"Some friendly advice, don't take it the wrong way, but what makes you think that what you think about sites is right?"
True, and I may be wrong with my idea of what is right. Hence me typing 'right' in the last post! But I still think that the easier you make it for the customer to buy, the better. I'm not trying to be a web designer but I still would like some input in what goes live. I'll throw some ideas at a designer and go from there. I know my target customers, now getting them to see the product online and then buy is the hard part. Appreciate the comments
"If you want to do it on the cheap try Shopify."
Much of a muchness between this and Bigcommerce? I've trialed both and I prefer the later if I'm honest. But open to some persuasion. But then again, I still think I'll need someone on board so it will probably work out the same on price in the end.
"My concern was the use of the term 'more slick', you have to be careful not to have style over substance."
By slick I meant a clean and uncluttered site (but still containing the necessary info for the potential customer, who we are, what we do, returns info and so on) but just laid out in a, eh, slick way!
"In my experience it took me a year of running a standard site before i had any real idea of what modifications i wanted and could ask the right questions and show samples to get the designer to do his stuff"
Thanks Chris. Did you begin with a designer or was your first sitdown a year into business? All other points noted, ideally I'd be looking to have someone design who has designed other sites on say, Shopify or Bigcommerce.
"I'll tell you how to keep costs down when starting off - do a lot of reading, learning & do it yourself. I didn't know anything about web design or cart software...when I started, even now I'm a rank amateur, but you don't need to be an expert when starting out."
Thanks. I have been doing a lot of reading and a lot of listening but when it comes to web design I really do think it's better to have someone that has experience in the area, otherwise it will show up at some stage. Same goes for the photography end of things, I'd prefer to spend some extra cash and have someone experienced in taking product shots than wasting my time trying to replicate it (and not coming anywhere close in the end). I don't need to have professional photos, true, but I want them. I think this is actually something that is massively overlooked! £50 is good going. I'm looking at $30 p/m for the website and then a designer on top of that. Stock is separate of course.
Thanks for all the advice guys.
