How much does it cost to build an e-commerce business?
With e-commerce sales predicted to grow to $6.54 trillion worldwide in 2022 (Statista report), there’s little reason as to why business owners are not selling their products and services online. However, it can be a daunting task to undertake. If not planned properly, building an e-commerce website can be complicated and costly.
The cost of building an e-commerce website (setup fees)
To start the process of building your e-commerce store, you need to have a budget that is suited to your e-commerce business. Starter e-commerce websites that are developed to custom fit your brand and business needs cost from R20,000 and can go to as much as R70,000. Larger enterprise businesses with e-commerce requirements and bespoke functionality can cost as much as R300,000.
To keep your costs down, it’s important to plan upfront. Document the business requirements and how these can be achieved in the online space to best serve your customers. Speak to at least two or three web developers and request an upfront quotation for the e-commerce website build.
The cost of hosting an e-commerce website
Once your online store has been built, you will need to host the website with a reputable web hosting company. Web hosting packages for e-commerce websites should not be entry level, or low spec. This is because e-commerce websites require more server resources. If not, your customers will have a slow website experience, which may result in a loss of onlie sales.
Web hosting fees for e-commerce website can start from R100 per month. These hosting fees may need to increase inline with the growth of your online business, meaning you’ll need to pay for more server resources to keep your website experience in good condition. High traffic websites can pay as much as R2,500 per month.
OnShop e-commerce services
OnShop minimises the high costs of building and hosting an e-commerce website.
Here at OnShop, we have taken away the worry of budgeting for web developer (startup costs) and hosting fees for your e-commerce business. We offer affordable e-commerce services with no setup fees or contracts.
The e-commerce features required for your online store are available when you sign up with an OnShop e-commerce plan. There are many web hosting, e-commerce and marketing features to choose from. Give us a call or send us an email to enquire about your e-commerce venture.