Is it reasonable for e-commerce website design to cost $3,000?
Friday, April 9th, 2010 at
5:48 am
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Tagged with: E Commerce Website • E Commerce Website Design
Filed under: Web Design
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That is quite cheap in fact and whether it is reasonable depends on if its a template or a custom design that is being done.
Here are questions to ask:
- Is the design unique or a template?
- Is the back-end functionality a pre-packaged system or customized to your needs?
- Is this only a design or is the entire website being developed from A to Z?
- Is the website designed to be search engine-friendly?
If the website is a custom design, with custom development work, is being built from A to Z, and is search engine friendly, then you are getting a very good deal.
Otherwise, it’s just one more e-commerce site that will need to be re-designed in about 1 year because it looks like 100 others.
yes, but it does depend on the complexity and your specifications. I’m completely rewriting a website and have so far charged the client far more than that – and it’s only half completed. It’s a pretty big, fairly complex commercial site though.
If they are writing your site keep in contact with whoever’s writing it, just to make sure it’s going as you expected and the finished design is what you envisioned. They should be doing their own testing but check frequently that it’s usable – it’s easy for the developer to change something that breaks something else. If there are things you don’t like tell them so they can fix it sooner rather than wait to near the end of the project when it may be a lot more complex to change.
To be honest, he’s probably not charging enough. There are a lot of unreasonable expectations out there about what a good web developer’s work is worth.
Just check out Rentacoder.com sometime… "I want to make a myspace type clone website"… maximum bid, $500. *rolleyes*
Sure. Most cost much more.
However, usually a individual, small business type can find a much cheaper solution.
see if any ebay store, yahoo store, amazon for sellers option will work. each is MUCH cheaper. Paypal or google checkout provide easy to use payment options that could be integrated into a basic site, but wouldn’t offer a traditional shopping cart.
some webhosting companies have modules with common opensource eccommerce software. You’d have to plug in the setting for your payment system (paypal, checkout, or a regular merchant account/credit card processor). The 3000 is probably for one of these types but with custom look and feel and for the setup and expertise.