WooCommerce has made it easy to set up a store and get it running in no time. However, similar to starting any other business, there are costs associated with it.
When you are planning to build an eCommerce website with WooCommerce, you should know how much would it costs to set up overall.
To help you out, we’ve gathered some information on how much you need to spend on setting up a WooCommerce store.
An Introduction to WooCommerce
With WooCommerce, you can easily start and run a store on WordPress. It’s hassle-free and simple. Moreover, it won’t be tough on your wallet!
WooCommerce can help you to run a fully functioning store online. And, we must mention, WooCommerce powers around 25% of the top 1 million stores online!
There are various reasons for its popularity. Some of them are:
- Add as many plugins as you want for your store to increase its functionality.
- As it’s open-source, anyone can modify or extend the code.
- You can use wooCommerce from any device, even from your mobile.
- You don’t need to be a tech-geek to be able to customize your store.
When it comes to pricing, WooCommerce is a top choice. But, someone who is new to the online business scene may not know about WooCommerce pricing. So, let’s begin!
Understanding WooCommerce Cost
Although setting up a WooCommerce store won’t be heavy on your wallet. But there are still some costs that you need to bear like you have to spend on a WordPress site in general and more. So here is a list of things that you need to spend money on while getting started with a new WooCommerce store:
Hosting
When selecting a hosting, you have a wide range of options. You can find cheap to expensive ones, each with its advantages and disadvantages. You can spend $5 to $10 for inexpensive hosting. On the other hand, you can also get ones for $40 to $50. Some popular hosting options are-
- Bluehost
- SiteGround
- DreamHost
- LiquidWeb
- Kinsta, etc.
Theme
To make your WordPress WooCommerce store standard, a responsive and catchy theme is a must. There are thousands of themes that you can choose from for your wooCommerce site. There are both paid and free ones. If you don’t want to spend much, you can get free quality themes. On the other hand, for premium themes, you need to spend around $50 to $60.
Domain
Similar to hosting and theme, you must get a suitable domain name for your site. How much will a domain name cost you? Depending on the domain type and popularity, you need to spend on average $12 per year. Some popular companies are:
- GoDaddy
- HostGator
- Bluehost
- Namecheap
Plugins and Add-ons
To make your website flexible and make it easy for your customers to browse your store there are a variety of plugins and add-ons, both free and paid.
You can install as many plugins as you want. However, you should pick plugins that are updated. Outdated plugins are vulnerable. It will cost around ~$80 for a well-developed paid plugin.
On the other hand, you can get add-ons to boost your site’s functionalities. And, it can cost you around ~$29 to ~$79.
These are the basic cost that you need to cover and will cost you around $100 or less, depending on your choices. For many of these, you need to pay every year to continue to get the service for your site.
If you hire a skilled developer, it will increase the cost further! However, it’s not over yet, as there are additional WooCommerce costs that you need to be aware of!
Hidden WooCommerce Costs to Look Out For
We already saw how much it will cost to get your WooCommerce store up & running. But, many get surprised when they see costs running upwards once they open their store.
And this is due to the hidden costs that you don’t realize in the first place. Are you wondering what does WooCommerce cost, including the above costs?
Here are some hidden costs to deal with for WooCommerce:
Integrating With Extra Payment Options
WooCommerce allows you to receive payment in various ways. But, if you want to make payment more flexible for your customers, you can integrate with additional payment options. Not all customers use the same payment method and this is why you may end up losing some customers due to payment issues.
There’s also benefit from this, as you can get more customers! You can integrate your site with Stripe, Amazon Pay, Square, or some reliable PayPal alternatives. Some payment methods will cost you around ~$70. There are some other WooCommerce integrations as well.
Email Integration
If you want to reach out to more customers, it’s important to have a solid marketing plan. Email marketing is one way to get more clients.
There are various email marketing providers, such as MailChimp, Omnisend, and SendinBlue.
Some providers will also charge you, for example, Aweber will charge $19, and integration will cost $49 annually.
To save extra cost, it’s best to stick with free providers initially. Like, you can go for weMail, the most cost-effective email marketing tool.
Shipping Cost
If you want to sell products outside your local area, shipping costs will add up to your WooCommerce bill. You can also check out the WordPress eCommerce shipping calculator.
To give the best shopping and product delivery experience, you need to use a few extensions, such as Shipping Multiple Addresses ($49 billed annually), WooCommerce Amazon Fulfilment ($129 per year), and Per Product Shipping ($79 billed per year).
Store Maintenance
To keep your store running without any hassle, you need to spend some money to keep your site in shape. It’s best to get a maintenance plan offering performance check, carrying out A/B tests, website back-ups, and many other similar site maintenance checks.
Depending on the size of your WooCommerce site, this cost can be around $100 or more.
How Can You Lower the Overall WooCommerce Cost?
If budget is an issue, you can initially go for the free options (except for domain and host charges) for plugins, add-ons, and themes.
Also, you can cut back on extensions that you don’t need to use. When setting up a new site, you don’t need all the extensions that you can install later, otherwise, it will increase the cost. Use only the extensions, plugins, and add-ons, without which your site won’t be able to function properly.
Sometimes, look for discounts for domains and hosting, as these can also help to lower the overall cost, by reducing the price.
How Can You Turn Your WooCommerce Store Into a Multivendor Store Like ‘Amazon’
Managing an eCommerce site is not a cup of tea. And, you have to handle every client. When the client number increases rapidly, you may need to hire employees to distribute the different workloads.
On the other side, if you can build a multivendor store like Amazon or eBay, you won’t get too much pressure like a high traffic online store.
There are plenty of Multivendor plugins in WordPress. But today we will introduce the best WooCommerce Multivendor Plugin– Dokan
What is Dokan?
It is a WordPress-powered WooCommerce Multi Vendor Marketplace Plugin.
Dokan helps you become the host of other vendors that will create their online stores in your marketplace with your approval.
Furthermore, the most interesting part of Dokan is, you can charge commissions globally as an Admin of your marketplace.
All you need is
Why Choose Dokan?
- Provide the best Frontend experience: Your vendors will get full functionality from the frontend dashboard.
- Easiest configuration options: Don’t need to know to code. Customize your site without any hassle.
- Best in class customer support: If you ever get in trouble with any settings or bug issue, be tension free as you are in the hands of capable support engineers.
- Compatible with any WooThemes: Works perfectly with themes supporting WooCommerce & its functionalities.
- Multilingual Ready: eCommerce is spreading worldwide, thus the need for multilingualism has raised. Dokan helps with this by making your site multilingual ready.
FAQs on WooCommerce
Q1: Is WooCommerce free?
Answer: WooCommerce is free open-source software. However, to set up a WooCommerce site, you need to spend money on some basic things, such as domain and hosting. The cost will depend on your site. To maintain your site, you need to pay a certain amount annually.
Q2: Which is more affordable, Shopify, or WooCommerce?
Answer: Shopify will offer you a fixed price, while WooCommerce offers a greater deal of flexibility when it comes to cost. Although WooCommerce is free, you still need to spend getting some basic things such as domain name and hosting, along with site customization.
Q3: Is WooCommerce difficult to understand and use?
Answer: No, it’s not as difficult as it looks! WooCommerce has been designed for both small and large online stores that use WordPress. It’s quite easy to install to start your store online. Just a few clicks to activate it and then you need to customize your store, just the way you want.
Q4: What’s the function of WooCommerce?
Answer: WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. It has been designed to add a good deal of flexibility to your e-commerce site. You can further add more plugins, extensions, and add-ons to make your store user-friendly for your customers.
Q5: What are some of the best WooCommerce themes to check out?
Answer: There are hundreds of free themes that you can get. There are also paid themes. If you want to check out free ones, you can consider checking out Astra, Ocean WP, Storefront, Zakra, Hestia Lite, and Neve Shop, etc.
Final Thoughts
If you want to start an online business, WooCommerce is a great platform for you! Yes, it’s free, but not completely! You still need to spend some cash to start and run your e-store successfully.
Also, the cost will vary from one person to another. If you want to select free options, such as for themes, plugins, add-ons, and extensions, you can save a lot of money. But if you don’t have any budget issue then you can also spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on customizing your WooCommerce store.
Finally, even if there are costs associated with WooCommerce, it’s not too much to bear and much less than almost all other similar platforms. Plus, you get a lot of flexibility while using this platform!
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