How much does it cost to start an eCommerce business in 2024?

How Much Do eCommerce Business Cost in 2024 - Ready-Made e-Commerce CMS vs Custom Development. The guide for future store owners, existing business owners and other ecommerce companies 

There are two quite different opinions on the eCommerce development price. Some startups believe this is the most expensive project to create since standing out from the crowd is as challenging as never before. And this opinion has a grain of truth in the case of custom eCommerce development. Others consider eCommerce the sphere with the lowest threshold since ready-made eCommerce platforms allow setting up the store almost for free and starting trading instantly. 

What opinions deserve trust, and what is the real eCommerce cost in 2024? Let’s compare the options available and develop the right strategy for your project. 

By reading carefully to the end of the article, you will learn how to reduce the eCommerce final cost by 30%.

The Main Items That Determine Your e-Commerce Website Cost. What you need to know when you want to start an ecommerce business 

There are quite a lot of factors that directly influence the final e-commerce costs. Below are the most essential ones:

• Competition in your field. Fierce competition forces you to look for as outstanding design and development solutions as possible, plus invest a lot in your unique value proposition development, market research, proof of concepts, and other essential things you should consider while creating your eCommerce project according to the LEAN methodology. 
• The number of features you need to create. The more features you need to create, the more time you or your technical specialists need to spend on their development. Either way, if you have enough technical skills to create all the features yourself, then you will need to invest your time only. 
• The complexity of your design. eCommerce is the field where design (which is on the verge with intuitive UI, usability, good user experience, and selling potential of your website) matters most. Thus, you are better prepared for significant eCommerce website design costs, but still be sure that the professionally designed eCommerce store will have a high ROI potential. 
• The way you are going to create your eCommerce store. There are several paths you may choose from while creating your online shop, and each of them will directly affect the final e-commerce site cost. 
• For example, you may save a lot by creating a customized website yourself (if you know how to do it right and are sure of the final result). 
• As an option, you may hire a professional development company whose specialist will save you from any headache with eCommerce website creation but this way portends the highest eCommerce website development cost. 
• Also, there is one more balanced alternative that is on the verge of independent and professional development. You may choose one of the popular and powerful eCommerce content management systems (CMS) to run your online shop. However, the choice of an eCommerce platform is one more factor that may decrease or increase the eCommerce website price, so let’s compare the specifics of each eCommerce CMS and the cost to use them with the custom development from scratch. 

SaaS vs Custom eCommerce Development - Pros and Cons of Each Approach to help your business 

Before moving to the specific e-commerce platforms, let’s compare the opportunities for their usage with the professional development services, analyzing the pros and cons of each approach.

Custom development pros

• Choosing custom development for your business, you may get in touch with tech-savvy and creative develops able to realize any of your business ideas
• There is the opportunity to create your website design from scratch while making it fully customized and branded.
• The team you’ve hired may also help you improve your website in response to your business growth.
• There is also an opportunity to save up to 60% of your development budget if you outsource this task to third-party specialists

Custom development cons

• This is the most expensive option; however, a well-developed website has a great chance to be paid off if there are well-developed business and marketing strategies as well.
• When choosing your software developers, you should always make sure you are on the same page with them to avoid costly improvements and fixes. 

 SaaS is a specialized solution developed specifically for eCommerce projects and allows the latter to quickly set up an online store and launch the retail business at low development costs. 

SaaS eCommerce software pros:

• Quick business launch
• Wide range of SaaS platforms to choose from
• The affordable and flexible subscription price
• Predeveloped website templates
• Intuitive drag-and-drop functionality to create your eCommerce website
• Wide range of additional apps, plugins, and add-ons to power your store with

SaaS eCommerce software cons

• Terms and conditions vary significantly from one platform to another
• There can be hidden costs revealed only after getting started with the business
• Most of the web design templates are already used by other companies, and there is a need for technical skills to customize them and add unique branding elements.
• The usage of some SaaS platforms may have the same price as the development from scratch. 

How Different eCommerce Platforms Impact eCommerce Website Cost

As we have said, there are a lot of SaaS platforms you may choose from. However, Shopify, Bigcommerce, and Magento are strong market leaders chosen by retail companies worldwide. 

Shopify

This platform is an eCommerce market leader since it is not only quite affordable and feature-rich. It is also quite a transparent solution that is suitable for eCommerce businesses of any type.

Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is also worth paying attention to. Actually, it repeats most of the opportunities provided by Shopify. However, there is one more pitfall. This platform has a quite low sales limit which will quickly make you use the most advanced and expensive subscription.

Magento

Magento is very specific, costly, and difficult to deal with. This platform is chosen by companies aimed at rapid development and need business intelligence solutions in addition to basic eCommerce functionality. Professional developers create most eCommerce projects on Magento since this tool requires the users to have technical skills. 

Surely, each of the tools affects the final price to build an eCommerce project differently, so let’s take a look at each of the development milestones and compare the price to use a SaaS solution with the price of custom creation at each of the stages. 

eCommerce Website Design Costs when Launch an ecommerce

As we have said, eCommerce website design is quite important for the overall success of your online store. At the same time, eCommerce web design pricing may be quite high and concede only to the technical part of creating a website. And this is one of the reasons to consider pre-developed templates provided by the popular CMS. 

As for their price, the web design templates may be provided even for free; however, as a rule, the design is minimalistic and as simple as possible. More advanced templates provide better opportunities for making the right impression on the target audience. However, they may be costly. 

For example, the priciest theme provided by Magento may reach $500, but you need to pay for it only once.  Regardless of the platform you choose, each design may be customized and somehow tailored to your brand style. 

Here are the eCommerce themes prices comparison by the platform. 

Shopify Themes Examples

Bigcommerce Themes Examples

Magento Themes Examples

The advantages of creating a web design from scratch are quite obvious - you may come up with any design solution you want, carefully follow your brand style guide, and stay relatively flexible with any changes. 

Here are the approximate eCommerce website design prices based on the $50 per hour rate (average rate of professional web designers and developers in Eastern Europe).

Thus, the charge for e-commerce website design is quite significant, especially for newly created startups. That’s why a lot of small companies choose semi-custom web designs. This approach allows for reusing the already created or templated elements, thereby reducing the final price. 

Hosting Costs for Self-Hosted eCommerce Website vs Hosting Costs for SaaS eCommerce Platforms. What ecommerce store owners need to know to choose the best solution

Fortunately, the hosting and domain aren’t the items that affect the eCommerce website pricing too much. However, you still need a memorable branded name (domain name), plus a safe place to store your eCommerce website. 

When it comes to hosting and domain, using ready-made eCommerce systems is quite a better option since Shopify and Bigcommerce, for example, are self-hosted solutions, and they don’t charge you additionally for using their hosting. 

As for the domain name, the conditions may vary. For example, Magento obliges you to have your own domain name but may offer several types of hosting instead. Shopify comes with a domain name you may use for free, and the price for using a Bigcommerce domain name isn’t so high. 

But if you are betting on custom eCommerce website development from scratch, you should choose a domain and hosting provider independently. Below is the comparison of terms and conditions offered by the most popular providers. 

Thus, the domain name from the third-party providers is quite affordable, while the price per hosting may vary depending on the terms and additional features (like advanced security) the hosting comes with. 

Payment Processing and the Ways It May Influence Cost to Build an Online Business

Most ready-made CMS charges a transaction fee calculated as a small percentage of each deal finalized on the platform. However, the terms of Shopify, Bigcommerce, and Magento vary significantly. 

For example, Shopify allows you to use their Shopify Payments for free; however, if you want to connect to any other system like PayPal or Braintree, you will be charged a 0,5-2% fee per transaction. 

As for the good news, connecting a third-party gateway is almost intuitive, so, in this case, you shouldn’t pay additionally.

Bigcommerce, in turn, declares that they have no transaction fees, but they have quite a low sales limit. Once you exceed it, your store will be automatically switched to a more advanced and pricier subscription. Magento also doesn't charge transaction fees; however, taking the high cost of setting up an online store, additional fees would seem quite frustrating. 

Regarding custom eCommerce development, nobody except for the payment system or bank may charge a fee depending on your transactions. However, setting up a payment system and connecting a third-party gateway will be costly. 

According to practical experience, dealing with one payment system may take up to 40 development hours which equals $2000 per payment gateway development and connection.

It would be difficult to say which of the options is money-saving. Paying $2000 per payment gateway connection may seem slightly overpriced, especially if we consider that ready-made CMS provides online payments by default or it isn't so difficult to add one more gateway to your store. 

However, $2000 is a one-time payment, while you will be charged a commission each time your customers order something from you. Thus, if your eCommerce stores grow rapidly, the final amount of eCommerce fees you will pay may exceed the one-time price for payment system integration. 

eCommerce Pricing for Add-Ons and Extensions vs Custom Programming and Functionality. Best ecommerce solutions 

The main reason why big and medium-sized companies consider custom programming as the best option for themselves is the opportunity to come up with a unique set of features and customize them the way they like, and their users expect. 

Surely, this is quite a costly initiative, but it still makes sense if none of the ready-made CMS systems suits you or you have invented something unique and outstanding. 

In this case, the custom online store cost is paid off by the unrepeatable experience the customers get. Surely, it’s impossible to estimate the accurate price for each eCommerce feature, including unique ones, so here is the custom programming and basic functionality cost breakdown. 

In contrast, one of the best things about the ready-made content management e-commerce system is that it has a set of predeveloped features that are smartly integrated into an intuitive eCommerce website builder. 

Using Shopify, Bigcommerce, or Magento, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The only thing you need is to set up the store using a pre-developed website design template and power it with the set of essential e-commerce features. As a rule, almost all of the features above come as a part of eCommerce website builders. However, there still may be some exceptions.

For example, a recommendation engine may be provided as an additional app you should connect and pay for. Management and analytics tools with more advanced capabilities are also provided for an additional fee by Shopify, for example. Below is the average cost of extensions and add-ons provided by the ready-made CMS. 

How Much Is an Ecommerce Website Testing Cost

When you are creating a custom eCommerce online store from scratch, testing its performance is essential. That’s why the testing process counts for 20-35% of the total development budget. 

Thus, taking our calculations into account, the budget you may need to test your eCommerce store will be $6200 ($11500 (per development) +$6250 (per design) *35%). 

As for the process of testing websites created with the help of an online builder provided by the CMS you choose, a lot will depend on the customized elements you have added. If your online store is quite customized within an eCommerce platform, surely it should be tested according to the best QA practices in order to avoid user abandonment. 

But if you decided to proceed with the simplest solution, the only thing you need to do is to preview your website on different devices to make sure that it is displayed correctly. It will be so in 99,9% of cases since online builders are aimed at making a mobile-friendly and responsive website from the very beginning and with minimal effort. 

How Much Does It Cost to Have an Online Store - Maintenance Price of Ecommerce Companies

According to the practical experience with an eCommerce website development, 40 hours per month are needed to maintain the website, find and eliminate possible errors, adjust the website to growing traffic load, improve the website loading speed, refresh content and meta content, plus analyze SEO performance. 

In contrast, according to the Software as a Service concept, the tasks of software maintenance and improvement are the responsibility of the software creator, who takes it in exchange for a subscription price paid by you. 

Thus, you shouldn’t expect additional maintenance costs with Shopify and Bigcommerce since there will be quite a few pitfalls on your way. 

The only thing you should always pay attention to is your business success metrics; you may use specialized additional solutions for data analysis and reporting. 

However, low or no maintenance cost is not the case of Magento. Magento-powered websites are challenging to create and difficult to maintain, so you should provide a spare budget for this task. 

The Final Cost to Build an Ecommerce Website. A summary for future business owners

So, how much does an eCommerce website cost finally? 

Let’s compare the total prices to develop an eCommerce startup using ready-made CMS or creating your project from scratch. 

Bigcommerce turned out to be the most affordable alternative, mainly because of its beneficial packages, which provide for all the necessary functions, no transaction fees, and average prices for web design templates. 

Shopify, in turn, is also quite a beneficial option. However, the price to develop a Shopify online store may reach several thousand dollars if you hire a professional development company and strive for as much customization as possible. 

Magento, in turn, is the most expensive solution. This platform is difficult and expensive to set up and maintain. What’s more, the cost to create an online store with its help may be quite higher than the cost of creating an eCommerce project from scratch, or the prices may be equal if you are developing highly customized websites either on Magento or from scratch with any other technologies.

Shopify Monthly Subscription Cost

Bigcommerce Monthly Subscription Cost

Magento Commerce Pro Package

$29000-30000 is the average price to create an eCommerce store with a basic set of features. 

With a more advanced design and feature set, plus possible multilingual versions and sophisticated integrations, the cost may be doubled. 

Bonus: Costs of Headless Commerce vs. Traditional Ecommerce: How to Save up to 30%  With Headless Ecommerce Platform

The cost of creating an eCommerce website may be quite different. 

Sometimes using specialized eCommerce platforms may result in a higher price than creating your project from scratch. 

What’s more, regardless of the way you choose, you will get quite a heavy and loaded website that will be difficult to change and adjust since the changes in one component will lead to changes in all the other logically connected ones. This makes adapting to the dynamic market and changing customer expectations too slow and costly. 

However, you should know about one more money-saving opportunity - headless eCommerce. The essence of this approach is the opportunity to separate your backend from the frontend while leaving the first on any CMS of your choice and making the second lightweight and API-driven. 

Headless eCommerce allows for better flexibility and more advanced opportunities for improving your customer experience since you may experiment with your front end in any way you and your customers want.

What’s more, headless eCommerce may be quite an affordable solution regardless of the size of your business since the costs to go headless and proceed with it are always lower than monthly maintenance or subscription costs, especially if you have your in-house development team. 

Conclusion

Ecommerce business owners, both newcomers and experienced store owners, always seek ways to enhance their online presence. Whether you're starting an ecommerce business from scratch or looking for opportunities to expand, 2024 is a year filled with promise.

For those new to the game, building an online store is more than just setting up a domain name. It's about leveraging digital marketing and using the right ecommerce platform to sell products or services. In this era, where the buying and selling goods happen at lightning speed, search engine optimization is your best friend. Products need to be in front of the right audience, and you can achieve that by ranking high on search engines like Google.

Ecommerce platforms offer a wide variety of products to sell online, making it easy for business owners to grow. Choosing the best ecommerce platform is crucial for success. It should enable businesses to connect with their target audience and make it easy for users to purchase.

Social media sites like Facebook have also become essential for ecommerce. They offer a suite of tools to help your business thrive, and the use of the BigCommerce platform is on the rise.

In conclusion, 2024 is a year of exciting opportunities for ecommerce businesses. Whether you're a seasoned ecommerce store owner or just starting an online business, the key is to choose the right platform and leverage the tools and strategies that help you grow your business in the dynamic world of ecommerce.

Headless eCommerce is an advanced approach. However, you still should choose the right platform to migrate to. 

B2Storefront is a headless eCommerce software designed to boost the experience of managing and maintaining Shopify online stores. You are welcome to learn more about the product, contact a support team for additional guidance, and try a demo to personally evaluate the unique advantages of headless eCommerce!