Hiring a Web developer to build an e-commerce site from scratch can cost at least $5,000, and often far more. But there are cheap alternatives for those willing to do much of the setup themselves — many of which don’t require much time or technical savvy.
For an e-commerce novice, an all-inclusive service may be most sensible. Yahoo Inc.’s Merchant Solutions, for instance, lets users get a domain name and choose one of 12 predesigned Web-site templates.
You could save money by picking an all-inclusive service without sales-transaction fees. GoDaddy.com, owned by the Go Daddy Group, offers an e-commerce site-building and hosting service called Quick Shopping Cart, which has plans starting at $9.99 a month for sites with up to 20 product listings.
Small businesses desiring more flexibility have other options. Sites like TemplateMonster.com sell hundreds of different Web-site templates. But you then must find a Web-hosting service, which usually costs $6 to $20 a month depending on your storage needs. You also will have to get a shopping cart and checkout system, a payment-processing system and a certificate that verifies the site’s security.
You may end up spending less than you would through an all-inclusive service, but it will require more work and technical know-how.
Photo by MSDesign.
FranchiseBrief.com on April 26th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
An inexpensive way to do it is find a student programmer on craigslist. They are pretty cheap and often do a great job!