E-commerce app development costs for apps like Walmart, Amazon, and eBay can range from $25,000 to $75,000, depending on whether you are building a standard eCommerce app or an eCommerce marketplace like Amazon. Platforms like Walmart and Amazon are the giants ruling the eCommerce market. They are one of the primary reasons why the global eCommerce market revenue is estimated to reach $6.39 trillion by 2027, a significant increase from $3.84 trillion in 2021.
Therefore, if you are looking to be a part of the economy, aiming to be the next Amazon or Walmart can be the right start. However, ensuring your business can become a part of this growth requires accurate cost estimation and strategic planning.
You must consider many factors like the app complexity and platform, UI/UX design, number and type of features, developer location, and the development strategy to estimate the cost accurately.
Factors that Affect the Ecommerce Mobile App Development Cost
To build an eCommerce app successfully, you must estimate and plan the cost before the project begins. It is crucial to ensure your budget can survive the various requirements of the e-commerce app development project.
Wireframing Cost
Wireframing is a visual architecture of your e-commerce application that further helps build the application layout. Developers have to create multiple wireframes to determine which one suits the requirements of your e-commerce app development project best.
You must conduct wireframing to build e-commerce or any other mobile app. The cost usually depends on the complexity of your application. Since the wireframing process includes repetition, the costs of the process may increase a lot if you hire developers from countries like the US and UK. You are better off when you hire remote developers from countries like India and Ukraine to ensure better ROI for your e-commerce app with limited investment.
The average wireframing costs range from $500 to $2000 for an e-commerce app.
User Interface Design
The user interface design of your application can determine the user-friend experience customers will have on your e-commerce app, which is the primary element that leads to user retention or customer defections. You must never compromise UI design quality in your e-commerce app to save money, whether it is the color combination, icons, or app loading time. The top-quality products and services on your e-commerce app will not get any customers if they are not accessible through a simple and visually appealing user interface.
The average cost for e-commerce UI design ranges from $8,500 to $28,000. However, the development cost may vary depending on your project requirements, app complexity, and business goals.
App Platform
You can either build a native app for one operating system, a native app for multiple operating systems, or a cross-platform e-commerce application that works on all platforms. Choosing between these three will increase or decrease the app development costs.
The native e-commerce app development cost for a single operating system (like iOS) would range from $40,000 to $75,000.
The average cost to build a native e-commerce app for multiple operating systems (like iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS) would range from $180,000 to $350,000.
The average cost to build a cross-platform e-commerce app would range from $20,000 to $50,000. Choosing the cross-platform approach to build an e-commerce mobile app is the most cost-effective way to build it while reaching a large user base.
Number and Type of Features
The number and complexity of features you must include in your e-commerce app will determine the final costs. For example, an MVP e-commerce app would have only the core features, while an advanced one would include many complex ones like Search with Product Image, Send a Gift, and Chat with Delivery Executive.
The number and type of features can determine whether your application is an MVP or an advanced one.
The average cost to build an MVP e-commerce app (with core features) would range from $12,000 to $25,000.
The average cost to build a complex e-commerce app with numerous advanced features would range from $90,000 to 200,000.
Location of App Developers
Where you hire your developers can significantly increase or decrease your e-commerce development cost. If you hire an in-house development team or outsource to onshore developers from the US, UK, or Europe, you are likely to get costly prices for building an app that may or may not succeed. It is not a clever way to approach an app development project with multiple competitors and equal chances of success and failure.
The average cost to build an e-commerce app with an in-house team/onshore developer from US or UK would range from $75,000 to $150,000 for a standard version.
You will get much better prices on similar app development solutions if you outsource to development companies from countries like India or Ukraine. On top of that, countries like India are known for providing top-tier IT and software development solutions.
The average cost to build an e-commerce mobile app with offshore developers from India would range from $35,000 to $68,000 for a standard version.
Development Strategy
The methodology you choose to build your e-commerce application can extend the development process, lead to an unprecedented or disadvantageous outcome, or accelerate the process towards the desired goal. For example, choosing a Waterfall approach could lead to a disadvantageous result and an extended development process. While the Agile Methodology approach helps direct the process towards an advantageous outcome in each phase, accelerating the process.
Increasing development hours or undesired outcomes further increase costs and force you to replan your budget. Therefore, you should use methodologies like Agile to build an Ecommerce app.
If your e-commerce application development costs between $45,000 to $90,000 with an approach like Waterfall, it will cost you between $30,000 to $66,000 with Agile and give you better control over the project.
Conclusion
As mentioned before, the ecommerce mobile app development cost for a project will entirely depend on your business goals, UI/UX design, the number and type of features, and the location of app developers. When you are done planning all of the above, you can estimate the exact development costs and plan for unprecedented outcomes during or after the project. Generally, it should cost you between $25,000 to $60,000 to build a standard and user-friendly e-commerce mobile app.