19 Apr Website design prices – Part two: Features and Functionality
In part one of our website design prices blog series we covered some of the general considerations you should think about before embarking on a new website. In this blog we look at some of the common features and functionality you might require.
eCommerce
If your website sells products or services or you plan to sell on your new website, you will need to sign up with a secure payment gateway (such as Paypal) to process each transaction securely. Whilst these gateways do offer free account options, there are also some premium packages they offer that you may find more suitable. But, regardless of which payment gateways you choose, they will also charge you a percentage fee per transaction (usually between 2.5% and 7%), and then another fee to transfer funds from their account to your bank. It’s worth comparing the different gateways available and choose one that offers a balance between their fees and how easily it can be integrated into your website (you should check with your website team that it is compatible with the system they are building the site on first).
If your online shop is likely to sell large quantities of physical products, perhaps too many for you to administrate, package and post out yourself, you may also want to consider using a fulfilment delivery company to manage the order taking and delivery aspect of things. Whilst you will continue to be informed by email of all transactions and receive the payments, the fulfilment company can handle the administration and delivery side of things. Some may also offer additional services, such as customer support and returns – so, it is worth working out if this expense will benefit you in the long-run.
Security is an important factor for websites that handle customer orders (and user accounts), as the data you collect from your users must be protected under UK law. Whilst a good hosting provider will supply access to an SSL certificate as part of your hosting account (which encrypts data communication on your website), and the platform and plugins your site uses regularly update to address security threats, it would be wise to consider paying for some additional security measures that are available, such as a premium security plugin to help make things more secure. It’s worth keeping in mind that if your user data is hacked, and you are found to be negligent in your security measures to protect that data, you will be set a maximum fine of £17.5 million or 4% of annual global turnover – whichever is greater.
Premium upgrades
Whilst there are many options and plugins available to achieve a wide range of functionality on websites, many of the best ones do come at a cost, because they are regularly maintained by the developers to ensure compatibility with updates to web standards, platform upgrades (such as WordPress updates), and they are always making sure they meet the highest levels of security protection. These premium options may either be a one-off fee, or paid for annually. But in general, the most common plugins and services usually cost between £30 to £250 (p.a.), depending on how technically advanced the system or plugin is.
Sometimes, however, the core functionality that you require on your website goes beyond the capabilities of what is available on the market, and in such cases it will then need to be custom coded by a developer. And custom development costs will depend on the complexity of what is needed. Small things may cost less than £100, but unique or advanced developments will also require testing and refinement, and could potentially run into several thousand pounds.
For further advice on your new website project get in touch with our team here.
Take a look at some of the websites we have created here.
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