What does an online store cost in Morocco?
A store costs more than a brochure site, and not for the reasons people assume. The six line items that actually make the difference.
· 7 min read · Noor Studio Agency
Why a store is not "a website with products on it"
A brochure site displays. A store processes transactions: it calculates a basket, applies delivery charges, reserves stock, takes money, handles a failed payment, sends a confirmation and leaves an accounting trail. Every one of those steps is an error case somebody has to design for.
That, not the design, is where the price gap with a brochure site sits. An e-commerce quote barely above the price of a presentation site is almost always describing an online catalogue rather than a store.
The six line items that set the price
Get each of them itemised in every proposal. Two quotes are only comparable line by line.
- The platform. A hosted solution, WordPress/WooCommerce, or a custom build: three different cost shapes — one monthly, one in maintenance, one up front.
- Catalogue size and complexity. Twenty products with no variants is not the same job as two hundred lines in sizes and colours, each with its own stock.
- Who produces the product pages. Photography, descriptions, specifications: the most consistently forgotten line, and the one that delays launches most often.
- Payments. A bank gateway, cash on delivery, or both. The bank application takes time and needs to run alongside development, not after it.
- Delivery. Rates by city or by weight, a carrier integration, order tracking: every rule is a feature.
- What runs afterwards. Hosting, certificate, backups, security updates, transaction fees. A store is a recurring cost, not a one-off purchase.
The empty-catalogue trap
Most stores that slip are not blocked by code: they are waiting for content. Photographing two hundred products, writing two hundred descriptions and checking two hundred prices is a project in itself, and it almost always lands on the client.
Decide at quote stage who owns it, and plan to launch with a tight selection rather than a full catalogue. A thirty-product store that is live sells; a three-hundred-product store still being photographed sells nothing.
What to settle before anyone quotes
Three decisions drive the budget more than page count ever will: are you selling to consumers or to businesses? Do you deliver in one city or nationwide? Do you take payment online, on delivery, or both?
Answer them before requesting a quote. A supplier pricing without those answers is guessing, and the gap gets recovered later in change requests.
And at Noor Studio Agency?
We scope the store before pricing it: platform, catalogue, payments and delivery are settled on the first call, and the written proposal itemises each of them.
A project to scope?
Thirty minutes is enough to tell you what is worth doing now, what can wait, and what it involves.