Shopping cart website cost.

EdmondShiels3

I want to find out how much it would cost to get a developer to setup a shopping cart website.

Graham

From a few Euro per month for a hosted solution going up-to tens of millions if you're Amazon.

EdmondShiels3

Not to host it but to get it designed and setup by a web developers.

devildriver

I believe Graham was referring specifically to hosted ecommerce solutions such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Lemonstand etc.

It's difficult to advise as you haven't provided a lot of information. The price for a custom solution will be based on a number of factors.

- How many products are you going to sell?
- Are the products customisable or do they have multiple size/colour options?
- What locations do you intend to sell to?
- How are you intending to handle shipping?

In a lot of cases a hosted solution as mentioned above will probably suit somebody who is just starting out with relatively "standard" requirements.

Giblet

Graham wrote: »

From a few Euro per month for a hosted solution going up-to tens of millions if you're Amazon.

Tens of millions would be very cheap

EdmondShiels3

For a business selling about a thousand products. With some product having options.

Graham

EdmondShiels3 wrote: »

For a business selling about a thousand products. With some product having options.

Based on your current specification my original budget range still stands.

To get any meaningful help you are going to need to provide a lot more detail. It's not that you're expected to be an expert in e-commerce but if you can't explain what you want, nobody is going to be able to give you an idea of the time/cost involved.

I'm not trying to be obstructive but if it looks like you've spent 15 seconds considering what you're looking for, that's about the maximum amount of time most developers will spend helping you (unless you're paying them).

StupidLikeAFox

You have a couple of options OP

1. Go with a turnkey, hosted solution like Shopify or Volusion. They host the website and allow you some options to customise it to your liking and add you products, for a set monthly fee. Naturally this will get you up and running but depending on what you want to do you are very much restricted to the limitations of the software product they are offering. Its very easy to test these out and see if they are for you.

2. Do it your self. Go buy some web hosting and install Wordpress or Joomla or some other Content Management System. You can then install an add-on which will give you some e-commerce functionality, find a nice looking template and start building your store. You could do this cheaply, monetary wise, but don't underestimate the time it takes to learn and the fact that you will hit speedbumps along the way which you can generally only solve by scouring support forums. There is an abundance of information out there, and it is unlikely (although not impossible) you will come across an issue that hasn't been answered 1,000 times already. Depending on your level of technical aptitude and willingness to learn, it is achievable. I would only recommend this approach if you were not in any hurry to get up and running, had the time to invest and had a genuine interest in the technology.

3. Hire a developer. He will more than likely do option 2 above for you except he will actually know what he is doing. If you are going this route I would do as much research as you can as to how you want the website look, what is the transaction flow like, are you charging VAT, the structure of your product categories, what additional functionality you need (for instance, would you like the website to have a facility for customer to fill in a returns slip online?). A good developer should be able to tease these out for you but its no harm being prepared. An easy way to do this is go to a couple of websites and study them carefully. Make some purchases, write down what you like/don't like about them in terms of design and functionality. I would try and get your developer to build on a common CMS (Wordpress, Magento etc) as plugins for additional functionality are abundant, so if you want additional functionality down the line it may be easier to implement. I know a guy who paid a developer to build a bespoke website and after it went live each additional change, whether is was 1 line in a paragraph or an additional information page, was a minimum of €250. If you are using a common CMS you can learn how to keep the website up to date yourself. You will also want to see some of their other work and maybe talk to previous customers to make sure they aren't a bunch of cowboys. You may engage with a one man band (not necessarily a bad thing once you do your due diligence) or a proper software house (will more than likely be more structured and professional, but will obv cost more). Once you have your requirements laid out it becomes a negotiation as to cost - as the lads said above there is no way to give you a cast iron quote without knowing most of your requirements. Im sure you could get a decent site with standard functionality and a slightly customised base template for between €3k and €10k. More functionality, bespoke features and customisation will obviously increase the cost.

EIREHotspur

Entering the products is where most of the time is taken because if they are something like Doors then you have to enter each size and maybe more than one photo..

You are aware of the grant from the Enterprise boards for up to half the expense??

What a lot of companies will do is give you an estimate for the website design/development and then give you a price for product entry.

A website like you want like I said depending on the complexity of the products can cost anything from 1k to 3k I would say.

Raging_Ninja

EIREHotspur wrote: »

Entering the products is where most of the time is taken because if they are something like Doors then you have to enter each size and maybe more than one photo..

You are aware of the grant from the Enterprise boards for up to half the expense??

What a lot of companies will do is give you an estimate for the website design/development and then give you a price for product entry.

A website like you want like I said depending on the complexity of the products can cost anything from 1k to 3k I would say.

1k is what, a couple of days of development by 1 guy? A fully functional e-commerce site in that amount of time for that cheap? I find that hard to believe, especially considering you are giving that estimate where the requirements are summed up as "ecommerce site with 1000 products".

Graham

God bless your crystal ball there EH. There's no way I'd be able to ballpark the cost of a website based on a specification consisting of 4 very short incredibly vague sentences.

EIREHotspur

Raging_Ninja wrote: »

1k is what, a couple of days of development by 1 guy? A fully functional e-commerce site in that amount of time for that cheap? I find that hard to believe, especially considering you are giving that estimate where the requirements are summed up as "ecommerce site with 1000 products".

Notice I said based on complexity of the products...
ECommerce websites of the type most Business need are not Rocket Science..
1k is based on showing them how to enter their own products..

Graham wrote: »

God bless your crystal ball there EH. There's no way I'd be able to ballpark the cost of a website based on a specification consisting of 4 very short incredibly vague sentences.

Well thing is there Graham I got my trusty Crystal Ball sitting in a home that isn't anywhere near Dublin or Dublin Cost of Living....plus I am a Sole Trader and I set my own prices...

I have done ecommerce websites within those guidelines....

I build in Wordpress because Bells and Whistles can be added if needed..

There are also paid plugins that can speed up Product entry x2 or x3 times..