Creating an ecommerce website

[FutureM]

Hi

I am looking at creating my first ecommerce store, I have created a few websites recently, pretty simple website.

I just want some advice on anything I might find useful, I haven't a clue where to start.

Will just want to use paypal for payments to start.

Thanks

 

[ecenica]

What are you planning to sell? - This can help us point you in the right direction.

Rich

 

[FutureM]

Sports Equipment,

We manufacture our own goals for football and water polo but will also have products from other suppliers.

A pretty small store so we dont need anything fancy to try and look like we are bigger than we are.

May be having no more than 100 seperate products to start with.

 

[Websitehandyman]

I sell football stuff.

Should be simple enough so don't be put off.

You say the are few products but what you need to determine are the options you want for each product. Things get complicated once you put things like colour & sizes into a product page. So if you need that make sure you find a shopping cart that will do it.

If you can get away with just simple product info and buy button then the next thing is payment options. You say just Paypal but how about offline payments ? then the is shipping servces and zones you will ship to. Most carts cover these but from a USA point of view.

Then the is the aspect of what you want to put across to the visitor of the site. Will the customers know what the want ? do you need high quality image to put across the quality of the product.

Finally costs, make sure you understand the resources you will need to drive the shopping cart you choose. Also consider any addons you might need to buy. Free is not always the cheapest

 

[FutureM]

I think all we need to start is some information and images and a buy button, i think maybe quantity will be about the only option for the customer.

As for the payment process then, what are my options here? I really have no idea about this side of things.

As we are a manufacturing company and sell wholesale my other websites have no need for the ecommerce side so I never learnt it.

 

[ecenica]

If you're looking at going the DIY route. Try OpenCart, PrestaShop and Magento are popular open-source e-commerce systems. There's also OSCommerce. Been around for donkeys years but still actively developed.

With the option of no monthly fees, PayPal is a good payment provider to get up and running with.

Another option is to go for a hosted e-commerce shop, such as our Ecenica eShop site builder. These type of services take the hassle out of installing and setting up the software and allow you to focus on uploading your products etc. They're a great way of quickly testing the water without outlaying too much money.

Rich

 

[Harvest]

I've used eShop before and found this pretty good. Its a free plugin, takes paypal payments, and isn't that hard to set up. You just need to add your products, prices and pictures, and you have options for discount coupons which is good. There's also different Shipping options you can add if you want, I think the downside is that it only takes paypal but if this is all you're after then its a good solution. Feel free to PM if you have problems with it - good luck!

 

[Websitehandyman]

I think all we need to start is some information and images and a buy button, i think maybe quantity will be about the only option for the customer.

As for the payment process then, what are my options here? I really have no idea about this side of things.

As we are a manufacturing company and sell wholesale my other websites have no need for the ecommerce side so I never learnt it.

I would say, as you know how to do websites. Do a site and just plonk a few paypal buttons on as supplied by paypal. That shouldn't take more then a few hours to try and if it work great, if not look for a cart like creloaded.

 

[faradaykeynes]

Prestashop is greta platform for e-commerce sites

 

[FutureM]

thanks for all the replys so far, been a great help.

What about if I did choose to accept debit card payments as well? What kind of bank account is required and any other complications?

 

[faradaykeynes]

accepting debit or credit cards is simple, you can use paypal, which i would suggest dont, Google checkout is great or go for cardsave

 

[FutureM]

I would say, as you know how to do websites. Do a site and just plonk a few paypal buttons on as supplied by paypal. That shouldn't take more then a few hours to try and if it work great, if not look for a cart like creloaded.

That sounds like more my kind of thing, at least to start the ball rolling anyway. So when the customer clicks the paypal button I assume they are taken to paypal and make the payment. How does all this work, meaning how do we see what has been purchased? Is that all on paypal?

 

[Websitehandyman]

thanks for all the replys so far, been a great help.

What about if I did choose to accept debit card payments as well? What kind of bank account is required and any other complications?

You''ll need a merchant account from your bank and a processing account from a payment gateway. Worldpay do a combined package for about £25 a month.

They are not the cheapest but thats a decent idea of what to expect. You'll need to know if you get a cart that cart need to have a payment plugin for the gateway you choose.

 

[Websitehandyman]

That sounds like more my kind of thing, at least to start the ball rolling anyway. So when the customer clicks the paypal button I assume they are taken to paypal and make the payment. How does all this work, meaning how do we see what has been purchased? Is that all on paypal?

Yes all you accounts are done on paypal, not done it myself for a while but I think you can enter details of a product inside paypal and generate the button for each product. Most payment processors also give this option rather then using a dedicated shopping cart.

 

[Harvest]

I found setting up paypal directly on a site quite confusing - much of the documentation is out of date and the support limited. I switched to eshop (wordpress plugin) and found it much easier - it has its own built in stock control, you can send automated emails, and it sets up all the tables and shipping options for you to choose from, all pretty logical and easy to use. Their documentation is thorough and the support forum is pretty active as well.

Also fyi if you don't use paypal at the moment -they charge up to 3.4% plus 20p for each transaction, and your bank account name MUST match your business name in paypal in order to get it set up (which will take a few days)

 

[PhilipWest]

It is the additional cut they take for currency exchange. We have a USD account and take payments in USD but they still change to convert it into local currency (for some reason)

 

[WHUK]

Hi

I am looking at creating my first ecommerce store, I have created a few websites recently, pretty simple website.

I just want some advice on anything I might find useful, I haven't a clue where to start.

Will just want to use paypal for payments to start.

Thanks

When it comes to an eCommerce website, the most important aspect is the uptime. You will surely see an increase in the incoming traffic as time goes by however if the visitors / customers are greeted by a slow website or a website that is down, that is the biggest turn off. For avoiding this, make sure that you sign up for a good eCommerce hosting platform that has all the necessary features for supporting your website.

Another important factor that you must take into consideration is the content on the website. Make sure that the product descriptions are upto the mark. They shouldn't be too short or too long. Also include some additional information on the products that will be of value to the people.

 

[harrysparrow]

That sounds like more my kind of thing, at least to start the ball rolling anyway. So when the customer clicks the paypal button I assume they are taken to paypal and make the payment. How does all this work, meaning how do we see what has been purchased? Is that all on paypal?

An e-commerce website should be backed with a good content management system (CMS) which will enable you to not only view the customer payments but also prospective customer clicks ( who clicked but are hesitant to pay), these are your 'leads' which can be turned to sales with proper followups.

CMS is like a software integrated with your website, which will allow you to get reports, keep track of pending payments, shipping details Cash on delivery reports etc.

Harry