How Much Does It Cost to Make an Ecommerce Website? [Detailed Guide for 2024]

The average cost of an e-commerce website is hard to tell as too many factors influence the price: features, design, integrations, tech stack, the seniority of your developers hired, etc. Especially if you’re going for custom development, not some ready-made templates.

That’s why, we’ve made a guide explaining how much does an e-commerce website cost to build, what influences it, and what are the MVP features for this type of sites.

Let’s consider the major cost drivers for ecommerce website cost breakdown:

• Number of features and their complexity
• Complexity of website design
• Number of 3rd party integrations
• Developers and their location
• Type of cooperation

Let’s discuss each of them to find a response to "how much does it cost to build a ecommerce website" question for your business.

It’s pretty easy: as your website grows, so do tech requirements. And the cost to make an ecommerce website does. Screens, buttons, fields, logic – when it comes to pricing, all these matter a lot. Besides, devs often need to use third-party APIs (e.g., to integrate payment systems or social login) or code from scratch which also influences the cost of setting up an ecommerce website.

Development cost here and below is estimated at $50/h-$60/h considering rates in Estonia, Central Europe. The approximate cost of Minimum Viable Product or MVP functionality (only features necessary to check the viability of your ecommerce site idea) will differ from $8,000 to $30,000+.

We will calculate the cost of e commerce website development by features. Here’s a list of pages our clients often ask about:

• Main page
• Shopping cart
• Favorites
• Check out
• Blog
• Category pages
• Product pages

The features that also define how much does an ecommerce website cost:

• Integration with payment systems (Stripe, PayPal)
• Push notifications
• Recently viewed products
• Products’ rates and reviews
• Search bar with filters
• Admin panel

Same with the cost of ecommerce website development: the more sophisticated the design is, the more time it takes. After all, design isn’t all about pretty looks but also about making the select-buy process simple, fast, and clear for customers. Or even encouraging them to buy some products. Besides, if you want to include some animations or choose between 2-3 visual concepts (designers need time to get them ready), be ready to face the higher cost of ecommerce website.

You should also remember the following: the ecommerce website should look good on mobile devices. There’s good proof for that: according to Outer Box researches, about 80% of the mobile users in the US bought something online in the last half of a year. That’s why you should consider this point seriously to make your future online store site attractive for users.

You may also want to add adaptive web design to the list of web development services and consider it in ecommerce web design pricing. Adaptive web design makes web pages render well on different devices, including smartphones (so you won’t need to build native iOS and Android apps for mobile users). As a company skilled in web products creation, Cleveroad can simplify your design task and deliver an online store website that will be captivating for your customers, secure and simple in use.

Website design cost typically varies from $2,000 - $35,000+. However, if you plan to start with an ecommerce website creation, we will never leave you alone: our experts will prepare detailed project estimates that will help you wisely organize your online store site expenditures.

If you plan to integrate third-party tools to handle payments, add a live chat or customize shipping options, be ready to face a higher e-commerce website design cost. Let’s start with must-have payment integrations – Stripe and PayPal.

Stripe takes 2.9% + 30¢ per successful card charge. Same with PayPal, but they also charge 5% + .05¢ for payments under $10.

Want a robot to call or SMS your customers? Or send them messages in WhatsApp? Twilio APIs, programmable voice or SMS is quite a good option. Let's see Twilio starting costs to calculate average cost of ecommerce website for your business:

• $0.0042 to send a WhatsApp message
• $0.0075 to send or receive an SMS
• $0.0085/min to receive and $0.013/min to make a call

Again, devs need time to integrate it (not much though).

Last example that can be considered in calculating ecommerce costs is emails. You’ll surely need them if you’re going to inform customers about their orders being collected or shipped. We use Amazon email sending service (Amazon SES). If you ask yourself about what should be added to ecommerce site price at this point, you'll find out that they charge $0 for the first 62,000 emails you send each month, and $0.10 for every 1,000 emails you send after that.

Responding to the "how much does it cost to create an ecommerce website" question, you should also consider the locations your hired developers are in. For example, software development services in Central Europe cost less than in the United States, or Western Europe. Here are the hourly rates in the world’s biggest tech hubs helpful while calculating the average price for ecommerce website.

Yet big hourly wages (necessary to find out average ecommerce website cost) don’t obligatory mean big quality, and it may not matter from which country your devs are from – United States, UK, or Estonia.

Nevertheless, if you want to get the highest quality of services at a low price, we advise you to pay attention to Central Europe and its most popular tech hub - Estonia. This country rightfully takes its place in the top ten countries actively pursuing IT reforms and is a leader in offshore development. In addition, Estonia has the following advantages that make it an attractive place for IT outsourcing with appealing web design ecommerce prices (as well as for other industries):

• Wide pool of developers. Estonia is in third place in Central Europe regarding the number of developers, and the trend will continue in the coming years. Analysts predict that the number of IT professionals will reach 242,000 by 2025.
• Cost-effectiveness. This country is a real gift for those who want quality IT services at a low price. Companies in Estonia charge from $50 - $60 per hour (and it can positively influence the cost of building a ecommerce website for your business), while in other regions, prices are 2-3 times higher.
• Trade openness. Estonia has a visa-free regime with Western Europe and a time difference of only 1 hour, which makes this country convenient to visit if you want to control the development process personally. In addition, the country conducts trade with the EU and EFTA countries, uses English as a working language, and has the same working values ​​as Western countries, contributing to fruitful and comfortable cooperation.

Being located in Estonia, Cleveroad perfectly combines the said advantages, being ready to make your ecommerce business website efficient for your company. All you need to do is to contact us by submitting a request on our company website. Our specialists will reach you within 24 hours to schedule a meeting.

Type of cooperation is another important factor in forming ecommerce website prices. So the question comes up about what to select:

• Gather an in-house team
• Outsource the work to the 3rd-party IT provider

Let’s look at each option and how it affects the price.

Apply to full-time specialists

In-house development means you can gather a software development team under the roof of your office. Collaboration with an internal team is characterized by greater communication and better involvement in the development processes.

But, you should consider that hiring an in-house team means more time spent for specialists’ employment as well as a sufficient budget that should include salaries for the ecommerce website development specialists, taxes, sick leaves, office rent, accounting costs, etc.

The salaries of the web development specialists are definitely the lion’s share of the above given approximate budget. Let’s revise the stats to understand more accurate estimates (according to Glassdoor):

• Web developer’s salary is from $64,000 to $123,000 yearly, depending on their seniority level and skills.
• The full-stack web developer has an approximate salary of about $86,000 a year
• UI/UX designers have $99,107-$120,895 a year.
• QA engineers get about $125,000 a year
• Project Managers typically obtain $125,200-$156,600.

If the above expenditures sufficiently exceed your budget expectations and you look for more cost-effective way to achieve your ecommerce website creation aims, you should look through the next option.

Working with offshore and nearshore developers

The cost of building a ecommerce website will depend on the region and team’s expertise level. When you hire software engineers from various locations, you can optimize the costs of hiring and maintaining full-time employees.

Offshore and nearshore programmers often come from regions with cost-effective staffing compared to Western countries and the USA. For example, Estonian web developers take $50-$60 for an hour of their services, while their US or UK colleagues charge $75-$200.

Additionally, remote ecommerce development teams often operate in regions with lower living costs, allowing for competitive pricing without compromising quality. This cost advantage extends to various aspects, including development tools, software licenses, and infrastructure expenses. Furthermore, the absence of commute times and related fees for team members leads to increased efficiency and cost savings for the client's company. This collaborative approach provides access to top-tier talent and ensures a cost-effective solution for the entire project lifecycle.

In short, a custom ecommerce website design cost may range from $26,400 to $99,700 and up. That’s true for websites developed from scratch, not built with some ready-made templates (which may work well but for short-term needs).

Now, let's figure out where an e-commerce website cost comes from. To clarify we suggest splitting e-commerce websites by their complexity, from simple sites to more complex platforms. Large e-commerce sites must be well-architected to cope with high loads and rank well on search engines. It (and many other points like unique design) is what makes ecommerce website price go up.

These e-commerce platforms (e.g., Puma, Nike, Lego) are among the most common and fairly easy to develop, as such websites sell products of only one brand. This approach narrows down the possible functionality to calculate how much does ecommerce cost since to start a website, it is enough to create a storefront with products, listings, and the ability to add them, as well as a basket with checkout and you are ready to go.

Average cost of ecommerce website: $60,000+

It is the basis for various large stores selling goods of other brands. Such websites (like Dick’s Sporting Goods) are more difficult to develop since many more products are in the assortment, which requires additional work with the server side to make the website work smoothly.

Ecommerce web design pricing: $150,000+

The last type of e-commerce website (e.g., Amazon, Etsy) is a giant platform where private entrepreneurs and sellers can put their products up for sale. Such websites are the most difficult to develop. In addition to huge server capacities, they require implementing complex features, such as analytics, stock control, shipping management, and much more. So, in this case the answer to "how much does it cost to make an ecommerce website?" should be entrusted to the IT professionals who have experience in enterprise web development.

Custom ecommerce website cost: $300,000+

When considering the development of an ecommerce website for your business, one of the crucial decisions to make is whether to opt for a custom solution or a ready-made one.

A ready-made ecommerce website is a product that allows businesses to install it and start using it immediately. The platforms for ecommerce activity like Shopify, Magento, or WooCommerce typically have a wide range of customizable templates and features for online stores of all sizes, and do not require to be built from the ground up.

However, ready-made ecommerce websites may lack the tailored functionality and unique branding that a custom-built online store site can offer. They often come with limited customization options, hindering a business's ability to stand out in a competitive market.

Additionally, pre-built solutions may not align perfectly with specific business needs, potentially leading to inefficiencies. As your business evolves, ready-made platforms might struggle to adapt, requiring costly and time-consuming adjustments or a complete overhaul. In contrast, custom solutions can be designed with scalability in mind from the outset.

A custom ecommerce web development is a process of creating digital solution that aligns precisely with your business's unique requirements and objectives. This tailored approach allows you to exercise a high degree of customization, accommodating your current position in the market while strategically positioning your enterprise for future growth and success.

Moreover, by opting for a custom e-commerce solution, you gain complete control over the website's design, functionality, and features. This means that every element of your online store, from its visual aesthetics to the user experience, can be finely tuned to reflect your brand identity and cater to the specific needs of your target audience. You should understand that this comfort costs more; however, such expenditures will definitely pay off.

Let’s sum up all the said by considering the prices of the custom website development compared to ready-made ones.

First, let's see if it makes sense to develop your own custom trading website. Statistics say yes, definitely worth it. According to analysts from Influencer Marketing Hub, the entire e-commerce industry will exceed $8 trillion in 2026. This demonstrates that every year, more businesses start their development paths in this direction and invest in creating their websites. As a result, overall e-commerce sales also rise.

E-commerce websites are very popular among ordinary Internet users, and every year, more and more purchases are made on the Internet than in standard stores. All thanks to the incredible convenience that online shopping provides. In addition, online websites allow you to make purchases any day of the week and at any time of the day, which also boosts the number of sales. Analysts say that by 2040, about 95% of all purchases will be made through e-commerce platforms.

However, why invest in a custom store? Why not make a small e-commerce store using website builders with ready-made templates? There are several reasons for this, which stem from the main advantages of custom solutions and influences on cost of building ecommerce website:

What's more, we've asked our developers to make a list of technologies they would use to build such a site. Let's see the tech stack before calculating how much for e commerce website you should spend.

Moreover, you will benefit more from your e-commerce website if you integrate it with cloud solutions and payment gateways. They should also be considered while answering the question of how much to create an ecommerce website.

Cloud systems can assist your business in an online commercial presence expansion. Their capabilities stabilize your e-commerce website flows and increase their operational speed. Moreover, cloud systems' use is totally secure. All these advantages can cut your total e commerce website creation cost because by using a cloud hosting, you pay only for what you utilize.

Payment gateway integration has a crucial meaning for an e-commerce website building. All the financial data is sensible, so the resource it's transferred to/from should be securely protected from any penetration. But keep in mind that you also need to choose the gateway that is popular in your target country, offers a low transaction fee and is recommended as one with good shopping experience for users.

You can facilitate your task, entrusting the tech stack choice (as well as a commercial site creation and e commerce website making cost calculation) to an IT vendor having a profound e-commerce expertise.

Despite the basic ecommerce website cost components listed above, owning a website imposes several additional, but no less important items to the list of expenses. Therefore, you should also take them into account when designing your own e-commerce website.

Any business must have a memorable domain name, and getting one for your site will have an impact on your ecommerce website design price. A domain name is your company's home in the internet world. Quality domains range in price from $5 to $10 per year. However, if you want a short domain with ".com" at the end, be prepared to pay from $15 per year. In addition, you should know that domain ownership contracts are often signed for up to 10 years, which allows you to dispose of your domain as you please.

Hosting is the backbone of your website, without which you will not host your business on the Internet. You host your platform on vendor’s servers that provide access to users for your business and services, as well as support in case of disruptions. The ideal option for a business is finding a hosting that will allow you to host a website created from scratch. However, you should keep in mind that such hosting services cost a lot of money.

And most importantly, never skimp on hosting. The cheaper the price, the higher the chance of work interruptions and poor customer support from the vendor. However, hosting prices that should be included to a price of ecommerce website calculation range from $75 to $10,000 per year.

An SSL certificate is a digital signature that enables a secure, encrypted connection between a website and a browser using the HTTPS protocol. In turn, HTTPS uses the SSL or TLS cryptographic protocol to encrypt the transmitted data. This certificate is extremely important for e-commerce websites, as you will be working with users’ personal data and other confidential information that needs protection from interception by third parties. The cost of such a certificate as a constituent of ecommerce website development price in general, ranges from $6 to $150.

Mobile responsiveness is a critical factor in ecommerce website development, impacting user experience and overall success. While not typically a separate cost item, it contributes to development costs. This involves designing flexible layouts, testing on various devices and browsers, optimizing content and images for mobile, and adapting the user interface for touch-screen navigation.

Mobile responsiveness (typically costing from $2,000 to $30,000+) is considered a fundamental requirement in development, ensuring your site works seamlessly on smartphones and tablets. Costs can vary based on the complexity of these adaptations and optimizations.

An e-commerce website thrown on its own won't last long. As a result, you need constant technical support, and your budget should include the costs for it along with ecommerce development pricing. The support includes salaries for admins who manage the website and its functionality, various updates that bring new features, solutions to emerging technical problems, and much more. If you don't take care of these things, your platform will quickly lose its competitive edge.

Support costs also vary and can range from $500 to $12,000 per month - this should also be considered in your ecommerce development cost.

Finally, if nobody knows about your website - it doesn’t exist. That's why you must add marketing expenses to the list of custom ecommerce website price drivers. This category may cost from $1,000 to $15,000+ depending on your business size. Such a price includes various services (PPC advertising, copywriting, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), etc.) needed to promote your online store and fill it with content that will be optimized for search engines. Marketing services for the ecommerce website created might be estimated roughly.

Your websites’ content, design, and domain name surely matter when you calculate a total cost to create ecommerce website. However, features that you're planning to implement for the website will take up most of the budget.

Keep in mind that software developers aren't the only specialists you need on a team to build such a complex product. The work of other specialists isn’t included into the estimate.

Here's the full team composition you'll need during your project development:

• Front-end developer
• Back-end developer
• UI/UX designer
• Business Analyst
• Project Manager
• QA engineer
• DevOps engineer
• Team lead

Given that team composition and the amount of work, the average cost for ecommerce website will be $90,000 as described in the table. Now, let’s revise the approximate costs for building an online store website for your business before adding them to your business plan.

The tables we show you are just a rough cost of e commerce site estimate. The main purpose of such an estimate is to show you the amount of money you should count on and outline development stages. As soon as we delve into the discovery phase and analyze your specific idea and learn all the details, the numbers may change. However, we can immediately calculate a more accurate e commerce website cost as soon as we know your project thoroughly.

The price for ecommerce website can also change drastically depending on your requirements. If you want to save some budget, there's a team augmentation model available. Choosing it, you simply hire as many developers as you need for the project and manage them on your own. However, you bear full responsibility for the result choosing team augmentation.

Cleveroad is a professional provider of custom digital solutions based in Estonia - one of Central Europe’s most famous outsourcing destinations. For over ten years, we have been helping businesses of various industries acquire new technologies that boost their overall performance and help them reach new heights. In our arsenal, we have:

• 10+ years on the market
• 120+ in-house engineers
• 170+ successful projects

Our flexible approach to the cost of e-commerce website estimates allows any business to get a custom software product. How is project cost estimation done at Cleveroad? Basically, we make two types of estimates – rough and detailed.

A rough estimate is typically used as a general figure to give customers an idea of the expected cost and development stages. This information is provided to clients for informational purposes.

We create 2 rough estimates to improve the cost accuracy step-by-step:

The Solution Design estimate considers the team's experience and lessons learned. Such an estimate for your ecommerce site includes goals, work scope, complexity level, containers, constraints, risks, mitigation plans, and requirements. We use this information to create an estimate and proposal.

A Discovery estimate is made after collaborating with you during the Discovery Phase. This involves analyzing business process details, creating a more precise feature list, determining development nuances, and establishing non-functional requirements and architectural solutions. This new online store site estimate is based on the more detailed requirements, correcting the previous one and providing a more accurate understanding of all requirements and team composition.

A detailed estimate is a highly accurate cost estimation in project management that involves the participation of developers directly involved in creating your ecommerce website.

Detailed estimates are created during the development phase after the Discovery Phase. The team uses the Discovery Phase requirements and this estimate for your ecommerce site as a "foundation" to define detailed requirements. This is an iterative process. The business analyst prepares detailed requirements for each sprint or two ahead, known as user stories. The solution architect, technical team lead, or responsible developer reviews them.

Each user story is evaluated, and a detailed estimate is made. If you provide us with a ready-made documentation package, we can provide a detailed estimate for your future web online store more quickly and easily.