Multiple webstores, same products

[LearningCurves]

Not sure if this belongs in Ecommerce or legal... But here it is.

Company A currently sells products online via a webstore.

Company A wants to create a second webstore to sell the *same* products to a slightly different target audience

Is everything above board in this scenario? Does it make a difference if the two stores have the same/different pricing?

 

[GooKing]

AFAIK, there is no problem at all with this, as long as your new website/brand is clear about ownership.

Pricing differences are fine too.

From a marketing point of view, you may want to edit the product descriptions to suit the target audience and so that Google does not see them as duplicate pages.

 

[CompactLaw]

GooKing is right.
A lot of ecommerce platforms allow for multiple shops and pricing to target different customers.
That is all fine.
You frequently see the same business charge different prices between online and off-line - exactly the same shop and product, not a problem.

Amazon also has pricing that can differ between customers, frequent customers can get substantial discounts and sometimes free products.

 

[SugarCubeProductions]

Magento would be a good eCommerce to use for this. It allows you to have a 'master' product list and pick which ones will appear on each store, or both.

It'll also sell them on amazon and ebay for you if you want, and keep a central stock list.

 

[CompactLaw]

Hi Kye

That sounds good.
Really the only issue is one a duplicated content, relating to search engine optimisation.
But Magento is very search engine friendly, so I assume they have thought about that.

The only other issue is having proper hosting - Magento uses a lot of resources, so it needs to optimised to run quickly, particularly the free "community" version.

So if you have multiple stores pay for good hosting, there are a few Magento-specific hosting companies that provide a very good service.

 

[SugarCubeProductions]

Well the multiple stores option still uses one code base, and one database, so two stores will use the same amount of server power as if it was just one store.

 

[CompactLaw]

Ah, ok - that sounds even better.
But Magento still needs good optimisation and good hosting.

 

[SugarCubeProductions]

Ah, ok - that sounds even better.
But Magento still needs good optimisation and good hosting.

All webstores need good hosting. You get a speed ranking from google on how fast your page loads!