Help with setting up an E-commerce site

[Rolypoly]

Hi there,

I do understand these questions have been asked before in some way so please dont feel frustrated when reading but I felt adding my own thread would help me a bit more in understanding some things.

Firstly, I'll start by saying I am new to the business world, I set up as a sole trader and registered as an Ebay Business user a few months ago after deciding I needed to get myself into the business sector. I am currently in my last few months of University, and aim to run my own Business more professionally when I do finish this coming April. My Ebay business itself has done slightly better than I expected, and my sales are high. My problem is that I find it very hard to distinguish and promote my business on ebay, as well as the amount of closely related competitors who I can not compete with in terms of their low prices.

I do intend to run my own E-commerce website, but with no experience in this field I am struggling to understand what the first steps I need to take are. I've read a little on the payment side of things in terms of merchant accounts and payment gateways, and I feel i understand the basic needs I will need to carry out once the website is live in terms of SEO and marketing.

What I dont understand is how to actually design the site and maintain it. Will I need to pay for someone to design a website and add my products to it? Or are there certain programmes available to very inexperienced sole traders where I can myself design and control my site without having the know how of web design. A friend recommended shopify which is something im talking about, and having tried the free trial, found myself struggling with a number of issues in which there seemed to be no help with solving.

I suppose what I really want to know is if there is a company or people that I can pay to design the website, host the website, and help with understanding how to integrate payment gateways with my site, and basically help me understand if I have done everything in terms of setting up the site. Essentially, someone who helps to completely start up an e-commerce business!

As you can see, I have very little knowledge of this so please be gentle! I know people who design basic websites and although I am sure they would be willing to help me out in creating a e-commerce site, Im pretty sure these people would not have a clue about e-commerce so I would much rather be on the safe side and ask for advice from here!

And just to add, my e-commerce site would be used for selling party supplies, e.g Fancy Dress costumes, party decorations, balloons etc. All I need is a fairly basic site that will allow to give the option of different sizes(fancy dress costumes). I think apart from that it is a fairly simple concept and I am looking for a fairly simple design.

I understand that I will need to spend, however, being a student I do have a fairly low budget.

Sorry for the long post, But hopefully someone can give me some advice on possible ways I could go.

Thankyou very much in advance, it is much appreciated!

 

[finleydesign]

Hi,

We have done a number of Ebay to Ecommerce upgrades lately which work very well, the bonus is you can in theory run both at the same time

We set up paypal to accept payment on the Eommerce as well as their current Ebay

Normally its a question of setting up the website, design and functionality and then its up to you on budget on adding products yourself etc (we always upload 30 or so within the package)

The site are always easily maintained yourself, you would be set up as Shop Manager, so have access to the back end and all the customer, invoices, stock etc

Its a very straight forward process to be honest and you don't need design or coding knowledge once the site is set up, its very easy to edit your own content, change and add pages, and add as many products and categories as you like

 

[owas]

I would say, start off as simple as possible. Look for a good hosting company, get recommendations and look at what they offer.
I would then look at software your going to use. Each cart have their each benefits, as they do downfalls.
I would consider looking at an opensource cart like magneto or opencart, this gives you the flexibility to amend your site to suite your needs.
For payment I would also consider starting off with paypal, unless your confident your income will be high enough for a merchant account or you can pay the monthly fees.
I will drop you a pm with a few links that may help.

 

[ITsoldUK]

Right, back on topic...

There are a multitude of sites out there than can offer what you are looking for.

I would strongly suggest you do the following first...

1. Write a marketing plan
2. Refer to your ACTION PLAN INSIDE THE MARKETING PLAN
3. Obtain the services that fit your needs
4. Make some money.

Do not rush, 1 months planning now will save you time and money further down the road if you make a knee jerk reaction.

As a sub-note, whichever cart you decide to run with, why not search for SPECIFIC hosts that deal with this flavour...could do worse

 

[REDSIGNAL]

I do intend to run my own E-commerce website, but with no experience in this field I am struggling to understand what the first steps I need to take are.

Well, you are not alone scratching your head in confusion. As for driving a car, you need not to be an engineering student, for running an ecommerce site, you don't need to be any web designer and developer. Running ecommerce site is a breathe easy process that can be served only through time. Any professional web design & development agency can make you an ecommerce site! And then you just need to update your products!

What type of products you are going to sell?

 

[finleydesign]

Well, you are not alone scratching your head in confusion. As for driving a car, you need not to be an engineering student, for running an ecommerce site, you don't need to be any web designer and developer. Running ecommerce site is a breathe easy process that can be served only through time. Any professional web design & development agency can make you an ecommerce site! And then you just need to update your products!

What type of products you are going to sell?

Well I think we are all now scratching our head in confusion

 

[Ali-v-8]

A simple ecommerce solution which is very easy to use would be opencart.
It is easy to make changes without the help of a website designer.
I think you should consider this as a starting point.
£300+ depending on what you want lol

 

[SidRhyes]

There is nothing to be worried about, you should analyze the current market strategies do relevant keyword research, then you should start creating your website, or you can also go for some outsourcing company where you just have to give the details and rest all they will do for you.

 

[antropy]

I'd say start out on eBay and make sure there's a demand for your products and you have the fulfilment process in place so that you're efficiently fulfilling the orders, then think about getting your own site once there's a proven demand. Don't worry too much about being the absolute cheapest, even on eBay people don't always just go for the cheapest product, things like delivery time, location and branding have a big effect too.