starting an online shop

prashantvp

Free Member
Dec 10, 2013
3
0
45
Hello all :), sorry for being a pain,

I am looking to start an online shop, I am thinking to go with ekmpowershop.

I am confused in with regards to payment options, currently I have a streamline card machine, if I want to trade online can I get an online account and start trading? what is needed for me to take online payments? any other help/advice I would need or you can give me?

I have also read to keep the domain and hosting separate, how do I do this? my domain is with 123reg?


sorry once again, I am very very new to this and still gathering all the information I need.
Any advice is most appreciated.

Many thanks
 
Hi prashantvp,

Setting up the online shop is the "easy" bit it's the promotion of your products that is the fun part. I will be setting up my own online shop again soon for a local pet supply service so I know how fun and frustrating it can be (I'm rebranding it).

First of all you asked about payment methods...

I can't post any links to show you because I haven't posted enough here yet but I myself use Paypal.

I run my own web hosting service and I sell domains as well as hosting but in my honest opinion I believe you are better off keeping your domain name and hosting with separate providers because it just keeps things simpler in the long run. If you do a quick google search for "keep domain and hosting separate" then you'll understand why this is the case.

I don't pretend to have the best advice in the world when it comes to online shops but I have set up a couple of them using WordPress and a plugin called Woocommerce which instantly transforms your WordPress site into a "fully featured ready to rock" Ecommerce site and best of all both WordPress and the Woocommerce theme are FREE!

So what you have so far is...

A domain name
A fully featured website with a fully featured Ecommerce system.

All you need to find is a web host.

My advice on that is STAY AWAY from the web hosts that offer UNLIMITED EVERYTHING because there is no such thing. If you read their terms and conditions there is always a snag somewhere so keep vigilant.

I hope this helps you. If you have any other questions just ask and I'll try my best to answer them :)
 
Upvote 0

jordan12

Free Member
Oct 24, 2013
7
0
Los Angeles
Running an online store is easy.
If you are unsure about your payment method.
You can always add a call to action option on your website. This way all the buyers can call you and can transfer all the money directly to your account.
I have done the same way on my website.
I sell Natural stones in Los angeles and i have added a call to action. The main thing is on focusing on bringing the buyers and making your website in search engine notice.
Paypal is the best option if you want to add an online payment option, Register in the merchant section. The reason i hate paypal is because their conversion rate is too less.
 
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Bart Simpson

Free Member
Jan 12, 2010
183
29
www.eukhost.com
Hello all :), sorry for being a pain,

I am looking to start an online shop, I am thinking to go with ekmpowershop.

I am confused in with regards to payment options, currently I have a streamline card machine, if I want to trade online can I get an online account and start trading? what is needed for me to take online payments? any other help/advice I would need or you can give me?

I have also read to keep the domain and hosting separate, how do I do this? my domain is with 123reg?


sorry once again, I am very very new to this and still gathering all the information I need.
Any advice is most appreciated.

Many thanks

For online payments you can use Paypal or ask the customers for direct transfers to your account. It would depend on what the customers are happy with.

About keeping the domain and hosting separate, its not a big deal. If you have the domain with one provider then you can sign up with another web hosting provider and ask them to set up your account.

So your data is with the web hosting provider and you host the shop the there and the domain is with another company.

If you want to know more about web hosting then feel free to PM me.
 
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shanayas

Free Member
Nov 29, 2013
9
0
India
For any website, it is very important to select the platform which are beneficial to the business. If we are talking about online store, so I think Magento is the best option. It is because Magento has many tools & extension which will decreases your all issues related to your website. Also, helps to increase your business productivity & provide a secure transaction service to your customers.
 
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antropy

Business Member
  • Business Listing
    Aug 2, 2010
    5,323
    1,104
    West Sussex, UK
    www.antropy.co.uk
    Upvote 0
    Hi


    If you intend to complete transactions online your card machine is not that much use to you. You can use your card machine for telephone orders. You need to apply to Streamline (or another merchant bank HSBC, Barclays etc) for a dedicated merchant account for online transactions. It is known as an Internet Merchant Account. When you apply be careful to specify your Payment Solution Provider or you will likely be automatically signed up to Worldpay (if using Streamline) which may or may not suit you. You must also state that you want to use 3d Secure as in most cases this is not automatically set up.


    Before you even think about trading online I would HIGHLY recommend that you carry out a full viability study. We are an e-commerce provider and it would surprise you how many people we talk to that haven't carried out even a basic study. You could speak to iShop Limited (google ishop ecommerce) for full details but the basic things to look at are....


    1. How many people are searching on Google for your products? Pick 10 or so keywords and using Google Keyword Planner tool you can find out.


    2. How much will it cost to run a PPC (pay per click) campaign? What is the CPC (cost per click) and what is likely conversion rate. For the average Product Listings Ad campaign you can expect to pay at least 20p per click but some products it can be much more, over £1 per click. This is why your conversion rates are so important.


    3. Are you competitive? Although price isn't everything it is definitely a big deciding factor. As is cost of delivery, time to delivery and many other smaller factors. It can be surprising at just how many people sell so cheap and may leave you wondering why they bother.


    4. Make sure that you can develop a site at least as good as what is already out there and save at least half your expected costs for marketing once it is complete. Many a great looking site fails for not following the above recommendations.


    iShop recently analysed a portion of visitor data across six of its successful e-commerce sites.


    The results may surprise you


    Message me if you want the link. It will not allow me to post it here.


    Simon
     
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    B

    BeechDirect.com

    Have you thought about offering your customers credit? Allowing your customers to pay by credit, could increase your sales, turnover, profit etc. We specailise in Retail Finance. If you need more info about how we could help, PM me. Thanks
     
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    prashantvp

    Free Member
    Dec 10, 2013
    3
    0
    45
    Thanks for all the informative replies. I have decided to keep domain and host separate.

    I will most likely use Paypal as a payment method.

    with regards to hosting an online shop, woocommerce seems good, with regards to the website template, how does this work?

    Sorry for the silly questions, I am just trying to get a clearer picture of everything.

    Thanks
     
    Upvote 0

    prashantvp

    Free Member
    Dec 10, 2013
    3
    0
    45
    Hello again, I have just had a look at opencart, this seems good, with nice templates, in regards to both woocommerce and opencart do I have to get the template, make changes i.e colour schemes, list products etc and get it hosted? is it something I can do myself?

    Thanks again
     
    Upvote 0

    erictwendell

    Free Member
    Dec 17, 2013
    14
    0
    40
    Hello all :), sorry for being a pain,

    I am looking to start an online shop, I am thinking to go with ekmpowershop.

    I am confused in with regards to payment options, currently I have a streamline card machine, if I want to trade online can I get an online account and start trading? what is needed for me to take online payments? any other help/advice I would need or you can give me?

    I have also read to keep the domain and hosting separate, how do I do this? my domain is with 123reg?


    sorry once again, I am very very new to this and still gathering all the information I need.
    Any advice is most appreciated.

    Many thanks

    Payments are done at SSL certificates. So choosing a good solution provider for this purpose will be quite helpful.
     
    Upvote 0

    william04

    Free Member
    Jun 25, 2012
    127
    15
    First
    Hello again, I have just had a look at opencart, this seems good, with nice templates, in regards to both woocommerce and opencart do I have to get the template, make changes i.e colour schemes, list products etc and get it hosted? is it something I can do myself?

    Thanks again
    If he is thinning to use wordpress then just E-commerce plugin would be fine. Or CMS like volusion or nopcommerce would also be in option.
     
    Upvote 0

    threenine

    Free Member
    Nov 30, 2012
    767
    174
    Swindon
    You can either use PayPal to process payments. Which is pretty much free set up, but they do charge around 3.5% per transaction.

    If you want to be able to process payments outside of the PayPal solution. You may have to first apply for a Merchant Bank Account with a Merchant Bank

    An example of these are Barclay Card Merchant Services, or companies such as http://www.paymentsense.co.uk , there are a number of others.

    These accounts are separate to your existing bank accounts, and enable you transact on using Debit & Credit cards. Depending on your Merchant Banking facility, you may also need to use a Payment Processing Facility such as Sage Pay, or World Pay and the like. All these options however incur minimum monthly charges or per transactions cost or both. Depending on which ever option you choose.
     
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    Whoever you decide to go with research them first, do a search for reviews and pay attention to the bad ones, if several say the same or similar things, dont ignore it, move on and try someone else. Also think carefully how much it is going to cost you in the long run to be paying continually to run your site.
    Unless you are just testing the water with a business idea, most people are better off with a website they own outright and done have to pay a fee each month for. This way when times are hard and there are less sales, you wont be worrying about keeping the site going.
     
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