How much does an e-commerce site cost? Rates and charges in 2023
Today, it is essential for any company to have its own website. Indeed, it allows your company to benefit from a good visibility to present its products or services. It is estimated that by 2040, 95% of business sales will be made online. This means that to hope to sell on the Internet, you must have a quality website. But what is the cost of a modern, secure and scalable e-commerce site?
The variables that make up the cost of an e-commerce site
It’s important to know that there are several factors that vary the price of an e-commerce site designed by a digital agency in Fort-de-France and another by a freelance professional in Saint-Pierre, for example. Indeed, the services that can be offered to you are often different. A digital agency such asAltosor communication will be able to offer you a turnkey and customized site. We work with you right from the start of your project to identify your current and future needs, and guide you in making the right choices and proposing solutions tailored to your company’s expectations. This way, you can be sure to offer your customers and prospects a unique user experience when shopping online.
The size of your customer base is a decisive factor in choosing the right e-commerce solution hardware, software and technological requirements. So, if your Lamentin or Marin-based business has a very large customer base, your project will require an e-commerce site and compatible applications and features to handle a lot of traffic simultaneously. These factors also influence the type of network, servers and other APIs needed, as well as the technology to be used. On the other hand, an e-shop that has a large number of pages costs more to create. This is due to the increase :
- coding processes,
- tests,
- the number of pages and their integration,
- costs related to writing and optimization for SEO.
The e-commerce platform used
To create its e-commerce site, a company based in the Caribbean can use a dedicated platform. Today, there are 7 major companies that dominate this sector. These include WooCommerce, Prestashop, Wizishop, Wix, Shopify, Drupal Commerce and Magento. These are Content Managament System (CMS ) solutions. Our communications agency can support you throughout Martinique, Ducos, Sainte-Anne, Le Carbet, Le Francois, and help you choose the CMS e-commerce solution that’s right for your business. As far as costs are concerned, those who opt for a CMS such as Shopify or Squarespace pay nothing up front. But they have to pay monthly fees ranging from 29 to 299 € for the former, and from 11 to 24 € for the latter. If you choose a configurable and customizable CMS like Magento, you’ll need to spend at least €5,000 for basic configuration and training.
If you want to have an ultra-customized, bespoke design, you should budget up to €50,000. Thus, it is necessary to count between 2 000 and 200 000 € for the creation of an Open Source e-commerce site.
It is necessary to add between 600 and 3 600 € per year for hosting and 200 to 1000 € per year for additional modules. And if you plan to install updates, you should budget between €500 and €2,000 per year.
As for the SaaS solution, you need to take into account the payment of a monthly subscription. In general, this kind of service is around 500 € per year. But you should know that SaaS platforms charge a percentage of the sales generated by your online store.
Domain name and hosting solutions
Even if you choose a free solution to create your corporate e-commerce site, you should be aware that you’ll still have to pay some essential fees for your personalized domain name and for online hosting of your site. When you’re talking about an e-commerce site for a company based in Robert, Trinité or elsewhere in the French West Indies, don’t forget the domain name. However, compared with the above-mentioned expenses, the cost of reserving a domain name is almost insignificant, averaging between €5 and €15 per year.
In general, it is possible to purchase an online domain for a maximum of 10 consecutive years. This way you can keep it under control. Otherwise, you can consider configuring the domain so that the renewal is done automatically. Thus, when you renew your purchase, you will receive an email inviting you to do so. Then, it is time to think about hosting your e-commerce site online. To do this, you’ll need to work closely with a communications agency in Gros Morne, Vauclin or Rivière-Salée, to find the right hosting service for an e-commerce site for a company in French Guiana or even Guadeloupe.
First, it’s a good idea to take stock of the size of your e-commerce site and the traffic you expect in the future. In case you choose a managed server, the cost for 2022 will vary between 300 and 2 000 € per month. It depends on the power you are looking for and the expected traffic. For less than 300 €, it is possible to get a decent support and service. But it’s likely that your e-commerce portal is not PCI-compliant. This may make it less interesting to Internet users.
A couple in love shopping on an e-commerce site in MartiniqueThe webdesign
It’s important to create an e-commerce site that’s attractive and pleasing to the eye. Indeed, its overall design and appearance will strongly influence the visitor’s first impression and his desire to stay or not. This is why it is recommended to call upon a digital agency in the Caribbean to design your platform and create your global visual identity in order to create coherence between all of your communication tools, whether printed or online.
This specialist may ask you to choose from 4 main design categories, namely simple, modeled, high-end and custom. Today, there are a number of platforms, particularly SaaS offerings, that offer templates, themes and design galleries for choosing the look and feel ofyour e-commerce site. If you want to buy a template, the budget can be as high as €2,000. But those who plan to make customizations or even minor modifications should plan for an additional $1,000 to $2,000.
The SSL certificate
Creating an e-commerce site involves a more or less important number of transactions. So, it is important that these transactions benefit from a minimum level of security in order to reassure your potential customers. In this case, it’s a good idea to add an SSL certificate to your platform. Indeed, most Internet users hesitate to buy a product on an e-commerce site that is not protected by an SSL certificate. The price of this certificate can vary considerably. In fact, it is possible to obtain one for a cost ranging from 9 to 50 € per year. But you can also find a SSL certificate on the market for 500 €! So, be sure to compare offers or ask your communication agency which solution to choose.
SEO solutions for maximum visibility
Creating online content by writing optimized texts is one of the fundamental elements for a merchant site’s visibility on search engines. Today, a large majority of companies tend to create their own content. These include brand presentations, product descriptions with images, videos, etc. However, this content is often not sufficiently optimized for search engines, or even lacks coherence and relevance, as it does not reflect a clear and appropriate positioning. To avoid such a situation, you should contact a digital agency based in Saint-Esprit or Fort-de-France with expertise in SEO or search engine optimization. As far as pricing is concerned, a good optimized text costs between 50 and 500 €. This price varies according to the number of words, the quality of the article and various other factors.
Creating an e-commerce site optimized for selling products and services online, whether to B2C consumers or B2B professionals, is a channel that is sometimes under-exploited, yet it enables you to expand your online customer base far beyond your usual catchment area. However, it should not be forgotten that e-commerce sites are also subject to obligations in terms of legal notices and data protection. Thus, do not hesitate to call on our consulting agency in digital communication to guide you and advise you at best to create your e-commerce site. From the choice of CMS, to the creation of your visual identity, SEO copywriting and hosting solutions, we offer you the most appropriate solutions for creating your site.
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