How much will it cost to build an e-commerce website in Nigeria?
That is the major question am going to answer here in this article, but the fact is that it will be too difficult to answer such a question without first understanding the type of online store that you need.
If you want to build an e-commerce website you need to read this article to the end before hiring any web designer for the project, it is your goal that will determine the type of website that you will build for your online store.
Most individuals that want to start e-commerce business without proper planning or understanding of the type of website they need due end up in regret.
Here am going to show you different types of e-commerce website example, best templates and best web hosting company you can use for your website in 2023.
What is an e-commerce website?
An e-commerce website is a platform or website built to help in buying and selling of products through internet. It helps us to trade products and services using digital technology.
However, it is an online business home where customers can order for your product through electronic device.
You can sell digital products (Ebooks) or physical product (T-shirt) and services (Website design) through your e-commerce website. It is an online market place.
Unlike offline business that need your presence before any transactions can take place, online business does not which means customers can buy something in your online store without your presence, and they willl make payment using their ATM card.
Today, we can stay inside our home and order for anything online both digital and physical products and Jumia shop is one of the most popular e-commerce platform in the world, will you like to build yours? Follow me.
How does e-commerce website works?
- You upload your product, write the description of the product and add the price tag.
- A customer enters your site, shop around products, and adds to cart anyone they want.
- The customer will then input required details (email, address, bank card info), check out and make payment.
- After a successful payment, you receive notifications about orders while the customer receives a digital receipt to their email.
- You ship the products to the customer’s address if it’s physical product, if it’s virtual product you can send it to the customer’s email or other means.
3 type of e-commerce websites
We have different kinds of e-commerce website and you need to know the types, before considering the one you can build for your online business.
- Business to business website such as; Shopify
- Business to consumer websites such as Amazon
- Consumer to consumer websites such as eBay.
- Business to business website: in this type of e-commerce website you only sell in wholesale, that is selling online from one business to another. This type of website can help you to start dropshipping for example; Shopify.
- Business to consumer websites: this is mostly common today because it allows business owners to market their product on their own platform. Here you build the e-commerce website in Nigeria and any can buy from the shop from the comfort of there home.
- Consumer to consumer website: in this type of digital platform consumers are able to upload their own platform and sell too, which means you can bring onions to market and you may see rice on the same platform and you can also buy too if you wish.
Here, their is no specific person you can refer to as only buyer or seller, you may decided to sell your old cloths there at cheap rate and make money. Example of this type of website is eBay, mercari.
eCommerce website requirements and cost in Nigeria
Now that we have been able to know different type of e-commerce website that are available let now look at some major requirements, costs or things you need to build your own online store in Nigeria.
- Hosting cost
- Payment processing costs
- Design costs
- Costs of growing your online store.
Hosting cost
Every website on internet has hosting which is where all the website files and data are stored, you need a hosting and domain name which is name of your online store before you can start creating your e-commerce website.
However, we have some self-hosting which is the one you have control on and the one you do not have control own which is hosted by another platform or individuals but you have privilege to use it for your business.
We have three type of e-commerce software/platform that you can use to build your online store such as:
- Woocommerce
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
The above mentioned software or platform can help you to develop your store fast.
1. Cost of hosting a self-hosting e-commerce website
I normally recommend Woocommerce software for building your online store because it’s a free plugin that can help you to design your own only store easily.
It is the most popular e-commerce platform in the world that many online business owners are using, it is a free software that you can download and use for free to create as many e-commerce websites as you wish.
All you just need is a woocommerce web hosting account to install it. You will also need to buy a domain name which you can buy from domainking and an SSL certificate.
If you already have a website you can just install the woocommerce WordPress plugin and start customizing, it turns your WordPress website into an online store, where you can sell products.
It will cost you not less than N300,000 to build an e-commerce website in Nigeria, not just that the price may be higher than that depends on the feature you are adding to your online store such as;
1. Data backups
This help you to back up every contents on your store in case of any issue you can easily recover it back. Having a strong back up will not only help you to have back up of your data rather it will increase costs.
2. Security
You need to protect your store on cyberspace to avoid any attack by hackers. Having a good security will help your website to be secure and it will help you not to loss both money and your products to the hands of fraudsters.
3. Inventory management
Most of the plugins you will make use of are paid which means for you to have those features you need such as; uploading of products, managing and shipping of orders etc you need a plugins that can help you do that automatically and they will also cost you money.
4. Performance
For you to maintain your website performance such as the speed, will also cost you.
5. Digital marketing
You can’t just build an e-commerce website and expect people to start visiting when you know you have a lot of competitors. You need to run paid ads, do SEO to help you get free traffic and those will help you stay head of your competitors.
6. Email marketing
You need to also build a standard email list that you can also share your know products to based on their interest and this will help you boost traffic and sales and paid tools can help you easily send an email to thousands of customers at the same time.
Why do I prefer self-hosted e-commerce site?
- You can build your e-commerce site the way you wish.
- You can save money by paying for only what you need.
- You can use payment gateway platform that you like, make unlimited sales and upload unlimited products to your store.
However, on self-hosted platform you have access to everything and you can design your website to fit your taste.
But some non-techy users don’t want to learn how to install their own ecommerce software and prefer already done product, that is where using Saas ecommerce platforms comes in.
Hosting cost for SaaS e-commerce platform in Nigeria
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecommerce is the practice of selling products online through partnership with a SaaS service provider, which is a software company that provides access to software applications over the internet (instead of through download).
SaaS ecommerce companies create and license software applications specifically designed to help businesses set up and manage ecommerce websites.
To build domain and pay for any if this software will cost you not less than N150,000 plus other things you may be paying maintenance later.
How does SaaS ecommerce work?
SaaS ecommerce providers own a piece of software that they typically license to users for a fixed subscription or membership rate.
Many providers offer different membership tiers to meet the needs of businesses of different sizes and at different stages of growth.
They may offer a basic plan that is suitable for small businesses with fairly straightforward needs, a mid-tier plan that offers increased customization options and more support, and an enterprise plan designed to power large businesses.
This does not require you to install software, manage it or host it by yourself. Here, your website hosting price is included in the software which means you do not need to buy hosting again, you just need to buy a domain name only.
5 common SaaS ecommerce platforms
- Shopify Plus
- BigCommerce
- Volusion
- Adobe Commerce
- Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
There are many service providers on the SaaS market. These five platforms are popular with small businesses for their flexibility and range of features provided.
Payment processing costs
The type of payment processing that you use will depends on the fee, Payment processing fees are the costs that business owners incur when processing payments from customers.
The fact is that most platforms charge higher than other, for instance if you are using PayPal as your payment gateway they may be charging 1% or 2% per transactions and other platforms may charge high or lower.
Payment gateways always help to securely transmit data so money from a customer’s issuing bank can be transferred to a merchant’s account.
I have review different payment gateways in Nigeria that you can see to receive payment from different parts of the world in your e-commerce website here in Nigeria.
Ecommerce website Design costs in Nigeria
For you to hire a professional web designer to design your online store for you in Nigeria here is the cost;
Full package professional design, it will include payment gateway and admin panel to add products and manage users 50K, without payment gateway and just basic design will cost you 30k.
However, the design all depends on the feature you want, which means the price may be a little bit high.
What is the costs of growing an online store
To grow your online store and make it popular will cost you a lot but you need to start from somewhere. I always advice business owners that are just starting new to start small.
Which means since you are a Nigerian you can start by first targeting Nigeria audience and if you get popular with a lot of customers here in Nigeria before you can focus on other countries.
To grow your e-commerce website you can start by building strong links from reputable blogs to your site through guest posts and also paid promotions by running ads and using your own blog to grow your audience.
Best e-commerce templates for your online shop
- Creams_ beauty Shopify theme ($49)
- Joga _ kitchen store, bathroom furniture Shopify theme ($47)
- Unsen _ multipurpose Shopify theme ($48)
- Dukamarket _ multipurpose Shopify theme ($48)
They are many and you can choose to buy anyone you like based on your budget on themeforest
Conclusion
We have been able to to know how much it cost to build and design an e-commerce website in Nigeria, the best platform to use and examples that can help you make right choice.
If you are still confused and you need more help on building or promoting your e-commerce site we can help you, just drop your question in the comment box below.
