How much does it cost to create an online store? Learn about core 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, when everyone preferred to stay at home. But because the requirements for creating a successful online store vary depending on many factors, the question (How much does it cost to create an online store?) cannot be answered with a simple fixed number. Therefore, in this article, we will explain to you the costs of creating an online store using WooCommerce in detail, and then we will summarize all the costs in a comprehensive table.

Isn't WooCommerce free? WooCommerce is a free and open source plugin that is installed on WordPress to turn a website into an online store, but it is not actually possible to 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 the need to purchase software that allows you to create and manage an online store. 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.

Read also: How much does it cost to create a WordPress website?

Basic and optional costs 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 of purchasing many of them is due to the fact that WordPress, on which the WooCommerce add-on is installed to create an online store, is a self-hosted content management system, meaning that 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 extent to which the item for which the cost will be paid is necessary for the success of creating the online store professionally. The first section includes necessary costs that must be paid regardless of the characteristics of the store you want to create, and the second section includes optional costs that may often be skipped.

The basic cost of creating an online store is divided into the many elements that the store needs. A professional online store can never be created without paying this cost. The elements that make up the costs include the basic cost of creating and managing the online store: web hosting. Domain Name. Template.

Extensions. Security elements. Logo.

The cost of web hosting: It is not possible to create an online store without web hosting, as hosting stores the store’s data and presents it to visitors and customers so that they can view the store’s pages, details of its products, and all other necessary information. Therefore, 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 web hosting plans suitable for online stores, and the hosting price varies depending on 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 obtain 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. The prices of the plans provided by the company start from $5 per month, and you can view all the prices of the different plans available through the prices page on the company’s website.

The cheap plans offered by hosting companies, including Digital Ocean, may be suitable 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 purchase an expensive hosting plan, but of course you will not need to worry about this matter 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. Read also: Steps to create and activate an account on Digital Ocean Hosting. Cost of the domain name. The cost of the domain name is part of the basic cost of creating an online store. The domain name usually costs between 10 and 20 US dollars per year if purchased from one of the domain name providers on the Internet. However, some hosting companies provide a professional domain name for free for the online store for a full year as part of the benefits of the hosting plan. If your hosting plan does not include a domain name, you must purchase it separately from the hosting plan, and you can do that through Domain.com, or through one of the other sites that we mentioned in our list of the best sites that sell domain names in the article (The Best Sites to Buy a Domain at a Low Cost).

Template 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. There are thousands of free templates available in the templates section of the WordPress website, so obtaining a free template for the online store is not a problem, but the problem lies in the difficulty of obtaining a unique, high-quality free template, as there are not many free templates that carry this characteristic. A symbolic image of an online store template. However, there are some free templates that may be suitable for an online store in the beginning if you are unable to afford a paid template. We have highlighted them in the article (The Best Free Arabic WordPress Templates) and the article (The Best Free WordPress Templates According to Your Site Type).

But we do not generally recommend using a free template for an online store, because the free template does not usually include technical support, and it suffers from many of the disadvantages that we mentioned in our article (Why do we not advise you to rely on free WordPress templates?). As for paid templates that are preferred over free templates, they can be obtained in several ways. A ready-made Arabic template can be purchased from sites that provide the ability to do so, or a paid non-Arabic 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 a paid template and the cost of creating an online store will vary depending on the method of obtaining the template, as a 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 tens of thousands of dollars in some cases. The cost of accessories: There are some accessories related to payment, shipping, and other matters that the online store requires. Some of them 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 extensions for WooCommerce include the following: Payment Extensions Payment extensions enable you to receive payments from your online store's customers, make it easier for you to track cash flow, manage revenue, etc.

Its cost varies depending on the payment gateway you choose, and also depending on the number of purchases made. We show in the following list the cost of two payment gateways that work with WooCommerce: WooCommerce Payments: WooCommerce Payments allows the buyer to complete the purchase process within the online store, and does not charge monthly fees, as it can be used for free, but it imposes a fee on purchases in the amount of (30 cents + 2.9% of the value of the purchase + 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 talking about electronic payment, and therefore it is present everywhere, including WooCommerce. PayPal allows 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, that is, not American). A fee of $30 per month may also be imposed if you want to allow buyers to pay without leaving your store. Read also: Electronic payment gateways available in the Arab countries, and using them for your online store Shipping-related accessories The cost of shipping accessories is not one of the basic costs for creating an online store, as they can be abandoned if they are 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 allow your customers to track their shipments easily.

Selling accessories: As is the case with shipping-related accessories, selling accessories are not necessary for the online store in the beginning. Rather, 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. They can also increase your sales and profits as well, such as, for example, WooCommerce Bookings, which allows your customers to book appointments without the need to contact you. The 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’s fields to complete purchases, etc., and this information must be preserved from being hacked to prevent customers from losing their money or leaking their personal data, and therefore the cost of security elements is part of the basic cost of creating an online store. The connection to the online store must be secured to keep sensitive information away from hackers. An SSL certificate encrypts the information that customers receive or send to your online store and prevents it from being leaked to those who try to steal it, and therefore it is necessary to obtain it, because no one can take the 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 on the market. An SSL certificate that provides some type of security for the store or website is usually included with the hosting plan. A free certificate can also be installed through Let’s Encrypt, but the layer of encryption provided by these certificates is simple and uncomplicated. A certificate that provides a higher level of encryption must be obtained to keep customer data better and more secure. A paid SSL certificate costs between $5 and more than $150 per year, and can be obtained through companies that provide it, such as Namecheap, Comodo SSL, DigiCert, and others. The method of pricing an SSL certificate is similar to the method of pricing hosting plans, as it is renewed at a higher price than the purchase price for the first time, so it may be a good idea to buy a suitable certificate for the longest possible period. The cost of logo design It is necessary for a professional online store to have a logo that expresses it well, so the cost of the logo is one of the basic cost parts of creating a successful online store.

If you have some experience in design and using image programs, 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 one of the freelance sites. Regarding the cost of designing a logo for an online store, it ranges between $5 and $1,300 for high-quality logos for large companies, but in the beginning it may be more appropriate to purchase a logo for $5 or so from the logo design section on the Khamsat website. 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 for you to pay them. However, if you decide to do so, what you will get for those costs will make your store more professional and easy to use, and adds many complementary benefits to it.

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

Create videos. Data Entry. Article writing.

Web developer. Cost of plug-ins Plug-ins or add-ons 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 the WordPress or WooCommerce program by default. The function performed by the add-on may have an impact on the front end of the store, or its effect may be limited to the back end through which the store is managed. There are many free plugins that add functionality to WordPress in general, and there are also many 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 may be more convenient to have them sometimes. The cost of the most prominent plugins that you might want to purchase 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 require the development of custom plugins to perform a task that off-the-shelf plugins do not provide the ability to do. The most important add-ons whose cost can constitute part of the cost of creating an online store due to their great benefit include: OptinMonster: It helps you improve the conversion rate and increase sales and profits by creating professional pop-up windows in various shapes and sizes. It costs between $9 and about $80 per month depending on the plan you choose and other factors. You can also obtain a very limited free version from the add-on page in the plug-ins section on the official WordPress website.

All in One SEO: It allows improving SEO and increasing the number of appearances in search results and the number of visits. It is the best addition in this field for e-stores built with 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 initially sufficient for a regular online store. MonsterInsights: enables you to view Google Analytics data for your online store in your WordPress dashboard, and makes it easy to understand in order to improve the conversion rate by implementing data-driven steps that prevent potential customers from abandoning purchases, and push 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 protected from its page on the WordPress website. Read also: 14 free WooCommerce add-ons that will make you manage your store like a professional. The cost of designing and editing images. A successful online store includes visually beautiful images of products that accurately express their shapes and specifications. Therefore, if you do not have good images of your products, it may be better to hire a specialized person to design and edit the necessary images for your store. However, if your budget does not allow you to hire someone for this task, you can do it yourself by relying on simple editing programs. The cost of designing and modifying images is one of the optional costs for creating an online store. The cost of designing and modifying images for an online store varies depending on the quality and number of images, and this is related to the number of products that you want to sell through your store. The larger the number, the higher the cost of designing images, and thus the cost of creating an online store. Therefore, we cannot limit this cost to a specific range, because the number of electronic store products varies greatly depending on the store.

The cost of creating videos. The cost of creating various types of videos 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 sometimes, such as when it is difficult to explain the details of the product through words and images. 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 various store tools, make payments and purchases, and browse it more effectively. The cost of creating videos for the online store varies depending on many factors, including the type, number, and quality of the videos you want to create. Therefore, this cost cannot be limited to a specific range, as it may not exceed 100 US dollars, and it can reach a few hundred, thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars.

The cost of data entry. Listing products in a WooCommerce store requires entering their data and details. If the product data cannot be entered automatically, you will need to pay a data entry person to enter the 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 the rest of the costs in this list. As is the case with many of the costs necessary to create a professional online store, the cost of obtaining a data entry service varies depending on 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 Khamsat.

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 to write articles after the store is established, and depending on the quality of the desired articles and the frequency of publication, the cost of writing articles for the online store and its attached blog can range between 200 US dollars and more than several thousand dollars per month, and high-quality articles can be obtained from the article writing section on the Khamsat website. Online store development costs: Most small or medium-sized online stores do not need to hire a web developer, but many large-sized stores may need to hire a WooCommerce developer to design a distinctive, unique template that is completely appropriate for the store, or perhaps to add required functions that WooCommerce does not support by default, and there are no ready-made plugins to 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 job. You can find many professional developers ready to help you on an independent website, where you can create a project and list the details of what you want to do, then choose one of the freelancers who have submitted their offers on the project to implement it. A table summarizing the cost of creating 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. Table summarizing the cost of establishing an online store Based on the information in the previous table, the minimum that is expected to be paid to establish and operate a typical professional online store is approximately 75 US dollars each 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 running 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 well, and then based on that study you can accurately determine the cost of the online store that you aspire to create.