic elements of any website and you should also work on these things in the beginning to determine your cost. To build a successful online store brand, you will need a catchy, memorable, and easily pronounced domain name for your website. Finding a domain name that you want for your online store is not an easy task as almost all the popular words and phrases are already taken by other users. You should deal with this issue in advance to decide on a name for your store that is available to register. Also, the cost of your domain name can vary depending on how popular words or phrases you are trying to fit in your domain name.
Now, let us talk about what kind of hosting you will need to manage your database for proper performance and it can cost you from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars depending on your eCommerce project. You will have the following options:
Shared hosting: For a small business with less eCommerce functionality and a smaller catalog, shared-hosting can do the business to handle necessary resources.
VPS or dedicated servers: For a fully-fledged eCommerce business with a bigger consumer base, these are the best options for e-commerce website development. Some eCommerce projects also need multiple dedicated servers to manage multiple databases for smooth functionality. This will definitely increase the cost for eCommerce website development.
Website design and pages
To run a successful online store, you will need a responsive design and easy user interface for better delivery of your services. You need to include all your resources and functionality into responsive design with a clear interface on all devices including smartphones, tablets, and computers. It leaves out the first impression on your potential consumers when they visit it that easily can influence their purchasing decision.
The number of web pages on your eCommerce website will also decide your development cost. There will some static pages like about us, contact us, disclaimer, terms & conditions, and Privacy policy along with product pages, category pages, and checkout page to complete the whole business operation. The more product listings you have, the more pages you will need to generate business leads.
Ecommerce functionality
As you are building an eCommerce website, you will need the usual functionalities of an online store such as shopping cart, customer registration, payment gateway, and checkout processes to complete a generic shopping process. You can pick from the various options available for eCommerce stores based on your requirements and how you want to manage different stages of online shopping for a user-friendly experience.
You will also need to define how you want to manage your catalog on category pages and product pages. There are various styles and options available to represent your products on various pages with multiple functionalities like sorting and filters on different parameters. These all can add to your development cost.
SEO for website
To build a user base with loyal and returning customers, you will first need to bring them for the first time on your website to showcase them what your offers and products are. If your listings won’t show on the first pages on search engine result pages, you are not going to get your customers through organic traffic. This is where search engine optimization can help you get your organic traffic via search results.
Your web development partner can help you implement the best SEO strategies based on different parameters. You can pick SEO packages according to your budget and requirements to implement on your website.
Content Management System (CMS)
You will need an administrative panel to control your resources, catalog, orders, users, and any other data on your website. It lets you make changes on your website front-end without changing your website’s code. There are multiple CMS programs are available for eCommerce management and some popular options are Magento, Drupal, and WooCommerce. The kinds of functionality you need for your eCommerce website will decide which CMS program will best fit in your business model. It is the key to any eCommerce website development and you should be very careful while picking the right one.
Database integration
Database integration can be optional for a website but in the case of eCommerce website development, it is mandatory to store information about your products, orders, and users in a systematic manner. Makes sure that your database structure would be less complex and most of the data and information is handled through automatic processes in real-time. You can create multiple databases to manage customer information and preferences, product management, order management to simplify your database integration. This could cost you a bit more, but will be very helpful in the long run.
Security
As you collect and store user information, payment details, and other sensitive data on an eCommerce website, make sure to install the SSL certificate on your website. The SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) guarantees that your website is secured against the danger and threats of hacker attacks during the server communications through different encryption technologies.
The SSL protocol makes your eCommerce website reliable and trustworthy by ensuring customers that their personal and sensitive information is safe and secure during online shopping. You can get free SSL certificates from some providers but make sure to get the best for your online store for better user experience.
Promotional activities and live chat
To run a successful eCommerce business, you need to interact and offer the best services and deals to generate successful sales. You can implement features like discount coupons and suggestion feeds to improve your conversion rate. You can also include a live chat feature on your eCommerce website where your visitors can directly contact you to get some information or inquiry regarding your products and services. This way you can ensure that the user’s satisfaction is your topmost concern. These things are optional and could cost a bit more in your eCommerce website development but it can guarantee quick success.
Website maintenance
This is like an after support service that could be very handy if you don’t have an in-house team to handle occasional issues and bugs on your website. This also includes the implementation of new features in the future as per your needs. Website maintenance service may cost a little more to your budget, but it is as important as the development process to keep your site in working condition. It is an essential service to maintain positive user experience and shopping behavior.
At conclusion
These are some common factors and elements that decide the eCommerce website development price in India. Depending on your business model, the complexity of your website design, the number of web pages, eCommerce functionality, database structure, and use panel, the cost for eCommerce website development can range from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars. Your team of developers and designers can give you an estimated cost for your eCommerce website development after gathering your requirements.
Building an eCommerce website from scratch can be more costly than using some pre-made templates for eCommerce stores from popular platforms. Your website development partner can help you find some best designs and platforms for your online store.
At Media Search Group, we have a team of qualified and experienced web development experts who can help you design and develop a stunning eCommerce website in your budget. We can also help you with your SEO implementation that is an important part of website development as discussed above. If you want to start an eCommerce website, you can contact us for the cost estimation and further discussion.
Meet Ratan Singh, a dedicated professional blogger and unwavering technology enthusiast. His journey in the world of content writing commenced over seven years ago. With a fervent passion for the latest advancements in technology, gadgets, mobile phones, apps, and social media, Ratan has emerged as a go-to source for all things tech and digital marketing. His analysis of the social media landscape unravels the latest trends and strategies, making him a valuable resource for digital marketers.
