Opening a online shop
- Thread starter soraya
- Start date
Buy yourself Serif easyweb from PC World. Its about £45 and you quite literally drag and drop everything you want into place to construct your website. No programming needed and it includes 1000s of professional looking templates and bits of artwork.
You'll just need photos of the products you want to sell to upload to it. It has shopping carts etc to drag and drop into place. You just link it to whatever bank account your business will be using.
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N
Ninja Commerce
What do you want tips on specifically? Do you plan to build the site yourself or hire someone? And do you need tips for marketing the site or just getting it set-up?
My (very general) advice would be to use a service such as shopify or volusion. In general these options offer an easier way to get an ecommerce business off the ground.
You do of course pay a premium, but as a fraction of the costs that any ecommerce business has to pay, I think it's worth it.
The advantage is that by making the set-up process relatively simple you can focus your effort on marketing your business, which is in reality by far the harder challenge.
In terms of marketing, it depends on your niche and your budget:
Paid advertising (eg, Adwords)
instant traffic
costs money
can be hard to get a positive ROI
Free traffic (ie, SEO)
unless you are already skilled at SEO you will need to hire someone
hence costs money
but generally produces a better ROI than PPC
Of course this is all very general advice, so take it with a pinch of salt (and since I am an SEO I could be biased).
If you go the SEO route, try to focus your efforts on activities that actually provide traffic, and make the most of content marketing if you can.
My (very general) advice would be to use a service such as shopify or volusion. In general these options offer an easier way to get an ecommerce business off the ground.
You do of course pay a premium, but as a fraction of the costs that any ecommerce business has to pay, I think it's worth it.
The advantage is that by making the set-up process relatively simple you can focus your effort on marketing your business, which is in reality by far the harder challenge.
In terms of marketing, it depends on your niche and your budget:
Paid advertising (eg, Adwords)
instant traffic
costs money
can be hard to get a positive ROI
Free traffic (ie, SEO)
unless you are already skilled at SEO you will need to hire someone
hence costs money
but generally produces a better ROI than PPC
Of course this is all very general advice, so take it with a pinch of salt (and since I am an SEO I could be biased).
If you go the SEO route, try to focus your efforts on activities that actually provide traffic, and make the most of content marketing if you can.
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Buy a shop in a box for a couple of hundred pounds, and do it yourself in design and entering products etc, dont bother to much about seo just try and get a domain name that is the same as what you are selling like Anglian Plumbers selling plumbing equipment, Have page names using the same name type like Plumbing taps Plumbing tools and enter data in Meta tags
Use the best images and descriptions and go for it
After a couple of months you will find out what is working and after 6-12 months you can think of getting a designer involved now you understand what you want and what can be done
Somewhere along the line try out adwords in a limited way (cost)
Read and fully understand the distant selling regulations
Use the best images and descriptions and go for it
After a couple of months you will find out what is working and after 6-12 months you can think of getting a designer involved now you understand what you want and what can be done
Somewhere along the line try out adwords in a limited way (cost)
Read and fully understand the distant selling regulations
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- Original Poster
- #8
I am planning to set up website by myself and also try to do the marketing first alone and then will see.
So far I selected very simple website builder with 5GB storage,hope it will be enough at the beginning.
I will try to work this out without SEO first, but will try Google Ad words instead.
Also I picked same domain names with different tlds .com, .company and .boutique from uk2.net, I believe more domain names linked to my website will help with good position on Google.
If anybody has any experience before my website is up and running please let me know.
So far I selected very simple website builder with 5GB storage,hope it will be enough at the beginning.
I will try to work this out without SEO first, but will try Google Ad words instead.
Also I picked same domain names with different tlds .com, .company and .boutique from uk2.net, I believe more domain names linked to my website will help with good position on Google.
If anybody has any experience before my website is up and running please let me know.
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Stop right there!
Don't ever, ever, ever use a website builder for anything other than a hobby site. If you set up a shop using one of these builders you will be cursing yourself forever more.
Get some hosting and install one of the many ecommerce platform and start from there. It will mean you can move hosts and have full control over your site.
You don't need any of the tlds. If you are targetting the UK the only one you need is .co.uk. everything else is pointless.
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Write seo into you site with section and product names, page names,meta descriptions you have to do it so do it now right first time
Leave adwords untill you have finnished the site, and then slow and cheap with small daily budget
A good shop in a box will cost under 500 pounds but save you months of frustration dont re invent the wheel, remember intergration with other software like post, courier, psp, isp, multi language, accounts and so on
Leave adwords untill you have finnished the site, and then slow and cheap with small daily budget
A good shop in a box will cost under 500 pounds but save you months of frustration dont re invent the wheel, remember intergration with other software like post, courier, psp, isp, multi language, accounts and so on
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If you have not already done so, find hosting that uses cpanel. You will then be able to freely load all the free open source ecommerce software and sit and play with each and compare them to each other to see what you like best. Once you have found what you like, you may need to add extras to get the functionality you require. These extras may be free, or you may have to pay. Just remember that generally free means no support.
Once you have got everything as you want it, you can then start playing with the look and feel of the site. This can be altered over time and as long as the site looks professional, it should sell. What I will say, after saying that, is that the first sale may take a lot longer than you thought and so might the second.
Best of luck in what ever you do.
Once you have got everything as you want it, you can then start playing with the look and feel of the site. This can be altered over time and as long as the site looks professional, it should sell. What I will say, after saying that, is that the first sale may take a lot longer than you thought and so might the second.
Best of luck in what ever you do.
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Worst advice ever!
Test the market first by listing your products on eBay to see if people actually want to buy them. Once you've selling quite a few on eBay and have established there's a market look at either a hosted option like Shopify or if you're going to take the business more seriously find an ecommerce focussed web agency to design and build your site in either OpenCart or Prestashop.
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Choose your product offering carefully. Certain products (Electronics, clothing) are more suited to ecommerce than others (Pet food!). I'd also think about your logistics e.g. your warehouse/shipping plus how you're going to deal with customer service.
As others have said, experiment and see what works before you commit capital.
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This.
But apart from that, my top tip would be to speak to some time tested, experienced e-commerce pros, and not to listen to random advice from unknown handles on a business forum.
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Here's the best advice you'll get and I'm not selling anything here.
Forget about you business being online, forget about what ecom products are out there. Think about you business and it's products. You need to research your market and create words and phases. Where they shop, what level of the market they shop in.
Then produce an outline of how you want to sell, how your customers want to browse your products and how they want to pay. Create categories from these if possible. Think about your customer profile, what are their needs, what browsing they need, filters ect. How are you going to ship, what services you will need and the policies you will work to.
Then and only then look for a shopping cart that fits you need at the lowest price to reduce risk. Do not just assume if you spend x on advertising the people will come.
Forget about you business being online, forget about what ecom products are out there. Think about you business and it's products. You need to research your market and create words and phases. Where they shop, what level of the market they shop in.
Then produce an outline of how you want to sell, how your customers want to browse your products and how they want to pay. Create categories from these if possible. Think about your customer profile, what are their needs, what browsing they need, filters ect. How are you going to ship, what services you will need and the policies you will work to.
Then and only then look for a shopping cart that fits you need at the lowest price to reduce risk. Do not just assume if you spend x on advertising the people will come.
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We use a pick & pack company to store our products and ship out orders as they come in. This type of service is more cost effective than I would have thought previously and it has freed me up to focus on business development.
The customer is also getting a superior delivery service from a professional company, with tracking details sent via email and text message etc. previously I was using Royal Mail.
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T
Tony King
Interesting - as we are looking at offering a storage - pick and pack and despatch service as part of our new business. Yet we are struggling to find a place to advertise this service. The tracking software is easily available from a number of companies - they also give you a reasonable parcel discount as well due to volume. As you say - it is cost effective - if the volume is there - or you do it in collaboration with a number of other businesses.
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1. Research your market carefully. Look at your competitors, and develop a USP. Why would people buy from your online shop rather than theirs? Do you sell something they don't?
2. Find a reliable web hosting company - one with guaranteed 99.9% up-time. If the server goes down, you're out of business. Heart Internet would be my choice.
3. Build your online shop using a solid but flexible platform - my choice would be WordPress with the WooCommerce plug-in. Why? because it's flexible enough for you to add extra things to it (a blog or discussion forum, say) which will entice people to keep visiting your site, even when they haven't thought about buying anything. You can also enhance the security to keep hackers at bay - see http://shaunpearce.co.uk/wsc/ (I have to declare an interest here).
4. Get a professional designer to create a custom theme for you. Hire a local designer, or get one off elance.com
5. Advertise. Be prepared to pay a lot, initially. PPC advertising will get the ball rolling for you, then hire an SEO expert to start generating organic traffic. Take out print ads. in publications read by your target market.
6. Build a customer list and e-mail them regularly with news and offers. Use coupon codes to offer repeat customers a discount.
7. Keep building your product line so there's always something new when people visit your site.
8. Rinse and repeat!
2. Find a reliable web hosting company - one with guaranteed 99.9% up-time. If the server goes down, you're out of business. Heart Internet would be my choice.
3. Build your online shop using a solid but flexible platform - my choice would be WordPress with the WooCommerce plug-in. Why? because it's flexible enough for you to add extra things to it (a blog or discussion forum, say) which will entice people to keep visiting your site, even when they haven't thought about buying anything. You can also enhance the security to keep hackers at bay - see http://shaunpearce.co.uk/wsc/ (I have to declare an interest here).
4. Get a professional designer to create a custom theme for you. Hire a local designer, or get one off elance.com
5. Advertise. Be prepared to pay a lot, initially. PPC advertising will get the ball rolling for you, then hire an SEO expert to start generating organic traffic. Take out print ads. in publications read by your target market.
6. Build a customer list and e-mail them regularly with news and offers. Use coupon codes to offer repeat customers a discount.
7. Keep building your product line so there's always something new when people visit your site.
8. Rinse and repeat!
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I realise when you are starting out you probably aren't too worried about all the background admin type stuff (cos you're more focused on sales first!), but seriously what bit me in backside BIG time, is starting up in ecommerce, with robust automated back end software & processes in place ...therefore whatever path you choose, have one eye on how you can move your sales order data about....this won't be obvious at first, but unless you can automate, right from point of purchase all the way through to getting the data into your accounts software, then you're going to have your time sumped manually doing this kind of thing or pay someone else to do it!
I went the Opencart route, because I'm unfeasibly tight....there's easier/better cart software out there...but like I say, I'm somewhat more taut than a wildfowl's exit passage.
I went the Opencart route, because I'm unfeasibly tight....there's easier/better cart software out there...but like I say, I'm somewhat more taut than a wildfowl's exit passage.
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S
speedyw
I agree with Videoguy that you can go with Wordpress + Woo Commerce. Both are free and one of the easiest software to use. Woo Commerce has so many additional plugins for adding more features to your shop (Most of those are not free).
Wordpress is very robust and versatile because additional functionality can be added really quickly and easily.
The best thing about Wordpress is that its management does not need great technical skills.
One of my clients is making over a million dollars in revenue per year and he uses Wordpress.
You may think I am biased towards Wordpress because of my services but you would come to the same conclusion after using multiple ecommerce solutions.
Wordpress is very robust and versatile because additional functionality can be added really quickly and easily.
The best thing about Wordpress is that its management does not need great technical skills.
One of my clients is making over a million dollars in revenue per year and he uses Wordpress.
You may think I am biased towards Wordpress because of my services but you would come to the same conclusion after using multiple ecommerce solutions.
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R
RP Branding
I think if you really want it to work, you need it professionally designed and developed. Using a web builder that has templates hundreds of other websites are using just won't work.
If it's a niche sector you're going into, you need a 'different' website. I'd seriously have a look at the systems on offer, and then go from there.
I personally would put the website towards the end of the whole project, and make sure I had done the research first.
Good luck, let us all know how you get on!
If it's a niche sector you're going into, you need a 'different' website. I'd seriously have a look at the systems on offer, and then go from there.
I personally would put the website towards the end of the whole project, and make sure I had done the research first.
Good luck, let us all know how you get on!
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S
speedyw
If you're on a tight budget then Wordpress themes (templates) can be modified enough that they look nothing like their original mother template.
Going for a new design from scratch for any platform costs ton of money and results are not far from what a skill full designer can get from a highly modified template.
Going for a new design from scratch for any platform costs ton of money and results are not far from what a skill full designer can get from a highly modified template.
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It doen't have to. You can get a really great theme built for very little if you shop around.
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First of all, you are not a moderator. I will comment on anybodies suggestions as I please.
Magento is resource hungry and needs a pretty decent server to run efficiently.
Modifying Magento code is a nightmare. It's a nightmare for me who can write php and does understand OOP so can you imagine what it would be like for somebody that has never written code.
Maybe you would like to elaborate on the comment above. How exactly is Shopify or Opencart not able to provide the ultimate E-commerce solution?
I would love to know because I run a very successful ecommerce business built on Opencart.
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90% was made up (obviously).
The stats you quote are based on Alexa which as ane fule kno is abut as much use a chocolate fireguard.
Most e-commerce solution don't need magento. The big players in the market tend to be bespoke and the mom and pop shops use simple providers. If all you are selling is dog biscuits magento is not the solution to use.
So your suggestion to the OP to use this platform isn't helpful as you have no idea what they are selling to whom.
The stats you quote are based on Alexa which as ane fule kno is abut as much use a chocolate fireguard.
Most e-commerce solution don't need magento. The big players in the market tend to be bespoke and the mom and pop shops use simple providers. If all you are selling is dog biscuits magento is not the solution to use.
So your suggestion to the OP to use this platform isn't helpful as you have no idea what they are selling to whom.
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At the end on the day its down to personal preference. Believe it or not i prefer oscommerce, and yes I know its crap and its outdated, but it does what I want it to, and it works. I have tried opencart, cscart and magneto. Magneto seemed to have so much stuff included it was slow on my server, and hosts recommended to delete it as it was bulky, and hard to change without spending mega bucks. Others tried and tested, but stuck with what i new.
The only advice worth anything is to install them on your server and try them. Most hosts have something like softalicous and one click installs. You will find out how they perform on your hosting account, and If you dont like it remove it and try the next one. Find what you want and not what someone wants you to have. A developer will try to give you something that they want you to hgave and that they understand, and not necessarily what is goof for you and your shop.
The only advice worth anything is to install them on your server and try them. Most hosts have something like softalicous and one click installs. You will find out how they perform on your hosting account, and If you dont like it remove it and try the next one. Find what you want and not what someone wants you to have. A developer will try to give you something that they want you to hgave and that they understand, and not necessarily what is goof for you and your shop.
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No it's not. OpenCart is the best in a specific niche in the same way that Magento is the best in other areas.
The best product is one that meets the needs of the owner and the customers.
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