Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Ecommerce Hosting & Discussion : Cost TO Build A Site Like CafePress.com or Zazzle.com

[NotoriousKIM]

Hi! I'm asking this mainly because im working on a project for school right now, and I wanted to get an idea of what it would cost to launch a website like this. Does anyone have an idea of how much it would cost to have a website like CafePress.com or Zazzle.com programmed, coded and designed professionally? The type of site that Im using is actually for food products but its very similar to the structure of these sites. Any help is appreciated!

And also, what type of server would you recommend for a site like this, just starting out?

[bluskyguy]

Wow, that's really a loaded question. For cafepress, as far as the design/backend functionality goes (without the cost of the actual screening equipment, etc.) you could easily estimate the cost would be an easy $250,000. However, without knowing the backend development that's incorporated into Cafepress it's almost impossible to say.

[NuCode]

Indeed to get an website like that, it costs A LOT!

But bluskyguy asid $250,000, nawh, more in the range of 50,000 euros (that's ~57,500 USD).
I think it might be possible eve nunder 20,000euros!

It all depends so much. but for $250k, that's like 5,000 working hours on $50 per hour rate. so when we are talking this big, it would be more like 6,500 to 7,500 hours of work.
Now think again, would it really take that long to program? I don't think so!

As a PHP programmer i can do quite well estimations, and i tell you, it won't be very fast to create, it would take long, but most likely not even near that amount of time.

It would take me couple hours atleast to do an proper estimation, but here are some:

Multi-shop shopping cart system 500hours
Preview & render system of the merchandise 200-300hours
Multiple layers of security 50hours
Database design & optimizations 200hours
Code optimizations 100hours
Product testing & bug hunting 300-500hours
Affiliate program 30hours
Forums 150hours
Moderated Chat 100hours
automated spotlight, specials etc system 50hours
semi-automated newsletter system (choosing adverts products etc) 30hours

i deliberately shooted most of them to sky high values, now we get:
2010 man work hours

I would charge for that normally: 96,480 €
but because it's that large project: 74,370€ to 80,400€

This is raw estimation, and i wouldn't never work on this large project on per project pricing, because SO much can go wrong, and cause me to work for zero profit. Also the problem is that this is so large that i would be needing to bill the client every second week or once in a month for the current period's work.

I also suspect that a system like this could be created in far less time, but then again i didn't go in deep & get familiar well with the system yet to know.
Also my estimation is missing separate central administration system, plus possible backend things (ie. inserting stocks from .csv etc)

[NotoriousKIM]

Wow, I was thinking $30k to $70k, unfortunetly its at the higher end, lol! Thanks so much for your help, it will help me a lot w/ my project.

[NuCode]

Notorious: it might be possible on that budget, a little out sourcing, "Skal Tura's Magic Cash Saver Fingers!" and a little bit trickery it could even be possible to do for 40k lol...

Just outsource to poland! x) or some other coutnry where worker time doesn't cost much

[cloch]

I looked at a similar project for a client a little while ago.

My estimate was in the 30-50k (Euro) range. Outsourcing may be an opton to bring the costs down, but what I've found from outsourcing is that you still need a technical expert on your side constantly keeping watch on them, particularly on a large and complex project such as this.

[Webcart]

I think I am a bit confused.

In order "to launch a website like this", you don't have to invent the wheel. You can get out-of-the-box solution or you can order customization of existing solution.
Either way it is going to cost much less and get you online much faster.

The only reason to develop anything like that from scratch is to sell it later as a product, not using it for your own store.

Does it make sense?

[mrzippy]

The actual cost of the programming and website design is the easy part.

Since your question is "to launch a website like this", I'm going to assume that you also want to actually market your website.

That will cost you millions, if you wanted to compete with anyone who is already established in the market.

In other words, even if you build a website that is even BETTER then cafepress... you still have zero chance of atracting one customer.

You need to market/advertise your website in order to succeed... and THAT is the part that will cost you a lot of $$.

Don't forget that in your marketing plan.

[ImBae.net]

I agree with mrzippy

[websitehosts]

me too. Mrzippy is right!

[beruska]

Originally Posted by mrzippy

if you wanted to compete with anyone who is already established in the market.

In other words, even if you build a website that is even BETTER then cafepress... you still have zero chance of atracting one customer.

You need to market/advertise your website in order to succeed... and THAT is the part that will cost you a lot of $$.

Yes, I agree with mrzippy.

Cheers,
Beruska