Whirlpool

Hi All,

I was wondering what the average overall costs of setting up a e-commerce website would be?
And at what point should you realise you are being ripped off by your web developers?
Something similar to DealsDirect and including stock control, POS systems, reporting, invoicing, SEO etc...
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the help in advance.

$0 – $1,000,000+

How long is a piece of string?

Nielsen writes...

I was wondering what the average overall costs of setting up a e-commerce website would be?

It costs this much: <-------------->

And at what point should you realise you are being ripped off by your web developers?

Ideally, before you actually *get* ripped off, but some people need to discover this after the fact.

Something similar to DealsDirect and including stock control, POS systems, reporting, invoicing, SEO etc...

I think it'll cost you a lot, especially if you aren't sure of what you are actually looking for.

FOr what you are talking about, form a good web development company, you can expect 200k +

At that price you are better off hiring a full time developer... even just to liase with a web company.

People need to realise there is more to developing websites than just sitting down and coding. You have analysis, requirements gathering, functional specifications, visual design, architecture design, development, SIT, UAT before you even get to a completed system. You may even want to chuck in some usability testing for good measure.

Hro writes...

expect 200k +

And keep going..

Remember companies such as DealsDirect, The Big Brown Box, OO.com.au. Started off with some sort of solution that cost them $X amount then they each have their own fulltime designers/developers to continually improve their online stores.

Costs?

Like someone has said before, "how longs a piece of string".

My advice.

Figure out your budget, your needs and go from there. Create a solution that will fit your mold.

Don't look at the well established players and think you can reproduce what they have without spending massive amounts of cash.

Well, unless you have a 40,000m2 warehouse lying around that can store the same amount of products DealsDirect's selling.

Anyways,
- SyKO

For software projects, there's also the ongoing maintenance cost besides the initial development cost.

In many cases, for the entire life-span of the software, the maintenance cost far outweighs the development cost. Spending the time and money to design the software properly in the initial stages will dramatically cut down the ongoing maintenance cost and will save you money in the long run.

ju2au writes...

the maintenance cost far outweighs the development cost.

and by "maintenance" we don't mean monthly hosting costs – it means updating code, adding features, extending existing features, documentation, refactoring and more refactoring...

...and the dreaded client equivalent of hammer-down-is-in-effect: "that's what I asked for, but not what I actually want"

This is probably a "no" answer but did the development company provide a statement of work or an estimated cost and timeframe?

As others have all said here the cost for this type of development is an open number and depends on many factors like development platform and which external systems are being used.

If you are concerned that the project is a never ending one then ask for a formal project review and whats left to completion.

My rough estimate is that you would expect $25k – $50k for development and testing. Integration to third party systems like POS might be $5K – $15k each depends on availble interfaces and APIs. Stuff like reporting – how many reports and how implemented, SEO – how much work to be done. Hosting and running costs will depend on the platform and expected traffic.

My advice is always ask for a statement of work and if possible a fixed price agreement.

ironheart writes...

and by "maintenance" we don't mean monthly hosting costs – it means updating code, adding features, extending existing features, documentation, refactoring and more refactoring...

...and the dreaded client equivalent of hammer-down-is-in-effect: "that's what I asked for, but not what I actually want"

And the customer feedback as well, since usually a build of this nature will get extensive feedback, which then brings in the whole UX/IA iterative cycle of development post- 1st release, in addition to UX/IA/UAT pre-live. Ongoing spend will be an issue in retaining customers.

200k just to get the basic frameworks and integration together, along with the potential for capacity planning for EDM,POS, Asset management/tracking.

If your customer base is already to the stage of competing with DD and Big Brown Box, but not in an online space, it's not that hard. Bootstrapping a startup to compete, however, will take work and more capital than you would expect. At least double the 200k..

if u getting charged more then $500 ur getting ripped off, i could set it up in a few hours with open source software which is free!!!!!!!!!!!

Take the above reply into consideration.

There actualy are people charge very little and give similar results to companies who OVERcharge a crapload – look at some of the government funded websites, some of them are utter garbage and cost bucketloads of money – inefficiency, ineptitude and corruption basically let that occur.

A few thousand COULD get you a site which beats your competition.
A few hundred thousand MIGHT get you a site which fails to cover costs.

There is no reliable average.

MigA writes...

if u getting charged more then $500 ur getting ripped off

Does it come with free grammar errors?

terrox2 writes...

A few thousand COULD get you a site which beats your competition.

It won't beat the competition but might match it, given that your competition is average to begin with.

The reality is that there is no answer and it all depends on what kind of online presence you're looking for. If you want to have a online shopping basket then sure, there are plenty of cheap alternatives. But you'd be foolish to think that all it takes is to set one up and you'll be rolling in the moolah... All successful sites are the product of quite a lot of work, sometimes (actually, quite often) luck, ongoing marketing, research and development. By successful I mean sites that bring in the original owners substantial RoI.

It is not easy to create something which truly differentiates you from the competition and even more difficult to get the message out to the wider public.

Alternatively go for ready made ecommerce packages such as http://www.shopify.com/

These types of posts really drive me up the wall...

It will cost however much it costs the developer to develop... end of story!

Everyone will have there own opinions of how much it "should" cost and those who think you should just use open source and those who think corporate companies are S%#T etc... SHOP AROUND!!!! We live in a "free" country where you can ask quotes and proposals etc... so do so... don't come on here asking ridiculous questions like this.

Buffalo Rider writes...

Everyone will have there own opinions of how much it "should" cost and those who think you should just use open source and those who think corporate companies are S%#T etc... SHOP AROUND!!!! We live in a "free" country where you can ask quotes and proposals etc... so do so... don't come on here asking ridiculous questions like this.

Very true... main thing is, unless the online business is core to what you do, you're likely to not do that well first time round. And that's ok. Hopefully you'll strike a good relationship with your devs...

the bottom line is dealsdirect hire a team of full time web developers.
web develeopers make about $50,000pa minimum.

so think about how much you plan to sell and make and start from there.
you might start with http://www.shopify.com/ $100 bucks to test the waters.

One Hundred Million Dollars. (said with Dr. Evil Music...and the little finger thing.)

Seriously, figure out your budget, and let your developer work what they can for your budget.

(I guess you will need to trust the people you are working with though.)

MigA writes...

if u getting charged more then $500 ur getting ripped off, i could set it up in a few hours with open source software which is free!!!!!!!!!!!

Pl-ease. Do the math:
Even at $50 /hr that's 10 hours work to design, build, test and deploy a full scale ecommerce solution. What level of quality and support do you think you'll get for that kind of money?

Miga is just taking the piss... lol

I would already be worried if it was $500 for the design component alone...

RomantiK writes...

Miga is just taking the piss... lol

I would already be worried if it was $500 for the design component alone...

Perhaps, but it's not helpful when one does not justify their comments as such. These threads rank quite highly with various search engines and one might very well take that as a price guide.

Hi Nielsen

Expect to pay from $3000 – $12000 for an actual development company build a standard ecommerce website.
Deals direct would cost $100k's to build from scratch but they did not start with what they have right now.
It is a piece of string question.

Every web developer or company worth the effort (that means will analyse, build, support and be around next year) requires an hourly rate to keep in business.

The cost will depend on how much customistion you need.

These items will increase the price because they take more time.
- custom design x how many different variations you need (front page, inner page, product list, product detail, shopping cart, reviews, up sell, cross sell)
- more products
- more standard web pages
- more than one payment method
- more product features (colour, big small, sizes)
- developer adds content and products
- developer includes Search engine optimiasation for each page, product
- Choose a custom website / ecommerce management system (your developer will have to make all the changes)
- Choose a hard to use website / ecommerce management system
- adding blogs, forums, FAQ custom features

The more standard features you want the less it will cost

These items will reduce the cost
- template design (choose a pre designed layout, this is not evil but frowned upon by some developers because they cannot charge for it)
- you add content and products
- you write titles and description
- choose a well supported well known website / ecommerce management system
- choose a easy to use website / ecommerce management system
- choose website / ecommerce management system that has easy layout / design implementation.

We use adobe business catalyst and there are many developers around Australia and the world, using it is a good fit for the price sensitive it can be used by an average computer user and all features you need are out of the box.

I hope that helps, in the end if you set budget and go with good recommendations for a developer, company or individual then they can tell you what you will get for that budget.

Simon

Oolybooly writes...

We use adobe business catalyst and there are many developers around Australia and the world, using it is a good fit for the price sensitive it can be used by an average computer user and all features you need are out of the box.

There are many "designers" using business catalyst. I don't think many developers need to use it. Business catalyst cane be the bane of your existance. There are cheaper and better CMS options.

Just my 2 cents on BC. (others here know my woes with BC!)

Mr. Ed writes...

Business catalyst cane be the bane of your existance. There are cheaper and better CMS options.

Just my 2 cents on BC. (others here know my woes with BC!)

Amen to that. BC works for a lot of simple situations but it's pretty easy to hit the wall with it and when you do you're stuck. It does provide a lot of functionality out of the box however.

DaRKoN_ writes...

Amen to that. BC works for a lot of simple situations but it's pretty easy to hit the wall with it and when you do you're stuck. It does provide a lot of functionality out of the box however.

Concur. I had to work with it for a while. The API is fine for tiny little things, but the moment you (attempt to) scale upwards, it suffers massive performance hits...not to mention fatal errors that will just kill your script. Which is why you need to invest in a massive coalition of coding just to get around it.

It's good for a quick-and-dirty, but don't consider it for doing something more substantial. Sufferage. Some very, very obvious things just...don't work, or are dumb in their implementation: like the one where you can make a report, but can't separate certain fields which anyone (ANYONE) would obviously separate.