In order to start a successful e-commerce business, you should know the approximate e-commerce startup cost. There are many ways to calculate the startup cost of your e-commerce business, but this article will focus on how to calculate the general startup costs of an online store.
1-Business Plan
A business plan is a detailed document that outlines the goals and objectives of your e-commerce business. The purpose of a business plan, as per the U.S. Small Business Association (SBA), is to “provide guidance for establishing a new or existing company, evaluating an opportunity and preparing financial projections.”
A successful startup requires several elements to be in place before it can begin operations:
- A product or service
- An idea
- Capital
- Customers who will pay money for what you sell
Your aim should be to create something people want—and then make them want it more than anything else in the world!
2-Website development cost
The startup cost For eCommerce depends on the complexity of your website. The cost can range from $5,000 to $100,000 or more. It includes designing the site, coding it and testing it with real users.
3-Website maintenance cost
Website maintenance cost depends on the size of your website, its complexity and so on. The following expenses will be incurred:
- Security costs
- Hosting fees
- Designing fees (if any)
4-Domain Name
A domain name is your website’s name and its Internet address (URL address). You can purchase it for one year or more. It’s best to do this ahead of time so that no one else obtains your desired domain. You can purchase the domain through GoDaddy’s auction if the domain is already taken.
Furthermore, the domain zone determines the price of an accessible domain. It is usually between $10 and $50 every year. There are more expensive possibilities. For example, name registration in domain zones such as .auto, .car, and .cars costs several thousand dollars per year.
5-Payment Processing Solutions
Payment processing solutions are the most important part of an e-commerce startup cost. It’s essential for you to have a payment gateway that supports all major credit cards, debit cards and digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
In other words, a payment gateway is an online platform that retailers use to receive payments from their customers. The merchant will use this platform to process online transactions through its website or mobile app.
6-Marketing Cost
The marketing cost is the most important part of your business. This includes everything from advertising to content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing and influencer marketing, as well as customer loyalty programs.
When you’re starting with an eCommerce startup cost calculator or when you have some idea about what your expected revenue will be at different stages of your business cycle (like when you’ve got 10k users on Instagram), it’s important to consider all these things for them not only to help with setting up KPIs but also to make sure that you don’t overspend on any one particular channel or programmatic channel strategy.
7-Staff Salaries
The eCommerce startup cost is not just the money you spend on the website but also includes the salaries of your employees.
How do you calculate staff salaries?
You can calculate it in two ways: by using a salary calculator or by researching average pay rates for your industry, job title and location.
8-IT Infrastructure and Security Setup
When you are starting your business, IT infrastructure and security setup is a one-time cost. It’s important to know that this expense isn’t discriminatory. The same goes for the cost of servers, storage devices and networking equipment—they’re all required to run your eCommerce business.
9-Warehousing
If you want to sell huge things or vast quantities of small items, you may need to rent warehouse space to keep your inventory. Depending on where you live, this might cost you between $4 and $7 per square foot every month. If the storage company is happy with your frequent access, you could perhaps consider renting a storage unit for your warehousing needs.
Conclusion
To make it easier for you to know the approximate e-commerce startup cost, maintain a spreadsheet or develop an integrated management system that contains all the necessary data. You can build it on top languages and technologies such as artificial intelligence and Elixir to boost your productivity from the very beginning.
