We get asked this question all the time, what's the true cost in setting up a florist website with Flower Store In a Box? It's unfortunately not a straight forward answer as each customer is different, but I've tried to run through the main costs involved. If you have the time and the inclination you can do all the content, products and much of the on site SEO optimization yourself once the site is live. Or you can pay professionals to do it for you.
Website Itself
This will depend on which package you choose and can range from $300 to $700 a month fort 12 months for setup and $49.95 - $149.95 a month ongoing.
Domain Name
All our packages come with a 2 year registration of your chosen domain name.
SSL Certificate
We include the SSL Certificate (to encrypt the transaction) for the first twelve months as part of the Package.
Product Images
This is a tough one, if you use one of the relay networks image libraries either Petals or Interflora they charge fees anywhere from $150 - $550. If you choose to take your own product images then it's your time take to make the product and then take the picture. You may also choose to have a professional photographer take the pictures for you and then process them. This can add up quite quickly and you may pay: $100 per product to process and take the image. If you do have a photographer take the pictures you should discuss who owns the copyright of the images just to make sure you don't run into issues in the future.
Payment Gateway Costs
Virtually all the main payment gateways that Flower Store In a Box Integrates with are free to setup. Stripe, PayPal and eWay all charge nothing to get started.
SEO & Content
If you are planning to get someone to do the SEO for you then SEO charges might be around $5000 - $6000 a year. However many of our customers either prefer to do this themselves or rely on paid advertising to bring in customers. If you plan on getting someone to write content for your site generally Copywriters charge by the word and in our experience it can cost around $25 dollars per hundred words. But again content is something you can easily write yourself as you go along. We have excellent copyrighters that can quote on content for you too!
Paid Advertising
Depending on how large your targeted market is will depend on how much you should be spending on Google AdWords and other online marketing. A rough rule of thumb would be that you want to aim to spend around $20 per sale generated through your website. A budget of $1000 a month should on a well performing campaign return roughly $3000 - $5000 in revenue, but every florist is different in this respect.
Email Marketing
Our Flower Store In a Box Platform includes an email marketing application for you to generate emails to your customer base with FREE professionally designed templates
Conclusion
So in answer to the question of how much? If you want to do the work yourself there are no extra costs apart from Google AdWords for you to get going and get your first sale. If you are wanting to get someone to do it all for you then it can range anywhere from an extra $10 - $20,000 for products, SEO & Content. It's a wide range but there is an entry point for everyone. PS if you are wanting to keep the costs down stick to a small product catalogue and use your iPhone to take beautiful square product images and use a few filters to perfect them!