Building an online store involves complex functionality and a variety of features needed to make things work well.
Some of the features and functionality that are part of an online store are:
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- Great product photography and imagery
- Great product descriptions
- Number of SKUs
- Product inventory management and data
- System notifications
- Payment gateway integrations
- Shipping system integrations
- And so much more
Another crucial feature to be able to get your products in front of your target audience are the various shopping and product feeds to get as much exposure to your products as possible.
Costs of building an online store for your website
DIY – As always, the biggest cost here is your time. Depending on the number of products in your store and the amount of help you have it can take considerable time and effort to get your store up and running.
The costs for setting up your own online store range from free to whatever license you need to purchase for your cart software, like WooCommerce. The big investment here is time.
Service – The best part about using a service is that you get professional level help at a very reasonable price. Part of what makes this a cost-sensitive approach is that you will still be very involved in building out your store by getting your products loaded and set up. The great thing is that the technical part of your store is done for you and that can prove to be a powerful accelerator to get your site done and live.
The cost for using a service to get your online store started will range ~$500 and up.
The cost for hiring a freelancer to create your online store will start around $7,500 and go up from there depending on the complexity of the features that power your store. Online stores created by freelancers regularly cost $15,000 or more.
The cost for hiring an agency to build out your online store will start around $25,000. More feature rich online stores can run $50,000 and more.