Ecommerce Website Creation

[taxing]

Hi,

Sorry for the long winded post but would greatly welcome any advice and tips on the below.

I want to to create an ecommerce website but I'm unsure the best way I should approach this or who I should contact.

I want to build a website so I can upload all of my suppliers products in one go which includes item discriptions and maybe images providing my supplier supports such a thing without me having to manually list each and every individual item.

For example my supplier may have hundreds of items which I want to sell on my website but I don't want to be manually be listing each and every item as it will takes months. I also want to reflect live stock levels from my supplier so if my supplier is sold out on a particular item, I want my website to update the quantity automatically.

I'm unsure what the technical term is for such a system to be intergertated into a website but is this easily done and how does it work and what is this type of syatem/plugin called?

I hope you you understand where I am coming from with this

So in order for my website to be capable of doing such a thing, what type of website will I need and how much would something like this cost to setup?


thank you

 

[Shopclicks]

Hi. Yes, this is absolutely possible. The platform I use is Wordpress with Woocommerce and a plugin called All Import. It can all be done from an excel spreadsheet. If the images are hosted somewhere on the net, the url can be in a column on the same spreadsheet. Any data can be uploaded including stock updates.

 

[fisicx]

@taxing - most e-commerce platforms offer some sort of bulk upload system.

That being said, if you want your site to be a success don’t use the supplied descriptions and images. You need to write your own descriptions and ideally source alternate images. The reason is: the suppliers will not put any real effort into creating content and the images will often be poor quality. Your competitors will all be using the same which means there is nothing to make you stand out.

And if your marketing plan involves Google, duplication it going to work against you.

Are you going to employ a developer to help build your site?

 

[Shopclicks]

So in order for my website to be capable of doing such a thing, what type of website will I need and how much would something like this cost to setup?

Nobody should be quoting prices without a very long conversation with you. There is no standard set-up cost.

 

[Shopclicks]

That being said, if you want your site to be a success don’t use the supplied descriptions and images. You need to write your own descriptions and ideally source alternate images. The reason is: the suppliers will not put any real effort into creating content and the images will often be poor quality. Your competitors will all be using the same which means there is nothing to make you stand out.

There is no advantage in creating your own description and images, if those supplied are good quality. Google expects that the same product will have the same description and image. Yes, you can add your own twist on a product but there is no need to replicate what is already available.

Google product search is all about category pages, not product pages.

 

[fisicx]

Nobody should be quoting prices without a very long conversation with you. There is no standard set-up cost.

Agree with this. Cost could be a cheap £100 shopify site up to £100,000 integrated super site.

My suggestion would be to engage a marketing expert who can help you with your marketing plan which will guide you in writing the site specification. Neither of these are quick processes and can take many weeks to formulate.

 

[Shopclicks]

My suggestion would be to engage a marketing expert who can help you with your marketing plan which will guide you in writing the site specification.

There's nothing a marketing expert can tell you that isn't available free on YouTube. You'll get a variety of opinion and you learn what best suits your business. It's a better idea to learn about marketing rather than rely on one person's take on the subject.

Talk to developers about your site specification, not a marketing expert. Ask to see search and analytics results from previous projects.

 

[fisicx]

Disagree with that. Without a marketing plan you won’t know the best sort of site which means problems further down the line. I suspect we will disagree with many things. Doesn’t mean either of us is wrong, it just highlights the many variables to take into consideration.

 

[Shopclicks]

A good developer who shows off their results will be able to suggest the best platform for the project. You'd have to agree that a developer knows more about websites than a marketing expert?

Yes, we do tend to have differing opinions on some subjects and you know I respect your opinion. I just think different

 

[fisicx]

depends on your start point. A marketing plan that relies on SM advertising for low cost products may well only need a shopify site. Which doesn’t need a developer but does need someone who knows how to manage the adverts and construct a compelling landing page.

 

[Shopclicks]

I've always struggled with the term 'marketing plan'. The answer to the question is 'everything' within your time and budget. You don't need to pay someone to tell you that. People can come here and ask for recommendations or Google/YouTube a question.

As far as platforms go, if you're selling products, then SEO can be as important as SM, so both is the answer. A marketing strategist who recommends Shopify knows nothing about SEO.

There is more free information on YouTube & Google than any marketing guru will ever know. Including how to create effective ads and how to build effective landing pages.

 

[taxing]

Hi ,

Thank you for your replies, some great tips and advice which I will certaintly be looking into? .

I will certainly try looking for a web developer and see if I can book in a free meeting with them to run through my plans for the website, think that will be a starting point and then look into marketing strategies.

So essentially I see the the process of getting a website off the ground will normally involve the following steps, please let me know if I have missed anything:

1) Web developer will create a blank website for me who will also sort out the hosting and linking the site to my domain, including incorporating any necessary plugins required for a site .

2) Engage with a copywriter to assit with content writing for my website.

3) Engage with a SEO specialist to improve presence on the web once the site has been setup.

Essentially my site will focus on providing essential site supplies to the construction industry including the general public.

 

[fisicx]

Start with number 3. Your SEO strategy will drive the content creation which then determines the structure of the site.

Also consider that SEO could take anything up to a year to sort. And even then only for a fraction of the products on the site. The competition for anything to do with construction is fierce, your competitors spend millions on marketing.

The more focused the range of products the easier they are to market. For example if you just sell adhesives then you can develop a range of target keywords for that product. If you have a 1000 random products then you need a huge marketing campaign that could prove very expensive.

Are you planning to dropship or do you have a warehouse?

 

[Shopclicks]

1) Web developer will create a blank website for me who will also sort out the hosting and linking the site to my domain, including incorporating any necessary plugins required for a site .

2) Engage with a copywriter to assit with content writing for my website.

3) Engage with a SEO specialist to improve presence on the web once the site has been setup.

You're going to need very deep pockets to stick to that plan.

You need to talk to multiple developers about your options. If a developer is recommending you need an SEO specialist or wants to charge you for SEO services, walk away. A good developer will conduct your keyword research and apply SEO friendly elements where required.

You don't need a copywriter for an eCommerce site. Ask Bard to 'write a product category description for big widgets'. Then put your personal spin on the result.

Ask to see results before committing to anything.

Learn all you can about websites and eCommerce for free on YouTube.

 

[taxing]

You're going to need very deep pockets to stick to that plan.

You need to talk to multiple developers about your options. If a developer is recommending you need an SEO specialist or wants to charge you for SEO services, walk away. A good developer will conduct your keyword research and apply SEO friendly elements where required.

You don't need a copywriter for an eCommerce site. Ask Bard to 'write a product category description for big widgets'. Then put your personal spin on the result.

Ask to see results before committing to anything.

Learn all you can about websites and eCommerce for free on YouTube.

Thank you shopclicks, some really good points you have made, much appreciated
btw who is Bard?

 

[fisicx]

Bard is Google‘s AI tool. You describe what you want and Bard churns out a chunk of content. You then tweak and adjust. Don’t use the results verbatim.

But as @Shopclicks said: this is going to be a very expensive project. Building the site is easy. Getting anyone to buy anything is difficult.

 

[fisicx]

If a developer is recommending you need an SEO specialist or wants to charge you for SEO services, walk away. A good developer will conduct your keyword research and apply SEO friendly elements where required.

Depends on the developer. When I develop a plugin or them for a client I don’t do any keyword research. A database developer won’t do keyword research. An extension developer for opencart won’t do any SEO work.

 

[Shopclicks]

Depends on the developer. When I develop a plugin or them for a client I don’t do any keyword research. A database developer won’t do keyword research. An extension developer for opencart won’t do any SEO work.

Agree, not all case uses require SEO work or keyword research. Ecommerce website build definitely does.

 

[fisicx]

Agree, not all case uses require SEO work or keyword research. Ecommerce website build definitely does.

Only if your marketing plan involves a search engine. And even then a developer may not have the necessary skills. Most developers write code. That’s all they do.

Unless you define developer as a person who does the whole kaboodle.

This particular project is going to need a number of skills. Anything to do with construction materials is going to be expensive, difficult and time consuming to market.

The builder working for us does everything on account. He knows all the local suppliers and picks the materials up on the way to work. What he doesn’t want to do is order online and hope it arrives tomorrow when he can order from screwfix and pick up in an hour.

 

[Shopclicks]

Only if your marketing plan involves a search engine. And even then a developer may not have the necessary skills. Most developers write code. That’s all they do.

Unless you define developer as a person who does the whole kaboodle.

Trying hard to think of an eCommerce project that didn't. Even B2B sites need to be found.

The OP needs the whole kaboodle and that's what they should be looking for. A start-up doesn't need to be outsourcing the essentials.

 

[fisicx]

This is construction materials. Marketing this business is going to need a lot of skilled work. Outsourcing is more cost effective way to get things done. The alternative is months and months of reading, research and testing.

 

[Shopclicks]

This is construction materials. Marketing this business is going to need a lot of skilled work. Outsourcing is more cost effective way to get things done. The alternative is months and months of reading, research and testing.

I have to disagree. Having a sector to focus on is an advantage. We're talking about categorisation of products and category descriptions, titles and meta. Other page content can be spun from Bard and imagery for the construction industry is readily available. There's no need to outsource any of that other than choosing the right eCommerce site developer.

The marketing of the website, through any channel other than search is a separate topic. The OP is talking about a site build. But a developer with experience in the eCommerce industry should be talking to the client about those options.

 

[fisicx]

TBH I think there is a lot of agreement even though we appear to have differing opinions.

Finding the right designer/developer/marketeer is the difficult bit as there are so many snake oil salesmen out there.

Building the site is the easy bit. You can get a basic site set up in minutes. What takes all the time is planning, configuring, creating, refining and testing. You can learn all the skills yourself (which can take months) or you can engage those with the necessary skills to do it for you.

@taxing - one of the key questions is the fulfilment method you plan to use: dropship or your own warehouse?

And do you just want a catalogue upload or integration with a logistics modules (to manage orders and stock levels)?

Your business model may well narrow the options as to the type of platform.

 

[RussellWhiting]

Hi,

Sorry for the long winded post but would greatly welcome any advice and tips on the below.

I want to to create an ecommerce website but I'm unsure the best way I should approach this or who I should contact.

I want to build a website so I can upload all of my suppliers products in one go which includes item discriptions and maybe images providing my supplier supports such a thing without me having to manually list each and every individual item.

For example my supplier may have hundreds of items which I want to sell on my website but I don't want to be manually be listing each and every item as it will takes months. I also want to reflect live stock levels from my supplier so if my supplier is sold out on a particular item, I want my website to update the quantity automatically.

I'm unsure what the technical term is for such a system to be intergertated into a website but is this easily done and how does it work and what is this type of syatem/plugin called?

I hope you you understand where I am coming from with this

So in order for my website to be capable of doing such a thing, what type of website will I need and how much would something like this cost to setup?


thank you

Hi,
You should seriously consider Shopify. Their platform is flexible and can grow with your business. There are a good selection of apps to help with everything from SEO to Order fulfilment. Easy to upload your stock details, descriptions, images etc via a spreadsheet (CSV). You should budget £500-£3000 to create a decent Shopify site and allow £150 per month to cover the costs of any apps you use.

 

[RussellWhiting]

There is no advantage in creating your own description and images, if those supplied are good quality. Google expects that the same product will have the same description and image. Yes, you can add your own twist on a product but there is no need to replicate what is already available.

Google product search is all about category pages, not product pages.

Make sure all images and descriptions are SEO friendly or you could be wasting effort - if you can't be found on Google or in Google Shopping you won't see much success. Ensure all images are appropriately sized (not over sized) especially if you want to sell through Google Shopping, Alt text and Meta Title/Description and product URL must all be optimised to be found - this may not all be available in the existing descriptions etc...

 

[antropy]

I want to to create an ecommerce website but I'm unsure the best way I should approach this or who I should contact.

Do you have any programming skills? Do you have any computer skills?

If you can code to some extent you could set it up yourself with something like OpenCart.

If you can't code but you are good with computers you could set it up yourself with something like Shopify.

If you can't code and you're not great with computers you could pay a company or a freelancer to build it for you in either OpenCart or Shopify.

The benefit of Shopify is that it's probably going to be a bit cheaper to setup initially and maintain, but the problem is it's not as flexible if you are going to have some quite custom requirements in future.

As the owner of an ecommerce web agency that designs and builds OpenCart sites, I may be a little biased, but setting up a shop on OpenCart is a good way to go, and indeed we use it for our own online shops which are starting to sell quite well such as our Vape Shop

Paul.

 

[YasmeenLondon]

There's nothing a marketing expert can tell you that isn't available free on YouTube. You'll get a variety of opinion and you learn what best suits your business. It's a better idea to learn about marketing rather than rely on one person's take on the subject.

Talk to developers about your site specification, not a marketing expert. Ask to see search and analytics results from previous projects.

I understand where you're coming from, but I would not rule out experts completely.

Youtube/TikTok have the potential to teach you something, but they also have a LOT of bad, outdated and incompatible advice, while experts have experience, know tried and tested methods and will save you a considerable amount of time learning and testing new things, but obviously, this comes at a cost.

A lot of great advice regarding e-commerce platforms, bulk upload methods and pricing, I would add WooCommerce to the list and I'm happy to answer any questions you have related to it.

 

[Shopclicks]

Youtube/TikTok have the potential to teach you something, but they also have a LOT of bad, outdated and incompatible advice, while experts have experience, know tried and tested methods and will save you a considerable amount of time learning and testing new things, but obviously, this comes at a cost.

This is why I suggest talking to expert developers and learning from YouTube. I wouldn't put any faith in a marketing 'expert' having a working knowledge of how best to upload a product or stock csv.

 

[Paul Carmen]

Lots of good advice here, the platform is probably not going to make a huge difference. Both @fisicx and @Shopclicks make good points.

The reality is that many web developers have no, or very limited, SEO and marketing skills. In contrast, many SEO/marketing experts aren't great at web design and usability, a blend of skills is needed.

This project should be research driven, as where your customers (B2B I'm assuming) search and who your competitors are is they key initially. You can build anything you like, but without an SEO, PPC or some other sort of lead/sales programme you're not going to get any traction.

This initial analysis is what gives you an idea of the viability of the project, as if you can't profitably build the site, then market the business/website, you don't really have one!

It's essentially a marketing, sales, project build plan that you're looking for; e.g.

• Sector and market review - carry out research to see what your customers want & what your USP is and the specific offers to target them should be
• Look at your competitors - do your planned, products services and prices stack up with the market, can you make money at their prices etc
• What are the key products/services - how many do you need, where do you focus any marketing budget etc

If this type of initial analysis stacks up it leads to a project plan; e.g.

• Scope the build - based on where you intend to market, the number of pages, products, and any functionality required is the website project start point
• Work with a lead generation & web company - if your outsourcing, web design and copy is just the initial part of the process, in most cases a marketing programme, plus A/B or multivariate on page testing is required to optimise pages, conversions and sales properly
• Carry out quantitative and qualitative analysis - looking at the data and even testing doesn't always provide the answers, often gathering insights from your visitors and customers provides the key to making the best changes, as only then do you understand what the issues are

This may sound daunting, but you can research and do elements of it yourself. Or you can put together an initial plan and get companies/individuals to tender against it, but that will require a budget, even for the research stages.

 

[fisicx]

I wouldn't put any faith in a marketing 'expert' having a working knowledge of how best to upload a product or stock csv.

They don’t need this skill. Their role is to determine if uploader is the best way to add products.

 

[Shopclicks]

They don’t need this skill. Their role is to determine if uploader is the best way to add products.

An experienced developer is the best person to talk to about this.

@Paul Carmen describes above in a bit of detail something a market strategist might undertake. The OP could get a website up and selling for less than that would cost and faster than that little project would take.

I've seen too many c$@# websites and been asked too many dumb questions by people labelling themselves as expert strategists, to think otherwise. It's an industry built on BS. And it doesn't apply to the OP who wants to list a few hundred products on a website the easy way.

 

[fisicx]

An experienced developer is the best person to talk to about this.

I think there is an issue with our respective definitions of developer. Developers write code. They don’t get involved in SEO, content creation, marketing, analysis or any of the other tasks needed to build a website. All they do is write code. You choose the colours and they write the css. You choose the functions required and they configure the theme. You decide if you need a bulk uploader and they set up the plugin.

 

[Shopclicks]

I think there is an issue with our respective definitions of developer. Developers write code. They don’t get involved in SEO, content creation, marketing, analysis or any of the other tasks needed to build a website. All they do is write code. You choose the colours and they write the css. You choose the functions required and they configure the theme. You decide if you need a bulk uploader and they set up the plugin.

If you're going to hire a website developer charging let's say £4-5k for a build, I would expect that person to know how to build in and understand SEO elements, conduct keyword research & placement and integrate all the required functionality. Building a £4k website with no regard to SEO is a rip-off and all too common. I see it every day.
Content creation may or may not be a part of the build but a website developer should be able to offer guidance on good and bad copy.

Marketing is separate.

 

[fisicx]

And that’s because your definition of developer is different to mine.

Content creation and SEO are subsets of marketing. Developers write code. Code is not marketing

Site development needs multiple skills which may need a developer or might not. It depends on the project.

 

[Shopclicks]

We can agree that code is not marketing. As I said, marketing is separate.

Page 2,3 & 4 of any Google search are full of sites built by developers who don't know the difference between a contextural button link and meta title. And wouldn't know search volume if it bit them on the ....

I'm talking about website developers, not developers who only write code.

 

[fisicx]

I'm talking about website developers, not developers who only write code.

I get that now. Which was the confusion. As to the contextual button - I’d put that firmly in the marketing camp.

Whilst an interesting discussion it doesn’t help @taxing. But as they have not given us much more detail about their business it’s difficult to answer their initial question.

 

[antropy]

If you're going to hire a website developer charging let's say £4-5k for a build, I would expect that person to know how to build in and understand SEO elements, conduct keyword research & placement and integrate all the required functionality.

You can expect what you like but I agree with @fisicx, developers should not be expected to be SEO experts to the point where they can conduct off-site SEO keyword research and analysis. They should write code that meets Google's standards for on-page SEO, though.

Paul.

 

[antropy]

I'm talking about website developers, not developers who only write code.

Then you should really be talking about web agencies because it's extremely unusual for a single person, a freelance "web developer" as you're calling them to be very good at design, code, marketing, copywriting, and SEO.

Paul.

 

[Shopclicks]

You can expect what you like but I agree with @fisicx, developers should not be expected to be SEO experts to the point where they can conduct off-site SEO keyword research and analysis.

Website developers should. Too many websites are handed over with zero keyword research. With url's and page titles that mean nothing to Google. All of which need to be changed by seeking out an SEO expert and asking their advice??? If a website developer needs to speak to their own SEO expert prior to creating pages then fine. But don't hand over a finished sites with rubbish page titles and meta.

They should write code that meets Google's standards for on-page SEO, though.

So as long as a page title is tagged <h1> it doesn't matter what the title is??? This happens a lot and sometimes they don't bother with the h1.

 

[antropy]

Website developers should.

Nope, a web developer is a software developer who specialises in front-end and/or back-end website languages, typically HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a back-end language like PHP, C#, ColdFusion etc.

You should probably say "website creator" or "website builder" instead, but as I said, it's rare to find one individual who can perform all the roles in a web agency to a professional standard.

Paul.