How to estimate an e-commerce implementation budget?

Today's variety of solutions lets you build a platform on your own from a few hundred — sometimes only a few dozen — złotys per month. On the other hand, all of us have heard about multimillion-złoty implementations. To make budget estimation easier, it's worth taking a cost-based approach.

Start by setting a budget range, defining your 'must have' and 'nice to have' requirements for the store, mapping key processes — and only then approach agencies. This will significantly improve the conversation, because it will rest on a solid foundation. It's also worth asking for advice on forums and social media, describing the boundary conditions (limits you cannot cross), otherwise the answers may end up far from the realities of your business.

Also important: technology is not everything. You need to factor in product content (because that's what drives sales), the cost of producing terms of service, privacy policy, and GDPR-compliant legal notes. If you have extra budget it's worth getting help from a UX and UI specialist; if you don't have the budget for that, don't experiment — go with the standards offered by SaaS or open-source solutions.