What’s the Cost to Set Up an eCommerce Website

Growing internet penetration and more international business opportunities have made eCommerce a potentially lucrative business model. You can sell almost any product you could imagine these days, from clothing to wall art and eBooks. It’s unsurprising, then, that eMarketer predicts global eCommerce sales to reach almost $8 trillion by 2027.

However, despite the significant opportunities in eCommerce, diving in without understanding the basics could harm your chances of growth. Factoring in the startup costs for your eCommerce business is crucial for ensuring that you have the means to start strong and grow a company that continues generating revenue over the long term.

To help you prepare accordingly, we’ll cover all the main costs to consider when starting an eCommerce website. You’ll find out how much you should expect to pay for the essentials, along with some of the other potential costs to think about.

While you will see some eCommerce stores with generic domains (e.g. .[website-builder].store), buying a custom domain will help you build trust and credibility. If a user has never heard of you before and they see a generic domain, they will often question whether you’re a genuine website. As a result, you’ll lose sales.

Web domains vary in price, but you can normally get one for $15-20 per year. At Verpex we offer a free domain for the first year, allowing you to put that extra money toward growing your eCommerce business.

You will also need to get managed hosting, and in many cases, you’ll get a significant discount for the first year. Hosting can cost as little as $1 per month for your first year, and if you don’t have much traffic, this might be an ideal starting option.

However, I recommend investing upfront and preparing for more traffic; some of the higher-tier hosting plans will cost $15 per month or more. In some cases, you may pay $40+ per month – but this will depend on where you go and your allowances.

You should also get a customized email domain. Google Workspace and Outlook both offer these; I recommend Google Workspace as its functionality is better than that of any other email provider. Custom domains normally cost around $6 per person per month; you may need to pay VAT depending on your location.

You can use free website themes if you’re on a tight budget, but since your customization options are limited, I recommend buying a premium one instead. Whether you need WooCommerce-optimized themes or something designed for another eCommerce platform, you’ll find numerous options available.

Some website themes are a one-time purchase, whereas you’ll pay a monthly or annual subscription for others. For example, many premium Shopify themes cost around $300 as a one-time purchase (these can be higher or lower depending on your choice).

My top WordPress theme recommendation is Kadence, and its bundles cost between $149 and $219 per year. You can get cheaper themes, but this is one of those areas where investing in quality really matters.

You need to balance aesthetics and functionality. I’ve made the mistake in the past of focusing only on the former, leading to worse performance. Optimize your eCommerce store for mobile by choosing a responsive theme.

Item manufacturing and inventory management costs will differ significantly depending on what you sell. If you plan to sell physical items, I recommend finding a dedicated partner. For example, I partner with a print-on-demand company to sell my photography prints. By doing this, you only pay when someone purchases one of your items.

When you make a sale, you’ll normally cover shipping costs. In some cases, the dropshipping partner may also take a cut. This, however, is worth not having to think about the stress of inventory management.

If you need to manufacture items and store them in advance, the amount you pay for storage space will depend on numerous factors. In addition to the amount of space you require, your location will play a role.

Prices for eCommerce platforms vary; while WooCommerce is free, for example, you will need to pay for numerous plugins and other setup costs (we’ll talk more about these later). On the other hand, some WooCommerce alternatives(e.g., Shopify and BigCommerce) charge a monthly subscription fee.

Expect to pay around $40 per month for beginner plans. Each time you make a sale, you’ll also need to factor in payment processing fees; these typically range from 2-3% of the sale value. Even if you get a free WooCommerce payment processing plugin, you still often need to pay transaction fees.

In some cases, you might also need to pay for extensions and plugins – even if you’ve already paid a subscription fee. These will vary in price, and before signing up, use the free trial to confirm that you wish to commit to a subscription.

WooCommerce is secure for several reasons, such as the option to set up multi-factor authentication and its SSL encryption. However, you should still consider adding extra layers of protection. OPMC’s Security for WooCommerce plugin costs $79 per year, for example.

Besides eCommerce-specific security plugins, you should also protect your website. The good news is that many of these plugins have comprehensive free plans; All-in-One Security (AIOS) is one example, and Wordfence is another. These do have paid subscriptions, but you probably won’t need them for the first year or so.

In some cases, you may need to pay for additional security certification on your eCommerce site. For example, SSL certificates can cost $10 or more per year. The price will depend on your hosting provider and the SSL certificate you choose. At Verpex, we provide SSL certificates for free with all our eCommerce hosting plans.

You can mitigate many certification costs by signing up for a hosting provider that already has them included in your plan (e.g. Verpex).

In addition to the absolute essentials, you may also pay for extra costs to build and promote your eCommerce website. Here are some of the key ones to consider factoring into your budget.

Premium Plugins

Premium plugins are often useful for multiple actions, such as:

• Speeding up your website

• SEO

• Allowing you to customize specific site elements

• Analyzing your website performance

While premium plugins aren’t mandatory, you should consider some of them when running your site. For example, I think that WP Rocket is fantastic for speeding up my site; it costs $59 per year for a single website.

You can also pay for other premium tools, such as Yoast SEO ($99/yr). To begin with, I recommend budgeting around $500 per year for premium WordPress and WooCommerce plugins. Start with the free versions before moving on to the others.

Paid Advertising

While you should learn eCommerce SEO and social media marketing, getting organic results will take time. So, if you want to accelerate your growth, it’s worth considering paid advertising on search engines and social media.

Advertising costs vary depending on the platform you choose and where you want your ads to feature. As a starting point, consider budgeting at least $30 per day. You can increase your ad spend as you generate more sales.

To maximize effectiveness, learn how to effectively advertise with Google Ads and on social media. Learn where your target audience is and how to appeal to them.

SEO Software

Building an eCommerce SEO strategy is one of the best things you can do for your business in the long run. Once you’ve established yourself, you’ll start driving traffic from search engines at a much lower cost than running daily ads.

While you can use free SEO software, this often comes with limitations. For example, a free Semrush plan only lets you perform 10 daily actions. Mangools, another helpful tool for finding keywords, also has a limited free plan.

You can use other free SEO tools, such as Google Trends. However, I strongly recommend investing in a premium tool. Ahrefs’ starter plan, which costs $29 per month, is an affordable option; however, you only get 100 monthly credits. I therefore suggest investing in the $129/mo paid plan instead, which gives you 500 credits.

Mangools, which costs $29.90 per month (annual) and $49/mo (monthly), is a budget-friendly option. You get 100 keyword lookups every 25 hours and 200 keyword suggestions per search.

Branding

You can quickly create a logo for free in Canva, but having a strong brand can help you build customer rapport. While I recommend going all-in on your branding after you’ve been established, you may want to frontload this.

You can purchase premium software and do it yourself, but hiring contractors to help is a better alternative. Pricing varies, and you can use platforms like Fiverr to find a branding specialist and someone to design your website. While some people will charge less, you need to prioritize quality over the cost. Otherwise, you’ll probably end up paying more to fix the issue later.

For a good contractor, expect to pay at least $50 per hour.

Based on everything we’ve discussed, here’s how much you should roughly budget to set up your eCommerce store:

Note: The above estimates are based on over-budgeting, so that you ideally have some money left over.

eCommerce website setup costs will vary depending on the products you sell and your overall customization. Understanding what you should expect to pay for and budgeting accordingly will make it much easier to get started with fewer issues. Besides the mandatory costs, you may also want to consider the niceties that could help you grow your business faster.