E-commerce multisite

[Dempsey]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for recommmendations for an e-commerce site platform.

Our current website was designed by developers, and custom-built using Wordpress. We are looking to create a second website which is essentially just a landing page for multiple structurally similar (or identical) but aesthetically different e-commerce sites. For context: We create and sell merchandise at live events, tours etc; and would like to offer an online shop to complement live sales per event/tour. As these events and tours are short-term projects, and new projects are starting all the time, we'd want a template of sorts to streamline the creation of each new site, so we can just customise aesthetically, and of course with different products etc [I wonder whether I'm basically describing a theme here]. It's important that the tour merch sites are quite customiseable aesthetically ie fonts, bg colours / images, menu colours and site images. We intend for these to mostly be accessed via links from the live event site, so it's very important that the aesthetics match these to maintain consumer confidence.

I've done some research, and it seems to me that the least expensive and most effective way of doing this would to be to create a website (eg liveevents[dot]com), and then have each tour site as a subdomain (eg liveevents[dot]com/specificeventshop). This means we don't have to create a whole new site for every event. Due to the fact the staff here know their way around a Wordpress CRM and you can create multisites through it, I believe the best platform to do this through would be Wordpress (and Woocommerce).

I will be leaving the company soon but would like to find a solution for this before I go, and which can be administrated by the staff here once I'm gone.

Please could you give me some guidance on this? It may be that what I have in my head is absolutely not possible or I'm being unrealistic and we need to just make a new site for every new project... Please let me know if this is the case. Any advice would be muich appreciated!!

Thanks

 

[dotcomdude]

've done some research, and it seems to me that the least expensive and most effective way of doing this would to be to create a website (eg liveevents[dot]com), and then have each tour site as a subdomain (eg liveevents[dot]com/specificeventshop)

It's unusual for the least expensive option to also be the most effective way of doing this. Maybe you have to decide between cheap and effectiveness first?

A few years ago we'd be saying you needed a 'microsite' for each of your events. I'd still look seriously at that if the markets for the tours are quite distinct from each other (or if it suits you commercially).

 

[antropy]

I've done some research, and it seems to me that the least expensive and most effective way of doing this would to be to create a website (eg liveevents[dot]com), and then have each tour site as a subdomain (eg liveevents[dot]com/specificeventshop). This means we don't have to create a whole new site for every event. Due to the fact the staff here know their way around a Wordpress CRM and you can create multisites through it, I believe the best platform to do this through would be Wordpress (and Woocommerce).

Probably just take a copy of the site for each event and get your designers to customize it a bit for each one. But keeping them separate you make it easy to change them without affecting the others and can easily take them offline when needed. Cost for this would be very low.

Paul

 

[Dempsey]

Thanks for your comments guys.

@dotcomdude well we're certainly not averse to spending money, but I was concerned that if we were to make individual sites for each tour, we would have to pay out for hosting, SSL, secure payment gateway, merchant ID etc for all of them. I'm not 100% clear on which costs can be shared over all the websites and which must be paid for each individual one - i think of the above it's only the merchant ID that would be shared?

In an ideal world we probably would just set up individual sites, but I have basically just assumed it would be needlessly expensive.

Is the difference between a microsite and a normal site just the name, or is it set up differently (more cheaply)?

I don't want to come across as if we are trying to pay the least amount of money possible, but I'm essentially trying to avoid a strategy which is 'financially inefficient'.

Thanks for your advice so far

 

[antropy]

Is the difference between a microsite and a normal site just the name, or is it set up differently (more cheaply)?

No technical difference.

Paul

 

[dotcomdude]

I was concerned that if we were to make individual sites for each tour, we would have to pay out for hosting, SSL, secure payment gateway, merchant ID etc for all of them

@Dempsey

Your hosting should be next-to-nothing, unless each website is going to be extremely busy. SSLs are free with Lets Encrypt, Stripe and Sagepay can be used on any number of sites for no extra charge - and your merchant ID won't need to change either...

 

[Inva]

Our current website was designed by developers, and custom-built using Wordpress.

Designed by developers? Sounds wrong. Also seems that your website is WordPress, not custom. Making customisations to WP does not make the website "custom".

well we're certainly not averse to spending money, but I was concerned that if we were to make individual sites for each tour, we would have to pay out for hosting, SSL, secure payment gateway, merchant ID etc for all of them. I'm not 100% clear on which costs can be shared over all the websites and which must be paid for each individual one - i think of the above it's only the merchant ID that would be shared?

Hosting will not cost, if you are on a VPS or better then you can have as many sites as you want, also most shared accounts will allow you to use addon domains/subdomains without limits. SSL is free. Microsites can be subdomains on the same domain, i think that should count as 1 license under reasonable policies for merchant accounts. So basically the cost of separate microsites is only the development process.

I don't want to come across as if we are trying to pay the least amount of money possible, but I'm essentially trying to avoid a strategy which is 'financially inefficient'.

It seems to me that usually the most "financially inefficient" strategy is that which comes as a result of trying to avoid a "financially inefficient" strategy. I would say the decision to use WP as a platform for this project is a good example.

 

[kev598]

I agree with Inva; WP is not that flexible. Even with an ability to create multiple sites. However, it is quite affordable. Also, I know that Drupal is quite scalable and has the same multistore feature. You can try out this platform. Regarding SSL certificate, it is free as it was mentioned, but you will spend money on hosting and domain name. But it seems to me that for such kind of project you need landing pages for each tour, but of course, it is other expenses.

 

[Raw Rob]

This is very easy to do with Wordpress multisite (network) and WooCommerce. Create your template site with WooCommerce, set it all up as you want it, then use a plugin such as "NS Cloner" to create a copy to a new site in the network and then customise the design.

subdomain (eg liveevents[dot]com/specificeventshop).

Note that you are using the wrong terminology here, liveevents[dot]com/specificeventshop is a subfolder. Subdomain would be specificeventshop.liveevents[dot]com

 

[ProjectOcto]

Hey

Welcome to the concept of Shopit! Your points about financial and infrastructure inefficiencies are exactly why ahopt was built the way it is. One database of all your products/events hen multiple front ends for each event/gig etc

All orders come into one place, one bank account/gateway and so easy to manage and push forward.

Plus you only pay subscription fees on a per-minute/usage basis. So no traffic = virtually zero cost. Busy - it scales up on a Google Cloud Hosting. Sounds perfect to me

 

[Vadym Gurevych]

Would be happy to advise, please PM.

We have done a lot of multi-site projects in our platform, and also in WordPress. In either way it is possible to create new "sites" which can either be copies or virtual entities, each on its own domain or sub-domain, with its own design, product range, etc.