setting up a new store

[susanjoyce]

hi everyone!
ive had a read through posts in this section and gained lots of useful info so thank you first for that!

im wondering if i could have some opinions for setting up an online store?

firstly id like to know if there are any benefits to having a .com rather than a .co.uk site?
im aiming to sell worldwide in the future so would a .com be a better option regarding this?

my store will be selling one of a kind clothing. only one piece per size and run so what would you recommend for building this kind of store? ive had a look at magenta and tiger commerce as well as ekm but have been put off ekm after reading some reviews etc here.

ive sold some bits and pieces on ebay but feel id rather have a site dedicated to my clothing so i can get the best prices for my clothes rather than selling them in an auction format on ebay or with a limited listing time.
i would like to do most of the updating etc myself but perhaps would like a web designer to help me get the site looking pro from the start.

any comments or suggestions are more than welcome. thank you!

 

[maxh]

There's no major difference between .co.uk and .com

But I always lean towards .com

Assuming the size of your range is large you will need a big website. I recommend Drupal.

It will be expensive BUT will save you time in the long run.

For now perhaps build it in weebly.com for free and test it, to see if its a popular idea.

But be prepared for the big upgrade. Weebly's limitations are power and expandability, drupals limitations are cost.

Are you looking for someone to build your site for you?

 

[mud-stx]

Hi,

If you are aiming worldwide then a .com is a MUST.
As for an ecommerce solution how about cubecart? Actually I came across something the other day and would like to know the opinion of others please - it is a plug-in cart for wordpress and called ShopperPress.
Anyone have experience with this? At first look it seems really good and is SEO friendly as well...

 

[susanjoyce]

i'll have a look at drupal and weebly thanks.
im not very technical so im not sure if i could build a site from scratch. ive got friends doing design work for me but i may need someone to get these on my page.
i just feel quite lost as when i read up on features of one or other solution and am won over it all comes crashing down when i look at examples of sites thatve been made with their systems - and i cant tell if these pitfalls are through the software or design! i guess thatll come with time and experience though!

 

[jacee]

Shameful to say I did work for a company in the past that sold on line, due to what I learnt there and some experiances that customers had I always look for .co.uk now as I am a little more rest-assured that they are in the UK, I know all business should be contactable but I now see .com almost like a PO BOX.( People please dont jump on me with this as it is just my feelings) If you will be shipping over sees however I do think .com will be the way forward as it is global.

Just something to bare in mind. . . .

 

[Rolo Tomasi]

For the cost I would register both the .com and .uk names and have one forwarding to the other. If the majority of your customers will be in the UK I would use the .co.uk site as it will appear more 'niche'.

With regards to the site itself, if you are not going to be building it yourself then surely it doesn't matter how it is constructed provided that the update and administration is easy. This is the question to ask your web design company.

A cheap alternative would be to try using one of the 'shop in a box solutions' (there will probably be a number advertised on the right) although I find that these are very bland and all end up looking the same.

 

[maxh]

weebly = free to £50 to build and host a small website for 2 years. However it will not support much more than 20 different products (I am treating each item as a product)

Joomla = relatively inexpensive for what you get ~ £1,000 to have something that will meet the needs of a site with maybe 100-500 products (however 100+ will cost you more as you'll switch from a flat to a dynamic database site, you WILL need a programmer for this)

Drupal = £10, 000 + to build then however much for a design. You WILL need a programmer who is GOOD (joomla is easier to programme) You want someone with at least 1 years experience with the latest version of drupal. This site will support infinite products and infinite number of content (nodes)

Also the way the website 'works' will be smarter and in general better, easier to use and most importantly easier to find. It also has the best CMS (content management system) this is what you use to add content.

If you are really serious and definite this can make money I recommend you find yourself 1. an SEO experienced in long tail natural search optimisation and social media marketing (proven track-record) 2. a programmer with lots of relevant drupal or similar experience and 3. a good web designer who knows what they're doing, and ideally has knowledge of conversion optimisation.

Good luck!

 

[jamieclick]

Hi Susan,

I think for sure you need to invest in both the .co.uk & .com

If you are looking to take somebody on to start the site please do give me the chance to have a chat with you and see what we can do for you. We have worked for quite a few people through out the forum now and would love to continue adding to that list.

Please feel free to check out our site at http://clickbusinesssolutions.co.uk/ and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Jamie

 

[ukbf0001]

On your requirements :-
Do you need full blown ecommerce, with onsite credit card processing,
Do you need customer management type functions
Do you have a website already and just need to integrate an ecommerce solution
How will people find you , if you ditch Ebay ? - have you done any SEO type work ?
There are 1000's of other questions.
I've been through the mill (and back and out the other side - and round again) on most things eCommerce / website based.
There will be a solution available for you - but as said - it depends on your requirements and budget.

 

[Faevilangel]

I would go for the .co.uk and the .com as you can cover your back. The .co.uk would be the best if you're targetting the uk market.

Magento would be my first choice for building your web store, but other good ones are cred loaded and prestashop. You would need to host the sites your self.
If you want someone else to do the hosting, you can have the website run by an external company, such as tiger commerce, iwebshop and open mind commerce. You will pay a monthly fee for this.

Did you try starting an ebay shop? Much better than auctions and you can set fixed prices (buy it now) rather than traditional auctions. Many people start with an ebay shop then go onto building their own shop. It might be ideal to do ebay for a bit to get some buyers, then just offer them incentives to use your shop.

Before you get a designer / developer in, work out what you want from the site, and use a designer who is local to you and has a portfolio. The best way to find local developers is google "web designers in xxxx" or something similar.

Good luck

 

[david8765]

Certainly register both .co.uk and .com domain names and have one forward to the other. .com is a global TLD but some users still see .com as american.

There are plenty of off the shelf platoforms available but if the aim is to maximise the sales value you may want to get a custom built solution to ensure the products are displayed in the best possible light and exactly how you want them.

 

[ukbf0001]

.co.uk if you are targetting UK market :-

I love some of these products - BUT they have their drawbacks :-

Magento - I wouldn't if you are a beginner and I also wouldnt install it if you are using shared hosting. Steep learning curve for a newbie.

Prestashop - love it - but it is still fatally flawed if you have more than a few product combinations - ity treats them all seperately - eg Coffee Cup, size (s,m or L), colour (red,white,blue, green, pink etc)
Prestashop will multiply akk these together as seperate products - and it will kill your database.

X-cart - I love it - it does everything you could require in terms of options, SEO etc - BUT - it is fiddly - very fiddly.

ZenCart - OSCommerce - I have used buyilt shops with them - but again - they appear to be very old looking now.

If you want a very simple shop - integrated into your website - then why not use PayPal and create your products / options with their code generator - this is easy and a bit noddy - and if you have lots of products it a complete pain in the A....

Actinic - again - flawed in the way it works re the way it generates the code (flawed as in - no oter cart does it this way)

ClickCart - never used it - but trialled - seemed fairly easy to use. What it's like for SEO etc - I dont know.

Enough typing for me for one day - back to work

 

[edmondscommerce]

always get both the .com and the .co.uk - just redirect one to the other (if you are targeting the UK then you should use the .co.uk as your main domain).

I'm a big Magento fan so would recommend that first.

In my experience noobs tend to struggle less with Magento than people who have used other platforms and think they know it all - they have to unlearn old habits before being able to get the best out of Magento.

Another option is CRE Loaded - for low budget stores its the one I tend to use, its feature packed and easy enough to use and free. Its also easily skinned so it doesn't have to look like every other site out there.

 

[susanjoyce]

thank you very much everyone!
im going to have a good look at everything suggested and will def be registering both the .co.uk and .com names after your input.
what a lovely helpful forum

 

[mud-stx]

again I would vote for cubecart, especially with their newest version allowing a great deal of SEO to be done on there...

 

[ukbf0001]

I havent seen CubeCart SEO facility to comment on what it does.
Just remember though that Onsite SEO accounts for about 25% of SERPS.
Natural and good quality Offsite links account for the rest.

I think the OP is going to be basic level entry into eCommerce - I dont think she maybe aware of the long arduous road to Google Page1

 

[FiFi Fashions]

Hi,
I sell mainly in the UK so I have a co.uk domain but I also have the .com version and forward it to my .co.uk domain. For two reasons, the co.uk gives some assurance to my customers that I am UK based. Secondly a lot of people may remember your domain name but often assume it will be followed by .com
hope that makes sense and helps a little,
Anthony

 

[mud-stx]

@ cellweb i agree that onsite SEO is part of the path to Google page 1, however I do believe that if your foundations aren't set right, then it makes for a tricky journey

 

[alanc]

Actinic - again - flawed in the way it works re the way it generates the code (flawed as in - no oter cart does it this way)

I don't see why this is a flaw. It gives good SEo performance out-of-the-bow. Actinic was very easy to set up and has run my shop reliably for several years. The template system is flexible for customising the design.

(flawed as in - no other cart does it this way)

Not true. Erol has a similar page-generating system.

 

[shopintegrator]

Hi,

I recommend having both .co.uk and .com domains, you can then just point them both at the same website for now.

As an additional option for you to set up an online shop, you could use the Shop Integrator ecommerce plugin toolkit. Grab a good looking free/low cost template design that best fits your site and copy and paste the ecommerce widgets in to your pages to give you a feature packed online shop without it costing a great deal.

 

[ukbf0001]

I don't see why this is a flaw. It gives good SEo performance out-of-the-bow. Actinic was very easy to set up and has run my shop reliably for several years. The template system is flexible for customising the design.


Not true. Erol has a similar page-generating system.

Let me explain :-
When I was looking to setup an ecommerce solution - I looked heavily at actinic. But Actinic has a strange way of doing things. You generate the cart on your PC - then upload everything as a catalog. It also had a strange way of processing / notification of orders. Something I had not seen in any of the 10plus ecommerce solutions I looked at. Actinic didnt fit into my way (or my clients way) of how they want to operate a business. Then there was the licence issues (and costs).
But it's all horses for courses - with actinic I didnt fancy the horse or the jockey

 

[dailygrooming]

Susan

I agree with others, you need to register com and uk. I've been trading successfully online since 2002.

Back then I was fortunate enough to have the time to invest in learning SEO. This to me was more important, since nothing really happens until you get found. I built the site using Actinic, many nights were sat hunched over a computer in pyjamas's designing, testing and modifying the site.

It is really easy to get overwhelmed by this stuff and I've had people come to me having spent upwards of 10k on a site that has no chance of being indexed, well not successfully anyway. Nowadays there are far cheaper options.

If I were to start again from scratch, I'd spend focus and money on getting found. Use adwords campaigns via targeted landing pages. Test, test, test and when you have a result (sales) then you can kick off with a bells and whistles website.

When you are ready, Shopify, Big Commerce and Volusion are some of the key players and are very 'newbie' friendly. They also have rich resource communities, so if you do start doing some serious business you won't be limited in terms of 'future proofing' as these guys are very well established.

Some 'home grown' sites are bloated with code and when users go to them the load times can be slow and then then there's the speed of the hosting server. I would avoid all of these little time consuming management headaches and save yourself the pain. Use a proven solution, bite the bullet and stick to promoting your range.

Getting involved in using others for hosting and design will mean that you'll see costs ratcheting up. There are also exit costs if you fall out or don't see eye to eye. Far better to focus budgets on attracting and retaining customers in the early days. There's nothing worse than spending a load of time and money tying yourself into a site (or developer) that won't work because it can't be found.

If your products are 'boutiquey' you could do some preliminary testing. Even if they aren't, you could make the pages look like they are. Tightly focus on this and you could start generating money before you even think about investing in a big site.

1. Get a couple of landing pages cheaply designed, maybe with a google or paypal button.
2. Optimise them for search (And google adwords).
3. Make sure they have an e-mail form or facebook page link to capture comments, and make it easy to get in touch with you. Also a b i g phone number on the page.
4. Initiate and collect data via an adwords campaign and use it to understand/assess viability and what your demographic wants.

Finally, once you have a market try using google shop etc and add a few more products targeted for your demographic. Or build a basic site, my ex girlfriend did this herself with no previous web design experience, admittedly she was selling a service and there were only 5 or 6 google shop buttons.

It may be that the results you get take you in a slightly different direction. Build off of that!

Hope my 'opinions' help with your thinking

 

[EliteIntegrity]

I would suggest the following.

Yes .com if you are going truly global.

If you are going into just a few countries try a few domains. I.e. .co.uk + whichever countries you are going to sell to. Each of the local domains can fair better on local search.

If you go for multiple domains or multiple countries on just one domain I would reccomend Magento from what you have described. The reason for this is it handles multiple countries/domains well and is extremely flexible and expandable.

Setup with Magento is more complex compared to many other carts but you mention having it setup by a pro so no problem there. It is nice and easy to administer with a little bit of learning/reading.

Good luck with your new venture.

John

 

[Nathf1505]

Look up opencart they also have a great forum full of members all happy to help