I'm planning to develop an eCommerce website. I need an estimate of how much it would cost per year.

Features/functions :

1. Preferably a web template ( Is it cheaper?)
2. Shopping cart
3. Domain
4. Hosting
5. Maintenance
6. Support on basic functions ( uploading product etc etc...)

As I'm not familiar with eCommerce sites. This is just a list of basic features/functions, please do recommend any additional features/functions that is important for an eCommerce site.

Also do not forget to quote me your price per year all inclusive. Should you require any additional information for the estimated cost, please let me know.

I'm not sure if this is the right places to open such a thread, please redirect me if possible.

Thank you


Shing

if everything can be DIY, less then RM500 can make it... but depend on how you need the developer to maintain the system for you. Price might be charge from feature to feature

Hello Shing,

Seems like everything is in well.

1) Web Template? - Can you elaborate more? Usually open-source ecommerce comes with template pre-built in. Custom design definitely require cost, but it's not recommended for starting out. Test your market test your market.

2) Inside.

3) Domain / Hosting & Maintenance - All alright.
However, you need to elaborate more on maintenance, how would you want the person to actually "maintain" your site. If it's just checking the server resources, checking everything is working perfectly fine, then that should be the hosting provider's responsibility.

If it's regarding - taking orders, updating, checking products etc. That's more like personal accountant?

6) Most functions are already included in the open source ecommerce.

7) You should also decide how you will market your ecommerce site. Remember yeah, marketing strategy.

eCommerce can be implemented in a day, however for people to find your site, it may take months.

Anyway this is a right place to ask, a lot of si fu's here. Not included myself though - still got lots to learn.

Anyway if you would like to learn more, just PM me, i'll try to guide you as long as it's within the field i know.

Regards,
Ryan.

I think Ryan explain it pretty well there. I will add my 2 cents on what he had said.

eCommerce in Malaysia is pretty tricky i would said. There are two type of model. The first model is what we web hoster would prefer where the setup cost of getting you an ecommerce for your business is rather higher than your monthly/yearly cost. eg.

Ecommerce: RM2000
web hosting: RM100
domain: RM35

The next model is targeted for people who do not have much budget on hand which will give you a costing such as this,

Ecommerce Setup: RM500
web hosting: RM700
domain: -

You would have notice that the startup cost is half and usually people will go for the 2nd options because it's a startup and i believe i can change anytime after the first year of hosting. However, the trick is here. The cheaper option do not provide you the option to leave. This makes your business stick to them and you will have to pay a high amount just maintaining your business. Worst, as your online business grows, you uses more resources, they will increase your web hosting cost from RM700 to something i let you imagine yourself. And i do believe you can't do anything about it but to pay since both domain and hosting belongs to them and not you.

This is very normal in the IT world and i heard quite a few customers who faced such problems so just take note of this.

Setting up a eCommerce can really be 1 day if you are alright with the template and move on with the more important parts. However, uploading and data entry might take you more than a week depending on how many items you posses.

Looking at the questions, i'm sure you are a business person more towards a techy person but as a startup i'm sure you can learn and work at the same time and it will definitely save you some cost. Look for someone who can help you out on such matters and i'm sure you will be moving smoothly with your business. (unless you have budget to spare xD)

Cheers,
Clay

while I can't comment on the pricing but it is important to note that you should ink your support scope accurately and as clearly as possible. I have been maintaining my own ecommerce sites and as an admin myself, I've always wanted to add in extra functionalities. Often I find myself almost overrunning my budget purchasing addons ... etc.

Also as mentioned by trickyhost "eCommerce can be implemented in a day, however for people to find your site, it may take months." SEO is very important and this is very costly to maintain. I guess to a certain extent developers still needs to provide a certain level of SEO, eg. on page optimization, link submission ... etc. This will incur additional costs if clients want ongoing campaigns.

you can look for those local hosting company that comes with EC functions.
Normally, they will provide you with the software built in the hosting and you can just drag and drop the image in your shop. Cost aroung 800 bucks for the whole package.

Alternatively, get a designer to do it for you.
For a pro, they charge 2k-10k, for freelancer, 1.5k kot.

open source... depends on the client - rm 500 can settle the basic modules + ecom site for them Excluding hosting...
if it is done from scratch 0 % fully customized... charges may be from 5K on wards.. up to 30 K (depends on their modules and requirement too)

1. Preferably a web template ( Is it cheaper?)
if you are talking about open sources... for premium templates.. normally it will cost u USD 100 (around that range)

2. Shopping cart
Open source ? then free lor....

3. Domain
Rm 30 onwards up to rm 40.. but if you are getting from godaddy .. might be cheaper for .com ... USD 9 ?

4. Hosting
hosting.. depends on your requirement too.. based one.. 1 Gb of space and bw... would be sufficient i guess.... rm 100 / rm 80 ..... else getting 10 Gb would cost you around rm 2xx yearly...

5. Maintenance
hmm .. if you are the developer and client doesnt know much IT.. might be able to charge slightly higher depends on the work you need to do / maintain ... daily update on the product ? or db backup ? or upgrading the version ? it is all up for nego... If you are kind enuf (like me) ... can charge rm 0 lolz.... else.. charges from min rm 100 monthly or yearly can up to few 3/4 K for small site or roughly 10 K on wards if the compnay is big

6. Support on basic functions ( uploading product etc etc...)
this covers the maintenance fee (annually)

basically when you are using FREE source.. everything is negotiable but if you are charging lower than the market price.. do not post it here.. people tends to slam you for spoiling the market .. i mean their market

Hi,

First of all, thank you for your response!

Judging by the information given above.

1. I think Axis_lua pointed out quite an important point for eCommerce sustainability in terms of cost and freedom to change. I would definitely go for the first option. However, what are the differences between both besides the initial startup cost? Are they both still open source eCommerce or the first option is going to be a custom design? Or none of the above. I'm sorry I'm not a good in web designing process!

Also, for the domain and hosting, if I choose the first option does it mean that I would be able to move to another company or to leave whenever possible?

2. Maintenance. I meant making sure website is running properly, no bugs or errors throughout the year.

3. Support. I would require a few classes/tutorial for a start on the "how-to" for the basic tasks ( uploading products, backup and so on ). Any complicated task would be referred back to the web designer of course.

"how-to" on basic tasks are normally charged per session/per product or it does comes together included under initial startup cost?

4. I forgot to mention that I need a merchant account/online credit card payment as well. How much is it going to be for this?

I think the above pretty much sums up my queries for now. The other functions/features are pretty much standard in terms of pricing.

Once again, thank you everyone for your advice and information!

Regards,
Shing.

@Axis_lua, doesn't that 2 models apply to a web hosting company THAT have their own custom ecommerce platform that specialize to cater ecommerce site, no?

Reason is that - as a hosting provider myself, i helped client setting up their ecommerce without accepting any maintenance cost but teaching them all the technical stuffs. Did i just messed up the Typical Malaysia Model? Haha.

@Shing - check your inbox. It should include all the details u need to know. Hope it helps!

Regards,
Ryan

This post has been edited by TrickyHost: Nov 30 2011, 02:42 PM

http://angkatancms.realservers.info/Angkat...atalog/home.php
my project for my ecom subject recently
how is it?

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Added on December 1, 2011, 12:00 amangkatancms.realservers.info/AngkatanEcom/catalog/home.php


This post has been edited by yan7: Dec 1 2011, 12:00 AM

1. Majority company will use open source because we are talking about ecommerce so being open means its more developers and security analysis will have a chance to look at it and catch whatever is possible. Some still uses inbuilt system where the ecommerce is built themselves by scratch, in this case, you will have to talk to them to find out whether their source is portable and does the source belongs to you (rarely it is).

For domain and hosting, once you own both of these it means that you are freely about to access the hosting and domain of your own and you can provide these information to others to assist you with transfer. If you don't know anything about these two things. Its as good as giving the services to your provider and knowing nothing about (let alone transfer)

2. Like point 1, it depends on your selection, an open source community provides all these bug fixes and enhancement for you and its free. However, for self customize ecommerce, this is another problem you might want to ask them. For open source, although there won't be much bugs and problems, the "BUG" define here is mostly how you want it to work and your requirement that is not meet in open source coding. Don't think many have the capability to look at ecommerce open source code to help you resolve such bug in a open source ecommerce, rather, they will submit a bug report to you and the bug fixes will depend on the community itself. Lastly, the "design" built for your ecommerce might be where all the bugs you will find gua.

3. Depend on provider. For open source ecommerce, 99% of the tutorial can be found with Google so you really don't have to pay anyone unless they are using a remote access software to teach you on your home screen.

4. Locally, there are 3 options (4 but i don't count the last 1). The 3 options are ipay88, nbepay and paypal. (last options is Maybank if your transaction is big and you can customize your ecommerce directly to their api etc. [troublesome]). Each payment gateway got its good and bad. ipay88 and nbepay is local company which charge you a setup fees and a monthly transaction fess but ipay88 charge more for don't know what reason i haven't had a chance to find out so i mostly recommend nbepay to my clients. Paypal charge a larger per transaction fee but if your transaction is low, i highly recommend you to go for paypal.

5. No more 5. i add myself. i'm sure everyone learn a lot in this post but there are more than meet the eyes. Businesses are smart and i don't think i cover all but this is the business side and all these should be the important part to take note.

hehehe no la. because its open source ecommerce ma. There's isn't any real maintenance to began with other than the web hosting part unless they want you to help them to do many stuff monthly la then its correct to charge a maintenance fee. Unless they want to pay for your attention la you shouldn't reject such offer. WAHAHAHAHA

I'm associated with a web development company and as far as I'm aware, it can be as low as RM100+ a month.

Outside a lot of 'freelancers' charge a couple of thousand to set up the site, usually they just set it up and that's about it. It'd be more effective and reliable to host and engage with a web development company instead.

check out my sig for more info if you're searching.

This post has been edited by kenetix: Dec 2 2011, 01:28 AM

http://angkatancms.realservers.info/Angkat...atalog/home.php
how about this?

what about that site :S

good or bad? just student project o.0

You can start your cheap ecommerce Website Using Wordpress. But you will need integrate it with plugins (say, WP eCommerce plugin).. Templates are easier to find and some premium WP Themes are very cheap and not to mention reliable too..

Here some demo for you to consider, http://demo2.woothemes.com/?name=briefed-commerce

For domain name & hosting, some local Hosting Company offer hosting as low as RM40/annual and domain name is around Rm40, one click installation of Wordpress also a common things nowadays for Whosting provider

We have a couple of speakers and exhibitors in this business at our social media networking convention.

If you're free next Friday, just drop by KLCC and have a chat with them. You might find useful tips and networks there.

Link: http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2108754

Hi , if a IT freelancer charge me about RM10K for a normal e-commerce application, does it consider expensive?

normal ecom ... from prestashop / magento.... etc (which it is a FREE open source) .. then this is very expensive...
normal with open source... charging between 2-3 k ..should be ok.

What cart does he use? 10k is too overpriced, somemore freelancer. Really wanna chop neck meh hahaha.

3-5k budget can get a very good ones already.

I dont know what cart he using, anyway, thanks for your guys info.
btw, e.g if i would like to do an e-commerce website like Lazada. how much it cost? As I know lazada consider not normal website.
Appreciate you guys can give an estimate price. Thx.

Hello, please start a new thread, gonna close this sorry!