So, in 2022/2023 is it worth investing in eCommerce? To answer this question we can simply take a look at our lifestyle and day-to-day living in general. Are we a consumer of the online retail industry? Yes, we are! Do we see people around us, our friends and family, purchasing from online retail? For sure! However, it’s not just this general circumstantial analysis that pulls in favor of the eCommerce industry, but numbers back it up as well.
By 2023 worldwide retail eCommerce sales will climb to 6.169 trillion USD—amounting to 22.3% of the total worldwide retail sales.
By 2025 eCommerce sales are expected to further climb to 7.385 trillion USD, amounting to 24.5% of the total retail sales.
That’s definitely significant, and a telltale sign that your plans are headed in a lucrative direction.
The cost of developing an eCommerce website or application isn't that straightforward to decide.
With eCommerce development, it's never a great idea to look for a definitive development plan with a fixed rate and a settled list of features.
The more profitable and scalable approach is to thoroughly inspect the various factors that consequent the cost. And, then figure out how you can manage the factors to bring down the project cost to your comfort zone.
Your eCommerce business model
Your eCommerce business model will set the precedence for the majority of your development decisions, including the ones related to the basic cost structure.
Different eCommerce business models can have their own exclusive requirements that impact the final development cost.
B2C Drop-shipping through your own eCommerce site/app
In this model you simply connect with vendors and list their inventory on your website. You are neither responsible for managing inventory, nor order fulfillment.
Naturally, you won't need inventory management integrations and complex last-mile delivery features for your eCommerce.
—A huge price saver!
Drop-shipping eCommerce can also make do with a lightweight backend—yet another point favoring low-cost development.
However, drop-shipping eCommerce websites and applications need to be tightly Search Engine Optimized—and need additional features like advanced CRM systems, order management systems, vendor management systems, and live synchronization with vendor warehouses.
—All of which will hike the cost.
B2B wholesale eCommerce
In this model you contact wholesalers and register as their official retailers—you become an intermediary retailer, selling intermediary products in bulk to other businesses.
In this case, you will need to build inventory and logistics systems for your eCommerce, or at least integrate with a 3PL system.
For this model, you might also need some additional backend infrastructure to support a data-intensive server side.
ERP systems for order management, CRM, accounting, and such will also be required.
Private labeled B2C eCommerce
Private-labeled B2C eCommerce is where you either sell products manufactured by other businesses, under your own private label.
Or, manufacture your own products and sell them under your private label. In any case, as far as the consumers are concerned—they identify you as the absolute owner of the products.
Naturally, for this model, you will face a lot of development and IT needs, including—
Heavy database requirements.
Robust backend infrastructures.
High-speed servers.
Multiple management systems & integrations.
Detailed cart & checkout forms.
Order fulfillment & last-mile delivery functionality.
BI & analytics integrations.
Your unique business needs
Whilst your business model only lays out the cost structure, your unique business needs will add to further expenditures.
Your business size will be an important aspect—the more vendors and wholesalers you deal with, the greater volume of data your eCommerce website and application will need to tackle.
Which, obviously, will call for compatible infrastructure configurations, IT resources, and an equally capable IT team.
A few other prominent business needs that will impact the cost—are your branding needs, digital marketing & sales needs, and specific UI-UX needs.
Your technical needs and preferences
We always need to be sensitive to your technical needs because they possess—the maximum potential of pulling sudden cost surprises!
Initially, you might not have any specific technical requirements, but as you embark on the journey of consulting with your development team, and the eCommerce functionalities are explained with respect to their technical fundamentals—you will come to realize that you actually do have certain specific technical requirements.
….And, to develop what you prefer you might need to pay a little extra than what you were expecting….
For example,
PHP is a great technology for cost-efficient eCommerce development.
The popular LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack architecture uses all free and open-source technologies for budget-friendly eCommerce development. And this tech stack (with the availability of PHP frameworks like Laravel) is well-favored in the developer’s community. And it can definitely get the job done when it comes to eCommerce development.
…….If you are wondering about its ability to implement eCommerce features, then rest assured—because, top platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Magento are all built on PHP…….
However, if you were planning for data-intensive functionalities, heavy simultaneous traffic support, responsive and animated UI behavior, and reactive UI components—and even modern frontend trends like AJAX connectivity and SPA eCommerce—you will find JavaScript-based technologies are more time-efficient.
Although the PHP framework, Laravel, allows you to integrate JavaScript in the front end—it makes the codebase messy and difficult to manage. Shifting to the MEAN/MERN stack altogether would seem more reasonable.
Similarly—
if you have heavy needs for developing analytics & BI integrations, web scrapping, and AI-driven features like product recommendations a python-based development will prove more efficient.
…..Finally, all the basic technologies are mostly free and open-source. But the cost issue occurs when developing unique functionalities and microservices…..
For example,
say your project is primarily PHP based—but then you get stuck on a particular microservice—because developing & managing it with PHP takes a lot of time and effort, despite being cost-friendly.
On the other hand, JavaScript could offer a simpler microservice solution but increase the overall cost.
Your Project needs
The level of development services you require will also make a significant impact on the cost—
Platforms required—Windows, Android, iOS.
IT operations and DevOps support.
Post development services—maintenance & support.
These factors all impact the team size, timeframe, and resource requisite—as such, the overall cost.
Your UI-UX needs
UI-UX is very critical to eCommerce success. There are three parts to the UI-UX that affects the cost—
The features.
The design components.
The design themes.
Building modern eCommerce UI-UX aspects like reactive components, animated UI components, responsive UI behaviors, brand-compatible themes & colors, and modern UI features like easy navigation & browsing filters—all require additional time, resources, and effort.
Further impacting the development cost!
Your eCommerce features
Finally, the last factor affecting the cost—and it’s an easy guess—is your eCommerce features and microservices.
The eCommerce industry is populated with features that can create an engaging experience, simplify the buying steps/process, and build security & trust.
Now every feature will have its own specific need for technology, cost, and development time.
Ideally,
…..the right combination of features is decided by competitor analysis and niche demand……
A list of common eCommerce features you can consider:—
eCommerce features for customers
Enterprise eCommerce solutions
Product management
Content management
Inventory management
Order management
Order fulfillment
Vendor/seller management
CRM systems
Analytics & BI integrations
3rd party Integrations & APIs
Now a final thought, that you might have as an eCommerce entrepreneur—is, which development model should you choose?
When it comes to eCommerce—the choices are too many! And, probably, the more trending ones are the eCommerce platforms.
WordPress solutions like WooCommerce, and other eCommerce builders like Drupal, Joomla, Shopify, Bigcommerce, Magento, Etsy, and Shopkeep are all great options.
…..But, should you consider one of these eCommerce platforms for your business?
The answer is, yes,
if you wish to quickly get started without getting involved in a full-blown IT development process. The base pricing will also be cheaper than customized development—but it could get overwhelming when looking to scale, and get personalized themes and feature plugins.
The answer is, no—
and you should definitely have your own personalized eCommerce website/application, if you are willing to invest, looking for long-term growth, develop eCommerce features specific to your business, implement brand-specific themes, integrate cost-efficient enterprise & management system, and stand out from your competitors!
Also, check out the best Mobile App development Company in Bangalore.
You do get a vast collection of eCommerce features to choose from—however—some features are highly recommended for almost any eCommerce business.
Bypassing these features to save money could eventually lead to poor profit velocity.
You do get a vast collection of eCommerce features to choose from—however—some features are highly recommended for almost any eCommerce business.
Bypassing these features to save money could eventually lead to poor profit velocity.
Engaging and simplified interface
Your interface is responsible for solidifying the initial impression with your audience, even before the inventory and product quality.
An engaging yet simplified experience will ensure longer visit duration and lower bounce rates—both of which will greatly improve your conversion rates and SEO ranking.
A cluster-free graphical interface, component-based-UI elements, animated UI interactivity, audio-enabled search bars, reactive & responsive UI elements, advanced search filters, automated calculations, slider controllers, buttons, and date pickers—are a few examples of modern UI elements that add to a positive user experience.
Payment systems and process
These are definitely the features with which you need to start your eCommerce features planning. A major conversion determiner in eCommerce is the ease of payment & checkout.
Firstly, you need to select an appropriate payment process—one-time or repeat/rental/subscription—depending on your product base.
Secondly, you need to build a payment system (and relevant integrations) appropriate to your payment process and audience convenience.
Wallets, gift cards, and vouchers
These features are an extension of your payment system. Apart from basic Cash-On-Delivery, UPI payments, net banking, and such—also allow customers to maintain a digital in-app wallet.
And, integrate the digital wallet with features like gift cards, vouchers, rewards, cashback, and discount offers.
……The digital wallet features will also improve your conversion rates and customer loyalty….
Bot functionality
Bot functionality is yet another feature that improves both the UX and SEO ranking. Build live, 24x7, chatbots for customer service and support.
Chatbots are a great way to automate your customer support processes, including product complaints, refunds, cancellations, etc.
Shopping Cart and Wishlist
Shopping Carts and Wishlists are elementary features for all types of eCommerce. They not only improve your conversion rates but are also very effective at turning first-time buyers into repeat customers.
Build Carts and wishlists that can iterate products in detail and also display auto-calculated amounts.
Cart Abandonment and Wishlist abandonments are critical issues in eCommerce—and reflect pivotal insights on ways to boost your ROI. Hence, it is important to build web scrapping and analytics integrations with your Cart and Wishlist components.
Website-app synchronization and Universal Links
If your eCommerce business has both a website and mobile applications—then you need to establish proper website—application synchronization. This feature is mandatory for your brand's reputation and UX.
…….The synchronization ensures every change triggered by user interaction is implemented uniformly and consistently across all applications and websites……
Further, universal link building will ensure that when links to your eCommerce are clicked on mobile browsers, they automatically want to open in the mobile app.
Some browsers in some devices may diminish the eCommerce performance, and hence drop the UX—ensuring that the eCommerce always opens in a device's most optimized application, you ensure the best possible UX for your customer.
User profiles
User profiles are also a must-have for all eCommerce businesses. The profiles help users view and manage their transaction history, order history, manage payment-delivery-contact preferences, manage digital wallets, etc.
From your eCommerce business's point of view, the data collected from user profiles can help you generate personalized product recommendations and improve platform features. You will also need to have analytics and CRM integrations with the user profile data.
Device media-hardware access
Integrate the eCommerce with the device’s native APIs for media hardware like device camera, microphone, and sensors. Develop features like QR code scanning, photo upload, audio-enabled instructions, and motion sensor functionalities.
These features are good additions for improving user convenience and engagement.
Note- When it comes to the enterprise needs features like management systems, BI integrations, CMSs, and CRMs—there is no mandate, but rather dependence on the type of eCommerce business model you are on.
At Revolo Infotech we are a band of dedicated IT professionals—with a complete team of engineers, designers, data science experts, DevOps, project managers, and Digital marketers. We focus on providing highly customized website and app development services—at the most affordable prices and with the most optimized resources.
Giving an absolute estimation or quote for eCommerce website development cost isn’t really a plausible outcome. There are too many factors that affect the eCommerce website development cost. However, the following is a broad framework for E-commerce website/app pricing, that we offer at Revolo Infotech.
Framework dependant basic eCommerce website
We have years of experience developing eCommerce websites and applications for clients from various business domains. Our extensive experience has helped us establish comprehensive frameworks for eCommerce development. Our frameworks address all core eCommerce features and functionalities.
If you are looking for a quick and budget-friendly solution for just a single eCommerce website—then our framework-dependant basic eCommerce website pack could be the right option for you. We can quickly personalize the framework to fit your business and brand needs—and you will be good to go!
Cost range: 1,00,000 — 2,00,000
Build time range: 15 days — 2 months
Additional fee: Yearly server maintenance fee
Note, that both for the price and built time we provide a range rather than a finite number. This is because our framework—although well-defined—can still provide a good range of personalization. And, as you personalize the framework according to your business needs, your level of personalization will determine the resource and development hours it takes: both of which will further determine the cost.
Framework dependant basic eCommerce website + app
Our pre-defined proprietary eCommerce framework not only applies to website development but extends to mobile app development as well. Our framework is well-equipped to provide your eCommerce business with a basic personalized website and standard features for iOS and Android.
Cost range: 2,50,000 — 5,00,000
Build time range: 15 days — 2 months
Additional fee: Yearly server maintenance fee
Fully customized eCommerce website + app
If your business needs an eCommerce website and mobile application, both built from ground up, then we are happy to help as well. Get a completely customized eCommerce website and iOS and Android app.
Cost range: 5,00,000 — 20,00,000
Built time range: 6 months — 8 months
Additional fee: Yearly server maintenance fee
Note, that the build time will increase if you require further backend integrations to specific management systems.
Revolo Infotech, 104, Prospect Chambers, Fort,
Mumbai - 400 001,
India
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