How Much Does It Cost to Open an E-commerce From Scratch

If someone told you it costs little: they lied to you.

If someone told you it costs more than a kidney: they lied to you.

So how much does it cost? The answer is simple: it costs exactly as much as you have to spend and if you think this is too simple an answer without arguments, here’s the proof…

FIRST

The world is big and full of e-commerce of all kinds. Who are your competitors? How long have they been on the market? In which countries do they sell the most? If you can’t answer these simple questions, forget about it, regardless of your budget, DO NOT open an e-commerce.

SECOND

Let’s say you have a technically perfect e-commerce, great! What makes your products different from the competition? What post-sale services do you offer? Is your only weapon price? Do you produce them? Or do you just rebrand stuff made in China hoping to resell it at a (at minimum) ten times higher price? Even with a million dollars (or euros) at your disposal, each of these questions can radically change your portal’s performance.

THIRD

You’re doing some advertising on Google and sales are coming in, very good! Are you ready to receive negative reviews? How do you think you’ll handle a dissatisfied customer? Do you pay the shipping costs for returns? And what if instead the customer is satisfied and is an important / famous person in their field? Testimonials and your referrals are just as important (and perhaps more so) than the advertising budget you have available.

Doesn’t all this seem enough to you? Then let’s pretend to open an ice cream shop in e-commerce format. We don’t have rent to pay and we don’t have furniture, but we need everything else. How much does an ice cream shop cost in the real world? From Sole 24 Ore on January 29, 2020: “500,000 euros is the average cost calculated by Venchi S.p.a. for opening a new retail location”. Does it seem too much? Ok, let’s divide the cost by 10. In total we’re at fifty thousand euros: 50,000 not 5,000. (for those who want to take a look at the original Sole 24 Ore article, send us a request for the resource “IMG_20200129”)

Still seems too much to you? We were talking about an online ice cream shop, not your business. YOU need to understand how much you’re willing to bet on YOUR entrepreneurial venture. Depending on the budget you have available there are many tools ranging from the least expensive to the most expensive, depending on what you need to do: WooCommerce? Shopify? Magento? They all have pros and cons, the point is that you will have to TRUST someone who has more experience than you and can advise you in a disinterested way.