Advice Needed For E-commerce Newbie!!!

[GafBoy]

Hi Guys!

I'm in the process of starting up a business, It's a niche business & I want to set up a e-commerce web site.
The thing is that this is the first time that I have been involved with setting up a trading website so I'm not quite sure of where to start.
I'm assuming that you guys on this forum have been through this yourselves so I thought you guys would be the best place to start. I'm looking for some general advice on this thread.

Feel free to give all the advice you want!

 

[Gav]

Hi

Not sure how basic to go with the advice.

I assume you are asking more from a website point of view and not general advice in setting up the business such as registering the business, trademarks, logo design, writing T&Cs etc.

Once all that is out the way its really choosing your cart software, hosting and domain company.

You can get a Content Management System (CMS) and hosting all in one from the likes of EKMPowershop for £24 a month. That just leaves you to register your domain from somewhere like godaddy or 123reg. Plus if you search on google i'm sure theres an offer going about where you get EKM for £1 a month for the first 3 months in partnership with PayPal.

 

[WolfStores]

Hi There,

I would summarize the basics of getting/building your own online store as follows:

1. Get a domain name. .com is the most popular but as general advice I would suggest to you to get both the .com and the .co.uk
2. Choose an ecommerce platform. I would suggest Prestashop which is a professional open source - free to use platform, which would enable you to build your online shop at very low cost.
3. Choose a hosting company to host your online shop. Make sure that the company and type of hosting you choose supports your choice of ecommerce platform as in point 2 above.

As I already mentioned above these are just the basics
Please feel free to PM me if you need more help or free advice with this.

Best Regards,

Tim

 

[SpiralMedia]

Hello,

Depending on your budget and the options you maybe looking for I would suggest Magento CE, we use this platform for all types of businesses and the clients that have never used an e-commerce platform before find it easy to use after an hours tuition. Personally I like the idea of a platform that can move alongside with your business and adapt as you never know where your new business will go. Huge amount of plugins available but I would suggest a good developer that is experienced in the Magento platform.

You will need to make sure that your new website is easy to use and visually appealing to your target audience, usability is the key and do not make your potential customers lives hard by making it difficult to purchase products from you. test this before it goes live, if you find it hard to buy from your site your customers will.

Keep us posted how you get on, if you need any advice please ask.

 

[dx3webs]

All you will ever need

Magento user guide:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/resources/magento-user-guide

As above, you might start with something you can grow with. We have hundreds of non-technical users who manage perfectly fine with magento.

 

[Liamh121]

We can do it all for you if you want at very reasonable cost. Direct message me with some more information and I'll give you a proposal and quote. Alternatively, you could do it yourself but it will take quite a while to master the software and design. If you decide to do it yourself, we suggest using OpenCart software installed on your server. It's a very good solution and freeware.

 

[HarveyH]

Get your domain first try to get the .com & .co.uk if possible, Godaddy is pretty reasonable for the domains but I wouldn't recommend them for hosting.

Once you have your domain either get your own hosting package from somewhere like iPage or Justhost both cheap and will do what is required.

or contact a company to provide this for you along with a shopping cart and website if you have the budget. do not attempt this yourself unless you really have to.

 

[rashisree]

Hi, Its is advisable to choose the shopping cart. There are many open source shopping cart software available on the web & Magento is the best & more customizable shopping cart software to create your store.

 

[JamiePMortimer]

Does depend on your budget, but if it's low cost:

- Get your domain name, shop around places like godaddy, 123reg.
- Get hosting from Amazon EC2 (Free for a year)
- Get wordpress installed (Free)
- Install a theme like woo-commerce by woothemes (Free)

You may need someone to set up the hosting & wordpress for you but should be plain sailing from there.

 

[magento-advisory-board-uk]

Why not try an eCommerce system like Magento's GO which is SaaS site... just to begin with?

It offers a very low cost of ownership without any of the customisations you may need later on, but at least it works and you can pay a small monthly fee instead of a large up front cost.

Once you have proved your business model works, you can scale up to different Magento platforms and add additional features to help grow your business.

 

[Gav]

I have never heard of Magento Go before, is it a new product?

I was going to set up with EKM Powershop, has anyone done a comparison between the two ?

 

[magento-advisory-board-uk]

Probably nearly 2 year old, but the Magento platform itself is 5 year old.

You can do a free trial anyway to see if it works for you.

I would be happy to give any Magento based advice to you, but I dont know about the other systems... I put all my eggs in one basket and just focus on the one which I think is the best --- Magento!

 

[Holopainen]

Hello Gav,
Don't know about EKM, but here is a nice review of Magento Go http://www.shopping-cart-migration....-useful-articles/5978-ready-steady-magento-go
Hope it helps you.
However if you are searching for a hosted solution think about using BigCommerce or Shopify. Those are better known and frankly speaking a bit more stable shopping carts.
Good luck =)

 

[magento-advisory-board-uk]

But with GO, anyone can afford it....

 

[Optegris]

Maybe so but not everyone can use it. It's hardly the worlds most user friendly platform after all...

 

[magento-advisory-board-uk]

Do not confuse the importance of the learning curve with the user friendly interfaces for admin with usability in the front end.

Magento sites tend to convert sales the best, which should be the main factor in selecting your platform

 

[fuelmyblog]

Magento is not a simple system for those looking to try and get online without a lot of tech experience. Unless you can afford to pay someone a lot of money to manage and build, avoid while in start-up mode. I helped a large company for two years to build a powerful Magento site, they required a new server to run a large number of products and the user interface is not at all simple.

I know the guys at EKM and can vouch for them for a small biz.

 

[magento-advisory-board-uk]

I agree you need to think about Magento as an investment.

 

[Optegris]

Do not confuse the importance of the learning curve with the user friendly interfaces for admin with usability in the front end.

Magento sites tend to convert sales the best, which should be the main factor in selecting your platform

Could you be more patronising? I am well aware of the difference between admin and front end usability.

A badly developed Magento store or one hosted on a slow platform will not have any positive effect on conversion rates I can assure you. As for the admin area, it is critical for any store owner to be able to quickly and easily get to grips with running their store. This is just as important as front end user experience.

Magento is not a simple platform to get to grips with from a store owner perspective....

 

[magento-advisory-board-uk]

I agree with you about the importance of a not having a badly developed store under insufficient shared hostings. This is why GO is so good, since the store owner does not need to worry about these things.

Once they outgrow Magento GO, moving to CE or EE is an investment, which by then they should have proved is worth making.

 

[Optegris]

As you have danced around the point I'm making I've repeated it in bold for you:

As for the admin area, it is critical for any store owner to be able to quickly and easily get to grips with running their store. This is just as important as front end user experience.

Magento is not a simple platform to get to grips with from a store owner perspective....

 

[magento-advisory-board-uk]

I dont see it as critical, just something which needs to be planned for and learned.

 

[Optegris]

Well we have to agree to disagree but I would wager that the ability to quickly understand how to run a store using an admin area back end interface is pretty high on the list of "must haves" for store owners....

 

[Jpro]

I suppose also that it depends on the type of business that you plan on running and plan on developing into. If you're starting very small then consider an etsy/ebay store that way you can grow and perhaps understand more before you embark on the creation of a self-hosted Ecommerce website

 

[JamieM]

I'm an Open Mind Commerce user and I've never seen anything of Magento that has particularly impressed me.

I do have a question about Magento Go. Are all stores checkouts hosted at gostorego.com?

 

[Mainland]

When I started in e-commerce I made the mistake of having a bespoke e-commerce website built by a local developer. For the initial 3 years this worked great and the simplicity helped me to get to grips with SEO and basic e-commerce site management while the business grew. After 3 years the business grew beyond the scope of the existing site and I began to realise the limitations of the bespoke platform. When I wanted to add simple new features like Facebook/Twitter widgets I had to call up the developer. When I wanted to install Google Analytics code I had to call up the developer. I found myself speaking to the developer daily and the costs quickly spiralled out of control for adding features which I felt should have incurred minimum or no cost at all. I have now taken the plunge and am having a site built based on Magento. My knowledge of e-commerce is now sufficient that I feel I can get the best from a Magento based platform.

Therefore my advice would be to walk before you run and try to cut your teeth on a simpler open source platform that gives you scope for expansion and allows you to 'Add-On' basic features for free/low cost.

 

[rashisree]

Create Your Online Store with open source shopping cart software & I suggest to take a look at Zeuscart which is the best free GPL Shopping Cart Software.

 

[Iancs]

I have set up a large number of eCommerce sites, and there are pro's and cons of off the shelf free software, but for starting up the pro's definitely outweigh the cons. I try to get clients to fit their products into standard structures at startup, and the temptation to build bespoke differences - some see this as key to do a better job and so win more market share - can come later when the site is generating income. Magento is a good start as it can have bespoke elements programmed in later. Also a good one is Concrete5, which has a shop bolt on for a small license fee. We tend to use this a base base for heavy customisation, for example look at zoom selling office chairs which has a lot of customisation in the more complex products that have multi level options extras.

It does depend on budget and product range that you have to sell.

Good luck

 

[Benjab]

Hi Guys,

I am setting up an ecommerce site as well and am at the stage of getting quotes from website builders. I want to start strong with a very professional site as I see it as the backbone of the business, and therefore why I am planning on hiring professionals to do it for me. The initial site will be fully developed with links to social media and all the bells and whistles, but will of course need to be updated and have changes regularly made as the business develops. I guess my question is do you think this is the best way to proceed, or should I invest the time into learning how to build and maintain it myself. Also is there anything to watch out for when dealing with website builders? I am really only considering ones with strong portfolios, good reviews and building the type of site that I want.
Another question I have is what is the best way to manage information generated by a website eg. account profiles, customer info etc.

 

[DaveBlack]

Hire a Pro for the build but invest a little bit of time in getting to grasps with basic content updating! This will allow you to concentrate on what you do best, which is to sell stuff and keep your customers happy.

Looking at portfolios is fantastic- but have you considered asking for your own personal DEMO to play around with? If you are not constricted by time, you could speak to a Developer and have them build a no obligation demo of your vision, you can then have a chance to really probe it and make sure it fits like a glove!

Lookout for important stuff like payment integration, social plugins, mobile optimisation, mailing lists and email marketing, a good comprehensive CRM, customer service ticketing, no restrictions on products and catalogs + plus the ease with which you can add these, good SEO and Micro-Data, oh!.. and low cost!

Remember that it is better to take time looking for the right solution than to end up with something that you'll have to ditch in a few months.

Hi Guys,

I am setting up an ecommerce site as well and am at the stage of getting quotes from website builders. I want to start strong with a very professional site as I see it as the backbone of the business, and therefore why I am planning on hiring professionals to do it for me. The initial site will be fully developed with links to social media and all the bells and whistles, but will of course need to be updated and have changes regularly made as the business develops. I guess my question is do you think this is the best way to proceed, or should I invest the time into learning how to build and maintain it myself. Also is there anything to watch out for when dealing with website builders? I am really only considering ones with strong portfolios, good reviews and building the type of site that I want.
Another question I have is what is the best way to manage information generated by a website eg. account profiles, customer info etc.

 

[WolfStores]

Hi Guys,

I am setting up an ecommerce site as well and am at the stage of getting quotes from website builders.

Hi There,

I guess that since you are at the stage of getting quotes from website builders you must have put together a brief with your exact requirements.

Please feel free to PM me, if you do not wish to post your full requirements in public, so that I could give you a professional opinion free of charge

Cheers,

Tim

 

[Pish_Pash]

The little bit dabbling I did, I found Zen cart & Magento painful...Opencart was a breeze to setup in comparison, but I think their extensions are little out of control (too many & some poorly supported)...also it quickly adds up, £15 here for extension x, £25 there for extension y...and on it goes.

Personally, if I were to offer someone advice based on the pain of exploration I've been through with so called open/free carts, it would be to go with a more integrated 'works straight out the box' paid solution...the costs for these aren't too huge & you'll save a lot of heartache. I was shocked at how much of a chore it was just to get some method of collecting payment other than paypal....you'd think that would be the most basic requirement!

 

[GinasBabyBoom]

Having recently opened my own e-commerce store i found the best and cheapest to be bigcommerce, their american but you get everything you need for £14.99. its really easy to use and they have a fantastic knowledge base, plus if you get stuck you can always live chat to them.

 

[ballista]

There are a myriad of choices. We took a long time before deciding on our route. It came down to cost hence we decided to build our own website using a content management system. We chose concrete 5 as it seemed very flexible and has been a pleasure to us. We got our domain registered first then found a decent UK based host (we chose vidahost - excellent support and pricing) then just installed the concrete 5 software and got to work. The software is basically free, you only pay when adding themes and add ons to your website as per the functions you require.

 

[Benjab]

The web design company I am leaning towards recommends and normally uses Magento. Hopefully with some professional guidance the learning curve would be a little less painless.

The little bit dabbling I did, I found Zen cart & Magento painful...Opencart was a breeze to setup in comparison, but I think their extensions are little out of control (too many & some poorly supported)...also it quickly adds up, £15 here for extension x, £25 there for extension y...and on it goes.

Personally, if I were to offer someone advice based on the pain of exploration I've been through with so called open/free carts, it would be to go with a more integrated 'works straight out the box' paid solution...the costs for these aren't too huge & you'll save a lot of heartache. I was shocked at how much of a chore it was just to get some method of collecting payment other than paypal....you'd think that would be the most basic requirement!

 

[WolfStores]

The web design company I am leaning towards recommends and normally uses Magento. Hopefully with some professional guidance the learning curve would be a little less painless.

Hi There,

I fully agree with word 'little' in your statement

and would advise you to look into a much user friendlier ecommerce platform - Prestashop - before you delve into the 'magic' world of Magento

Cheers,

Tim

 

[wilson.jamie38]

Hi Gafboy, Remember to get the best deal on your electronic-payment provider. Have a look at electronic-payments website. Also have a read at the article 'Is your website Payments Ready'

 

[antropy]

I always see this question of which shopping cart to use. It does depend on what you need but I usually go for OpenCart and here's why:

http://www.antropy.co.uk/blog/shopping-cart-review/