What is the cost of creating an online store? Learn about basic and optional costs

Many people who aspire to expand their business or start new projects are wondering about the cost of creating a suitable online store to achieve their goals, especially after the great success achieved by online store owners in the world during the Corona pandemic, as everyone preferred to stay at home.

But because the requirements for creating a successful online store vary according to many factors, the question (what is the cost of creating an online store) cannot be answered simply with a fixed number. That is why, in this article, we will explain to you the costs of creating an online store on the Internet using WooCommerce in detail, and then we will summarize all costs in a comprehensive table.

Isn’t WooCommerce free?

WooCommerce is a free and open source plugin that is installed on WordPress to convert a website into an online store, but it is not possible to actually create a professional online store using it without paying money, as creating a store requires many other things, some of which are not free.

If you want to create an online store using WooCommerce, you will have to buy web hosting , a domain name , and many other items that are not free, so the cost of creating an online store is not equal to zero. However, WooCommerce saves you from buying software that allows you to create and manage your online store.

That is, in short, WooCommerce itself is free and can be obtained without paying money, but it is not possible to create an online store for free because there are many elements that the store needs that are not available for free with high quality, and we will detail more about the costs of the requirements for creating a professional online store in the following paragraphs.

Also read: What is the cost of creating an online store? How do you get started with less than $1,000?

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The cost of creating an online store using WooCommerce

There are many things that must be purchased in order to create a successful professional online store, and the necessity to buy many of them is due to the fact that the WordPress on which the WooCommerce add-on is installed to create an online store is a self-hosted content management system, that is, the store owner must provide what the program needs to work.

The costs of creating an online store can be divided into two parts, depending on the necessity of having the item that will be paid for in order to successfully create the online store professionally. The first section includes the necessary costs that must be paid regardless of the characteristics of the store you want to create, and the second section includes the optional costs that may often be overlooked.

The basic cost of creating an online store

The basic cost that must be paid to create an online store is divided into many elements that the store needs, and a professional online store can never be created without paying this cost, and the items whose costs constitute the basic cost of creating and managing the online store include:

• Web Hosting.
• Domain Name.
• Template.
• Extensions.
• Security elements.
• Logo.

Web hosting cost

It is not possible to create an online store without web hosting, as hosting stores store data and presents it to visitors and customers so that they can view store pages, details of its products, and all other necessary information, so the cost of web hosting is one of the basic costs of creating an online store that must be paid.

There are many companies that offer suitable web hosting plans for online stores, and the hosting price varies according to the features of the plan and the company that provides it, in addition to the quality of the server, and some other factors. In the beginning, it is possible to get cheap hosting for the online store, but it must be upgraded later.

Digital Ocean is one of the best companies that provide high-quality web hosting plans, which include a set of useful tools, and the prices of the plans provided by the company start at $ 5 per month, and you can view all the prices of the different plans available through the prices page on the company’s website.

Cheap plans offered by hosting companies, including Digital Ocean, can be appropriate at first, but as your store grows and the number of shoppers and customers increases, you will need to upgrade to a higher plan, and at some point you may need to buy an expensive hosting plan, but of course you will not need To worry about this now, when you need such a plan, you will pay it as a small percentage of the profit that the online store generates for you.

Domain name cost

The cost of the domain name is part of the basic cost of creating an online store, and the domain name usually costs between 10 and 20 USD per year if it is purchased from a domain name provider on the Internet, but some hosting companies provide a free professional domain name for the online store for a full year As part of the hosting plan benefits.

If your hosting plan does not include a domain name, you must purchase it separately from the hosting plan, and you can do so through Domain.com , or through one of the other sites that we included in our list of the best sites that sell domain names in the article ( Best Sites to Buy domain at a low cost .

mold cost

The online store template is an essential part of it, and it is not possible to create an online store or even a website without a suitable template. Thousands of free templates are available in the Templates section of the WordPress site , so obtaining a free template for the online store is not a problem, but the problem lies in the difficulty of obtaining a unique free template of high quality, as there are not many free templates that carry this characteristic.

However, there are some free templates that may be suitable for the online store at first in the event that you cannot afford the cost of a paid template, and we have highlighted them in the article (the best free WordPress templates ) and the article ( the best free WordPress templates according to the type of your site ).

But we generally do not recommend using a free template for the online store, because the free template does not usually include technical support, and suffers from many of the disadvantages that we mentioned in our article ( Why do we not recommend you to rely on free WordPress themes? ).

With regard to paid templates that are preferred over free templates, they can be obtained in several ways, as a ready-made Arabic template can be purchased from sites that provide the ability to do so, or a non-Arabic paid template can be purchased and then Arabized, or a developer or development team can be appointed to develop a custom template for your online store.

The cost of the paid template and the cost of creating an online store will vary depending on the method of obtaining the template , as the ready-made template costs between $ 10 and $ 129, while purchasing a paid template and localizing it may cost a little more than that, while the cost of developing a custom template may reach hundreds or even thousands or Sometimes tens of thousands of dollars.

accessories cost

There are some accessories related to payment, shipping, and other things that the online store requires, some of which are necessary and others are optional. The cost of the necessary accessories is also an essential part of the cost of creating an online store. Necessary and optional accessories for Lukommers include the following:

Payment extensions

Payment extensions enable you to receive payments from your online store customers, make it easier for you to track cash flow, manage revenue, etc. Its cost varies according to the payment gateway you choose, and also according to the number of purchases that are made, and we explain in the following list the cost of two of the payment gateways that work with WooCommerce:

• WooCommerce Payments : WooCommerce payments allow the buyer to complete the purchase process within the online store, and do not impose monthly fees, as they can be started for free, but they charge fees for purchases in the amount of (30 cents + 2.9% of the purchase value + 1% of the value of the purchase if the card is international, i.e. not American). Unfortunately, this portal is not available for electronic stores in Arab countries.
• PayPal Payments : PayPal is one of the most popular and used payment methods in the world when it comes to electronic payment, so it is everywhere, including WooCommerce, as PayPal provides store owners to easily receive payments from buyers with a commission equal to (30 cents). + 2.9% of the value of the purchase (1.5% of the value of the purchase if the card is international, i.e. not American), and a fee of $ 30 per month can be charged if you want to allow buyers to pay without leaving your store.

Also read: Increase your online store sales through 15 technical and marketing 

Shipping related accessories

The cost of shipping accessories is not one of the basic costs of creating an online store, as it can be abandoned if it is not needed, and there are many free accessories, but some paid accessories can make a lot easier for you or provide a powerful advantage for your online store if used such as Shipment Tracking Which enables you to let your customers easily track their shipments.

Sale accessories

As is the case with shipping-related accessories, selling accessories are not necessary for the online store at first, but they are tools that can add advantages to your store and make it easier for you to manage it, and for your customers to buy from it, and it can also increase your sales and profits as well, including, for example, WooCommerce Bookings Which allows your customers to book appointments without having to call you.

Cost of Security Elements (SSL Certificate)

Security is one of the most important aspects of the online store, because customers enter very sensitive information in the store fields to complete purchases, etc., and that information must be preserved from hacking in order to prevent customers from losing their money or leaking their personal data, and for this the cost of security elements is part One of the basic cost of creating an online store.

An SSL certificate encrypts the information that customers receive or send to your online store and prevents it from leaking to those who try to steal it, and therefore it is necessary to obtain it, because no one can risk and enter their sensitive information in a place where it is highly likely to be hacked.

There is not only one type of SSL certificate to encrypt information, but there are more than that in the market, and usually an SSL certificate that provides some kind of security for the store or website is included with the hosting plan, and it is also possible to install a free certificate through Let’s Encrypt , but the encryption layer The certificates provided by these certificates are simple and uncomplicated, and a certificate must be obtained that secures a higher level of encryption in order to better and more securely preserve customer data.

A paid SSL certificate costs between $5 and more than $150 annually, and it can be obtained through the companies that provide it, such as Namecheap , Comodo SSL , DigiCert , and others. The SSL certificate pricing method is similar to the hosting plans pricing method, as it is renewed at a higher price than First time purchase, so it might be a good idea to buy a valid certificate for as long as possible.

Logo design cost

It is necessary for a professional online store to have a logo that expresses it well, and therefore the cost of the logo is one of the essential parts of the cost of creating a successful online store.

If you have some experience in designing and using image software, you may be able to design a logo for your store yourself without having to pay money, but if you want a high-quality logo, it would be better to order it from a specialized company or from a professional designer on a freelance site.

Regarding the cost of logo design for the online store, it ranges from $5 to $1,300 for high-quality logos for large companies, but at first it might be more appropriate to buy a logo for $5 or so from the logo design section of Fiverr.

The optional cost of creating an online store

In fact, there are many optional costs when creating an online store using WooCommerce, but it is not necessary that you pay them, except that if you decide to do so, what you will get for those costs will make your store more professional and easy to use, and add many complementary benefits to it .

Optional costs overlap with basic costs in some aspects, and one of the optional costs for a store may be a necessary cost for another store, but what we will mention here is one of the optional costs for creating an online store in the typical case. The optional cost includes costs for each of the following:

• Plug-ins.
• Image design.
• Create videos.
• Data entry.
• Article writing.
• Web developer.

cost of additional components

Plugins or extensions are auxiliary programs that are installed on WordPress to add a feature or function to the online store or website that is not available in WordPress or WooCommerce by default, and the function that the plugin performs may have a reflection on the front end of the store, or its effect may be limited to the interface The background from which the store is managed.

There are a lot of free plugins that add functionality to WordPress in general, as well as a lot of free plugins that work specifically with WooCommerce to build a more professional online store. However, you may want to purchase paid plugins, as these have more features, and it can sometimes be more convenient to have them.

The cost of the most prominent plugins that you can want to buy for your online store ranges from $0 to a few hundred dollars per year, and sometimes the cost can reach more than that, especially when you need to request the development of custom plugins to perform a task that does not provide plugins ready made possibility to do.

The most important additions, the cost of which can form part of the cost of creating an online store, due to their great benefit, include:

• OptinMonster : Helps you improve conversion rate and increase sales and profits by creating professional pop-up windows in a variety of shapes and sizes, and costs between $ 9 and about $ 80 per month depending on the plan you choose and other factors, and you can also get a very limited free version of the add-on page in the section Plugins in the official WordPress site.
• All in One SEO : It allows to improve SEO and increase the number of impressions in search results and the number of visits, and is the best addition in this field for online stores built by WooCommerce. The paid version costs between $49.5 and about $600 annually, and the free version can be downloaded from its page on the official WordPress website , and the free version is sufficient at first for the regular online store.
• MonsterInsights : Enables you to see Google Analytics data for your online store in the WordPress dashboard, and make it easier to understand in order to improve your conversion rate by implementing data-driven steps that prevent potential customers from abandoning purchases and driving visitors to buy from the store. It costs between $99.5 and approximately $800 per year, and there is a free version of it that can be downloaded from its WordPress page .

Also Read: 14 Free WooCommerce Plugins That Will Make You Run Your Store Like A Pro

The cost of designing and editing photos

A successful online store includes visually beautiful product images that accurately express their shapes and specifications, so if you do not have good images of your products, it may be best to hire a specialized person to design and modify the images needed for your store, but if your budget does not allow you to hire a person for this task, You can do it yourself with simple editing software.

The cost of designing and modifying images for the online store varies according to the quality and number of images, and this is related to the number of products that you want to sell through your store. Because the number of electronic store products varies greatly according to the store.

The cost of creating videos

The cost of creating videos of all kinds can also be considered one of the optional parts of the cost of creating an online store using WooCommerce, as it is not necessary for the store to contain videos, but their presence may be of great benefit at times, such as when it is difficult to explain product details through words. and photos.

Also, promotional or advertising videos can contribute to increasing store sales and profits, and video explanations help your customers and visitors to your store use the various store tools, make payments and purchases, and browse it more effectively.

The cost of creating videos for the online store varies according to many factors, including the type, number, and quality of the videos that you want to create. Therefore, this cost cannot be limited to a specific range, as it may not exceed $100, and it can reach a few hundred, thousands, or even tens. Thousands of dollars.

Data entry cost

Listing products in the WooCommerce store requires entering their data and details, and if product data cannot be entered automatically, you will need to pay a data entry operator to enter product information in your store, which means that this cost may be one of the basic costs of creating an online store more often than not. The rest of the costs are in this list.

As with many of the costs required to create a professional online store, the cost of obtaining a data entry service varies according to the size and type of data to be entered, in addition to many other factors. It is worth noting that you can find someone to enter your product data in the services section for this task in Fiverr.

The cost of writing articles

If you want to create a blog attached to the online store to explain how to use it or help visitors and potential customers on various topics related to your products and services, you will need professional article writers who are able to feed the blog with high-quality and useful articles for you and your customers, and this costs more money.

There is usually a need to pay continuously for writing articles after the establishment of the store, and depending on the quality of the desired articles and the frequency of publication, the cost of writing articles for the online store and the blog attached to it can range from $ 200 to more than several thousand dollars per month, and articles can be obtained High quality from the article writing section of the Fiverr site.

Online store development costs

Most small or medium-sized online stores do not need to hire a web developer, but many large-scale stores may need to hire a WooCommerce developer to design a unique template that is perfectly suitable for the store, or perhaps to add required functionality that WooCommerce does not support by default, and there are no ready-made plugins you add to it.

The cost of hiring a web developer ranges between tens of dollars and about $6,000 depending on what you want the developer to do and how well he does his work, and you can find many professional developers ready to help you on an independent site , where you can create a project and list the details of what you want to do, then choose one The independents who submitted their offers on the project for its implementation.

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A table summarizing the cost of setting up an online store

After we have reviewed each of the necessary basic costs and the most prominent optional costs for creating an online store using WooCommerce in detail, we will now summarize these costs in a comprehensive table, and then we will explain, based on the table, the lowest cost that can be used to create a professional online store.

Element	Typical cost value range	cost type
web hosting	Between $5 and more than $100 per month.	necessary
domain name	Between $ 10 to $ 20 annually, and in many cases it is provided for free with the hosting plan.	necessary
template	Free or Paid – A paid template costs between $10 and $129 for a one-time.	necessary
Necessary accessories	It can be obtained for free or for $30 per month, and there is a fee for purchases.	necessary
Security items	Between $5 and $150 annually.	necessary
logo design	Between $5 and $1,300 one time.	necessary
plug-ins	Between $0 and a few hundred dollars annually.	optional
Image design	There is no set range for this cost.	optional
Create videos	There is no set range for this cost.	optional
Data Entry	There is no set range for this cost.	optional
Writing articles	Between $200 and more than several thousand dollars per month.	optional
web developer	Between tens of dollars and about $6,000 one-time.	optional

Based on the information of the previous table, the minimum that is expected to be paid for setting up and operating a typical professional online store is approximately $75 per year, but sometimes there is a need to raise this amount by a few tens or hundreds of dollars depending on the requirements of the online store. that you want to create.

With this, we finish introducing you to the cost of creating an online store and operating it using WooCommerce in detail, and we point out in conclusion that the numbers mentioned here apply to most stores, but not to all of them, and if you want to know the cost of creating a specific online store, you must study the costs of everything you need It is a good study, and then based on that study, you can accurately determine the cost of the online store that you aspire to create.