Quick Intro steps for a business startup!

[WomenXtra]

Hi ALL,

For those who did an online business selling products like clothes and accessories what were the steps you took to make a start?

do you take photos of the products? and then design the site? or do you design the site and then take photos? also.. what are the costs involved other than the product itself? what do i need to bare in mind when i am starting off an online business?

thanks,
T

[weddingcrafter]

Very quickly my 10p worth:

Design site first - your products will be dynamic so you should be photographing new ones on a on-going basis.

Other expenses:

postage and packaging costs
payment handling charges for credit card transactions
marketing - no-one will buy if they can't find your products!
returns - a particular pain for clothing, I believe, but its a legal obligation
IT - web hosting, software etc

and obviously staffing and premises costs if not immediately, then at sometime.

Hope this helps, I've probably forgotten quite a few bits.....

Alison

[Rusty]

We have recently started an on-line shop selling gifts, still in its early days but for what its worth these were our priorities.

1. Market research - ensure that your products are searched for on the internet, check out your competitors in your chosen market.

2. Research your keywords and phrases to ensure maximum visibility on the internet. subscribe to Wordtracker and go through every concievable permutation of words that potential customers may type in to search. There are some free tools available which do a similar thing.

3. If you are selling on the internet it is imperative that your website is designed with SEO to ensure that you attain high rankins which will help visitor numbers.

4. A new one we have recently learned is ensure that you comply with all the Trading Standards laws and you have satisfactory T & Cs.

5. Make sure the site is user friendly and easy to use, put full contact details i.e. address, telephone etc and not merely a contact page with a form or email address.

Good luck with your new venture.

Rusty:smile:

[WomenXtra]

excellent tips there.. thanks lovely people :)
i completely forgot about the returns side of things. could I do (no returns but exchange is ok) or is that not acceptable?

[Joanne_UK]

No exchange is not ok...the law says that they have 7 days (from the day they receive the goods) to send it back (they don't need to have a reason why) but it can be longer than 7 days if your terms and conditions are not clear (so make sure you cover everything in your T & C's !!)

You should read this (consumers rights) : http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/DECB976C-DC9C-4214-82EE-4ED114EBB4E3/0/oft002c.pdf

for your other questions:
1- I designed the website myself (my day job is computer programmer/web developer)
2- I take the photos myself and my website is easy to update as I have built a database (content management) because my products are unique and I need to take a photo of each items..
3- Costs:
- host/server for my website + domain names
- Marketing (adwords, etc..)
- Insurance (for stock and public liability)
- Accountant
- Stationnary
- Postage
- Fees for credit card processing

I'm sure I forget something but that is what I can remember !!

[Profit Generation Systems]

I have noticed a site called webbuildpro.co.uk that offers a DIY site for a very reasonable cost. This way you can set up your site and update / amend it whenever you need to. They have no up front costs - you only pay an amount every month and they offer an initial 30 days trial FOC for you to play around with in.

Best of luck
Profit Generation Systems

[Claire B]

Hi WomenExtra (going off topic a bit here...)

just wanted to say thankyou for adding a link from your home, i hadn't realised that you had done that (the link doesn't work though) but just wanted to say thanks.

My website should be up and running soon (web designer are you listening to this) and we will be adding a links page, so will get you added.

its good to see that your site is taking off and getting more posts, well done, you have been working hard!