The first thing that comes to your mind about e-commerce is: How much does it cost to create an online store?
Perhaps you are thinking that the matter requires importing products from China and contracting with a software company to create a store, marketing company, sales, supply chain, shipping, and other matters.
But this is not necessary in the beginning. In this article, I will explain to you how the cost of creating an online store is less than $1,000
The cost of creating an online store in the traditional sense
Regardless of the size of your online store that you intend to launch in the coming months, launching the online store will mostly depend on a system of three:
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Special programming
When you want to determine the cost of building the store, the first thing that comes to your mind is to go to the programmers, so that you contract with one of the programmers (freelancers) or a software company to design the store with the specifications you need and the characteristics you want from the beginning (From Scratch), so that the programmer writes in The first line of code responsible for the appearance of texts on the site includes codes for the protection and security of the site.
Advantages : You ensure the stability of the store, fully customize it, and configure it with all software links to suit the size of your store, the required characteristics, and customize the appearance of the store.
Disadvantages : If you do not have significant programming experience, you will not be able to hire the right programmer, nor ensure the integrity of the code, nor perform security and protection tests, etc., and the cost will be high: often starting from $10,000.
You may be asking: Can I pay this much and not have a store be so professional? Answer: Yes, I have come across many companies that deceive the customer into completing a fantastic project, but in reality they deceive him and create the website according to the worst standards known in creating websites or electronic stores.
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Store building platforms
There are some platforms that offer you to build an entire store and provide all the tools to modify its appearance and settings. The platform bears the bulk of the modification to the site’s programming, providing protection and security, programming links, and so on. The cost usually starts at $30 per month.
The most famous of these platforms: Shopify and Square Space , and there are some Arab platforms such as: Salla and Zed .
Advantages : Very easy to use without the need for any programming experience.
Disadvantages : Not having the site’s code, and therefore you are forced to rely on the platform forever + you do not have any powers other than the powers provided to you by the platform.
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Content management systems
There are some development companies that provide you with a ready-made script that you install on your hosting, and then customize this system to suit the needs of your site using some of the tools that the system provides you.
Exactly as Microsoft provides you with the Windows system for using the computer and provides you with some desktop programs to customize the different uses of the computer, this is the case with systems for content management systems for electronic stores.
The most famous of these systems: OpenCart and WooCommerce
Advantages: Low cost, often open source.
Disadvantages: It requires you to take some time to customize the system properly.
Note : If you have a large budget, or huge financing, then you have most likely planned and divided this budget appropriately, but in this case I am talking about a person who wants to benefit from every $1 he invests in his own store.
Create an online store at an affordable cost ($5 per month)
To summarize the rest of the article for you, the system that I will explain to you starts at a cost of $5 per month, then we customize the online store with the capabilities we need… and you can develop the features of your store later.
In fact, among the previous three options, I initially advise you to rely on hosting + a content management system ( WooCommerce ), which is the best, for several things.
- WooCommerce is an open source and customizable system
- There are many add-ons that you can install alongside WooCommerce to get broader features
- You own your site files and can therefore develop your store’s operating system later
- Low cost (WooCommerce itself is free), but you pay some money in other tools
- Protection and security (the add-on itself is characterized by protection and security), but you are certainly required for the rest of the protection parts of your site
- The system is popular as it has received more than 1M activations so far
- Providing a statistics and tracking system built into the add-on
In order to simplify the process for you in reducing the costs of creating your online store, we will rely on: web hosting + WordPress + WooCommerce + some other add-ons.
With this equation, your store is ready to view, and users can complete their purchase through it.
I explained these steps in more detail in the following video. I advise you to watch it to learn how I launched an online store practically and easily in this way:
Note: The store was built using Bluehost hosting. Click here to go to the presentation page that we based on in the video
Perhaps the previous steps will be useful for you to start creating an online store at an affordable cost. But let me continue with some tips for shipping and purchasing goods.
Merchandise purchasing and warehousing
This is another important question that comes to your mind about purchasing or importing goods and placing them in warehouses in your city to be ready before displaying them in the store.
You can actually rely on this option and import the appropriate goods for you to start selling them, but I do not advise you with this option in the beginning if you do not have much experience in e-commerce, because you will acquire the goods with a large investment and wait for the capital cycle to be completed and the return you invested to be collected, and what about storage costs? And stagnant goods? And the variables of customers’ purchasing power?
In the beginning, you will not be able to decide on these matters in a successful manner (in addition to the fact that import and customs costs are high in some countries), so I advise you in the beginning to form a partnership with one of the merchants in your city according to the market of your store (electronics, household appliances, electrical appliances, etc.). etc.), then you display the products of this merchant in exchange for an agreed-upon commission.
Of course, the profit you will get will be low, but after a while, when you have an established business system in your online store, and a fixed number of sales come to you on a daily basis, then you can be the owner of the product, and increase the profit margin.
Shipping services and payment methods
In fact, shipping services are the easiest and I do not think it will be an obstacle for you in the beginning because you can contract with the shipping company and the customer bears the cost of shipping in most cases. As for collecting the price of the product, you can collect it by advance payment or payment upon receipt.
The obstacle you will face is the increase in returns, and you can overcome this problem by ensuring the professionalism of the shipping services of the company you contracted with or building an internal shipping system if you will rely on one city in the beginning.
As for payment methods, I advise you to diversify your payment methods to facilitate the user’s purchase process and not to withdraw from the purchase because a suitable payment method is not provided for him. The most famous of these methods are
- Paiement when recieving
- Payment via PayPal
- Payment via Visa
- Payment via mobile
- Payment via local payment systems
If you can provide all available payment methods, this would be great, or limit yourself to the most popular payment methods in your country (and you can provide one or two methods at first).
Appointment of the work team
In the beginning, you will not need to hire a large number of staff nor own a company headquarters. What you will need, as we explained in the previous explanation, is: building an online store, then promoting it across various platforms, then making a partnership with a merchant and an agreement with a shipping company.
These are the tasks that you need in the beginning. You can distribute the roles between yourself and a maximum of one or two people, while relying on outsourcing for some tasks that you do not perform frequently.
Conclusion
The cost of creating an online store varies depending on the business model you will rely on (such as owning inventory or working in partnership with a merchant), relying on special programming or a system dedicated to electronic stores, and other factors that contribute to determining the cost of building the store.
But in general, I advise you to initially rely on the lowest costs and build a prototype of the project, then after this model succeeds for you, start expanding by relying on more advanced solutions.
