Hello everybody!
You see, I want to help my mother to create a small online store. She is a sculptor and painter, she teaches courses and workshops, the point is that she wants to have a blog and also to be able to sell online. She has asked me for help and I have been reviewing different options and I have some doubts, I think that if someone has gone through this can advise me well:
The hosting issue I have decided with OVH (it is a shared hosting but it is enough for me , and for the price is fine what they offer).
[https://www.ovhcloud.com/es-es/web-hosting/wordpress-hosting/])The problem is the CMS, in the first place I wanted to mount everything in WordPress and with the Woocommerce plugin, but I do not know to what extent it will be profitable. I was reading and people were saying to estimate about 500 euros of investment which seemed ridiculous to me because the hosting is about 36 maximum per year, wordpress is open source and the Woocommerce plugin too. I understand that if I want a premium template I will have to pay more, but where does the rest of the money come from?
Another solution is to use prestashop, a CMS designed for online stores, but I surely lose a little when it comes to blogging….
It is complicated many options, what has been your experience, what do you recommend?
Greetings and thanks for reading me!
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Regarding the estimate of 500 euros, it’s actually only if you get it designed from an agency or hire someone, they may charge you for their service. Although not exactly 500 euros but can be more or less depending on the agency/developer you work with.
I would suggest you to start off with a readymade platform like Shopify or similar service where basics are already built for you.
WordPress/WooCommerce makes sense cost-wise if you use it for the long term as it’ll pay for itself eventually if built correctly.
Consider the cost of ongoing maintenance as well, in regards to uploading new products, managing sales, upgrading plugins, etc. I don’t know how well versed your mom is regarding online commerce and WordPress, but I’m guessing she’ll need your help in terms of posting new items for sale, how to show when she has a sale, inputting prices, including tax and shipping, etc.
As /u/hronak suggested, maybe a ready made platform is a better start for your mom. Shopify, Squarespace, and others, are built for people like your mom in mind. Down the road, if she’s doing well enough, maybe then you consider moving to something you fully control.
You can do it for less than 500, what you won’t get are extra features that you might want. You can use the free versions of plugins to get a site up and running but you may think of something that you would like but can’t do in the free version.
There are YouTube videos on how to set up a woo site with the free versions of astra and elementor.
I maintain two sites. One is full featured, lots of plugins, fancy styling, etc, cost several hundred maybe close to $1000 per year in subscriptions. The other had modest requirement and no real budget, it doesn’t use any paid plugins, just the free versions. Both sites have blog and sales.
One of the things to ask yourself is how much time do you have to learn the software? If you don’t know anything about how the web works or how WordPress works you will have quite a journey to learn what you need. Youtube will be your friend.
The money goes basically to people who can solve the problem you have in no time. If it were “this easy” you could do it yourself in a few hours. 500€ is btw on the very very low end in terms of development costs. Hosting wise 36€ per year is also not a very good choice of hosting. That’s usually the standard monthly price
WordPress and WooCommerce is fairly simple and unlike others have stated, I wouldn’t use Shopify, that will only increase your costs and become less cost-effective.
There’s a bit of a learning curve but for a simple store you can get it done for sure. Start simple, don’t add too many plugins, there are lots of guides online and you can ask specific questions that will help you through it.