Whether you’re new to selling online or a veteran looking to migrate away from another platform, it’s important to know how long a new eCommerce platform should take to setup so you can plan accordingly.
Unfortunately, we have to answer this question with that annoying phrase…”it depends.” The setup time varies based on several factors such as the level of design customization you want and whether or not you already have an existing eCommerce site.
Standalone Sites
The biggest factor in the setup time is whether you want an eCommerce solution that plugs-in to your existing site or is a standalone site on a different domain. A standalone site can take up to 2 weeks for setup, design and training. This setup may include:
- A new license for your domain
- DNS creation
- Hosting setup and activation
- Mail server setup
- SSL certificate installation
- Payment gateway setup
- Custom website design
- Training and more
Plug-in sites
Plug-in sites can be completely setup within 2 days on average, but this depends on how quickly your website provider can finish installations on your site. Plug-in solutions can almost always be installed faster than stand alone sites.
Site Customization
The level of design customizations you want will affect how long it takes to get your site up and running. If you have a specific idea of what you want the site to look like, this will help the design team deliver work you will love early on instead of going through many rounds of designs.
Your Level of eCommerce Experience
If your dealership has never sold parts online before then there will be a few extra steps in the process such as configuring shipping and setting up your merchant account to process payments. If you are evaluating a new ecommerce platform, there are a lot of considerations to make including what security and shipping automation features the platform offers.
Average Setup Time
Overall, the setup time varies between different vendors but between 2 days and 2 weeks seems to be the average setup time range across plug-in and stand alone sites.
