You're naturally looking to determine the costs of any kind of outside services you bring in to help benefit your ecommerce business, and the realm of headless ecommerce is no exception. There are several factors that may play a role in the ultimate cost of any headless ecommerce project, and being aware of them ahead of time can be valuable as well. At SiteSource, we're proud to offer the best headless ecommerce solutions in the industry, with services ranging from custom software development to headless project management, Shopify ecommerce services and more. Broadly speaking, the expected costs of your headless ecommerce needs can be determined through two sources: The simple hours required for the major parts of the process to take place, and certain possible areas of additional spending that may also be needed. This two-part blog series will look at both of these areas, with today's part one focused on the standard headless ecommerce process and how varying time needs will impact your costs.
Firstly, it's important to have a general understanding of your needs before any development can even begin. This is where our team comes in - we'll help you determine what specific features and functionality will be most beneficial for your business, and how best to integrate them into your ecommerce website.
We'll also assess what other tools and platforms you may need to complement your ecommerce website, such as a Content Management System (CMS), an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, or a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. In some cases, you may already have these tools in place - but in others, you may need our help to select and implement the right ones for your business.
Now, how long this takes -- and therefore, how many hours of time you'll be billed for -- will depend on the size and complexity of your ecommerce website, as well as how many other tools need to be integrated. In general, though, this phase of the process usually takes between 50 and 80 hours.
Once we have a good understanding of your needs, it's time to start development on the custom software that will power your ecommerce website.
This is where the real differences in time needs - and therefore, costs - will start to show up. The most important factor here is the number of features and integrations that you need for your website. A simple website with a handful of features and integrations will take far less time to develop than a complex website with many features and integrations.
In general, though, you can expect this phase of the process to take between 200 and 400 hours.
Once the development process is complete, it's time to start putting all of the pieces together and making sure that everything is working correctly. This is where our headless project management services come in - we'll work with you to test your website, make sure all of the integrations are working properly, and launch your website on your chosen platform.
Again, the amount of time needed for this phase will vary depending on the size and complexity of your project. In general, though, you can expect it to take between 50 and 100 hours.
In part two of this series, we'll look at some possible areas of additional spending that may also be required for your project. Stay tuned!
For more on this, or to learn about any of our headless ecommerce or related solutions, speak to our team at SiteSource today.