Cheapest E-commerce solution for 12 months

[Ali-v-8]

What is the cheapest all in package for ecommerce?
This is not a thread just to throw in company names. (if anyone does please delete them).
What i want to know is what everyone expects that a newbie to online business will expect to pay for 12 months online exposure - not including marketing or SEO but tools must be in place for all this to be achieved.
Please not that .co.uk £5 (ish) will be the norm.
Remember the key factors only.
A url, website, checkout, payment gateways, hosting, email, stock control, analytics.
Also would like to know what are classed as extras?
And what would be cost for year 2.

I would really like to see straight answers.

 

[bargainmania]

What is the cheapest all in package for ecommerce?
This is not a thread just to throw in company names. (if anyone does please delete them).
What i want to know is what everyone expects that a newbie to online business will expect to pay for 12 months online exposure - not including marketing or SEO but tools must be in place for all this to be achieved.
Please not that .co.uk £5 (ish) will be the norm.
Remember the key factors only.
A url, website, checkout, payment gateways, hosting, email, stock control, analytics.
Also would like to know what are classed as extras?
And what would be cost for year 2.

I would really like to see straight answers.

Can do all above with a default/free template for about £50 year 1 and £42 year 2. That would be the cheapest we could put a site out at but this would
not include any design work, Purely domain, hosting, and a few select modules.

Extras would include anything you would want as a client and would be priced
according to what you would need.

Alistair

 

[Ali-v-8]

Thanks for response Alistair - Would that mean that a person could log in and upload his products and start taking payments?
Would it require SSL?

 

[bargainmania]

Yes a person could log-in and start adding products, categories etc and selling.
As for SSL this would depend on the gateway you would be using, If you use the
likes of paypal which is probably the best solution for most start ups then no SSL
would be required, If your talking a merchant account and the likes of Sagepay
then yes an SSL would be needed.

Alistair

 

[Chris Ashdown]

The question is wrong in that it should be

What is the best e-commerce package for getting sales in the lower cost area?

People should be looking at what software program is the best at selling their goods and at what price

Free software may well be crap at selling, the same as megga cost software

But if you have to really scrimp to be able to buy good software, I wounder how many make the long term in business.

 

[andygambles]

What is the aim of your questions?

You could get an ecommerce website set-up and running completely free of charge and not cost you anything until you sell a product.

 

[shopintegrator]

Hi,

You really can keep your costs down creating an online shop when starting out selling online.

For the cost of your domain name, you could use Weebly to build the website choosing one of their free built in design templates (low cost professional templates are available for approx £30 if you don't like the built in 100 or so designs). Weebly is a great drag and drop, point click, image upload insert DIY website builder, with hosting all free on their entry level package, which you can use with your existing domain name from another domain registrar.

You could then use basic PayPal buttons and shopping basket in your Weebly site, which has no monthly charges to have an account and charges 3.4% fee of the transaction value when you make sales.

If you wanted a more advanced shopping basket for the Weebly store to replace the basic PayPal buttons, you could then copy and paste the ShopIntegrator ecommerce buttons in place of the PayPal buttons to give you a more professional checkout with more online shop features like a variety of fixed cost, weight, country, order value delivery plans, SKU stock control, product options, selling digital downloads like ebooks, audio mp3s for example, easy look and feel customisation to match your website styel, different payment processor checkout options such as PayPal, Sage Pay, eWay. This would then be an extra charge with prices from £1.67+VAT a month [£19.99+VAT for the year] for the ShopIntegrator hosted shopping basket.

 

[webgeek]

Put up a shop on Facebook using the Free Payvment app. No domain cost, no hosting cost, no cart cost.... Free like free beer.

 

[astutiumRob]

What is the cheapest all in package for ecommerce?

Define "cheap" - one that takes 25% of your income, but sells 10million of your widgets could be considered cheap - it's all relative.

What are you looking to achieve ?
What are you selling ?
Who are you selling it to ?
Why do you think they will buy it from you ?

These are far more important than the cost of a domain or hosting etc

Cheap-sh!t hosting on a laptop under someones bed on an AOL dialup might be "cheap" in initial cost, but if no-one waits long enough for the checkout page to load, it's just and expense/waste

 

[j600com]

Shopping around for eCommerce with "which is the cheapest" type attitude is completely the wrong approach if you want to succeed online.

Cheap does not equal good, and in this sector often the cheapest is not even it for purpose. You can probably get something for under a tenner if you look hard enough, but will it be the right solution to give you a chance of making a decent return? Nope.

 

[Northampton Janitorial]

There are a number of "cheap" or free opensource ecommerce packages around, or come completely free options as other members have already suggested.

In my experience many eCommerce packages are not user friendly in terms of product loading and administration.

I've used Avactis, which allows a lot of customisation, but is not particularly intuitive out of the box.

Also opencart which is a free open source package, very intuitive, and you can have a store up & running in minutes.

Other things you would need first are:

1) URL - the domain name (www whatever co uk or com)
2) Hosting - web space on a machine to hold your site (you may be able to get this free, but it would likely come with limitations)
3) A database

I'd recommend signing up with a hosting company, such as Heart Internet Home Pro (£7.49/month) or equivalent to get Linux hosting for your site, MySQL database, and you'll pay around £5 for a .co.uk domain.

Alternatively you can approach a hosting reseller or website design company who can take care of everything for you, depends what your time & budget are like.

 

[Ali-v-8]

@Northampton Janitorial - please no company names - but your information is what i was aiming at.

Questions raised about "what do I mean by cheap?"
If some thing cost £10 and you get exactly same thing for £5 then that is cheaper.
So I am not looking at the bells and whistles - I am looking at the software.

@Chris Ashdown - Please dont worry about the question i have asked - I am asking what I want to focus on and that is "what is the cheapest e-commerce solution for 12 months. I already understand the importance of making a website convert (which comes under marketing).

SSL IMO is a must for security purposes, better safe than sorry

 

[astutiumRob]

Questions raised about "what do I mean by cheap?"
If some thing cost £10 and you get exactly same thing for £5 then that is cheaper.

Only if what you're comparing is identical - which in terms of "Hosting" rarely is - even just comparing resellers of the same upstream, they're not necessarily exactly the same

Lidl tomato soup is half the price of Heinz - but it's most definately not the same thing inside the tin - same name on the outside though !

SSL IMO is a must for security purposes, better safe than sorry

And there are 5 differnt types, each suitable for different purposes ...

 

[ecenica]

We have a new ecommerce site builder that might interest you.

It includes everything your need to launch, take payments and promote your shop in Google.

Best bit, is we're currently offering if for free on selected hosting plans.

If you would like to try a free demo please contact us using the Private Message feature in this forum.

Cheers

Rich

 

[OnlineShopRental]

Free is very cheap but what you pay is what you get, ours starts £19.00
take a look at our demo and see what you thing.

 

[Ali-v-8]

I dont think you understood the question?
£19 for 12 months.
URL - can cost £5 for two years - which means your charging £14 for an eCommerce website hosted for 12 month with payment gateway set up pls ssl

Free is very cheap but what you pay is what you get, ours starts £19.00
take a look at our demo and see what you thing.

 

[OnlineShopRental]

I beg your pardon, your quite right, that is misleading, I should have said from £19.00 per month + vat.

Still not bad for a fully hosted site with the features that we have.

 

[OnlineShopRental]

Sorry I forgot to ask what payment gateway would you like ?

 

[Ali-v-8]

Again - you missed the point - take a look at Northampton Janitorial for guidance.

 

[Chunkford]

What is the cheapest all in package for ecommerce?
This is not a thread just to throw in company names. (if anyone does please delete them).
What i want to know is what everyone expects that a newbie to online business will expect to pay for 12 months online exposure - not including marketing or SEO but tools must be in place for all this to be achieved.
Please not that .co.uk £5 (ish) will be the norm.
Remember the key factors only.
A url, website, checkout, payment gateways, hosting, email, stock control, analytics.
Also would like to know what are classed as extras?
And what would be cost for year 2.

I would really like to see straight answers.

A newbie expects it for nothing as they've seen that opensource is free.

But then they quickly realise that they need a domain name, hosting, a template or design, software to manipulate images, legal costs for T&C's, merchant fee's, plugins... and it goes on.
The cost and more importantly their time is ever increasing and more than likely get disappointed and give up.
Something which good advice would have sorted that at the start

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Sorry SSL is no longer required on most sites as you are no longer allowed to grab card details and process them offline. which is why you need to make payments via a PSP now

 

[Ali-v-8]

Think you should tell that to secure form.

Sorry SSL is no longer required on most sites as you are no longer allowed to grab card details and process them offline. which is why you need to make payments via a PSP now

 

[Ali-v-8]

I am sorry but my understanding is that if you transmit any data then SSL's are a must.

 

[andygambles]

I am sorry but my understanding is that if you transmit any data then SSL's are a must.

Your understanding is correct. Under Data Protection Act personal details must be transmitted securely.

 

[andygambles]

Sorry SSL is no longer required on most sites as you are no longer allowed to grab card details and process them offline. which is why you need to make payments via a PSP now

You still need SSL if you are collecting customer details on your website.

 

[alanc]

You still need SSL if you are collecting customer details on your website.

I've just read through the ICO's Code of Practice on Personal Information Online and I can't find any requirement to collect personal information securely.
www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/topic_guides/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Detailed_specialist_guides/personal_information_online_cop.ashx

 

[andygambles]

I've just read through the ICO's Code of Practice on Personal Information Online and I can't find any requirement to collect personal information securely.
www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/topic_guides/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Detailed_specialist_guides/personal_information_online_cop.ashx

Page 7

It is good practice to build in security and privacy protection from the very start. Establish clear roles and responsibilities. Undertake risk assessments and identify where your systems and processes may be vulnerable to threats. If you need it, seek professional advice as to how to deliver electronic services securely.

Also see http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/the_principles.aspx

Principle 7

Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.

If you are happy to explain to the ICO that not having an SSL certificate was deemed an acceptable risk that is up to you.

DISCLOSURE: Before anyone else says anything yes I sell SSL certificates and yes you could argue that means I am biased. However I am pointing out the guidelines.

 

[Ali-v-8]

I have just remembered a very important factor in conversion - How many people close down a page as soon as they see a red screen warning - usually with some comment about "this site is not secure" (i say this off the top of my head).
Unless you like living on the edge most would not proceed and you have then lost that customer because if I was in his/her shoes I would not return.

SO basically - Legit ecommerce website uses SSL