How to Run an eCommerce Shop

[Nubb]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for such a broad question, I've scoured the Internet for an answer to this but there doesn't appear to be a particularly good resource (that's easy to find anyway).

So I thought if I could get some key issues cleared up for a noobie eCommerce guy then many more would be helped by this thread in the future.

I have a few questions that I really need to find an answer to before I get started developing an eCommerce site:

1. Legality - Am I required by law to provide terms and conditions etc? Do I need to have a big disclaimer somewhere on the site? Is there anything that is entirely necessary?

2. Customer service - How much time is required to respond to emails if you're making over a hundred orders a week? (I appreciate this is hard to say specifically, but even just a very broad range would help).

3. How to deliver goods - Is it a case of going down the post office? In my case the items will be no more than 25-50g, what cost effective ways are there to deal with delivery?

4. Time consumption - are there any really useful efficiencies that can be made between packaging, posting, customer service and stocking? Is this too much for 1 person to handle for a highly active eCommerce site?

I HUGELY appreciate your responses to this thread and will only ask these questions on UKBF - so hopefully any one with the same questions can get them all answered here.

Thanks again,
Nick

 

[deniser]

1. Legality - Am I required by law to provide terms and conditions etc? Do I need to have a big disclaimer somewhere on the site? Is there anything that is entirely necessary?

No but you would be mad not to because you would have to rely on common law and statute leading to uncertainty and disadvantage to you.

For example, if it is not in your T&C then you can't require your customers to pay for returns postage.

You may also find that it is a condition of your merchant account provider that customers have to accept your T&C before purchase.

 

[Nubb]

Thanks for the pointer Diniser.

I have a feeling my questions might be a bit too broad and require too much detail for just a forum thread. Does anyone know of any resources that I could read through that would answer my questions?

 

[jane exelby]

I thought that you do have to have T&Cs under distance selling regulations. Trading standards will be able to advise you and leave a paper trail of advice if ever necessary.
Customer service - I dont believe that there are any 'rules' about this. I think the answer is 'as quick as humanely possible'. We have targets and try to answer within 2 hours (if asked during business hours) and I would certainly never go home until all the days queries are responded to.
As far as the weight delivery I suspect your best bet is good old post office. Ensure that it is packed as cheaply as poss ie small and flat if poss and check whether the level of insurance and delivery commitments are good for you.
All I can recommend for efficiency is have everything ready and allocate a time for packing and posting that will enable you to get to the post in time for delivery. If it is just one or two types of items that you sell then sometimes, during quiet times, you can prepack- but be sure to label what is in the packet though!!
good luck

 

[Nubb]

Great advice again, thanks.

The issue I'm having here is that I'm an SEO expert by trade and I have maybe 20-30 other sites that I have developed or in the process of developing. However the difference with those sites is that they are affiliate sites and/or display ad sites - which means there's very little required for hands-on.

Now I want to get hands-on, and I'm not sure if I'm going to need to employ someone or not. My gut feeling is yes... if the shop demands it (hopefully it would!) but I'm just clueless as how to scale.

 

[deniser]

It's very unlikely that you are going to have masses of orders from the start, however good you are at SEO. If you are not a retailer then you may not know if and how your product is going to sell.

Just start and see how it goes. You can pack the orders up yourself until they get out of hand.

And you can't beat the PO for price for tiny parcels like yours. 50g is just a small envelope isn't it? Can't you print out postage at home and put them in a post box or do they have a high value that you need proof of postage/insurance etc?

 

[Nubb]

It's very unlikely that you are going to have masses of orders from the start, however good you are at SEO. If you are not a retailer then you may not know if and how your product is going to sell.

Just start and see how it goes. You can pack the orders up yourself until they get out of hand.

And you can't beat the PO for price for tiny parcels like yours. 50g is just a small envelope isn't it? Can't you print out postage at home and put them in a post box or do they have a high value that you need proof of postage/insurance etc?

These are low value, maybe £5-£10/item. Could these just be thrown straight into the post box then? Sorry, I'm so incredibly ignorant to all of this.

 

[deniser]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for such a broad question, I've scoured the Internet for an answer to this but there doesn't appear to be a particularly good resource (that's easy to find anyway).

So I thought if I could get some key issues cleared up for a noobie eCommerce guy then many more would be helped by this thread in the future.

I have a few questions that I really need to find an answer to before I get started developing an eCommerce site:

1. Legality - Am I required by law to provide terms and conditions etc? Do I need to have a big disclaimer somewhere on the site? Is there anything that is entirely necessary?

2. Customer service - How much time is required to respond to emails if you're making over a hundred orders a week? (I appreciate this is hard to say specifically, but even just a very broad range would help).

3. How to deliver goods - Is it a case of going down the post office? In my case the items will be no more than 25-50g, what cost effective ways are there to deal with delivery?

4. Time consumption - are there any really useful efficiencies that can be made between packaging, posting, customer service and stocking? Is this too much for 1 person to handle for a highly active eCommerce site?

I HUGELY appreciate your responses to this thread and will only ask these questions on UKBF - so hopefully any one with the same questions can get them all answered here.

Thanks again,
Nick

These are low value, maybe £5-£10/item. Could these just be thrown straight into the post box then? Sorry, I'm so incredibly ignorant to all of this.

If low value then it's better to factor in a certain percentage of non received ones, say 3%, that you have to refund or resend than waste 82p or whatever it costs these days to send it recorded.

If you find a lot are going missing then handing them in at the post office will ensure that you get a proof of posting which then makes it easier to claim for non delivery if you think it's worthwhile.

Most of us don't bother very often with claims because of the time spent dealing with them.

You will need to calculate the cost in time of going to the PO v. making claims for lost items v. a slightly higher proportion going missing.

If it can fit through someone's letterbox you have a much higher chance of it not genuinely going missing and I can't see many people fraudulently claiming non delivery for the sake of such a small sum.

So if it were me, I would make sure the size of the letter fits through a letterbox and would then just stick them in the post box.

 

[Nubb]

Solid advice, Deniser. Thanks again.

In terms of stocking goods, I'm guessing this is just something you have to react to in the first couple of months of receiving orders rather than anything you can prepare for. Perhaps order in 25-50 units of each product and restock depending on delivery times and rate of sale?

As I say, this is all highly speculative so I'm not expecting anything at all precise. A general idea of anything is more than enough to put my mind at ease with this

 

[WebTrust]

Why don't you just throw it up as an affiliate site, get it ranking, then move to physical goods, then you know it has the rank and you know exactly how much it converts to sales.

 

[Nubb]

I have explored all the avenues. There are no affiliate programs for this product. High quality site design and CMS should be straight forward. I'll then be able to handle the IM, it's just the actual store management that I can see being a pain.

I have also considered drop shipping but we'd still have to handle customer service, so it made sense to just stock and sell and take the higher mark-up.

Start-up costs for this as a business would be very small so there really isn't too much risk - obviously my time could be better spent on things that I have experience in but I'm sure there is an opportunity here.

 

[deniser]

Perhaps order in 25-50 units of each product and restock depending on delivery times and rate of sale?

Order as few as you possibly can until you can see what sells and what doesn't.

 

[Pap_sak]

I was just thinking of a very light item that can be posted through an standard letterbox, can be in a variety of amusing shapes, colors, sizes, and there is enough variety that a website could be built around it. At the same time, there should be a reasonable profit margin.

Postage time could be a factor

Starts with C ends in dom....

 

[WebTrust]

The ecommerce, dealing with order side is very simple, the hardest part is picking the items for packing, if you have a lot.

But get a good label/order form printing system in, I love the integrated ones.

They save a tone of time.

I could process probably 400 orders a day, on my own.

Just try and get as many time saving, automatic features as you can, have a good FAQ, make it so people don't need to keep contacting you all the time etc

 

[Deleted member 61074]

Get integrated labels paper - ie print your invoice or packing list with paper that includes a peel off address label.

Talk to your post office about having an account. We used to drop off a bag of parcels which they then weighed and processed during their quiet times ( we pre filled in certificates of postage ).

 

[WebTrust]

The post office do the same for me as the above said.

It's very useful you don't want to be standing there for two hours.

 

[Nubb]

I will probably just be posting through the post box to begin with and see how that pans out.

 

[WebTrust]

Problem is, no proof of postage, no insurance.

 

[Nubb]

Problem is, no proof of postage, no insurance.

Insurance on what? I liked Deniser's advice in that the products are so low cost that 1 in every 100 going missing is worth the hassle of filling out certificate of posting details etc. Simply repost if someone complains.

 

[WebTrust]

Ah right.

But there is no hassle, you don't fill them out the post office does.

 

[deniser]

Ah right.

But there is no hassle, you don't fill them out the post office does.

I was talking about the hassle of a) filling in claims forms for missing parcels and b) going to the post office at all

 

[Nubb]

I was talking about the hassle of a) filling in claims forms for missing parcels and b) going to the post office at all

Yes, sorry - I misquoted you here.

Although thanks WebTrust - I thought I would have to fill them out