Going On-line

[Vel1970]

I have a kids clothes shop on a small high street and, while we do a lot of business on facebook, i just can't seem to keep on top of the website. Its a couple of years old now and the functionality of it is not great, adding products is a long, complicated process. I've been told that its a lot easier now as technology has moved on but i don't have the few thousand pounds needed to start it all again. So i'm wondering if anyone has experience of an "off the shelf" website that i could do myself?

 

[faradaykeynes]

You don't need few thousand pounds to do a decent e-commerce site. There are plenty of cheaper and effective options available like Zencart, Opencart, Prestashop and extentions of CMS like Wordpress , Joomla or Drupal. I use to run online IT and fashio website, have a look for reference, they are functional refernces sites now as i am not doing any activity of them, dont have time to spend on old business. http://pcitshop.com/fashion/

 

[Vel1970]

Thanks for that, have looked at your website, it looks great! Did you used to manage and update it yourself?

 

[faradaykeynes]

yes , it actually updates itself through cronjob as it is directly linked to suppliers website. My other IT website I use to update in different way but through an external software though have not updated for many months now

 

[a1anm]

I have a kids clothes shop on a small high street and, while we do a lot of business on facebook, i just can't seem to keep on top of the website. Its a couple of years old now and the functionality of it is not great, adding products is a long, complicated process. I've been told that its a lot easier now as technology has moved on but i don't have the few thousand pounds needed to start it all again. So i'm wondering if anyone has experience of an "off the shelf" website that i could do myself?

Have a look at http://www.shopify.com. You will be up and running in no time and it doesn't require any technical know how. There is a monthly fee but it will probably work out cheaper than something custom that requires maintenance and updates.

 

[RepricerExpress]

I would have to give the advice that it's best to try a few during a trial initially as they all do certain things well. That said, Shopify is a very user-friendly setup, is well supported and they now have an POS system so you can integrate your offline and online sales, which might be very important for your business.

 

[Ecommerce Web Design]

Find the the pain area in your current setup, it is updating stock levels and prices. No matter the platform you choose you need to have an easy way to do this. What we have done for clients is

1. link to your accounts/stock control system
2. push new product sku's prices and stock levels to the website into a hidden category
3. push existing SKU's prices and stock levels only
4. pull orders into your accounts system and process from there, not on the web site.

Then for new stock, enter in unique product names and descriptions ( vital for google SEO ) , when done move to the relevant category on your website.

You'll need to get a technical e-commerce company to do the accounts to web integration for you, once done its going to save you hours.

I hope this helps.