The Real Cost Of Setting Up A WooCommerce Store

July 22. 2020

Setting up and running an online store is easier than ever. There are a ton of useful plugins that will make setting up your online store both easy and cost-efficient. And, at the forefront of these plugins stands WooCommerce. But, what is the real cost of setting up a WooCommerce store, and are there any hidden costs that you should be aware of? Well, to help you properly budget for your next website, that is what we are here to find out.

Cost of setting up a WooCommerce store

WooCommerce is one of the most popular plugins for online stores in WordPress. The reasons for it being so are due to the numerous features and safety measures that it brings. But, it is also in no small part due to the fact that it is free.  So, does that mean that the cost of setting up a WooCommerce store is $0? Well, not quite. There are certain costs that you will have to cover in order to set up an run an online store. And, there are even some hidden costs that might creep up on you if you are not careful. So, to help avoid this, we are going to go over the basic things you will have to pay for in order to set up and WooCommerce store.

Domain name fees

Every website, be it an online store or not, needs to have a domain name in order to run. So, in order to set up a WooCommerce store, you too will have to get one. A standard Domain name will cost you around $10 per year. You may be able to find free domain names, but we suggest that you refrain from doing so. Online stores are prime targets for hacking and malware attacks. And, unfortunately, those free domain usually come with a plethora of safety issues. So, even though you can be thrifty, spare yourself from unnecessary headaches with a modest sum of $10 annually.

Hosting fees

When it comes to hosting you have a bit more options to choose from. The most common choices range from:

• $5 – $10 per month – cheaper option.
• $30 – $40 per month – premium option.

Most web hosts will provide you with an SSL certificate. Now, you can set up your own for free. But, when it comes to online stores, getting one from your host is definitely the safer option. And, as we mentioned, safety should always be paramount when dealing with eCommerce.

WordPress theme

While WooCommerce is free on its own, you will have to get and update a theme in order to properly implement it into your WordPress site. There are, of course, numerous free themes that you can use for this. But, if you have your eye on a premium one, you might need to pay up to $60 for it.

Additional costs

As you can see, the cost of setting up a WooCommerce store is definitely affordable.  To be perfectly clear, you can set up and run a WooCommerce store with the costs that we outlined so far. But, if you plan on expanding your store or engaging a different market, there are extra costs that you will have to cover.

Integration with extra payment options

By default, WooCommerce will allow your customers to make payments in your store via PayPal, bank transfers, cash, and check. While this may seem like a lot, you will probably want to add extra payment options. That way you will make your store more available to a wider audience. Payment gateways like:

• Stripe
• Square
• SecurePay
• Amazon Payments

Are among the most common ones, besides PayPal. The cheaper ones will cost about $10 per month, while the more premium ones can be more expensive. The more payment gateways you add, the higher their cost will be. So, try to figure out which gateways are best suited for your store.

Additional shipping features

One of the best features of WooCommerce is that it allows you to configure multiple shipping zones and set up various shipping protocols for each of them. But, unfortunately, there are certain shipping aspects that don’t come with WooCommerce. Features like tracking, managing returns, and dynamic shipping rates are not something that WooCommerce can process. And, if you want to run a serious online store, you need to have these features. Modern shoppers have grown to expect them, which is why not having them can give your whole website a bad look.

So, how much will these set you back? Well, if you plan on adding shipment tracking you are looking at $49 for a single site license. Add to that that a decent shipping rate calculator will cost $79 per year, and you will soon see why it is necessary to keep track of the additional cost of setting up a WooCommerce store. It should also go without saying that the more regions you ship into, the higher the cost you can expect.

Final thoughts

While it is obvious that you can set u a WooCommerce store for as little as $20, the actual cost of running a decent one is far greater them this. Besides integration with additional payment options and adding shipping features, you will also have to maintain and optimize your website. Not to mention that you will have to deal with Social Media Marketing, SEO management, and content marketing. So, all in all, once you start considering the actual cost of running a decent WooCommerce store, you can see that you’ll need a decent budget. Our advice is to develop one carefully after proper planning and research and still add 30%.