We are seeing greater customization and more complicated integrations in the eCommerce world. This means the days of novice-run, set-and-forget, eCommerce sites are over. And, the cost of development and ongoing support is often the number one issue that businesses face when it comes to continued investment in their eCommerce platform.
That raises an important question, what do I want my growth and development support for my Magento site to look like? Do I want someone Full-time? Part-time? In-house? Remote? Consulting?
There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding how to structure your ongoing support for your Adobe Commerce site, but the one that sticks out most to businesses is the cost of that development. When looking at the cost of support you need to consider more than just the salary or hourly wage of whom you are hiring, you need to consider other employee costs like salary, benefits, and the productivity of those providing your development support.
On average productivity for a contractor is far higher than that of a full-time in-house employee. According to a 2022 Zippia survey, the average in-house employee is productive at work for 2 hours and 53 minutes a day, which is only 36% of their 8-hour working day. Conversely, contractors are productive for up to 87% of their day, assuming an 8-hour day, which equates to 7 hours of productive work per day. Which is almost a 43% increase in productivity over the average in-house employee’s 2 hours and 53 minutes.
The average salary of an in-house US-based Magento developer is estimated at a minimum salary of $150k a year which translates into $72 an hour for the 2,080 working hours there are in a year. When you look at those dollars in terms of "productive dollars", based on the survey you are only getting about 780 hours of productive work from your employee, which translates into almost $200 an hour for your development costs. However, this cost is only taking into consideration the salary of the employee, it doesn’t account for vacation, sick time, benefits packages, bonuses, 401k contributions, etc.
When you calculate it, the real cost of an employee is between 1.25 and 1.4 times their actual salary. So, a $ 150k-a-year developer is really costing you $240 to $270 per productive hour, not the $72 based purely on salary.
An advantage of using contractors for your development is that you are not paying for benefits packages or other employee maintenance costs. While the average contractor may charge between $100 and $300 per hour depending on several factors (experience, project complexity, timeline, etc.), on average you will be receiving 7 hours per day of productive time compared to the 3 hours per day of productive time for an in-house employee (2022 Zippia survey).
Briteskies Managed Services Program does better than the average contractor, with our 100% productivity promise. Our policy of only billing for hours that are productive ensures that every cent you spend with us is working for you. It is the manifestation of one of our core values; customer compassion. We empathize with our customers and use our expertise and enthusiasm to deliver the solution that’s right for them. After completing a project with CVI Laser Optics, their eCommerce Project Coordinator had this to say:
They didn't just take my requirements, document, and do what we asked...they treat your project like it is their own. They are actually passionate about what they do. Very refreshing to have that kind of customer service and commitment.
Successful eCommerce sites need to have strong development and support teams monitoring them. Adobe Commerce powered by Magento is a leading enterprise-class eCommerce system and Briteskies is proud to be an Adobe Silver Partner with a team of certified developers in the pursuit of seamless integration and the best online shopping experience we can offer your customers.
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