I was interested in seeing how much designers charge for a ‘typical’ ecommerce site…Seems like 5k to 50k+
Pricing is one of those things that no one likes to discuss and often,when asked, “how much does it cost to build a site” the standard response is “depends on the project”
So my question is if you decide to start building ecommerce sites for clients what do you think is reasonable to charge?
Site requirements to serve as a basis for the discussion
10 pages
Site Search
10 simple interactions
50 products
Copy & pictures provided by client
Standard contact form
For what you’ve described, some will start at 5K, some other closer to 10, and it can cost much more, it all depends on the uniqueness, cost of the resources used, how well designed and fine tuned it is…
This said, if we’re talking about e-commerce, it should naturally be more expensive than a simple CMS site. And the relationship with your clients should be different.
E-commerce sites directly deal with money, with income. There’s a higher responsibility for the developer. So an adequate level of attention is required in building, testing, understanding. You’ll also need to be closer and more available to your e-commerce clients. More attentive. You’re never finished with a website, as there are fixes and upgrades down the road, and it’s especially true with an e-commerce website.
So not only the development should naturally be more expensive, but it should logically also mean higher maintenance fees. Anticipate the fat your clients will be more demanding, because everything you do on such sites is supposed to increase sales directly or indirectly.
Your skills mater. I have replaced hundreds of e-commerce sites in my career that fell into one of these categories; didn’t rank, didn’t convert, not flexible for business changes, not enough options, didn’t scale, could not be customized easily (not look), etc.
If I client invests in e-commerce and the choice of technology or partner is not right, not only do they lose money, they lose time. That has killed lots of e-commerce ventures. There is also the potential liability.
You have to know what a platform can’t do. That’s why architects and system analysts exist. Sounds like your looking at the dollars with no real experience. My suggestion to you is this. Partner with a pro and learn as you go.
I was interested in this topic as well so I did a bit of a research and found an article that says that total development cost of a website is approximately from $17,500 to $37,500. Here it is: How Much Does It Cost to Build a Website in 2022 [Checklist]
But it’s really hard to say about the designing part specifically because every project is unique and has a different complexity.
