Where to buy a website with e-commerce

[Female Entrepreneur]

Hi there

I want to set up a website and sell my wares online. Can anyone recommend the best way to do this and who might be able to do it for me. In particular

- What are the key considerations?
- Are off the shelf websites/online shops any good?
- If so, who are the best people to buy them from?
- What restrictions/disadvatages will an off the shelf one have especially as we grow?
- What would be the approximate price of getting it done bespoke

Many thanks for you help. It's really appreciated :D

[blown away]

There are so many variables you need to specify what you really want.
You can build your own from a company like the one I used for around £17 per month, or you could pay a web designer from the low £100's to high £1000's.
The beauty of a build it yourself site is that you have total control, but perhaps limited flexibility when it comes to payment gateway providers etc.
If you have an internet merchant account then you would have to make sure that it would integrate into your site.
I have paypal on my site and am waiting for google checkout to be available shortly. I could also have worldpay or protx.
Have a look at my site and see what can be done with an inexpensive, template driven site builder, it's "do your own site".
Other people swear by easywebstore, although I found it frustrating and complicated when I did the free trial. There is also mr site, I have no knowledge of that one. I am sure there will be plenty of web designers on here with differing opinions.

[c2webdesign]

Hi,

There is a lot to consider when setting up an online business. In answer to your questions:

1. There are lots of key considerations; ensure your website will be able to grow with your business, ensure the design meets the expectation of your visitors and is simple and easy to navigate

2. They have their place for businesses on a budget. They do not offer the flexibility of a bespoke development allowing you to have everything you would like, and where you would like it. If that is not particuarly important to you, and you are simply looking for a way to enter the market, an purchased online shop builder is often a cheaper option (in the short term).

3. There are tons, but I have none that I have seen that I could personally recommend

4. Restrictions and disadvantages tend to be they look like other websites plus they often do not offer compliant coding - this makes search enigne optimisation a little more tricky. They often can also cause problems with growth and development (we have a few clients that started with online shop builders only to find they out-grew them and needed a more bespoke package)

5. Prices do vary but I'd be happy to provide a price if you would like to drop me a PM

Hope this helps!

[RedEvo]

Do you have a non e-commerce website in place already?

d

[awebapart.com]

I want to set up a website and sell my wares online. Can anyone recommend the best way to do this and who might be able to do it for me.
It is difficult to recommend an appropriate solution without knowing more about the types of products, how many different products, and what other requirements you have.

You will get a lot of different opinions on ecommerce solutions! Most shop owners will think they have made the wise decision with their particular shop, and most shop suppliers (including myself) will think they have made the wise decision with their shop offerings to address a particular market segment.

We could have gone a number of ways when creating our ecommerce web site creation service for small businesses, a bespoke service, an off-the-shelf service, a semi-bespoke service. In the end we decided to offer an off-the-shelf solution but with a lot of upfront hand-holding in setting up the initial design, as this was the only way we could see of providing a good value end result for a lot of small businesses. But even then we are well aware of the particular market segment our service caters for, and as such our service will not meet everyone's needs.

- What are the key considerations?
1. Can the shop actually be configured to sell your products with all their options, some products and options can cause problems for some shops.
2. How many different types of products do you want to sell, if you want to sell thousands of different products then this will rule out a lot of solutions, if you only want to sell a handful of different products then some solutions will be overkill
3. Does it fit in well with your marketing plans (if you want to get free traffic from the search engines will the site help with this in terms of SEO features, will the site support your promotions like discount codes)
4. Does it meet your requirements now, and will it meet the future requirements you are thinking about.
5. Is it appropriate for your budget.
6. What is your schedule
7. Are you confident that the supplier of the website can deliver.

- Are off the shelf websites/online shops any good?
Some of them are good, some are not. The general principle and business model of renting an off-the-shelf ecommerce website service should not be seen as the poor relative of going bespoke. Have a look at the client list of a high end managed service off-the-shelf (i.e. the venda platform) ecommerce provider www.venda.com/page/ukclients (http://www.venda.com/page/ukclients) - sometimes it just makes plain business sense to take this route.

- If so, who are the best people to buy them from?
In the past I have mentioned on forums the likes of ekmpowershop.co.uk, easywebstore.co.uk, and of course my company's www.awebapart.com (http://www.awebapart.com/) service. From what I've seen of client sites, I do not rate BT's eshop nor the 1and1 eshop solution.

- What restrictions/disadvatages will an off the shelf one have especially as we grow?
This depends on how future proof the solution is, how customisable and flexible the system is, what features it has that you haven't used yet but other shop owners might be using, what other contingency there is in the service (e.g. can you upgrade to more bandwidth), what future directions you have for the shop, how much do the solution suppliers listen to the shop owners, and finally how easy is it to move away if you outgrow the service etc. Obviously these factors will vary from service to service.

Generally with an off-the-shelf solution you are not in full control of the site, you cannot expect features to be added to your site even if you have the money to pay for them. However you may also find that the solution provider improves and grows the service with time without you having to pay for improvements, it would be silly for an off-the-shelf solution provider not to improve their service because their competition would be (e.g. what version is Actinic at now, 8.5). There is also the chance of the supplier removing the service or the supplier going bust, this isn't limited to just small companies, even Natwest withdrew their ecommerce related www.fastpay.com (http://www.fastpay.com) , and this is also a risk with bespoke suppliers but with a lot less impact (since if you have the full source code with a bespoke solution then you could always try to get another supplier to support it).

With a bespoke solution you generally have more control. You have more chance of getting a system that fits in with you rather than you fitting in with the system, more so with a fully bespoke system. There are still compromises to be made with bespoke, you may have to fit in with how existing non-bespoke components work for a semi-bespoke solution (e.g. based on osCommerce), you still have to fit in with how external systems work (e.g. payment processors like PayPal, WorldPay), you still have to fit in with what your budget allows, and you still have to fit in with other factors beyond your control like available web technologies and search engine optimisation practices to deliver an appropriately balanced effective website (e.g. a Flash only ecommerce website might look great but probably wont get much search engine traffic).

A bespoke solution is also more important if you want your shop to have its own unique technology, to be something completely different from the normal type of shop, and if you want your shop to be a major company asset which can be sold on if you are thinking of selling the company in the future.

A bespoke solution also has its downsides too. You only get control and ownership of a bespoke system if you specify this clearly in your client-supplier contract. Then there are the issues of ownership. An ecommerce system is an advanced system and as soon as you go the bespoke route you have to take financial responsibility for maintaining and improving your system going forward, essentially you become the owner of an advanced piece of software, like a mini-Microsoft or a mini-Actinic Ltd, as well as being an online shopkeeper.

- What would be the approximate price of getting it done bespoke
This will depend on whether the solution is a fully bespoke made from scratch solution, which will probably cost thousands or tens of thousands, or a semi bespoke solution using an open source system like osCommerce as part of solution, which could still cost hundreds or go into the thousands. Quotes may not include hosting, with ecommerce systems you should not go for the cheapest hosting so also factor in £50-£150 per year for this. With a bespoke project there is usually more risk involved since there are more unknowns with the system not being there yet, (e.g. see these threads for examples of bespoke projects going sour: www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=35614 (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=35614) and www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=28686 (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=28686)) so you should take the precaution of having a client-supplier contract drawn out first. To do this properly you could be spending a few hundred on legal fees just for the initial contract, and for that money you could have been up and running in the first year with a hosted managed off-the-shelf solution.

[sharon25]

Well we offer everything you ever need to get your ecommerce site online up and running, and the only costs you will have to cover is for web hosting, Online credit card processor which is a 1 time payment of $49 and for SSL (only if u needs) That's all it is

We can arrange everything else for absolutely free of charge including domain name registration, pre designed website templates, SEO/SEM free consultation to promote your site and lot of other essential services. :)

Check our site at www.goviphosting.com (http://www.goviphosting.com)

[inova]

does it support torrent service too?

[Female Entrepreneur]

Thanks everybody.

That's a huge amount to digest. It's made it clear I need to go back and ask myself the right questions before I can expect to find the correct solutions.

I'm going to take a look at your websites and get back to you once I've got a clearer picture

Thanks so much for your help so far.

[fxdigital]

Have a look at fxdigitaltemplates.com this website allows you to get a professional quality ecommerce solution… it’s aimed at small businesses but backed up with the resources to allow you to grow… and yes, I’m biased.

Steve