Developing eCommerce Site Using 3rd Party

[GrensonMan]

Hey Guys,

I've come to the phase of my startup where a website is needed. It will be an eCommerce site with custom functionality like user profile creation, user login, and some other bells and whistles. I initially reached out to some design firm based here in Texas and I haven't gotten a quote for less than $6,000. Seems pretty steep for a Wordpress site but I am a little out of my element. Looking to get some more quotes I made a listing on elance and those proposals are coming in at $2,000 - $2500 but they are all from Indian developers. While they may be more than capable, I am hesitant to work with someone overseas because of communication. Also, I want to make sure that the site is pretty on the inside and out, meaning it needs to be maintainable and not just slapped together. Could someone with some experience working with U.S. based design firms confirm if the $6,000 price tag is warranted?

Many thanks,

 

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[healthstatus]

Yes, it costs about 4-6x as much to use US based people with in many cases less education and lower work ethic than teams from overseas. However, if your specifications were similar to what you put above, none of the good developers are going to touch your project. Wordpress may not be the best solution for your ecommerce site, their are several ecommerce platforms that might do better, or even Drupal where more internals are easily exposed, but if in your specs you told developers they have to use a specific tool it may cost you more since it isn't the right tool. Your specifications are a sales job for the developers you want to attract, terms like bells and whistles scare the crap out of developers, they read that as meaning, I sort of know what I want but I can't exactly describe it.

 

[GrensonMan]

Thanks for the feedback healthstatus. I was sold on Wordpress based on my research and the fact that the backend is written in PHP. I felt that would make it more maintainable in the long run and it is pretty simple to expose SQL commands using PHP, thus lending itself well to my customizations. However, it may be wise to revisit my decision. Shopify is definitely out for me. I am not convinced that the functionlaity warrants the percentage of the sales that they take. I was much more descriptive in my elance posting vs here. I didn't want to bog readers down with all the details.

Have you had good experiences with overseas developers? What I was most concerned with was a site that was built correctly. I have been involved in development projects for work and it is always a headache to uncover the shortcuts that some developers take.

 

[Shades]

Hey Guys,

I've come to the phase of my startup where a website is needed. It will be an eCommerce site with custom functionality like user profile creation, user login, and some other bells and whistles. I initially reached out to some design firm based here in Texas and I haven't gotten a quote for less than $6,000. Seems pretty steep for a Wordpress site but I am a little out of my element. Looking to get some more quotes I made a listing on elance and those proposals are coming in at $2,000 - $2500 but they are all from Indian developers. While they may be more than capable, I am hesitant to work with someone overseas because of communication. Also, I want to make sure that the site is pretty on the inside and out, meaning it needs to be maintainable and not just slapped together. Could someone with some experience working with U.S. based design firms confirm if the $6,000 price tag is warranted?

Many thanks,

Wordpress with WooCommerce or Shopify. Unless your really needing something crazy I dont see why you would have to spend anywhere near that kind of money to get running.

 

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[GrensonMan]

@Shades I agree. $6,000 just seemed like way too much. The functionality that I plan on including is as follows.

Live Chat feature with customer service.
Customer Login where profile information can be edited/saved.
Email notifications
Custom forms for data entry
Plugin integration for shipping estimations
Integration with WooCommerce
Automatic generation of order # so past orders can be tracked for customer preferences.

Nothing on there screamed crazy to me. I am leaning more towards the overseas developers at this point. With my experience in software development, I can describe to them exactly what I need which will hopefully prevent a lot of confusion.

 

[Shades]

@Shades I agree. $6,000 just seemed like way too much. The functionality that I plan on including is as follows.

Live Chat feature with customer service.
Customer Login where profile information can be edited/saved.
Email notifications
Custom forms for data entry
Plugin integration for shipping estimations
Integration with WooCommerce
Automatic generation of order # so past orders can be tracked for customer preferences.

Nothing on there screamed crazy to me. I am leaning more towards the overseas developers at this point. With my experience in software development, I can describe to them exactly what I need which will hopefully prevent a lot of confusion.

I would think all that could be done with WooCommerce without all that much fuss. You could probably figure it out yourself by watching a few tutorials on youtube or something. Then you can use that money for product and marketing. Maybe start with a site you can do yourself. If your idea really takes off you can always have something more elegant done in the future. Ive never used it, but Shopify might be your easier option to get up and going. Im sure someone with experience in both can chime in.

 

[GrensonMan]

Thanks for the feedback Shades. I would have undertaken the development myself but I am short on time getting other areas of the business going. At this point, I have more money than time so spending $2,500 isn't that big a deal. However, the $6,000 raised an eyebrow haha. Also, my area will be highly based on visuals and the site has to be a home run from day one to gain credibility within my niche.

 

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[GravyBoat]

$6,000 just seemed like way too much.

Yes, you should easily be paying 1/10th of this price. No kidding.