E-Commerce Website Development Pricing Guide 2024

If you’re planning to build an e-commerce website, you may want to hire an e-commerce developer. But how much will it cost? This pricing guide outlines how much a development company will charge to build your online website as well as the factors that will influence price.

Well-designed and functional e-commerce websites aren’t an alternative to traditional stores, but are rather a great way for businesses of all sizes to increase sales and provide a better customer experience. 

In this day and age, consumers expect to be able to find products and services online. By offering your product offerings online, you can reach a broader audience and make it easier for them to make a purchase.

To be an effective resource for your business, though, it’s important that your e-commerce website is functional, secure, and user-friendly. E-commerce developers know how to design and build a functional website that represents your brand and meets your needs.

This pricing guide can help you understand how e-commerce developers price their services so you can budget for your upcoming project.

While the scope of the project is likely to have a huge impact on the overall cost of the project, e-commerce web development is generally pretty affordable.

According to data collected by Clutch, most e-commerce development projects cost just a few thousand dollars. The relatively low price makes it easy for even small businesses to build their own e-commerce websites.

However, the size of the website, the functionality, and web development fees can increase the total project cost.

When hiring an e-commerce developer, the best way to estimate how much a project will cost is by discussing your project needs with a development firm and their hourly rate.

How Much Do Developers Charge for E-Commerce Development?

The average cost of hiring a developer that specializes in e-commerce development on Clutch ranges between $25–$49 per hour.

Their hourly rates are likely to vary depending on several factors, including the complexity of the project, as well as the experience of the team, company size, and location. 

Designing and developing an e-commerce website is a multi-step process that can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months.

Companies that use off-the-shelf e-commerce platforms or templated e-commerce website builders are likely able to get their store up and running relatively quickly. This is a great option for smaller businesses that don’t require a lot of functionality or only need to build a few product pages.

Companies that need a more complex website — such as those that require customer relationship management software (CRM), a content management system (CMS), and search functionality — may opt for a custom e-commerce solution. These projects usually take significantly longer and require more resources. As a result, they’re often more expensive.

E-Commerce Systems & Hourly Rates

As discussed above, e-commerce development is made affordable thanks to many web design and development tools. Sometimes developers favor certain solutions over others because of available plugins, what coding languages they’re familiar with, and what the project requirements are.

Which one is right for your e-commerce store depends on your project goals and requirements.

This table breaks down the most popular e-commerce systems listed on Clutch, explains why many developers use them, and how much you can expect to pay when hiring an e-commerce developer.

Note: Price ranges above are in U.S. dollars

E-Commerce Website Costs Can Skyrocket When Project Scope Expands

While most e-commerce websites are pretty affordable to develop, the cost of an e-commerce website can quickly increase if the scope continues to expand.

Compared to informational websites, which may only have a few pages and limited features, e-commerce websites often have many, many pages in order to accommodate extensive product lists. The larger the website, the more expensive it will be to build.

More importantly, the features that you choose to include in your e-commerce website make the web design and development more complex. Generally speaking, e-commerce websites should be able to:

• accept orders
• take payments
• handle shipping and logistics
• provide customer service 

Sounds simple, right? Believe it or not, a lot goes in to making a website functional so it can process payments, is secure, and is easy to use. 

Think about what is required to allow users to make a purchase; the website needs to be able to record customer information like their name and shipping address, as well as collect payment information and provide access to a payment gateway, process billing information, and more.

The more features and functionality you add to your website, the more costly it becomes. However, it is often worth it to include them to meet customer expectations and provide a better experience.

Invest in Securing Your E-Commerce Website

Security is incredibly important for e-commerce websites because they collect sensitive information like credit card numbers, CVV numbers, addresses, and customer information.

Hackers are constantly trying to access user data, making privacy and security incredibly important to consumers. If they can’t trust your site, users won’t make more purchases in the future. More importantly, they won’t trust your brand.

Therefore, it’s important for e-commerce companies to:

• choose a secure hosting option
• get an SSL certificate
• add multi-factor authentication
• Install security Plugins and anti-malware software
• Use secure payment gateways

These can help improve your e-commerce website’s security.

Consider How You Can Provide a Better UX & CX

E-commerce websites provide an interface for customers looking to interact with your brand; as a result, it’s one of the easiest ways for brands like yours to connect with customers. 

Certain features like chatbots and push notifications, combined with functionalities like and abandoned cart retargeting, can help you convert customers. However, these features often require plugins, custom development, and even artificial intelligence (AI).

While custom design features may help make your website more functional for users and your own business, they come with a price tag. Design costs should be closely considered alongside development prices before signing a contract for your e-comm website. 

Similarly, the user experience (UX) can have a big impact on whether or not users make a purchase. The interface design, branding, navigation, and even the images you include can improve the perception of your brand and increase conversions.

If this is important to your business, you will need to budget for user research, usability testing, and UX design as well.

Your e-commerce website should focus on providing the best possible customer experience, but know that they can increase development costs. 

Additional reading, ‘UX Services Pricing Guide.’

What Impacts E-Commerce Development Rates?

• Experience
• Location
• Team size

Although project costs are usually impacted most by the scope of the project, how much e-commerce developers charge also depends on their team. Companies with extensive experience are more likely to charge more for their services because they’ve earned prestige in the industry. They’re well-known, trustworthy, and in-demand. While this increases e-commerce website cost, you may find their experience worth the investment.

Additionally, the more resources that are required for your specific project will lead to higher costs. One developer will be cheaper to hire than a full team. This is partially due to the scope of the project.

One of the most important factors, however, is where the team is located. E-commerce development companies in certain countries are likely to charge more or less than in others depending on the market.

E-commerce developers in areas like Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe often charge lower rates than in North America or Western Europe because the cost of labor is lower. Because of this, many companies can save significantly in their e-commerce development project by hiring an offshore development company.

Alternatively, companies looking to keep development costs low, but are worried about collaborating with a developer on the other side of the world or in a different time zone can look for near-shore development partners. Particularly in North America, companies can lower costs by partnering with development teams in central and South America.

By hiring a company in a neighboring country, many businesses are able to reduce costs but still collaborate smoothly.

E-Commerce Development is Affordable, But Scoping is Necessary to Keep Costs in Check

Starting an e-commerce business is no joke, and developing a custom e-commerce website can complicate the process further. While most companies can afford to hire an e-commerce developer to build their online website, the goals of your project are likely to impact how much it will cost. Websites with lots of product pages, robust functionality, and proper security can be more expensive than more simple websites. But, depending on your needs, the expense may be worth it.

Companies can keep their costs lower by hiring off-shore teams, being purposeful about their development needs, and using template-based website builders. It’s important to scope the project to get an accurate estimate of the project cost and budgeting as needed.