How much does the development of an online store?

When a business owner faces the need to create an online store, a lot of questions arise. Which CMS to choose for creation, in which studio to order and how much it will all cost.

On the Internet, you can often find various recommendations and advice on this topic. If you communicate directly with developers, then everyone will give priority to the way of development with which they are used to working.

The cost of developing an online store can fluctuate within very large limits, often it does not depend on the quality and volume of work performed, but on the image and pricing policy of the web studio.

What should you pay attention to when developing an online store and how does this affect the cost?

The choice of development option directly depends on the tasks facing the business owner. Also, when the site is being developed for the first time, it is extremely difficult to immediately determine the required package of functionality and tools. And a complete understanding can come after a while, after the launch of the store.

Often business owners are guided by large popular online stores, and the most frequent request to a web studio is, I want me to have a site similar to a "well-known and promoted online store". And everyone means by this his own. Someone likes the design, someone the presentation of information, the availability of various discounts, kits, gifts, someone just likes the popular resource and its sales. But in 90% of cases, such functionality is not needed for a novice online store, since it does not provide even half of the services that a "promoted store" has. And the cost of developing all the chips that are on such sites can be very high. Also, do not forget that the success of popular stores is largely due to advertising and constant marketing events that have been held for more than one year.

Stages of creating an online store

Consider the basic components of an online store, which make up its cost and which you must pay attention to when starting development:

1. Development of a prototype and design. If everything is done according to the rules, then first, the sites of competitors, the target audience are studied and a prototype of the site is drawn up with the participation of a marketer. The arrangement of the blocks is done in such a way as to maximize the interest of the buyer and keep his attention. Next, a design or visualization of how your site should look like is drawn. Developed by a separate specialist, designer. Takes into account all the wishes of the customer. This is where your style and colors are considered. At this stage, the appearance of the site is created in three main resolutions: desktop, tablet and mobile devices. That is, at the output, you get detailed layouts of all pages of the site in three resolutions.
2. Layout - transfer of layouts of the drawn design to the site. In other words, the design of the site's appearance, the transfer of color schemes from the layout, the creation of interactive elements, etc. Quite labor-intensive work that requires a lot of attention to detail. Also, the layout includes the task of creating adaptability for all kinds of devices.
3. The software part is the functionality that allows the site to work correctly. Place orders, apply discounts, compare and add to favorites, the ability to pay online and much more.
4. Next, to launch an online store, you will need hosting and a domain . Hosting is a server where all your website files will be located. Domain - the name of the site that you enter in the browser, you can select and buy it in special services, or together with hosting.
5. Installing and configuring a site on hosting - moving the site to a permanent location. Usually, the development process is carried out on the servers of the web studio and such a site is not seen by search engines until its completion. Then it is transferred and configured on the hosting, after which indexing and full-fledged life of the online store begins.
6. Filling is no longer related to development and is carried out by the owner of the online store. This includes all content, products, pictures, videos and other data. However, it can be automated by having special functions in the admin panel of the site. If there are more than several hundred goods, then manual filling is not advisable and it is optimal to use the import of goods from the supplier's file.
7. Website promotion - or marketing activities aimed at attracting visitors and increasing the popularity of the resource. Often at the development stage, these components are not taken into account, which leads to the need to make a lot of improvements later, and sometimes radically change some of the site's functionality.

Some sections of SEO optimization directly affect the site code, so it is better to think about it in advance, before development.

It is worth noting that it is best to develop a site that can be further refined. So, always in the course of the work of an Internet resource, you will have new needs and if your site does not support improvements, or is created on a specific CMS or self-written, it will be difficult to find developers to improve it.

When choosing a developer and CMS, you must first answer the question, why am I making an online store, what are my goals?

Creating an online store for a new business

In this case, we do not advise you to immediately make large financial investments in development. To solve such problems, any free solutions for creating an online store, which can be found on the Internet, are suitable.

Free solutions contain the basic tools that are necessary for an online store. Categories, products, cart, delivery and payment methods. Often this functionality is limited. But for starting and testing ideas, this is quite enough.

By using them, you can understand how interesting your products are to customers, based on an analysis of interaction with your store, determine what elements are missing to improve usability. And also in the process of working with an online store, it will become obvious to you which functionality you really need and which you don’t.

However, it is better to choose a CMS that has the maximum set of built-in tools, otherwise free development can go into the category of very paid ones and, after spending a lot of time and effort, you will never be able to get the effect of the created online store.

What are the basic basic tools a free CMS for an online store should have:

• Unlimited number of categories, products;
• Ability to set characteristics for products and use them in the future in filters;
• CNC addresses of site pages, products, categories and filters;
• Ability to prescribe meta data for categories and products;
• Notifications about placed orders for clients and site administrators;
• Multilingual;
• The ability to use different currencies on the site;
• Ability to set discounts for goods and create promotions (coupons);
• Having a blog;
• sitemap.xml - which is generated automatically;
• User's personal account;
• Already built-in payment and delivery methods, with the ability to add and remove;
• One page checkout;
• Ability to edit all service words, headers and contacts in the header, footer through the admin panel;
• Import Export.

These can be both cloud solutions and basic versions of various CMS.

In the case of using such a CMS, your monetary costs will be reduced to the purchase of hosting, domain and site setup. As well as filling the site with content and attracting visitors to the site.

Try OkayCMS Lite

Development of a budget online store

In this case, it is more expedient to buy a boxed solution with a well-thought-out set of tools.

Boxed solutions developers are constantly improving their CMS based on the experience gained by users. Often, developers collaborate with marketers and SEO specialists, complementing their CMS with various useful solutions.

Such solutions are usually affordable and supported by developers.

The principle of installation, downloading the distribution from the developer's site and installing it on your hosting. Usually, this is a test 30 days and then the purchase of a license. There are also cloud solutions, with a monthly subscription fee.

As a design for such sites, ready-made templates are most often used, which does not require special investment and looks attractive.

What functionality besides the basic one is desirable in such CMS:

• Back call;
• Compare lists and favorites;
• Ability to set meta data templates for products;
• Ability to connect custom scripts, for example, Google Analytics code, remarketing, online consultant;
• Micro-marking of goods, bread crumbs, for social networks;
• Ability to add featured products to products and blog posts;
• The ability to optimize filters;
• Pre-order goods;
• Promotional images for goods;
• Uploading xml file.

Try OkayCMS Pro

Creation of an online store with a given functionality

Variants on template solutions are suitable, with functional improvements.

This is the most common development option. In this case, they take the CMS as a basis and modify the necessary functionality for it. Why is it convenient and not as expensive as developing from scratch? The CMS already has certain functionality, there may even be paid add-ons that can be installed in 5 minutes and everything will work. And if there are no ready-made solutions, then the necessary functionality can be completed based on the existing one, and not reinventing everything from scratch.

With this development method, you can make changes in the design. For example, one of the most frequent improvements is changing the appearance of the main menu-catalog, displaying categories and subcategories on the main page, or changes in the product card. In addition to the above, all the software improvements that will appear on the site must be brought in line with the design of the site.

Templates can also be changed easily by purchasing themes for the CMS you have installed.

If you have no idea what kind of site look you want to see or the themes for the existing CMS do not suit you, then you can find any template on the Internet, for example, at TemplateMonster and take it as a basis for your site. In this case, you will not pay for the design, only for the layout.

Here is an example of functionality that can be improved, and it is not standard:

• Automatic updating of the availability and prices of goods from suppliers through a file or directly from the site;
• Notification of buyers via SMS messages about the order, order status change, etc .;
• Adding wholesale prices when buying from a certain number of units of goods;
• Own prices for customers who are registered and have their own discount;
• Distribution of orders between managers;
• Bonus program for users;
• Adding 2 values for a variant to products (for example, color + size);
• Assign colors to products and display them in a filter.

And there are many other options, it all depends on what exactly you want to implement in your online store.

Visit the marketplace

Individual development of an online store

If you have such tasks, then you need a full development cycle. With a prototype, design and detailed technical specifications. The terms of reference is a very important component, and the more detailed you describe what should come out in the end, the more you will get the expected result.

In this case, the scheme will not work, let's do something like this. This should not be a superficial description, but a very detailed description of how everything should work and what should be the result. At the first stage, a prototype is created and a design is drawn, in which each element on the page is worked out, its position, color with different interactions with it.

Such development requires highly qualified performers and a specialist from the customer, who will interact with the development team throughout the entire process.

4 Life hacks for working with web studio

1. It is best to collaborate with a studio that has its own developers. Very often, a web studio is an intermediary between the developers and the client, which means that if any questions arise during the development process, and the intermediary does not find a common language with the programmers or, for example, does not find the right developer at all, then you risk staying without money and without a ready-made website. Or get your site, but not in the form in which you expected. Drown this question at the negotiation stage.
2. Try to write and approve the terms of reference with the developer. At least simply written in a letter or messenger, so that later there will be no disputes about the tasks set, the volume of their implementation. Try to immediately stipulate everything that you expect from the performers.
3. Actively participate in the process, review each step to determine as early as possible if the developer is moving in the wrong direction. Anticipating the situation, we did everything, but it turned out that this was not at all what was expected.
4. When a job is handed over to you, you just need to check everything at once and identify everything that does not suit you. Since in a month or two, no one will return to your site and fix the problems that have arisen for free.

Outcomes:

• The cost of developing a website can be from $ 100 and amount to thousands of dollars, it all depends on the goals facing the online store and the business as a whole;
• There are no solutions that fit everyone. Therefore, when choosing a developer, focus on the tasks that you face;
• Always provide for the possibility of subsequent modifications to the existing site;
• Site design - can be changed without changing the basis and functionality;
• Do not lose sight of such moments as filling and promoting an online store. At the initial stage, these points may not be obvious. But in the process of work, the relevance of the assortment and the attraction of buyers are of great importance;
• If your site is created on CMS, it is desirable to have a direct connection with the platform developer, this will facilitate the solution of many issues that arise in the course of work.