Investing money to start the first online store can be nerve-racking for business shop owners with limited knowledge of websites and technical aspects. Finding a trusted website designer can be challenging, especially for someone who doesn’t have any connections. Knowing the base price and online store website design packages is a good starting point for gauging your budget.
What is the price range for building a basic online store website in NZ?
The starting price of an online store website design service can range between $1,290 and $2,000, depending on the CMS platform, website hosting (if included) and online store features.
Let’s create a persona and scenario describing the business owner’s requirements that fit within the online store price range.
Jane’s persona
A new business owner named Jane has been a qualified health professional for the past ten years. She has a bachelor’s degree in Health Science from the University of Canterbury.
Jane noticed a gap in the limited and expensive supply of vitamins and supplements in New Zealand. She has resources to help her supply the products and thoroughly researched website design companies in Auckland, pricing, shipping, taxes, etc. She does not have a physical shop and will run the new business digitally.
Jane’s biggest challenge is building an online store website, as she lacks website experience and technical knowledge. She has a maximum budget of $2,500 for a year to run her first online store, and she needs a trustworthy website designer to help her find a solution within that budget. She also has a separate budget for marketing and other expenses, so balancing the expenses is important.
Jane knows what she needs for his online store since she has experience buying products on other eCommerce websites and through her research, but she does not know what the website design company needs from him.
Jane’s ideal state of online store
Jane wants to sell 20 health supplement products as a starting point and plans to add product ranges over time. The 20 health supplement products are divided into two product categories, and some products have variations like capsule type and sizes. All the products have images, product descriptions, and nutritional information prepared.
Jane simply wants his customers to land on the homepage to see the product range, banner promotions, and unique value proposition and to ensure customers can easily interpret the type of online store that Jane is selling.
Jane wants customers to browse the product ranges based on the categories. They can see product images, product names, base and promotional prices while easily clicking a product to access the details page. Since there are only a few products in a category, no product filters are needed.
On the product detail page, Jane’s customers can view the health supplement product information, select product variations and pricing, and add them to the cart. From there, customers can apply discounted coupons, edit the product quantity, see the total price with GST, and review their products in the cart before checkout.
Upon checking out the products, the delivery is free if customers buy a minimum of $80 worth of products. If not, a flat rate fee of $8.00 on top of the total products. The products can be shipped nationwide. On top of that, customers can enter their shipping details and contact information, see the total cost and pay using a credit card.
Once ordered, customers can check their order and track their parcel using NZ Post, as she picks them up as a courier partner.
What does Jane’s online store scenario mean for the new business owners?
Using Jane as an example can help business owners gain insight into how customers interact in the online store, information to consider, communication of requirements with the website builder, and, most importantly, the cost of the website design service.
Let’s talk about the WordPress CMS Platform
A CMS platform is where you can manage your products and inventory, content, customer accounts and orders, and more. In Jane’s case, a WordPress online store will be the ideal CMS platform due to its affordability, wide range of 3rd-party plugins, and large community of WordPress developers.
What about the domain address, website hosting and monthly maintenance?
A domain address is like your shop’s physical address, where customers can visit the online store. Website hosting is where your online store is stored so that customers can access and interact anytime. On the other hand, website monthly maintenance ensures your website is up to date and has a backup copy of the online store in case of unexpected issues.
What factors can significantly increase the cost of building an online store?
Based on our experience and stories we heard from small businesses that we worked with, lack of clarity about the scope of work, communication issues, website builders who split the costs in small chunks to make their service look very cheap, and changes to online store requirements during the website development stage can be dangerous.
Here’s why:
- The price can jump ten-fold from the base price, so it is best to communicate and document the website requirements early on.
- The outcome of the online store creation can be different from what you expected.
- Paid plugins can pile up your monthly expenses and can be costly in the long term if there is no proper strategy.
Final thoughts
The cost of a website builder service varies depending on the scope of work. Naturally, business owners get attracted to a cheap website design service quote without fully understanding the in-depth details of the work. We hope this sample scenario from Jane’s online store can help business owners gain insights into building an online store.
