Close to launching an E-Commerce Site UK

[Surminga]

Afternoon all,

I was about to go into e-commerce a while back when something new came up and I was too busy - the time has come again, and what I have done so far is purchase my domain names, design and build a working ecommerce platform (magento) straighten out my marketing plan, register the companies and now I am stuck.

I need the products to fill and start selling on the site. What I am looking for is should I go into dropshipping or start buying stock, look for investors etc as I don't have a huge amount to throw at buying stock.

The infrastructure for selling is there, and my background is marketing online.The whole selling and what to sell is new to me.

The categories of products are mens fashion, womens fashion and beauty products. They may be general but I want to be able to sell on them what I please and what people ask for over time hoping for it to grow nicely.

Any guidance or tips would be great as I'd love to launch the site in the coming days/weeks

 

[Josh_Farmer]

Afternoon all,

I was about to go into e-commerce a while back when something new came up and I was too busy - the time has come again, and what I have done so far is purchase my domain names, design and build a working ecommerce platform (magento) straighten out my marketing plan, register the companies and now I am stuck.

I need the products to fill and start selling on the site. What I am looking for is should I go into dropshipping or start buying stock, look for investors etc as I don't have a huge amount to throw at buying stock.

The infrastructure for selling is there, and my background is marketing online.The whole selling and what to sell is new to me.

The categories of products are mens fashion, womens fashion and beauty products. They may be general but I want to be able to sell on them what I please and what people ask for over time hoping for it to grow nicely.

Any guidance or tips would be great as I'd love to launch the site in the coming days/weeks

Depends on how much you have available to invest, you can look at india & china for cheap importable items, but you'll need to spend a certain amount to get decent prices?

Thanks
Josh

 

[Chris34]

What you could do is purchase your stock in single quantities from other retailers. Then advertise them on your website for the same price you bought them. So you won't make a profit but you will get your money back. This way you can judge which products are selling without forking out loads of money in bulk purchases. The ones that are selling well you can then try and source cheaper bulk buys to make a profit.




Chris.

 

[Surminga]

Thanks,

I don't expect to make much profit right off the bat, but I just need to get it going and it will ideally grow over time. It will no doubt be starting off small with a few products and work my way up to more stock.

Is dropshipping not the route to go down then?

 

[JonathanSEO]

Afternoon all,

I was about to go into e-commerce a while back when something new came up and I was too busy - the time has come again, and what I have done so far is purchase my domain names, design and build a working ecommerce platform (magento) straighten out my marketing plan, register the companies and now I am stuck.

I need the products to fill and start selling on the site. What I am looking for is should I go into dropshipping or start buying stock, look for investors etc as I don't have a huge amount to throw at buying stock.

The infrastructure for selling is there, and my background is marketing online.The whole selling and what to sell is new to me.

The categories of products are mens fashion, womens fashion and beauty products. They may be general but I want to be able to sell on them what I please and what people ask for over time hoping for it to grow nicely.

Any guidance or tips would be great as I'd love to launch the site in the coming days/weeks

Look, you can't build a business in this way.

How can you design a website and choose a domain name when you have nothing to sell?

You're a million miles away from launching. You have no products.

I'd just avoid wasting your time or money on this.

 

[Surminga]

Look, you can't build a business in this way.

How can you design a website and choose a domain name when you have nothing to sell?

You're a million miles away from launching. You have no products.

I'd just avoid wasting your time or money on this.

If I were to start over then how would you suggest I go about things?

 

[wayzgoose]

I can never understand these types of posts - from the OP's website:

We can handle all aspects of Marketing, Branding, Development and Web/E-commerce.

yet they claim not to have a clue how or what to sell.

 

[JonathanSEO]

If I were to start over then how would you suggest I go about things?

Impossible question really.

If you're wanting to really go into ecommerce whereby you hold stock and process orders then maybe work for an online retailer and get an understanding of the business + how it all works.

Marketing and SEO are the easy bits compared to keeping track of cash flow, handling customers, logistics and working with suppliers.

 

[Paul Norman]

I am rather hoping this is a spoof post, but suspect it may not be.

 

[14Steve14]

I may not be the brightest spark in the fire, but I cannot see how you can design a website and not have a clue what products you are going to sell. Seems you may be doing things ass backwards.

 

[Esk247]

Tail wagging the dog.

You need to go the other way round and research the products, the competitors, the market, the margins, the logistics....before buying the domain.