E-commerce newbie in need of advice!

[Little Flower]

Hi all,

I seem to have underestimated how much effort is involved in developing an e commerce site. : (

I am soon to be launching a t shirt brand and will be selling my t shirts through an online shop, my website has been designed by a graphic designer (i have 5 tabs on my homepage, one of which is the online shop, the pages of the online shop have been designed too) But now I am at a standstill! I bought an e-commerce package from 1&1 and was under the impression this would be suitable for my needs but this package only lets me use their software to create an online shop and then have a link from my website directed to it.

I am a bit lost as to where to start with the online shop and how I can integrate it into my website (my website is not online yet and the only hosting I have bought is through the 1&1 package), I will be selling t shirts with high price points and require my online shop to be quite chic, I have few products to start with (between 10-20) but have quite a small budget and looking for something relatively inexpensive that gives me control over updating and mangaing my products, please help, any guidance would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much
E-commerce novice :redface:

 

[Faevilangel]

arghhhhhhhhhhhhh using 1&1 is like pulling your teeth out.

Personally I would walk away from 1&1 and get a much better solution.

2 options:

1) Hosted ecommerce - They host your ecommerce site and arrange payments etc, you just upload data. Pay per month and you get none of the security issues.

2) pre-built / custom site - Using a custom built site, or a pre-built system such as opencart, you have full control of everything but it comes with the hassle (security, updates etc).

Personally as you're a new site, I would go with #1 and see how that goes for a while then look into moving onto #2 at a later date when you know exactly what you want / need.

For #1 you will pay a monthly fee for their service, The biggest one is http://www.ekmpowershop.com/ which is pretty good and will give you a good footing to start the website.

 

[fisicx]

Hi there,

First thing to do is move away from 1&1. They are a complete pain in the bum.

The site your graphic designer has used is not going to be any good for an online shop either.

What you need is a standalone ecommerce package. There are many to choose from, a popular application is magento, but not something you can really set up as a newbie/novice. Which means paying someone to build it for you. You can use you graphics designer to do the imagery but most of the work is going to be behind the scenes sorting out all the coding that will showcase your t-shirts.

So: drop 1&1, put a hold on your graphic designer's site and go find yourself a developer who can build you an ecommerce site.

The problem you have of course is your budget. £1000 for a chic and upmarket site is not unreasonable. You can get it done cheaper but then you may not get the high quality product your are looking for.

 

[faradaykeynes]

USe zencart or prestashop , best open source e-commerce platforms

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

I agree you need to be looking at a more structured and suitable ecommerce solution. 1&1 will not give you the flexibility and ability to grow that something like ekmPowershop or OpenMindCommerce as a hosted solution, or Magento or OpenCart as an open-source cart would give you.

If you need an ecommerce developer then there are plenty on here that would be able to assist you I'm sure.

 

[AndyP]

£1000 for a chic and upmarket site is not unreasonable......

Hmmmm, really? I would have thought that was majorly underestimating real costs to be honest although I guess that "chic and upmarket" is a fairly subjective phrase meaning different things to different people.

 

[SimplyWebsites]

If you don't know exactly what you are doing I recommend getting a developer. It will pay off.

 

[iboxsecurity]

I agree with the above, you will need to get a developer.

You will want to be using an ecommerce software like zencart, magento, oscommerce - take a look at what the different ones offer. Then your design can roughly be put onto these pieces of software and away you go.

If you already have a design that should reduce the cost of having the site developed.

 

[webstore]

Hi all,
I seem to have underestimated how much effort is involved in developing an e commerce site. : (

Actually the hardest part is populating an on-line shop with your products / images, especially when there are lots of variants on size/colour etc and of course associated information - About Us, Contact Us, T&Cs, Privacy etc etc

Regarding the software side an OpenCart default site can be built in 15-mins and then applying suitable off-the shelf template graphics takes between 1~3 hours.

If you would like a free of obligation demo please contact us.

Regarding domains we always recommend 123-reg because of their powerful domain management system but needless to say there are others who can provide a similar service.

Whoever you decide to go with, do get a holding page up for your domain asap, so Google have something to start indexing. Ideally your domain should be .co.uk and should ideally contain words that match the keywords surfers are likely to enter looking for a business like yours.

Finally be aware there are a lot of companies selling your sort of products on-line so it will be very difficult with a new domain / new on-line shop to appear anywhere decent in Google. As such you should spend as little as possible on your new on-line shop until you can start to see traffic/ sales that are going to provide you a return on investment.

 

[GoPD]

I would have thought your website designer should really have had some input in this, or at least have raised the issue. Agree with most of what the second poster said.


Was speaking to a colleague who had just signed up for a 1&1 website after seeing their advertisements and having looked at the admin side of what he has it is very limited and he is struggling to get anything that looks half way professional, so I hate to think what the e-commerce section is like.


Good luck.

 

[Deleted member 140328]

I am fairly new to all this too (set up shop late last year), but I think I've managed to get a fairly good looking store on a small budget. I'm paying £19.99 or thereabouts to use Volusion. I'd recommend taking a look at them.

I'm using one of their free templates too, so I haven't paid a designer. I have yet to get a merchant account, so I only take PayPal and Google Checkout, but other than that I think I have a professional store.

I won't post a link to it here, but lmk if you'd like to take a look.

Good luck, whatever you choose to do!

 

[johnnysheffield]

You've been given plenty of sound advice already and some good open source solutions have been mentioned but these generally require you to have some web experience, Prestashop and OScommerce certainly do.

Why not try Shopify? We've used it for one of our websites. There's enough modification capability for a developer hidden under the bonnet but it's also easy for a beginner to get the hang of. Many of the templates available are also great looking out of the box, just add your logo. There's a 30 day trial available then $35 per month after. Very happy with it so far.

 

[j600com]

As a brand it is key you get the site design spot on and of highest quality - you'll not get this from 1&1 as many have said.

Functionality wise something fairly basic will usually suffice for a brand - but the basics need to be done well/polished.

SEO is rarely a factor as your never gonna rank anywhere for t-shirts, but will rank for your own brand name t-shirts with minimal/no effort.

 

[webstore]

You've been given plenty of sound advice already and some good open source solutions have been mentioned but these generally require you to have some web experience, Prestashop and OScommerce certainly do.

Why not try Shopify?

Regarding OpenSource software - you do not need web experience and there are plenty of people in this forum (including myself) who can do a free set-up for you of OpenCart or Magento CE - either of which can be built with a default demo site with example products in about 30-mins or less.

Regarding Shopify as I understand its proprietary software based on Ruby-on-Rails and given as I understand its only hosted on Shopify servers - its possibly not going to be possible for a third party RoR programmer to get in and make custom changes.

Not that I am decrying Ruby-on-Rails which is most excellent software which is used by Twitter and of which I run 10 non ecommerce websites all based on Ruby on Rails - such as OldStock.com, Lost-Cameras.com etc

Far better to go the OpenSource route of OpenCart or Magento (CE) where there are loads of good PHP programmers available even in this forum to help out with any custom programming. Having said that both solutions come absolutely loaded with functionality.
.

 

[HarrisonIT]

First off I agree with everyone with regards to dumping 1%1 as soon as possible. It will be a nightmare for you, I could be wrong but I'm sure they are a U.S based copmany with call centres all over the world. Good luck with support !

I use a company called ( I don't work for them or get any 'kick backs' ) LCN (dot com ) They are in the U.K, service is very good and you can ring them up to 10pm. Not quite the cheapest but it's worth it. I have a few of my clients with them and I've had very few problems.

As for shopping cart: I really reccomend ECWID ( just Google it ) It's fee ( upt to 100 products ), very flexible, shoulde be fine for clothing sales, uses Sage Pay, HSBC, Google and Papal forpayment. Works with just about any website and integrates with Facebook. This means you can have the same shop running in your website and FB page at the same time.

I love it.

Hope that helps and good luck.

 

[Little Flower]

Wow...the response on this forum has been overwhelming...can I just say a big thankyou to all of you and how much I love this forum : )

Having read everyone's comments I am now in the process of cancelling my package with 1&1 and exploring getting a web developer. I have been very naive in thinking that the job of a graphic designer and web developer are the same!
I'm not sure if I can write this on here, but I would be very open to hearing from web developers who are looking for an exciting new project, with the design element done and who can work to a very small budget!
Thanks very much again

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

I'm not sure if I can write this on here, but I would be very open to hearing from web developers who are looking for an exciting new project, with the design element done and who can work to a very small budget!
Thanks very much again

You should be able to post this on the Tender area of the forum found here to accept interest on your project. Best of luck!

 

[laptopdesire]

We looked at 1&1 but it didnt really offer what we were looking for either. Maybe have a look at the OpenCart e-commerce shops. they are fairly simple to use and give you a great range of flexibility. We bought a differnet theme for our opencart shop from themeforest which looks great. You can also buy lots of different modules depending on what you are looking for but we liked the social media extensions for facebook and twitter. Just something for you to think about. hope its some help.

 

[Hire Centre]

Have you looked at having an Ebay Shop ?. That's free , eCommerce etc all set up to take payments etc. It would also test your business model to .

However, If you're going down the standalone shop , there are products you can get to bolt on to your own website but the integration can sometimes be tricky. You can also get good advice if you go freelancers from peopleperhour.com - but you need to word out the rubbish from the good there.

pete

 

[j600com]

I think I've managed to get a fairly good looking store on a small budget. I'm paying £19.99 or thereabouts to use Volusion. I'd recommend taking a look at them.

I'm using one of their free templates too, so I haven't paid a designer. I have yet to get a merchant account, so I only take PayPal and Google Checkout, but other than that I think I have a professional store.

In another thread you are asking for help because the site isn't performing

 

[Davef]

Everyone has their own opinion on whats good and whats not. If you are new to ecommerce and don't have much technical expertise I would suggest you go down the hosted route.

However, I would recommend you go with a UK company with UK servers and support. So avoid the likes of Volusion, BigCommerce, Shopify, 3DCart etc

Someone has already mentioned EKM which I have little knowledge of but I would highly recommend you look at and seriously consider Bluepark. If you do a search on forum you will find quite a few threads about them.

This site runs Bluepark and sells T-Shirts
http://www.characterplanet.co.uk/

 

[CS-Cart]

You can also try out CS-Cart Shopping Cart software. It provides "out-of-the-box" a variety of features at a low price.

 

[Little Flower]

Hi Everyone,
Thanks again for all your replies! As I have a terribly small budget (and with web developers being so expensive) I am even exploring companies such as big cartel and moonfruit - they seem very simple to use for a technical novice like me and are relatively cheap. I am aware I am limited creatively and the huge downfall for me is that Paypal is the only payment option available as well as both companies being out of the UK, my questions to you are -
1) What sort of image does having Paypal as the only payment method portray?
2) Does anyone have any experience with Big Cartel or Moonfruit in terms of an online shop?
Any help would be much appreciated, thanks again!

 

[Faevilangel]

1) Good / Bad - It's great as an image as people get some trust when using Paypal as their money is protected by a big brand etc (I don't believe it but those less savvy do).
2) Don't go with MF as they are flash based and really poor sites. Ideally you would set yourself up with an opensource cart such as opencart or Magento, then you're not tied into a specific company (if you decide to leave big cartel then you're starting from scratch, where with an OS system, you have full control.

I would get some hosting (few £ a month) and then ask the host to install opencart. Use one of the numerous themes from www.themeforest.net (around £20) which will give you a professional image but cost you next to nothing. Get a developer in for 2/3 hours to do any necessary amendments and get everything set up and then you have a fully working ecom site for less than £200. Once you have the money, you can then look into a custom theme and moderations to the site.

 

[Deleted member 50487]

hey

i use fasthosts for registering my domain, but i use hostgator VPS for all my online business.

Hostgator is amazing, great support, and i can get websites online within minutes.

If you are looking at doing any websites i would suggest hostagor.

fast, quick, simple and great support

regards

Jay

 

[amac]

Ideally you would set yourself up with an opensource cart such as opencart or Magento, then you're not tied into a specific company (if you decide to leave big cartel then you're starting from scratch, where with an OS system, you have full control.

I'd agree with this - even if you can't do web development or design, hiring someone to work with some of these OS ecommerce solutions should be relatively in-expensive. Open source allows you to scale i.e add components in terms of functionality, performance etc as you grow sales too which might not be possible with a proprietary or SAAS option.

 

[merchant-account-review]

sorry but i have to agree the other comments the 1&1 platform is rather static and has poor functionality. There customer services and support is not errrmm very good either

Have a look at EKM powershop you could be trading and taking in mintues!! via paypal and then look for a pre-integrated payment provider when the time its right for you..

Best of Luck


Chris Richardson
0844 3226545
merchant-account-review.co.uk

 

[astutiumRob]

Whoever you decide to go with, do get a holding page up for your domain asap, so Google have something to start indexing

That is specifically recommended by G as something *NOT* to do, and could seriously hurt you being included in the SE's results for some time ..

 

[ecomm]

Hi,

To process payments you will need a merchant account as well as a payment gateway (software that processes card information and sends it off to banks and card schemes to authorise).

I work in ecomm (set-up merchant accounts), and I would advise every company that starts ecomm business to get quotes from various providers to make sure you the the best deal in terms of pricing and service..

First option you have is you can get a quote from banks that provide both gateway and merchant accounts (the most popular are Barclays and RBS). This way you will keep all eggs in one busket and have one point of contact - this is most convenient.

Second option, you can contact 3rd party gateway providers, get a quote from them for software, and also contact acquiring banks separetly for merchant services quote.

You will also need to bear in mind that to set-up a gateway and merchant account will take you 4 to 6 weeks (depending on bank procedures and information they will ask you to provide), but these are average timescales to get the facility up an running.

Hope this helps!

 

[ecomm]

1) What sort of image does having Paypal as the only payment method portray?

Paypal is an option, but most often then not they are very expensive. In terms of image - smaller companies tend to go down Paypal route, medium to large businesses would always use a gateway where PayPal is offered just as an alternative payment method.

 

[termsandconditions]

The 1 & 1 advertising blitzkrieg will lure many into signing up to their quickie website solutions. But the small print fails to mention that all these sites will be hosted in Germany (I know because I asked them). So if a UK entrepreneur wants to use the site to help rank for a keyword in SERPS in the UK then she's handicapped from the get go.

Suggest avoid 1 & 1 unless you're marketing German sausage or lederhosen online to German consumers.

Best Regards

 

[bizwebman]

The 1 & 1 advertising blitzkrieg will lure many into signing up to their quickie website solutions. But the small print fails to mention that all these sites will be hosted in Germany (I know because I asked them). So if a UK entrepreneur wants to use the site to help rank for a keyword in SERPS in the UK then she's handicapped from the get go.

Suggest avoid 1 & 1 unless you're marketing German sausage or lederhosen online to German consumers.

Best Regards

Oh a particularly subjective point....

To be perfectly honest if the keyword research has been done and the content is good then where you host is located is immaterial these days. Used to be an issue especially with web page loading speeds, but rarely now.

When it comes to hosting look for ease of use and a company that remains at the cutting edge of provision.

I host in the UK and US and the support I have to say has been much better from the US providers.

Grahame

 

[antropy]

I wrote a blog on what to look for in an ecommerce platform: http://www.antropy.co.uk/blog/what-to-look-for-in-an-ecommerce-platform/

I found the best platform to be OpenCart for quite a few reasons, it's faster and simpler than Magento for a start.

Have you considered selling on ebay though?

I'd be happy to help develop the website in OpenCart if needed.

 

[nish]

I have used most popular shopping cart platforms around for my cleints over the last 8 years. My preference goes to the following systems in the order;

1. BigCommerce (hosted, monthly subscription)
2. Interspire (little outdated but fantstic platform)
3. Pretashop - Opensource
4. Magento (heavy on shared servers)
5. Opencart
6. CS-Cart (latest version 3 is good)
7. ZenCart
8. WP e-Commerce (WordPress extension)

Thanks.
Nish from www.fotowork.co.uk

 

[antropy]

4. Magento (heavy on shared servers)
5. Opencart

Surprised to see Magento above OpenCart, in my experience Magento's slower, more complex and doesn't really offer much more.

 

[Little Flower]

Hello everyone,

A while ago I posted on here asking for help which many of you responded to so thankyou! I also mentioned that I would let you know when my product was ready and it now is!

I'm not sure if I can post it on here but here it is -

www.theenglishteeshop.com

It would be great to get some feedback from you all!

Thanks again : ))

 

[j600com]

Where did you go in the end/what platform?

 

[silvermusic]

Hello everyone,

A while ago I posted on here asking for help which many of you responded to so thankyou! I also mentioned that I would let you know when my product was ready and it now is!

I'm not sure if I can post it on here but here it is -

www.theenglishteeshop.com

It would be great to get some feedback from you all!

Thanks again : ))

Hate to be the one to mention that the Union Jack flag is upside down. Yes there is a right and a wrong way.

 

[phnx123]

Hate to be the one to mention that the Union Jack flag is upside down. Yes there is a right and a wrong way.

Yes, and not only that it's the WRONG flag. That's the British Flag and belongs to Scotland and Wales too...as they are called The English Tee Shop it'd make more sense to have the English (Cross of St George) flag on there. After all, I'm pretty sure if they were the The Scottish Tee Shop they'd dump the Union flag and go for the St Andrews Cross, no? Or The Welsh Tee Shop would be proudly sporting The Welsh Dragon.

Change the flag, lass!

Personal peeve of mine, ignore me.

But nice site.

 

[Little Flower]

Hate to be the one to mention that the Union Jack flag is upside down. Yes there is a right and a wrong way.

Thanks for that but we already know! In fact, before we realised we spent a good amount of time looking at the picture thinking something didn't quite look right. : /

Now we hope that our lovely model will do the trick and distract everyone! We hope we haven't offended anyone but this really was a genuine error.

Since then we have developed a strange obsession with Union Jacks - we keep looking at them to see if they are the right way up. I guess the rule only applies to flags with poles? Because the hanging ones will inevitably be wrong depending on which way you look at them.