An online store is the foundation of an e-commerce business because it establishes a presence where they can showcase their products as well as sell them. This is the reason why merchants want to build stores that are visually appealing and have the right set of features to deliver impeccable shopping experiences. What really matters is the choice of the right platform for creating the store. Magento, with its full set of features, has emerged as the best choice for sellers who want to make their mark in this domain. With major brands such as Nike, Pepe Jeans, Mothercare, Bvlgari, and Olympus endorsing this platform, nothing much needs to be said in its favour.
What makes Magento ideal for e-commerce development?
Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform that packs extensive flexibility, scalability, and robustness. Technically, its feature set is ideal for building high-performance e-commerce sites with a versatile catalog of variable products, smooth search and navigation, simplified checkout, and much more. On the merchant’s end, it enables the integration of third-party applications to streamline order management, shipping, and payments. The platform is also ideal for customizing the e-commerce stores in an effortless manner, in addition to bringing the inherent benefits of high loading speed and exceptional user experiences. Now that you may be sure you would want to opt for Magento e-commerce development, the next question on your mind will probably be about its costing.
What is the estimated cost of developing a Magento store?
Just like physical stores, the cost of creating a virtual store using this platform depends pretty much on the elements you look to add into it. It is, therefore, hard to come up with an exact figure as it may vary according to the requirements in terms of platform version, theme, functionality set, and more factors. Let us try and come up with the budget estimates on the basis of the edition to be used.
Community Edition Website
Magento Community is the open source which is free to download. It is best suited for those looking for a simple store with a standard theme design and basic functionalities such as the addition of multiple products and configuration of a payment method. The store can support multiple currencies and languages. However, you cannot integrate third-party APIs and customize it according to your requirements.
You can hire a Magento developer or an agency to build a CE store for your business. Besides setting up the basics, they can help you to customize the store with additional functionalities with the help of Magento extensions. The cost of a basic CE website may run anywhere between $ 15,000 to $ 25,000 though it may go up if you demand additional functionalities to be added to it. The price may even reach up to $ 40,000 depending on the requirements you bring up. These may include features such as one-page checkout, SEO packages, back-office integration, custom website design, and more. You may also have to spend more if you want to build a store on Magento 2 or migrate an existing one to the latest version.
Enterprise Edition Website
The more advanced version of the platform is Magento Enterprise, which has the scalability that large enterprises and growing businesses look for. It is well aligned with the complex commerce operations of such businesses and focuses on enhancing the shopping experiences as well. Most importantly, this edition enables the customization of the store with features such as product filters, customer segmentation, custom dashboard, content management, catalog management, advanced shipping, mobile commerce, and much more.
Since Magento Enterprise is a premium version of the platform, it is bound to be more expensive from the development point of view. Moreover, the addition of newer functionalities and features raises the cost further. Businesses investing in EE websites need to hire a reputed agency to handle the project. The estimated cost may start anywhere around $ 50,000 and reach up to $ 100,000 based on the requirements listed by the client.
Magento Hosting
Besides Magento development, hosting is another expense that you should consider as a part of the operational cost of your business. With a Community Edition website, you can opt for shared hosting while a dedicated server is required for a website running on the Enterprise Edition. The cost of hosting services vary from provider to provider, with shared hosting being relatively cheaper in comparison to dedicated servers.
Conclusion
When you initiate a development project with a Magento agency, they can give you a quote but it is hard to stick to the estimate. The reason is that new requirements may come up during the course of the project and the cost estimate may go up. This is the reason it is hard for agencies to commit to an upfront cost and rather give an estimate that may vary according to the requirements and expectations of the clients.
At OrangeMantra, we are a leading Magento development company that specializes in creating customized Magento e-stores for businesses of all sizes and from diverse domains. We bring end-to-end services including design, development, migration, marketing, maintenance and support, and more. Our aim is to deliver futuristic business stores that are aligned with the client’s requirements and budget.
