Ecommerce .. pricing/help

I know this is in the wrong place but I really don't know where to put it so please any mod please move it for me.

Alright my friends dad owns a rug company and he is looking to put a ecommerce onto it and he has two so called professional companies making designs and saying that it'll cost him about $15,000.00

Design 1 - LINK This is not a complete design. They want $9,000.00 to finish it, to me I think the coding is done sloppy and isn't worth the $9,000.00. The commerce their using looks very cheap as well, Add something to your shopping cart and look around there.

Design 2 - I have not been shown anything but he has told me the price is $15,000.00

I was wondering can a commerce site actually be THAT much money honestly the design he been poorly done and he can get better for that amount of money.

I told him I'd be gladly to design him a new site but I would have to find a coder and then someone to do the commerce.

If you would like our AIM conversation please ask for it and I will send it to you. He is going to call me in about 15minutes.

$15k for a true custom ecomm site is actually quite cheap by industry standards...

If it's running off some sort of engine such as oscommerce, then it can be done quickly and cheap, but custom is a different story.

Company charges $125/hour for work, $15k works out to about 130 hours... 130 hours to develop an ecommerce site from scratch? not too bad...

Average cost of a website I work on is around $10k - $15k or so (no ecommerce)... I work at a brick and mortar interactive shop and clients who go to businesses are generally a different breed... They aren't looking for the cheapest.

Problem starts up when you get people who aren't good, charging high rates (which it looks like may be happening here)

www.stockmusic.net - A site like this is in the range of about $25 - $30k

Anyone can buy a Hyundai Accent, but a custom car costs a WHOLE LOT MORE to do exactly what U want it to.

The first design is using a program called Commerce Made Easy - http://www.commercemadeeasy.com/
Which is a very cheap and tacky ecommerce system.

The design looks rubbish, and personally I think you should get a new designer to redo the site.
I wouldn’t buy from the first design, and I’m sure others will not as well because of the poor designed site.

Hope you change it quick

A quick thought as well...

There's a guy who works at Honda... He makes $150,000 a year and all he does is for 4 hours a day (8 is too long, he might get tired) sit in front of a big red button. He's treated like gold! He's got a great chair and all he does is watches 100 people working all day long. So why does he make so much money to sit around??? Well, it's because that big red button shuts down the assembly line causing $10,000 a minute for downtime.

If this guy makes the wrong call and shuts down the line for 5 minutes, He just cost the company $50,000! You see, it's not about how difficult something is so much as how much responsibility is involved.

The same goes for Ecommerce. You're dealing with credit cards and financial transactions online. Business owners are willing to pay more (because human nature associates money with quality) for the peace of mind in knowing that they will be able to support financial transactions online and SECURELY!

The last thing they want is somebody who is cheaper (because cheaper at a perception level means less experience). Companies charge a lot because they can get a lot. That's the business of web design.

$15,000 is fair for a basic e-commerce site. Not for the one you have displayed though. It is cheap and tacky.

I let clients know they are looking at $12,000 and up minimum, most run!

The reasoning behind the high costs is that an e-commerce site means ANYONE can set up a business without even having to lease or own a bricks and mortar store. The lease or ownership of a bricks and mortar shop can run into the high tens of thousands.

When you consider the above, you realise e-commerce sites priced at $15,000 aren't that bad.

9k for that site considering the only job done by the designer it's a rubish 2nd rate looking design, i'd have to say that's over priced like hell.
Regards

hmmm...that's pretty expensive for an ecommerce and like what they say...looks rubish
if ever you need some help in these let me know

If in $15000.00 he is developing a customised eCommerce solution, without taking help of third party eCommerce solutions then Its not a bad deal. Design should be improved though.