Starting from scratch!

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maddy1980

  • #1
    Ok, right, er, help?!

    I would like to create an online store using my own web address as currently my store is hosted by a free site with their name in the web address. Can someone please explain to me step by step what I need to do. Firstly I assume I need to register a domain name - then what? I am so confused what with Joomla this, Zen Cart that. What bit does what? What am I paying for?

    Have I made any sense?:|
     
    F

    Faevilangel

  • #4
    1) Can you afford to pay someone to do it? If so, it will save a lot of hair pulling!
    2) If No, then what do you want your site to do? There are thousands of shopping cart software examples so you need to work them down based on what you want to sell, and extra features
    Popular stores are zencart, oscommerce, prestashop, magento and opencart.
    3) Buy your domain from someone like www.daily.com or www.123-reg.co.uk (cheapest providers about).
    4) Next you will need hosting (will depend on the shop type you choose)
    5) Install shop, install template, set up products, set up payment providers (paypal, nochex, credit cards etc),
    6) start selling


    There are loads of steps and loads of choices, without more info about what you want to sell, features of store etc, we can only point you in a general direction.

    I would look into paying someone to do it, prices will range from £600 to £20,000 depending on what you want.

    You can also get a hosted solution, which you pay for monthly, iwebshop and openmindcommerce are 2 that spring to mind. They take all the hassle from setups etc
     
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    F

    Faevilangel

  • #6
    Rufus & Effie said:
    I sell childrens clothing so wish to add products with several attributes. I will use Paypal and Google Checkout for now.
    Click to expand...

    I would go for magento then (demo) as it allows you to add individual sizes to each product (and other things).

    The thing is it's a pain to use as a "noob" so I would either get a book and read up on it or pay someone to set up the store for you.
     
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    S

    Sam Boogie

  • #7
    Okay, you sound like selling clothes is what you're good at and not so much dealing with the technical side of things. In which case I'd say look for a good hosted solution, I nearly went with Big Commerce but chickened out at the last minute because of some potential VAT handling issues. But definitely, definitely go with a hosted solution, unless you can afford to pay someone to do it for you. Oh yeh, lots of people on here recommend Blue Park who offer hosted solutions from something like £25 per month.

    I have a degree in software engineering and run a web team at a digital marketing agency and I already know I cant do it all by myself!
     
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    V

    Vision2

    Free Member
    Apr 7, 2010
    174
    25
    United Kingdom
  • #9
    Invest :) save up / get a loan or whatever, find a company you are comfy with doing business with.

    As someone else mentioned, Magento is ideal for this kind of thing. Paypal express/ google checkout / paypal pro / hsbc etc.. plenty of payment gateways to offer customers.

    From a client point of view, it's simple to add products and maintain your site. Which is what you want

    You shouldnt setup your own site, madness, get a professional to do you a design and deployment (not saying this to talk to me, doesn't matter who you go with).

    Going from one hosted shop to another is pointless :) Magento is by far, one of the most powerful systems out there. The more you learn to use the backend administration panel the more you will get out of it. but from the get go, it's simple enough to add products - configurable or otherwise. Just as simple as any other.

    What the guy above is getting at, is it's not easy to 'setup', as in its for developers/designers to design and deploy the system, then its handed over to you with some guidance.

    Far as the steps go, figure out what domain you want, see if they are available, list a few, then pickout your ideal ones, then ask some your web dev company you hire if its viable and if they can see any issues with it. Setup your paypal / google checkout and any other payment gateways you wish to use, so setup the accounts, sort out anything else. Find a company whoyou like the work they do, have a chat, like it, go with them.

    Who ever you hire will then take you through the rest.

    Enjoy :)
     
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    tony84

    tony84

    Free Member
    Apr 14, 2008
    6,585
    1
    1,404
    Manchester
  • #10
    get some hosting £15 a year - http://www.webhost.uk.net/shared_hosting.html - support is really good.
    Buy a domain name £10 a year - http://www.namecheap.com

    I would recommend installing www.prestashop.com - this is free.
    Setting up paypal to accept payments.

    Neither of those companies are the cheapest, but they have good support and nice easy admin panels.

    Thats the cheapest way, but maybe not the easiest.
    Otherwise you can find something where you pay a set fee (£15-25 a month) like what you have now but can use your own domain.
     
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    M

    maddy1980

  • #12
    Ok so I went for a package from Iwebshop. So far they have been really helpful and have answered my very stoopid:p questions! One day I will maybe venture into having a site custom built but for now, this does the job and is excellent value for money. My site is still in the throes of me tweaking and I still need to add more products so I'm looking for a decent dropshipper but hard to find the "right" one!

    Anyway thanks for all of the advice and info.
     
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