How Much Does It Cost to Have an Online Store?
Julius Conley
14 / April / 22
Visitors: 516
There are more and more supporters of online shopping, which is why the e-commerce industry still has great potential. The more that you can sell almost anything online. Therefore, it is not surprising that for many people running an e-shop is a great idea for a profitable business. However, when starting your adventure with online trading, you need to know what the cost of setting up an online store is!
When you ask e-entrepreneurs dealing with e-commerce, you can meet with extreme opinions about the cost of setting up an online store. All because establishing and running an e-shop consists of many elements. The overall cost of setting up an online store depends primarily on what solutions we choose, what we decide to give up and what costs we can reduce. It is certain, however, that with a little desire, you can start an online business, incurring lower costs than deciding to open a brick-and-mortar store. On the other hand, you cannot naively count on the fact that it is possible to set up an online store completely for free. Yes, there are free solutions that can be successfully used, but we will certainly not avoid all costs.
What determines the cost of establishing an online store?
The cost of setting up an online store includes software, graphic and functional design, configuration of settings, purchase of a domain, hosting and SSL certificate, as well as filling the store with content.
Online store software and e-store configuration
The first step in creating an online store is choosing how you want the store to come into existence. There are three solutions:
open-source platforms,
e-commerce platforms with subscription,
dedicated stores.
Open-source software: WooCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop, allows you to create an e-store in the basic version, even for free. However, it must be remembered that efficient navigation through these systems requires a lot of technical knowledge, so an amateur may not be able to cope with the task. You also have to take into account the necessity to purchase additional elements that we may care about, and which are not included in the basic version, especially if we cannot create them from scratch. Of course, you can commission specialists to set up and configure an online store, but then you have to take into account the amount of at least three thousand. PLN for a completely basic, but complete version of the store.
A cheaper, but not free solution are platforms such as Shoper, Sky-shop or RedCart, which allow you to set up a store in exchange for a subscription fee. For just a few dozen zlotys a month, we get ready-made solutions that allow you to set up an online store on your own. The downside of using the SaaS model, i.e. software as a service, is that we are not the owners of the store, we can develop it to a limited extent, and the possible transfer of the store to another platform is difficult and expensive.
The third option is to commission an interactive agency to create a dedicated store tailored to your own needs, but it is a very expensive solution. Depending on how much the store is to be expanded, you have to take into account the cost of several dozen to several hundred thousand zlotys!
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