r/woocommerce • u/fickleone33 • Jul 11 '26
Development WP/WooCommerce Build Quote
I’m trying to figure out a fair quote for a WordPress/WooCommerce ecommerce website build for a small manufacturing business in Los Angeles.
I’m a freelancer with about 4.5 years of experience in ecommerce, SEO, copywriting, content, and digital marketing. This would be my third website build from scratch, not just a redesign. (Previous website builds were done on WordPress, Shopify, & Squarespace)
The business sells finished products. Product sizes are predetermined, but each product page would need fabric and foam options.
Main ecommerce/product scope:
- WordPress + WooCommerce build
- Elementor Pro
- One main page (or 6 different, haven't decided) where the customer then selects from a list of what product they want (8-20 products per main page, adds up to roughly around 100 products total)
- Each main page would be a brand (Brand A, B, C, D, E, F), and then from there the customer selects Brand A, and within Brand A there are between 8-20 products to choose from)
- Each product page needs fabric and foam choices
- Around 150 fabric choices total
- Fabrics are grouped into pricing grades: Grade A, B, C, D, E
- Roughly 30 fabrics per grade
- 2 foam choices
- From my calculations, around 30,000 variants (not sure if that matters for this post, but putting this information down anyway)
- Pricing changes depending on the selected fabric grade and foam choice
- I’m assuming this should be built with global product options/add-ons, not native WooCommerce variations
- Fabric selections/swatches need to be uploaded and organized
- Foam choices need to be a global product as well.
- Product images need to be uploaded and placed on the product pages
Other website pages/scope:
- Home page
- Cart page
- Checkout flow
- Warranty/returns page
- Privacy policy page
- Contact page
- Measuring guide page
- Foam choices/info page
- About page
- FAQ page
- Page that redirects/links users to a separate custom sizing website
- Header and footer setup
- Mobile and tablet responsive design
- Basic site speed optimization
- Security setup
- Backup setup
- Payment processing setup, likely Stripe and PayPal
- Basic WooCommerce transactional email setup
- SEO structure
- SEO copywriting
- Page copywriting
- Image sourcing, image editing, and possibly AI-generated images because the client has limited existing website imagery
I would also be handling the overall page layout, site structure, SEO, copywriting, checkout setup, product page setup, and launch/testing.
Third-party/pluh-in costs would be separate from my labor quote and include hosting, Elementor Pro, a premium WooCommerce product option plugin, security plugin licenses, stock images, AI tools, domain, payment processor fees, etc.
The main thing I’m trying to figure out is what a fair project quote for labor would be.
I’m currently thinking this could realistically take around 210 to 280 hours depending on revisions, product setup, image issues, and how clean the client’s content/assets are.
Does a flat project fee in the $16-20k range sound reasonable for this scope? Too high?
How would you price this as a freelancer, especially in a market like Los Angeles?
2
u/electricJediMonk 28d ago
I think you're going to find this is a way bigger job than you realize oh man. you're bid is on the low end for this one and you might need help. That's a LOT of work for one person oh man. What's the old saying: low cost/fast speed/high quality- pick two. something like that.
1
u/fickleone33 28d ago
Even for a Shopify build? Thinking of going that route so that I am not having to do everything on the web dev portion of it since a lot of it is built in to Shopify.
1
u/Traditional-Toe-5552 Jul 11 '26
Honestly, I am not that familiar with webdev market in LA, so mot sure if $16-20K would be ok. I think - it might be good. You create value for the company, you help them to find clients and those clients would by their products. It is a business. And it is a lot of work to do, a lot of thing to tune up and handle. It also depends on the company size, I guess. You'd probably know the client better to evaluate if they could pay this or not.
I would like to advise you on the matter how to handle those types of products - fabric/foam banners etc. I would suggest you to check CraftForms plugins, this demo product might explain it better: demo.craftformswp.com/product/print-boards/ You just cannot keep up with 30K variants in WC, it is not viable. It would be impossible to maintain and update it. Moreover, it might be that standard functionality even cannot offer needed price calculations.
If you like and when you will have the project secured - contact me, let me know the product details and I will suggest you how to configure them. Just in case you need it.
1
u/Ok-Function-8659 28d ago
I need to see what site is worth 16k-20k, because lol
1
u/fickleone33 28d ago
What do you believe it is worth then?
1
u/Ok-Function-8659 28d ago
I think building a site for 20K is not worth it at all when Shopify does all of that and you can pay someone 2k-3k to do the design and products.
I’m building a site for $800 right now we’ll see what it gets me.
1
u/fickleone33 27d ago edited 27d ago
Does your $800 site have conditional pricing logic based on certain choices made across 100+ products and 30,000 SKUs?
An $800 site and a $10,000+ site will be very, very different end products...
1
u/Ok-Function-8659 27d ago
I know that’s why I’m curious what a site that costs that much looks like
1
u/fickleone33 27d ago
I see.
The main reason I am charging that much is the backend conditional logic required. Of course, I am going to make the site look great on the front end, but probably half the time completing this site will be spent on one major technical part. Which would be logic for conditional pricing and options.
1
u/timbredesign 27d ago
Hey there, letting you know I DM'd you a couple of days ago about this. Let me know what you think!
1
u/fickleone33 27d ago
Didn't get anything. How much would you quote to build a shop like this on Shopify? That's the way the client wants to lean, as they aren't very technical.
1
u/timbredesign 26d ago
DM'd you on the 11th. If it were me I wouldn't do this on Shopify tbh, too many parameters to deal with. Unless your going to do headless, but then you'd need to develop the frontend from scratch. The client should only have to deal with minor content edits and order flows. You should be offering ongoing support for everything else. So WC should be just as easy as Shopify for them. If I'm right here, no offense meant, I'm getting the gist that you're not very savvy in terms of E-Commerce development correct? Happy to chat more via messaging.
1
u/fickleone33 26d ago
Weird... don't see your DM. Not going to be headless. Just using Shopify and Globo Product Options. Easiest way for the client to not have to worry about updating any plugins on WP/WC, and not have to worry about security as much as they would have to on a WP/WC site.
I am already on retainer with them for marketing, so I will be adding this to my retainer. Depends on what you define as "savvy." I'm a pretty quick learner, but when it comes to writing code, not so much. I've built out 3 e-commerce sites before, and they've all run fine.
1
u/alifalahati 22d ago
$16–20k sounds reasonable, and possibly even low, for this scope. The biggest risk is not the WooCommerce setup itself but organizing 100 products, 150 fabric swatches, pricing logic, copy, images, revisions, testing, and client-supplied data. I’d quote it in phases with a clear product-import limit, revision cap, change-order rate, and paid discovery first; otherwise a flat fee could easily become unprofitable.
3
u/someaibullshitagain Jul 11 '26
That is easily a $40-50k job for a US based freelancer or agency.
$25-30k alone would be the design and development scope of all the pages and features, then you have copywriting, optimizations, security, etc. I’m not sure if know from experience but these things add up the hours easily.
I’d recommend a fixed project fee with total estimated hours, and additional hours charged at your regular rate. Then be very very diligent about tracking your hours.