E-commerce Website in Afro Caribbean Cosmetics

[Fahim Chaudhry]

Hi All.

Thank you for reading this thread.

I am the son of the director of a company called Supergrows Cosmetics.We have been in the cosmetics industry for over 20 years from our humble beginnings in a small shop in London.
Over the year, the industry has changed massively, and the newest change is online ecommerce shopping. Our competitiors have done a fantastic job of making the most of the change by adapting. They now sell on multi platforms, such as Ebay, Amazon and on their own sites. Sadly, due to my father being quite nonchalant in the matter, we have not quite matched them in our own efforts.

That however is slowly changing.

I am currently in the processing of having a website built for me however I feel I am being short changed by the current company, so I would like to put out to tender the build of my website, and the ongoing running too.

I require someone to build a fully integrated ecommerce website, stocking thousands of products. I also require seamless integration with Amazon and Ebay accounts so I can sell on all three platforms with ease.

I do not know whether I or the existing company own the rights to the website address that I currently use however I am flexible on changing the name somewhat so I can put the rights firmly in my hands.

I understand I can not post my website address here at the moment, so I will work as quick as possible to achieve 30 posts!

I don't know what else to add here at the moment, but please feel free to ask any questions you have. Thank you. I look forward to your replies.

P.S I intend to start my venture online from January onwards.

Kind regards,

Fahim Chaudhry

 

[ryedale]

Hi Fahim, just had a look at the site - is this the one the current developers are working on or are they building a different one?

 

[Fahim Chaudhry]

Hi Ryedale.

Thank you for the very quick reply. The website that you saw I can only presume to be the one that they are currently building. (Its basically built, but it needs the huge mountain of product upload to be honest and I'm currently paying through the nose for it to be done and I feel I ought to have got prices from others before agreeing to the work to be done)

So currently, how it works is

I go to my store and lets say for example today I'm working on whitening soaps.

I will take down the cost, the product name, the size/weight of the product.

I then type it all up and send to my developer who using the internet, gets photos of the products, uploads the product with the relevent information I've given him (cost, weight/size) and then adds a product description.

times that by 5,000+ products...

Is this how its done?

 

[Fahim Chaudhry]

Doh. The name of the company gives the site away.

Yes, thats the correct site you visited.

 

[ryedale]

Hi Fahim,

Data entry is an unpleasant side of a new E-Commerce site, unfortunately.

But there are ways to make it easier. Some wholesalers will supply their product information in formats such as CSV which can be imported directly into the new site (depending on the system used) meaning each product doesn't have to be added manually.

How do you feel about the rest of the site - are you happy with the design ?

The load time isn't great - nearly 6 seconds. That can be very costly for E-Commerce sites, particuarly when you are trying to get it off the ground.

 

[Fahim Chaudhry]

I do like the design of the site. I'm fairly happy with it. I think it looks smart and its relatively easy to use (to the untrained eye at least)

In regards to the product upload, I'll be completely honest. I'm currently paying £400+vat a month for product upload and for the past two months, due to lack of staff at work I've uploaded 0 items!

How much should I be paying? Are you able to integrate the site product upload with other companies such as Ebay/Amazon? I believe the company I currently use don't offer that and it makes any work I do three times longer then.

 

[ryedale]

So they are charging you even if they don't upload anything?

Regarding Amazon / Ebay integration , it looks like the site has been made using Woo-Commerce

There are solutions like the ones below which can link it with Amazon and Ebay
http://www.veeqo.com/woocommerce-integration
https://www.wplab.com/free-plugins/
https://selro.com/woocommerce-inventory-order-management/

I don't know if the site is completely finished , if it is, then you need a lot of work doing on the user experience particularly with click through links from the home page.

Hope this helps!

 

[Fahim Chaudhry]

Yes, suffice to say, I was told that 'staff have already been rota'd in to do my site to I ought to pay' although I've already made sure that I'm not charged for January so I can get my act together, replace some rubbish staff and get back on my feet properly to hit the ground running.

Good news on the integration ability. Thank you for the links. You're so helpful!

How much would your company charge for the same website and product upload? (and support thereon)

 

[ryedale]

It shouldn't really work like that unless they have nothing else to work on!

I'll have a proper look at your site and send you a pm!

Many thanks

Mark

 

[fisicx]

I do like the design of the site. I'm fairly happy with it.

Not on a phone it's not. And depending in the deal you are either paying $99/year or have paid $399 for a theme that's not that good.

In regards to the product upload, I'll be completely honest. I'm currently paying £400+vat a month for product upload and for the past two months, due to lack of staff at work I've uploaded 0 items!

Well stop paying this for a start. There are loads of ways to do this for free. As already suggested you can use a CSV uploader.

Or you can pay one of the many data entry freelancers to do this for you.

How much should I be paying? Are you able to integrate the site product upload with other companies such as Ebay/Amazon?

The cost for this will be a lot less than you are currently paying. Adding the integration isn't complicated and shouldn't take more than an hour or two.

Also as suggested, the site isn't very good. There are loads of things that need sorting before it's even close to being ready for launch. But website reviews are only for full members.

 

[Fahim Chaudhry]

Hi Fisicx.

Thank you for your constructive criticism.

I'll be a fully fledged member soon.

Kind regards,

Fahim.