starting an online shop

[prashantvp]

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

 

[Massdist]

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

 

[jordan12]

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.

 

[Bart Simpson]

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.

 

[finleydesign]

I would recommend worldpay as another payment option, they offer a combined card processing and merchant account in one, and works out cheaper overall

 

[MilesWeb]

If you are planning to setup an online shop, make sure that you opt for the best platform.

 

[shanayas]

I agree with Miles, to open the online store is a good idea but the most important thing is to select the best & powerful platform for it. It will not only provide you comfort but also it will helps to increase your sales.

 

[Massdist]

There are multiple free platforms to use such as the WordPress/Woocommerce one I suggested earlier as well as Prestashop, OpenCart, Magento Community Edition (I think it's called). If you have a rough idea of what you want then you can maybe find the solution to your problem with open source software.

Best of luck mate!

 

[Wayne-StarActionFigures]

I would definitely do some research on providers and try googling EKM reviews before signing up. I've used them. Never again. Very basic product IMO. I use Bluepark and can not recommend this site enough.

 

[shanayas]

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.

 

[antropy]

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

Have you had a look at www.opencart.com yet?

It supports these payment gateways and more:
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=feature/feature&path=8

 

[Simon Brummitt]

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

 

[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

 

[prashantvp]

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

 

[prashantvp]

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

 

[GelatoChef]

subscribed to thread, as it's of interest to me since I'm doing something simila

 

[GelatoChef]

similar*

 

[erictwendell]

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.

 

[william04]

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.

 

[threenine]

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.

 

[jordan12]

Most of the people have an option of cash on delivery, you can also opt cash vouchers to be redeemed. But most the users nowadays transfer money via wired transaction, It is a safe transaction and the fees are also less as compared to paypal.

 

[jordan12]

I have set up cash on delivery and wired transaction on my website. We are merchants of natural stones, We have been doing business in providing natural stones from years.

 

[threenine]

I've never used a wired transaction in my life.

Don't think I would ever use a wired transaction facility on a website.

Would love to hear opinions from others?

 

[jordan12]

I would suggest you to open an account in a bank using your business name and then carry transactions related to your business only.
I too would love to hear others suggestion about this.

 

[threenine]

I think we commonly refer to this as a BACS transfer in the UK.
Bankers' Automated Clearing Services

It's common way for businesses to transfer money to each other. However, I am not sure of it's popularity in e-commerce based transactions?

 

[The web design girl]

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.