Charging clients

I have been asked to quote for a website for a friend. He asked me for 2 prices, 1 for standard catalogue price, 1 for a working ecommerce site.

Looking at other web companies sites, to build a shopping cart usually cost at least double that of a standard non-selling site.

I generally find that 'designing' a bespoke site for a customer is far more taxing and consuming (getting it to 'look' right) than just downloding and setting up an ecommerce package which usually come straight out the box with just a few tweaks added.

Anyone else feel like this?

It seems strange that we charge more for an easier task when designing involves more thinking.

Hmmm, I guess it depends on wither you are buying an ecommerce package or building a custom one that fits the clients needs.

Most respectable companies code the shopping cart themselves and offer a lot of customisation that a normal downloaded one wouldn't, hence the higher price. Or, they have a prebuilt cart that they alter the raw code of a lot, I doubt many good web design firms actually just download an e-commerce script, fiddle around with it and then try to pass that off as a job, if they do, they're pitiful.

I hand code all of my shopping carts for my clients, because each client is as different as night and day, plus if they need a change I can make it in about 10 minutes instead of having to learn how they programmed the dern thing and trying to code it myself.

I'd suggest creating your own if you are able to do it. Like Aardvarked mentioned, most respectable companies create their own carts because it is easier for them to fix and edit.

I'm not about to reinvent the wheel... there are good carts that are on the market now.

Yup.. I'd use an existing cart too, but I wouldn't charge full though..

I've yet to come across a good shopping cart that actually does what I need it to do and validates. I've yet to come across one that tracks inventory, weight of product, shipping locations, proper subcategory filters, a XHTML/CSS compliant CMS, or anything nice like that. If you know of one then please send me a link, because I would like to use it, but as far as I am concerned, if it doesn't validate I don't want it.

I suppose I will have to give the client 3 prices instead. Standard site, ecommerce package and bespoke ecommerce.

I dont know if it validates but OS Commerce seems pretty nifty and it's FREE.


Actually, after just checking, the package I have been using does validate for HTML and CSS.

This is the site
http://www.diecast-central.co.uk/

Software is called CubeCart
http://www.cubecart.com/site/home/

Certainly not as flexible as creating your own ecommerce website from scratch but it does save a lot of time.

Yes. You must do that. bespoke and off-the-shelf solutions are very different (for obvious reasons) and will require a different amount (and type) of work on your part.

I'm working on an osCommerce related project at the moment and my personal opinion is: It works. Code is poor. No SEO (there are plugins available but they're not very good).
Check these live shops and make up your own mind.

CubeCart looks good
An off-the-shelf solution like CubeCart is propably the best for you and your client:
1) quicker than coding from scratch (MUCH quicker)
2) cheaper
You get paid less, but you have more time for other stuff...
The quicker you complete projects the quicker you can start new projects and so on...

Does almost what you what. It's called SquirrelCart. It does not validate but it does do everything under the sun. Only problem is you have to use their design or redo their CSS, which is a BIG BIG undertaking.

Two, it is so complicated and expensive. You would be better off building one that fits your needs. Just my opinion.

I'd also recommend you build one to suit your needs.
It might seem like the most difficult options, but one or 2 years down the line you will have a well developed, stable, quality, feature-rich cart/CMS that 1. does everything you need and 2. belongs to you so you can re-sell it to new clients without having to start over in every project.
That's what I've done and in my opinion it's paid off...