Your online store has been running for years. The layout is starting to look dated, and it is not great on a phone.

You decide to replace it, ask three companies for quotes, and the prices are several times apart.

They all said "website redesign", so why are the quotes so different?

It is not necessarily that someone overcharged. They may simply not be talking about the same job.

One request, at least three different jobs

A "website redesign" might mean:

Staying on the current platform and only adjusting the layout, visuals and page structure
Moving to a different platform and setting up products, members, payments and shipping again
Building a brand-new online store from scratch, including the cart and the back office

The first and the third are not even in the same league in terms of work.

Yet most people start the conversation with the same sentence: "I'd like to redesign my website."

So before comparing prices, make the scope clear.

Answer these three questions before asking for quotes

1. What is your current website address?

Sending the address is usually more useful than writing a long list of requirements.

The existing site already shows the page structure, the number of products, the checkout flow and roughly what kind of platform it runs on.

Just sending the address saves half the back-and-forth.

2. Stay on your current platform, or switch?

If the current platform is still serviceable and you only adjust the design and content, that is usually simplest.

Moving platforms adds a lot at once: how will products be moved? Should member data come along? How will payments and shipping be set up again? Should old orders be kept?

You may not have the answers yet, but you should at least know the choice exists.

Many of the gaps between quotes come down to exactly this.

3. How many products? Who prepares the photos and descriptions?

Ten products versus three hundred makes a big difference to the data preparation and migration alone.

And who prepares the photos, descriptions and specifications is often what really delays launch — not the code.

After the move, can Google still find you?

If your site has been running for a while, its product and category pages have probably been indexed by Google for a long time.

If the URL structure changes with the new platform and no redirects are set up for the old addresses, customers clicking through from search results land on "page not found".

It is not just visitors who are affected, but also the search traffic you took the longest to build.

So decide before the redesign whether URLs will change, and which old pages should redirect to which new ones.

How tenet-O can help

We first clarify where you are and what this project includes, and only then move on to design and quoting:

Review the main pages, products and checkout flow of your current site
Confirm whether it is a redesign on the same platform, a migration, or a new build
Write down what is and isn't included this time
Take care of reading and using the site on a phone as well

Why Your Website Needs Responsive Design

If URLs change, plan redirects from old addresses to new ones first
Before launch, check every important page and feature one by one — a working home page is not "done"

Still deciding whether you need a full shopping cart, or a simpler way to take orders first? This may help:

Group-Buy Orders in LINE Out of Control? 4 Common Problems

What is the one thing about your website that makes you most want to replace it?

Talk to us about your website