Start up website

[aleox]

Hi

I'm in the process of setting up a website selling costume jewellery and looking into the millions of website options :|

I am not going to have more than 50 products but I'd like good zoom or enlargement options. I don't want to pay a lot to start with as I will be running this business along my day job. Been reading this forum and have seen different advice, so I am a bit confussed, what do you recommend Prestashop, Opencart or whatelse?

 

[NextPoint]

Is this your first website? There are better options to start trading online for beginners that will open better options for you later if and when you decide to create a website of your own. My advice for anyone looking to trade online is to start with eBay and Amazon, as these have an existing audience to sell to and much lower starting costs.

You can look at starting to trade with your own website, but you have the costs of setting the website up, maintaining the website, hosting and most importantly you have marketing costs, which to do properly isn't cheap.

I wrote an article about whether startup businesses need a website - check it out.

 

[Oakleaf Studio UK]

Since you asked the question the link in my signature may be ideal for you. Alternatively could also set up a PrestaShop store or Opencart store relatively cheaply (for the price of a domain and hosting).

The software itself is opensource. The only other expense would be the storefront customisation (or theme to keep costs down).

 

[WolfStores]

Hi There,

I would recommend Prestashop.

Others have suggested eBay and Amazon, which I would agree they are easy to work with but the margins for costume jewellery on these sites would be peanuts if not non-existent.

Prestashop is open source so you would only need a domain name and hosting which you can get at really low prices.

PM me if you need more free advice on this or access to some demo online shops.

Cheers,

Tim

 

[NextPoint]

It's true that margins may not be as high on eBay for your first sales, but there are ways of using eBay to build a customer base that are more profitable on future sales. The good thing abut eBay and Amazon is that there is hardly (if any) upfront costs to start trading. Compare this to a website where you have to pay a lot for marketing and still may not make any sales. My advice would be to build a website once you've got an audience from eBay and Amazon - that way you get to make sales straight away from your website without the marketing costs.

 

[stender]

A basic website doesn't cost much so I would suggest setting this up ASAP and start selling on ebay and amazon. When you ship orders to customers include a flyer with a discount code on for your website so that return business is via that and not ebay/amazon.

 

[Poppy Design]

There are a lot of online shops selling jewellery - in order to succeed (and regardless on which shopping cart) you are going to have to find your own little place in this market... whether this is "the best", "the cheapest", "the most unusual" etc

as a personal lover of jewellery my greatest hate with google search is I never find the bespoke/handmade jewellery I am after - just faceless brands etc

While yes anyone can set up a free online shop - if it looks cheap/unprofessional etc why would anyone buy from your shop?

 

[aleox]

While yes anyone can set up a free online shop - if it looks cheap/unprofessional etc why would anyone buy from your shop?

Totally agree hence the need of having a "professional looking " site. I personally might not shop in sites that haven't got good photos or don't look very professional

I have online stores in both OpenCart and Magento and I am now setting another one up in PrestaShop.

How come you are using 3 different platforms then?

Agree selling on Amazon and Ebay could be a good start but not sure how many people will turn to amazon to look for jewellery. I do like the flyer idea so I will definitely consider it.

 

[aleox]

One more thing sorry, do Prestashop and Opencart have themes I can download to use as templates?
Do I have to pay to use either of them?

 

[WolfStores]

Prestashop have many free themes available but there are also premium themes available at a reasonable cost.
If you would like to have a look at premium Presta themes and prices click here.

Cheers,

Tim

 

[MatthewH]

Shopify is also good - it's a hosted e-commerce platform that you can brand to your own requirements. Check them out!

 

[metizsoft]

Hello

our development team working with all major exist Ecommerce platform and I read your requirement like need 50 products light wight store. I would honestly suggest

1. Open cart
2. but think once Wordpress + woocomerce as there is lot of theme and style available that you needed as professional rich look and its cheaper one

Best things I suggest a wordpress is you will get great advantage over rest platform for SEO as no one can bit the wordpress in SEO.

let me know if you need any more opinion and pro and cons of any platform and help as I am serving ecommerce domains since last 7 years.

Thansk
Chetan
Metizsoft solutions
Ecommerce Development team

 

[antropy]

Magento is coded very poorly and is a horrible software to use in comparison to OpenCart

I'd agree. I'd be interested to hear how you get on with Prestashop and what your thoughts are on the code and features.

I agree the OP should go with OpenCart.

 

[wayzgoose]

Give freewebstore.org a look. Play for free and then upgrade to £6.99 a month for 50 products.

 

[captain-spaulding]

Thanks Philip for the Prestashop recommendation - I'll look into that platform.

Someone mentioned using WP + Woo. Has anyone had success with this combo?

 

[WolfStores]

Thanks Philip for the Prestashop recommendation - I'll look into that platform.

Hi There,

We build Prestashop online shops (and host them) for our clients.

PM me if you require any more details or access to Prestashop demo shops

Best Regards,

Tim

 

[Ezymobiles]

After being very frustrated with many "out of the box" site, I have settle on Shopify and highly recommend it for a online store rather than customer information site.

 

[bhavinsw]

Hi,

magento is best ecommerce plantform. Also you can check for some SOS website creator where you just have to give you product and they will do rest like managing and designing the site.

Or Wix.com is the best solution to create site.

Thanks