World-over, the E-Commerce space has continued to grow at an unprecedented pace, with people from all walks of life preferring to shop from different online stores.
Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, online stores offer buyers the convenience of shopping from home as well as save time that would have otherwise been spent queuing in the lines.
With that said, the process of developing an e-commerce store can be hard, especially if you have no idea where to begin.
Luckily, you can hire Ukrainian developers to help create your website.
But how do you go about it?
In this article, we are going to look at what is outsourcing, how you can outsource website developers, and lastly, the different methods of outsourcing.
While at it, we are also going to highlight the future of e-commerce development.
What is Web Development Outsourcing?
Outsourcing is a business practice that entails farming out web development services to a third party. In web development, an outsourcing initiative may vary from developing an entire website to more discrete functions like troubleshooting and disaster recovery.
Source: Statista
According to a 2019 report by Statista, the global IT outsourcing market had an estimated value of $92.5 million, and it was projected to grow at 5% annually to reach $98B by 2024.
Source: emarketer
This huge growth has put mounting pressure on businesses to launch their online stores. Website development companies, on the other hand, have also faced increasing pressure to adopt the latest technologies to ensure that their solutions are meeting the needs of this growing commercial sector.
In 2019, for example, global e-commerce sales reached $3.5 trillion, and the mount is expected to nearly double by 2023 to reach $6.5 billion.
In terms of eCommerce website development costs, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all rate. In fact, it could go as low as $5,000 to more than $5M, depending on the size, complexity, and platform.
And even when your website is completed, you will continue investing more money to improve the user experience and functionality of your online store.
With that said, the closer you can get to a conclusive average cost of e-commerce website development is to factor in various aspects like the type of eCommerce platforms, tools, add-ons, and level of customization.
The following are our conservative estimates of building an eCommerce website.
- WooCommerce Starter: Between $500 – $3000. This covers shared hosting, paid design, and a small number of paid plugins.
- WooCommerce Custom: Between $5000 – $10,000. This amount covers for managed WordPress hosting, customized eCommerce design, and paid plugins.
- WooCommerce Enterprise: Over $10,000. The amount covers for dedicated hosting servers, customized web design and features, and paid plugins.
- Shopify: $1,000 – $10,000. The costs will dramatically increase depending on the sales and when using third-party providers for payment services.
- BigCommerce: $1,000 – $10,000+. Just like in Shopify, the costs will increase once the sales increase, as you will be required to upgrade your package.
Different Ways To Outsource Website Development
Your company may choose to rent a coder within the country or hire a nearshore team nearshore from a neighboring country, or even work with freelance remote developers depending on your budget or project’s needs.
Here are some of the most popular methods;
Outstaffing
Outstaffing entails hiring a dedicated team of skilled web developers working remotely to work on your project with your supervision.
Along with controlling the workflow and productivity of your remote programmers, the team also collaborates with your in-house developers to strengthen your project.
On the other hand, the outstaffing development company assumes the responsibility of hiring, administration, and other resources.
Outsourcing Agency
Outsourcing is the business process of hiring a company to build a custom e-commerce website based on your requirements.
The development partner is responsible for everything including the project’s workflow, management, equipment, and development team salary.
You simply need to concentrate on your core business operations and your website will be delivered ready to deploy.
Freelancers
Freelance e-commerce website developers generally work on their own, and they are more flexible compared to outsourcing and outstaffing agencies.
| Merits | Demerits | |
| Outstaffing | Your business needs are met instantaneously thanks to highly skilled professionals.Ability to scale up or reduce the number of developers working on your project as needed.Reduce costs associated with recruiting, taxes, personnel maintenance, insurance, etc. | Communication breakdown can occur as the outstaffed team members operate from a different location Outstaffing requires constant communication for the team to stay motivated and focused on the project. |
| Outsourcing Agency | Most outsourcing agencies are effective in responding to different project’s needs as they are experts in their fields. This means faster development and better quality output.Outsourcing gives your in-house teams more time to focus on the core business processOutsourcing web development helps shift the risk associated with the entire process.Outsourcing eliminates the need to hire and maintain an in-house team hence reducing your operational costs. | Outsourcing may call for the surrender of confidential company information to third-parties.Choosing the wrong outsourcing agency can lead to sub-standard quality, responsibilities mismatch, and delays in deliveryAlthough outsourcing is generally cost-effective, signing contracts across borders can introduce extra costs. |
| Freelancers | Help reduce overhead costs in terms of office space, training, insurance, retirement, and paid sick leave. You have the freedom to maintain the right amount of manpower depending on your project’s needs. You have the freedom to shift between different workers without any messy “divorce” cases. | Freelancer’s loyalty and fidelity go to whoever is willing to pay the most money. |
7 Tips for Outsourcing Website Development Successfully
Know your Business Needs & Goals
Before you even consider hiring an e-commerce team, the first thing you need to do is to list down your business needs, the project needs, and a rough concept of your online store design.
Web development projects have different implementation methodologies and technological stacks, which may ultimately affect the delivery time.
For this reason, you need to properly do your homework by:
- Create a general analogy of your e-commerce web project
- List down all the project-related objectives including your business goals, the tech requirements, the tech stack you will be using, etc.
- List down questions for the pre-screening process when hiring website outsourcing teams
- Have a rough idea of what it will cost.
Find the Right Web Development Outsourcing Vendor
Once you have defined and analyzed all your business and technical needs, the next thing you need to do is to select the right website outsourcing vendor.
You can start your hunt on platforms such as GoodFirms, Manifest, Clutch.co, etc.
Alternatively, you can choose to hire Ukrainian developers, which is one of the best countries to source for top-tier offshore development teams.
Whether you choose to work with a Ukrainian development team or any other team from a different county, the following information will help evaluate a potential vendor:
- The company’s previous experience and portfolio.
- Their area of specialization and capabilities
- Reviews from previous customers.
- Company’s activities on platforms like GitHub, Behance, and Dribbble
Ask Questions
Development projects entail a lot of technical terms that may unfamiliar for you especially if you have no development experience.
As such, if you come across something you don’t understand, do not be afraid to ask for brief explanations.
Communication Is Key
In any development project, constant communication is key as it helps put your ideas across as well as keeping all the team members in the loop.
For this reason, you need to establish standard communication channels from the very start.
Most business communications are conducted via email, although you can meet virtually via Slack, Skype, GoToMeeting, or any other convenient platforms.
And if you are operating under different time zones, you can reach a compromise and find a convenient time that suits everyone.
Have a Project Manager
As the project owner, having a project manager to manage your project is important.
He/She not only ensures that everyone is in the loop but also oversees all the moving parts of the project.
Some development teams spend most of their time and energy dealing with development problems because they aren’t sure how to resolve them.
However, by having a proactive project manager these problems can be resolved as quickly as possible.
Split the Project Into Small Tasks
Today, most development teams use the agile development process.
This entails splitting a big project into smaller chunks and phases, which the development teams can work on rapidly.
As a project owner, this model works great in controlling payments as you get to pay once a certain milestone has been achieved.
Read More – Agile Development Process.
Draw Up A Contract
If you want an unwavering commitment when building your e-commerce website, it is highly recommended that draw up a contract.
This will eliminate the legal uncertainties, as well as ensure that your project is delivered as agreed and at the agreed time.
The Future of e-Commerce Development
The ever-changing consumer behaviors and the growing ubiquity of mobile devices usage make the future of e-commerce development exciting, to say the least.
As of 2020, mobile devices accounted for $175.4B in revenues from the e-commerce sector.
This means that more and more online shop owners will be compelled to annex user-friendly mobile checkouts to tap into this large market.
Other technologies looming on the horizon include voice commerce, augmented reality, and online-to-offline experiences.
Final Thoughts
Most Fortune 500 companies, including IBM and Samsung, are increasingly opting to outsource their web development projects.
As a small business owner, it would be unreasonable for you to continue searching for web development teams within your geographic location.
Outsourcing offers numerous advantages including reduced development costs, risk mitigation, broader skill sets, and experienced tech experts.
With the above-mentioned tips on how to select a development partner, you shouldn’t have a problem achieving your business goals.