How Much Does an Online Store Cost in 2024?

When you come up with the idea of creating your own e-Commerce, the first question that comes to mind is “how much all of these will cost?” This is not surprising. After all, to build a sales platform, you need to organize an appropriate budget. Unfortunately, implementing an online store is not the only cost you will have to bear. So, how much money do you need to create and then efficiently run an e-Commerce? How much does an online store cost without sugar-coating and rounding down? This article will tell you all of that.

How Much Does It Cost to Create an Online Store?

Of course, it depends… We know this is not the answer you were expecting. So, let’s talk a bit more about this.

When implementing an online store, the price you will pay for it can be divided into several categories.

Cost of Implementation

This is probably the most obvious part of the budget necessary to set up an e-store. It is the price you pay to a software house or a SaaS solution provider (if they charge for creating the e-Commerce itself). This cost is related to programming and graphic work. The final amount depends on the technology you choose, the functionalities you want to implement, the software house’s commission, and the number of hours the project team will need to set up your e-store.

Unfortunately, we cannot give you a specific price for such an implementation as the market price range is huge.

If you decide to create your e-Commerce using Shopify, you will not pay anything for setting up a simple online store. However, you will have to bear the cost of a monthly subscription. Additionally, there will also be a sales commission, but more on that later. The bottom line is that the cost of creating an online store in this case is zero.

The situation is completely different if you decide to implement your e-Commerce based on an open-source solution or create your store from scratch. In both scenarios, you will need to hire developers to set up your sales platform. And you will have to pay for their work time. How much? It depends on the technology you choose and the software house itself. You can create an online store on WooCommerce for as little as 500 EUR. A small e-Commerce on PrestaShop will cost about 3,500 EUR. For implementing Magento 2 store you will pay around 20,000 EUR.

As you can see, the price range is huge. Choosing the right technology for your business is crucial. What is the best e-Commerce platform? It depends on your needs and your customers’ demands. But that’s not what this article is about. We just want to emphasize that the engine you choose for your e-store will greatly impact the price you will pay for setting it up.

Domain Cost

Setting up an online store is not everything. For your customers to find your sales platform, it must have a unique address – a domain. On the Internet, you will find many companies offering domain registration services. Just type “buy a domain” in your search engine, and you will find many sites where you can make a purchase.

How much does it cost? The price of a domain largely depends on its commercial potential. You can buy it for just a few dollars, or for a few million (especially if we are talking about the secondary market, i.e., addresses already purchased by someone else). The most expensive domain sold so far is LasVegas.com, which was bought for a whopping 90 million USD. You probably won’t have to spend that much. Remember, however, that the address of your website is hugely important. Your store’s domain should contain your brand name. Sometimes it’s worth investing a bit more or buying an already taken domain than setting up your store on a domain with the extension .xyz.

You pay for the domain once a year. However, it is not always the same amount. If you bought your WWW address for 500 EUR, it does not mean that you will pay that much every year. The domain transfer is a purchase transaction. You pay that amount once. Later, once a year, you will have to pay the company that maintains your domain. Usually, this costs from a few Euros to a few hundred. Do you want a specific amount? Here you go. On the LH.pl platform, a .com domain costs +12 EUR per year, and an address with the .ge extension costs around 230 EUR.

Server Costs

Implementing an online store is a bit like building a house. To build your dream villa, you need a land on which you’ll erect your building. And these lands are servers. Without them, your e-Commerce will not exist. As you can guess, servers are not free. You have to pay for them. How much? It depends on the option you choose.

You have two main choices: your own dedicated server or hosting.

A dedicated server is nothing more than a special computer that you set up, for example, in your office. It stores your sales platform, product database, and other files you use in your business. Dedicated servers are typically used by large companies that need custom solutions. However, having your server room requires from the entrepreneur not only to purchase high-quality equipment but also to hire a specialist with the necessary technological knowledge. The cost of a dedicated server infrastructure depends on parameters such as the processor, RAM, disk capacity, or the number of IP addresses. Therefore, the price of a server can range from several hundred EUR to even several million (in the case of large corporations). Additionally, you need to account for the salary of server administrators, which is on average around 80.000 EUR per year. The larger the server room, the more such employees you will need.

Hosting, on the other hand, involves a hosting company providing server space. If you choose this option, you are renting servers from another company. And here again, you have two options. You can use shared hosting or VPS.

Shared hosting means that a given server is rented by several entities, each having its separate space, but other parameters such as RAM or processor performance are shared. This type of hosting is characterized by a low price. LH.pl offers hosting from 9 EUR for the first year (renewing the Mango package costs around 92 EUR/year). Of course, the exact cost of shared hosting depends on the disk capacity you will need.

VPS hosting is similar to the shared option. However, in this case, each user of a given server has a specific amount of RAM, disk capacity, and processor performance assigned. The cost range here is quite large. Prices start from around 6 EUR (OVHcloud) to even several thousand (on home.pl).

The type of server your e-Commerce chooses depends on your needs and preferences. Remember, however, that without a good server, your store will not function smoothly (or at all). Therefore, do thorough research and choose the most optimal solution for yourself.

SSL Certificate Cost

A lot of data flows between your e-store and its customers. Much of it is sensitive (payment data) and even legally protected (personal data). Therefore, for your platform to enjoy users’ trust and operate legally, you need to secure it properly. One of the basic ways to do this is with an SSL certificate, which encrypts transmitted data so that no one can view or steal it. This is the padlock icon you see next to the website address in your browser. You can also recognize sites secured with an SSL certificate by the characteristic “s” in the HTTP protocol. Example? Here you go: https://satisfly.co/pl/.

This is a basic data security measure for an online store. If your store does not have this certificate, you can expect not to have many customers. Certainly not as many as you could have if your store were properly secured. Why? For instance, because in many browsers, a message like this appears:

So, what is the cost of an SSL certificate? Typically, the answer is “it depends”… on the level of validation (security) you choose, the scope of protection, and the encryption algorithm used. Many hosting companies include the SSL certificate in the hosting price. You just need to enable it. However, if you want or need to purchase this security separately, prices start from just a few dollars.

Additional Plugin Cost

If you implement your store based on one of the open-source engines, the concept of plugins and add-ons will not be foreign to you. Platforms such as Magento or PrestaShop are characterized by a modular structure. Therefore, you can add ready-made blocks (plugins) to them, which will speed up the implementation process. However, not all modules you find in the marketplace of a given solution are free. You will have to pay for some of them. Usually, it’s either a one-time fee or an annual subscription. It all depends on the creator of the given plugin. In the Magento marketplace, you will find many free plugins that you can use in your store. The price of paid ones starts at $10 and goes up to $99,999. The range is therefore quite substantial.

When choosing plugins for your e-Commerce, consider not only their price but also their quality. A poorly developed plugin can cause quite a few problems, which will either affect your wallet (fixing and improving the module will cost quite a lot) or your turnover (if your store does not work correctly, customers will not buy in it). Therefore, remember not to save money on plugins at all cost. The proper functioning of your platform is more important than saving a few dollars.

Monthly Operating Costs of an Online Store

It’s not like you set up e-Commerce and that ends the costs associated with your sales platform. Unfortunately, it’s not that colorful. Running any business costs money. In the case of e-Commerce companies, there are technology-related issues that, of course, you will have to pay for.

Cost of Maintaining the e-Commerce Platform

Again, we need to separate SaaS platforms from stores implemented based on a dedicated solution or open-source engine.

Let’s start with the latter.

Maintaining e-Commerce implemented on open source or dedicated solutions involves system monitoring, creating backups, and solving emerging problems (such as a full disk). All these tasks require the work of programmers. Depending on the complexity of the backend, this is usually a few to several dozen hours a month. That’s just for maintenance. If you also want to develop your system, this number will naturally be bigger. The hourly rate is, of course, different depending on the technology. In Poland maintaining a dedicated solution costs around 70 – 150 EUR. Magento agencies usually price their work at 60 – 120 EUR per hour. The cost of maintaining such a system can therefore vary greatly.

As mentioned earlier, implementing an online store on a SaaS most often costs nothing. However, you pay a monthly subscription for maintaining such a platform. The prices of these solutions vary quite a lot. The cheapest Shopify package costs $24 per month. A store on the WIX platform costs from 15 EUR/month. On Shoper, you can have a store for 9 EUR per month (in the first 12 months). These are starting amounts. The more complex functionalities you have in your store, the more expensive subscription you will have to purchase. For the Advance package on Shopify, you will pay $299 per month. If you need B2B functionalities, you will have to pay at least $2300 per month.

Sales Commission

Maintaining the system is not the only cost you will have to pay to the SaaS solution provider on which your e-Commerce stands. Software-as-a-Service tools also charge a commission on transactions. For instance, in the popular Shopify, this commission ranges from 0.6% to 2% (depending on the subscription package you choose). This means that the more you sell, the more you pay to the e-Commerce platform provider. It can happen that the subscription itself is relatively cheap, but the commission on completed transactions is so high that it eats up your entire margin. When choosing an engine for your online store, pay special attention to the commissions charged outside the monthly subscription fee.

For open-source solutions and dedicated online stores, you do not incur such commission fees. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about additional costs charged by the e-Commerce agency based on your sales volume.

Payment Operator Commission

We don’t need to mention that quick, convenient, and secure payment methods are a key element of any e-Commerce. Regardless of which payment gateways you implement in your store, you will have to pay a commission for each completed transaction. The amount of such a fee depends on the payment method (BLIK, card payment, online transfer, etc.), but also on the total value of all transactions in a given month. And, of course, on the payment operator itself.

Using Przelewy24 (Polish payment provider), you will pay 1.29% + 0.1 EUR for almost all basic payment methods (online transfers, BLIK, card payment, electronic wallets). In TPay, a bank transfer costs 1.59% + 0.1 EUR, BLIK – 1.78% + 0.1 EUR, and the rate for card payments will be determined individually. Usually, the rates with payment operators can be slightly negotiated. However, we would not expect to reduce them to zero.

Order Delivery Cost

If you don’t only sell digital products, cooperation with popular courier companies is indispensable. After all, your product must somehow reach customers.

You might think that the delivery cost does not concern you since you pass it 100% on to the customer. And in some cases, this is true (although you have to sign contracts with selected couriers 😜), but not in all. If, for example, you offer your customers free delivery from 50 EUR, or you always guarantee free delivery and return like Zalando, you will have to pay for such an action out of your pocket.

The cost of package delivery depends on its size, weight, but also the volume of shipments you send. In DHL, the fee for a shipment is calculated according to the formula: base fee (in the price list) + fuel and road surcharge + fee for additional services + VAT. Thus, for a domestic shipment up to 5 kg, you will pay 3.5 EUR + (3.50 EUR*20%) + 0 + VAT = 6.4 EUR. A package of size A (max. 8x38x64 cm and 25 kg) will be delivered to an InPost locker for 3 EUR net + 13% fuel surcharge. In total, 3,5 EUR net. If you send several hundred orders per month, you can easily negotiate these rates.

How Much Does e-Commerce Cost?

Quite a lot. Running a business consumes substantial resources, whether it’s an online store or any other activity. To generate high revenue, certain expenses must be incurred.

In this article, you have learned the costs associated with running e-Commerce. However, this is not a complete list of expenses. To all this, you should also add the costs of running the business itself, such as renting/buying warehouse or office space, salaries for employees, payments for utilities, internet, equipment you use, or printer paper. All these are costs you will have to bear in connection with your business activity. However, we hope that your revenues will significantly exceed your expenses, and you will be able to enjoy a profitable business.