The Cost of an Online Store
This is a question that often comes up in our analyses about online stores, with people who are thinking of launching their own online store asking how much it costs.
The cost of an online store depends on many factors, and can be broken down into two main types: online stores based on the “abonament” model and online stores based on the proprietary model.
The cost of an online store based on the “abonament” model starts at a few dozen zloty per month. However, let’s be honest, in this price you get nothing but a basic setup with no integrations. Adding necessary modules to such a store can quickly increase the monthly fee to 100-150-200 PLN ( approx. $25-$38 USD), and more. This means that such an online store can cost you between 2,000-4,000 PLN per year.
In my opinion, it’s not worth it, for several reasons.
An online store based on the “abonament” model is never your property, so if your business doesn’t work out, you’ll lose all the money you invested in it. You also need to remember that to get a good price, you need to sign up for an annual contract upfront, which means that if after six months you realize your idea wasn’t so great after all…
You can say goodbye to the few thousand zloty you spent on the annual subscription (which was supposed to be a good deal …).
Another reason is that such a store is a closed system limited only to what the platform owner has come up with, which means there are very few modules available – usually no more than a dozen or so. This is a huge limitation because over time you may need additional functionalities to maximize profits, but the platform owner won’t provide them.
The downside of this type of solution is also that for each additional module you use, you’ll have to pay extra for it, and the creator will add 10-20 zloty (approx. $2-$5 USD) to your monthly subscription fee (the base one).
Are there any alternatives to these types of solutions?
Fortunately, the market doesn’t like empty spaces, and this niche is filled with open-source solutions. With a bit of technical effort, you can build an online store on an open-source platform yourself – it will take time, but it’s doable. You’ll need to watch a lot of tutorials and read documentation for many modules, but it’s possible.
You can also hire an IT specialist or a company that will handle all the necessary tasks for you for a one-time fee in the range of 2-5 thousand zloty (approx. $500-$1,200 USD).
The advantage of open-source solutions is their huge flexibility and the fact that you own your store. There are solutions that give you access to thousands of free modules that you can install yourself through your online store’s administration panel – something you’ll never get with an “abonament” type solution.
If you want a lot of freedom and a one-time fee, I recommend looking into open-source online stores. If you’re serious about business, I suggest you focus on commercial rather than technical issues. Ask yourself how many online stores you plan to build in your life and if you’ll be doing it professionally…
Maybe instead of spending weeks or months learning how to build an online store from scratch, you should use that time to find reliable sources for products and negotiate discounts. You’ll also need to learn how to promote your online store because traffic won’t appear out of thin air – advertising is a must.
In the case of an online store, you can’t just buy or rent space like in a brick-and-mortar shop – you need to constantly work on getting visitors.
So, if I were you, I’d invest my time in learning about online marketing rather than trying to build an online store from scratch. This knowledge will be with you forever and will allow you to promote your online store effectively.
The cost of advertising affects the profitability of your store – it needs to pay for itself. It’s possible that the costs of an agency SEO/SEM will eat into your margin and put you in debt.
That’s why I recommend focusing on this area yourself, at least initially, to minimize these costs. This knowledge will stay with you forever and will allow you to effectively verify the actions of an agency SEO/SEM when you decide to scale up your business.
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