What should I budget for a website that allows users to purchase products?

Hi!
The first thing you got to have in mind, is how to run the shop.
There are several free e-shop systems out there, which definitly can do the job for you. Many CMS(Content Management Systems) also have plugins for such a thing.

It's not hard, nor expensive if you choose the right host and way to do things.

I would personally calculate:
$50-200 on a template
$7-20 p/m on hosting - dependant on needs/traffic.
$50 if you need any help setting up the website/system of choice

Good luck with it!

Well, it would appear that you'll get tons of different suggestions, but rest assured, many of them are wrong.

If you go with a $200 solution, you're going to get a $200 result. Website builders like WebsiteTonight and SohoLaunch build sites that look like they were cobbled together by an amateur, so don't expect too much in the way of sales. The guy above included his HostGator affiliate link, which shows you where his head is (HostGator is a fine hosting service, but take your advice from people not trying to make a buck from your ignorance).

If you want something done right, and done to your satisfaction, you'll end up paying for it. That's even if you do it yourself. The DIY route works if you already know how it works, but the time spent learning whatever system you go with is lost time.

Your issue is that you have a lot of unique and single items (presumably) so whatever solution you opt to use must take into consideration the single item inventory. You'll likely need help setting it up. There are free pieces of software that can do it, but knowing how to use them is priceless.

My suggestion, find a competent designer / developer. Have them set the site up for you and teach you how to use it. It will run you between $1500 (for a marginally developed site) to $5000 (or more) for a spectacularly designed and well documented site. I've done complex CMS sites for over $25K, so there is a market.

You could opt for young talent trying to build a portfolio, but there's no telling what you'll get. You might get away for about $500 - $1000 there. Either way, get a contract to protect yourself in the event of non-performance.

Remember, you get what you pay for, and free advice is no exception.

Cheers!

There are lot of free products that offer complete ecommerce functionality. Depends on how much of customization you do with them. If you are particular about site aesthetics and want a very creative looking website, you will pay higher. Otherwise most of the freelancers will offer you some kind of a package deal ranging between $500-1500 with payment integration with PayPal. Basic ecommerce needs (with moderate customization) can be met with a website priced around $500. What you need to plan out is how will you manage the site once it goes live. You will have to take photos of items, upload images for each item you sell, update the prices for them, write description etc. which are laborious & time consuming tasks and require lot of patience. You may need to hire a help. So budget for that as well. Recurring cost will be site hosting which will be around $5-10 per month.
-Regards.

There are a few outfits that operate/host a one-stop-shop arrangement for small businesses - see http://order.1and1.com/ and click on eCommerce for an example.

A Web-literate person can thus do the search, and then the fill-in-the-forms build. There's usually no need for programming or even compiling a custom site. Unless a vendor is selling some strange combo of interrelated products and services.

There are other like providers; see the ads in PC Magazine, Linux Format and other magazines.

Amazon also hosts this sort of thing:
http://webstore.amazon.com/Webstore-SemLand/#info

However, it's US$60/month plus some 7% rake-off per sale to Amazon.

Pray see this thread for more debate/background:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=43875&discus...

Check out DIY by The Design Shoppe. All my sites are hosted by them. Great prices, great service.

Try Wordpress + Zingiri Web Shop.
Depending on your needs, we can also host your site.

Let us know your requirement in detail. for a simple website it wont cost you much. visit our website http://www.99rupeeswebsite.com/

Hi Marie,

You can easily do it yourself as there are plenty of website builders out on the web and it should allow you to save the maximum amount of your budget.

You should budget for approximately $15 per annum for domain registration, and for the rest the cheapest solution I found on the web now is full hosting with unlimited websites, unlimited disk space, unlimited e-mails etc... for only $8 a month! The link is here: http://secure.hostgator.com/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=baneze
Plus they have a FREE website builder included in the price plus free Cube Cart, OS Commerce, Zen Cart scripts as well.

I hope you find it useful.