Advice on E-Commerce Website Costs

jackieo2008

Hi
I am looking at getting a site done for an online clothing shop. I don't really know anyone not directly involved in this business (i.e. someone that won't try to sell me their services and just give me advice!) so am putting it out here!
I will want several sub product categories on the website (approx 20-25 brands). The total product range will be somewhere between 600-700 products, so a decent search facility will need to be built in. I want to have pictures and text/specs loaded for each item. Obviously it will need to have Paypal, Visa etc. payment options. I have an old website that I would like to revamp for this and keep the domain name. Any advice on how much I should expect to be quoted for this? My original website cost about 2k a few years ago but needs a lot of work, its really basic, doesn't look great, is limited with the amount of products I can list and things have moved on a lot in terms of functionality.
Am going out to get quotes from Enterprise Board recommended web companies. Can anyone tell me what range I should expect for quotes?
Many thanks.
Jack

KonFusion

Can you provide a link to a site that might be similar to what you have in mind?

Zascar

Some people would disagree, but I think you'd be mad to go for anything other than www.shopify.com - gets you set up in minutes with a really excellent online shop, looks and works great with inbuilt payment facilities etc. All you have to do is add the products and focus on your business and growing sales - not spend moths trying to get the site right.

Yes they take a % but considering you'd spend many thousands on trying to get your own site anywhere near as good, it's a great way to start cheaply and get a great system.

jackieo2008

Here is an example of the type of site I want to go for:

http://www.lightinthebox.com/

Content would be completely different....my girlfriend is the expert on that!

I'm prepared to pay a third party to get it up and running but would need to be able to edit independently, run stats etc. without going back to the person that put the site up. My old site that I want to recycle is on cube cart so would want to stay with that.

KonFusion

jackieo2008 wrote: »

My old site that I want to recycle is on cube cart so would want to stay with that.

Having never used cube cart I couldn't supply an accurate quote.

However I'd suggest getting a 3rd party that is familiar with cube cart to do the work, otherwise there is the possibility that the company will outsource the work which isn't always necessarily a bad thing, but it can mean they end up charging more because their profit margin will generally be lower, or their response times to calls etc will be slower because they're mediating with someone who may not be readily available, or could be working in a different time zone.

It can also mean that they will include in the quote the time it takes them to get familiar with cube cart, which isn't really what you're paying for.

jackieo2008

KonFusion wrote: »

It can also mean that they will include in the quote the time it takes them to get familiar with cube cart, which isn't really what you're paying for.

Yes, agree with that. What sort of detail would I need to give/get in terms of getting a quote to ensure I have factored in all costs. For example, I would want the 700 or so product images and prices loaded as part of the set up. Is this an extra cost or do I need to specify that in particular? How do I make sure the company supports cube cart?
Thanks

TheWaterboy

I have a bit of experience in this so ill give you my two cents.

I am currently building a clothes related ecommerce website for my wife. I also gave a quote to build another clothes related websote about 6 months ago. Similiar setup to what you required. I think the quote I gave was 3.5K and the Client eventually turned me down as he said he could get it done for 1K. I said that is fine - I heard on the grape vine then that the website was never launched and he got nothing but untold hardship for his 'cheap' alternative. He had also received 3 other quotes ranging from 4K to 10K.

I have probably put 40 hours work so far into my site - And so far that only includes the database design and the admin work to allow the management of everything. I haven't started the actual customer facing website yet. It gets complicated when you are factoring categories, sizes, colours, shipping and discounts into it.

So you have two alternatives - be prepared to stump up a significant amount of cash for a bespoke solution or as another poster suggested try something like Shopify. There is also the Open Source alternative like Cube Cart. Also remember - you pay for what you get. So if someone quotes your 1K for an online clothes store they are either going to give you a website with little features or have seriously underestimated what is involved.

Hope this helps - but don't get disheartened because of cost. There are plenty of cheaper alternatives that will allow you to sell your clothes. Once that starts you will have money to invest in improving the website and adding all the fancy stuff!

doopa

Also interested in this subject:

Anyone got any advice on which e-commerce site to go with that would tie in well with PoS systems, or are they normally kept separate?

Mostly looking to sell small packages in a warehouse setting, but could be expanded to food stuffs in the future.

doopa

TheWaterboy wrote: »

I am currently building a clothes related ecommerce website for my wife. I also gave a quote to build another clothes related websote about 6 months ago. Similiar setup to what you required. I think the quote I gave was 3.5K and the Client eventually turned me down as he said he could get it done for 1K. I said that is fine - I heard on the grape vine then that the website was never launched and he got nothing but untold hardship for his 'cheap' alternative. He had also received 3 other quotes ranging from 4K to 10K.

So you have two alternatives - be prepared to stump up a significant amount of cash for a bespoke solution or as another poster suggested try something like Shopify. There is also the Open Source alternative like Cube Cart. Also remember - you pay for what you get. So if someone quotes your 1K for an online clothes store they are either going to give you a website with little features or have seriously underestimated what is involved.

Hope this helps - but don't get disheartened because of cost. There are plenty of cheaper alternatives that will allow you to sell your clothes. Once that starts you will have money to invest in improving the website and adding all the fancy stuff!

4K definitely sounds on the low end of the scale.

jackieo2008

I'm lacking in experience to do this from scratch and don't have the time to dedicate to it either as I work full time, so getting the site up and running would have to go out to someone to do completely. The maintenance end of it will be manageable once its up and running.

So, if anyone quotes me under 2k, its not likely to be a realistic quote to get the whole shebang done??

Should I be expecting to pay much more than 4k - 4.5k (which I thought was a realistic estimate from my perspective based on prior experience)?

maxmarmalade

There are so many shopping frameworks now, I definitely wouldn't build from scratch. The only one I've used is open cart, which I find good. Shopify meant to be good too.

If someone says they can do it for 2k and will be customizing something like Shopify, then it's realistic. All they will be doing is creating an original theme.

What? Oh Rly!

Curious, why are you building the site from scratch? There a multitude of great platforms available today with nearly everything baked in as you know? Why reinvent the wheel...

TheWaterboy wrote: »

I have a bit of experience in this so ill give you my two cents.

I am currently building a clothes related ecommerce website for my wife. I also gave a quote to build another clothes related websote about 6 months ago. Similiar setup to what you required. I think the quote I gave was 3.5K and the Client eventually turned me down as he said he could get it done for 1K. I said that is fine - I heard on the grape vine then that the website was never launched and he got nothing but untold hardship for his 'cheap' alternative. He had also received 3 other quotes ranging from 4K to 10K.

I have probably put 40 hours work so far into my site - And so far that only includes the database design and the admin work to allow the management of everything. I haven't started the actual customer facing website yet. It gets complicated when you are factoring categories, sizes, colours, shipping and discounts into it.

So you have two alternatives - be prepared to stump up a significant amount of cash for a bespoke solution or as another poster suggested try something like Shopify. There is also the Open Source alternative like Cube Cart. Also remember - you pay for what you get. So if someone quotes your 1K for an online clothes store they are either going to give you a website with little features or have seriously underestimated what is involved.

Hope this helps - but don't get disheartened because of cost. There are plenty of cheaper alternatives that will allow you to sell your clothes. Once that starts you will have money to invest in improving the website and adding all the fancy stuff!

Mister Man

I'd recommend finding someone to make a one-off theme. You'll need to spend some time with the eCommerce software, but once you get it, you'll be able to put up the items yourself. Granted, that'll take some time, but over a month or two period, you could have it up and running. An alternative to the whole thing, is recruiting a partner for the website, someone who can setup this stuff, and cut them in on a share of the profit.

Yana Mykhailyk

The price of building a eecomerce website depends of many factors. The main are MVP features and admin panel featured. This article has more information.

shawnjames20

You can contact me here. We are affordable custom website design company who offers ecommerce web development services at minimal rates.

Limerick_dude

I presume for the 600-700 products you are going to supply all of the images for the products in the correct format with all of the detail required? If that is the case (if not expect to pay a lot lot more) and say you take an average of 10 mins to upload a product with images, sizes variations, colours, descriptions etc will take approx 120 hours and thats just for products - build in the brands / layouts configure the payment gateway, configure the theme, configure the site, test functionality etc.

Any decent company will charge at a minimum €50 and up to €100 per hour so just for products at the €50 rate you'd be €6k - remember you get what you pay for.

AliceN

The overall cost of a custom website development could start from $1500 to $6000 for an average-sized eCommerce business. It's only up to you whether to spend money on this or not. A lot of people decide to do this work by themselves. This might be a good option, especially if you are on a budget. I suggest checking the list of eCommerce web design tools here https://www.webbuildersguide.com/best-website-builder/ecommerce/ before making the decision. Hope it helps!