Ecommerce Site

Wasn't sure if this is where this would belong, but here goes...

Wondering if anyone knows how much a basic ecommerce site goes for. My brother-in-law wants me to create an ecommerce site for his company. He doesn't really want more than just an ecommerce page. Less than 400 products. I tried doing a search, but didn't find a whole lot that offered up pricing without emailing them for a quote. It's going to be designed in PHP/Mysql... also how much monthly maintenance normally goes for. if you need more details, let me know. Just looking for a ballpark figure since he's family, wasn't gonna charge the norm.

Thanks.

Have you looked at shopping carts like osCommerce / X-Cart? If you know PHP - those might be the way to start.

He would need an SSL cert if he is going to be processing transactions on his website and a merchant account with an electronic payment gateway (LinkPoint, Verisign's Payflow, Authorizenet.com)

Yea.. actually used OSCommerce before, and didn't like it.. I know how to set it up in PHP.. just wasn't sure how much to charge him for the site design itself.

Gotcha - charge what you want basically I always say. You can find companies that will set up a cart for $500 - $50,000. Sometimes this includes the design - sometimes it does not.

Since he's family, you probably want this done quick and cheap.

Look into PHPShop...similar to OSCommerce, but it's a plugin for an existing CMS system and does everything but process CC transactions.

And I would say $100 off the top of my head. That covers installing the software and verifying that everything is possible, and writing a short doc on how he can input his own products.

$1000 for you doing the input yourself. I tend to charge more for boring things that the client could do themselves.

-Dan

The cost to design the site should be dependent on how much time you need to complete the design.

Things to keep in mind.

1. Design at least 8 page layouts
a. Front page/store design
b. Category pages design
c. Product Detail pages design
d. Shopping Cart Page design
e. Sign in/new account design
f. Shipping Page Design,
g. Credit Card Page Design
h. Confirmation page design.

These layouts can all be based on a common theme, but some thought should be put into all of them.