I need YOUR help, re. E-commerce!

Platinum Member Joined: May 06 2007 Posts: 8546

I recently started a new business. I've been going to boutiques and have not been very successful. And I know that people are interested, but I really need a website to sell my merchandise. I've been talking to lots of people, who have quoted me everything from $400 to $10,000. I've searched for hours and hours looking at different boutique web templates not really finding what I'm looking for as it's all either really corporate or girlie.

Some have said they bought a template and did it all themselves - how does one do that? Some have paid $2500 and up for a website, but that's a lot of money and who knows if I'd ever make that back.

So I guess my question is, what is your experience in making a website for your business? THANKS!
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Diamond Member Joined: Nov 14 2007 Posts: 2572

As a web designer, if you decide to use someone professional, you need to find out exactly what would be included in the services. That would make a big difference in price. (Ask about actual design, hosting, maintenance, special applications, etc.)

Something you can try if you are afraid of making a big investment in a custom website is starting off with a company that you pay very little a month to to host and put up an ecommerce website such as homestead by intuit.
Yes, you don't get very much "customization" but at least you can see if there is a market for your product online and how to reach that market in a no risk way.
Also, after working on such a site, you will know more what your needs will be if/when you decide to go custom.

Moderator Joined: Jun 05 2011 Posts: 3392

I always teach that building a website is just like building a gorgeous storefront in Antartica. It may be beautifully designed, with terrific products, but if there's no customers around - you're out of business.

So, while figuring out what kind of site you want to build, you also want to think about how you're going to get TRAFFIC to that site. Getting the site built, by yourself, or by hiring someone, is going to be the easiest part of this business.
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Silver Member Joined: May 18 2011 Posts: 625

I agree with the others who said that it may be smarter financially to set up a store that's not as customizable as completely "from scratch" website -- such as a Yahoo storefront. (http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/)

If you're still looking for a "custom design look", you can hire a designer to work within Yahoo's framework (or design graphics only) instead of having to worry about all the coding it would take to make a site from scratch, which would probably cost less and take less time.

Also, as T&P said, traffic is also important as well, so it's not worth it to spend SO much when you're just starting out. Better to establish yourself, get orders, see how you do, and then you can re-evaluate and see if you need more features, or upgrades, or anything.

How computer savvy are you? You can get customizable templates for around $80, but you'd need the domain name and hosting yourself as well as some design program or ability.

Moderator Joined: Jun 05 2011 Posts: 3392

One more point:

It pays to think about traffic BEFORE you build your site.

For example, if you're going to advertise on the radio or in a printed publication, you'll want to be sure that your domain name is very easy to spell and doesn't contain any hyphens or numbers or have a word that ends with the same letter that the next word begins with. (For example, upscaleenvelopes.com - people will often leave out that extra "e" in the middle if they are typing the name into their browser.

If you're going to rely on Google for traffic, then it's fine to have hyphens, numbers, or a difficult to pronounce or spell word in your domain, as people will simply be clicking on it.

If you plan to rely on Google for traffic, then you have to be sure that the template or system you are using allows you to add a lot of your own text, and you are not limited by a certain amount of characters in the item's description per page, so you can have more content for Google to crawl. You'll want to make sure that the program doesn't make your site resolve into hundreds of thousands of similar pages for the search engines, as that will lower your quality score.

It's much smarter to plan ahead, then to have to change things later!

All very good tips!

I will echo the thing about the name... a good catchy URL is important. Spend a few minutes Googling relevant keywords and terms that relate to your industry. When you name your business and pick a URL, it helps if you are incorporating the search keywords that your potential customers will be using. Good SEO is like free advertising.

My husband is a programmer, so I got my business website for free. Maybe try to find a student or someone who just finished a programming course... they will likely give you a good price because they're looking to build a portfolio and gain experience.

I'm not sure if it's relevant for what you're selling, but you might try Ebay as a way to gain exposure. You get 50 free listings a month.. all it will cost is time to set up the listings. You will end up paying Ebay commission on your sales, *BUT* it may be a good way to fundraise and move your merchandise. More importantly, you are building a customer base. You can't include your website in your ebay listing.. that's against the rules. But when you ship out your product, you include a flyer with your business website and your contact info... so your buyers can come back and buy from you again... or share your info with friends.

http://pages.ebay.ca/sellerinformation/howtosell/quickstartguide.html

One more tip: add a 'where did you hear about us?' field on your order form. This is a neutral question that most customers don't mind answering, but for you, this information is gold. There are all kinds of web-based tools to track hits on your site, but if you know how your buyers heard about you, then you'll be able to focus your advertising efforts (and dollars!) on things that have proven to work.
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Platinum Member Joined: May 06 2007 Posts: 8546

Firstly, thanks so much for your information - THIS is gold. The problem is, a few things, one, my product is VERY VERY NICHE. I'm not looking to make $$$$ because the need just isn't there. It's weird starting a business this way, but I've been dreaming and figuring it all out for years.

A difficulty with the website itself, is there needs to be lots of options built in. I spoke with a designer, who could give me a really basic website for about $400 but because I needed flexibility, she said it would not be worth it to go with a regular website like weebly, because I'd need a lot of options, coded into what's there and that would cost $$$$. I have a domain name already, it's a good, easy to remember URL, if not so explanatory.

I'm just at a lost as to EXACTLY how to start. I need a web designer who understands cheap Smile

Platinum Member Joined: Jun 30 2009 Posts: 8273

I am so curious as to what your product is. Hm what could be so specific and not profitable, but exciting?

Good luck!

Moderator Joined: Jun 05 2011 Posts: 3392

What kind of options do you need built into your site?

Gold Member Joined: Feb 13 2007 Posts: 1310

I like WordPress. Google "WordPress ecommerce themes" and you'll see a lot of good options. Look at the previews, see which themes have the features you need, if you find a theme you like make sure to google it and read what people are complaining about it on forums. After you pick one, you can always hire a web designer on one of the freelance bid sites who'll be in India, Russia, etc. and willing to work for less. They can tweak the theme for you if you can't figure things out yourself. Good luck!

P.S., if this is a handmade product, you can sell it on Etsy and get traffic to your main site that way.

Gold Member Joined: Feb 13 2007 Posts: 1310

Sorry, I just reread your original post and saw that you've been looking at templates/themes already and haven't found what you want.

What I'd recommend then is getting a free WordPress blog, and playing around with it using various free themes until you understand a little more how things work--how you can really change the look of the site by changing colors, fonts, images, etc., all depending on how customizable the theme is of course.

If you want your site to look really amazing you probably need outside help, but there's a lot you can do on your own so that you only have to hire people by the hour to do a few things while you take care of the easier things.

Platinum Member Joined: May 06 2007 Posts: 8546

pull down menus to choose size, fields to add text and color and maybe font?

Also a way to customize, upload a pic and add text.

Moderator Joined: Mar 29 2005 Posts: 18387

I think wordpress with ecommerce plugins or drupal with ecommerce plugins will be good for your needs since they're content management systems that allow for a lot of customization, while providing a framework to allow a store.

If you want to PM me, I can give you the name of the company I work for that does these types of things, though I'm not part of that department.

Starting with a CMS will save you a lot of money and time.
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Silver Member Joined: May 18 2011 Posts: 625

I second wordpress, though depending on the theme/your hosting, it may or may not serve your purposes, but I agree with Hashem_Yaazor; content management is the way to go.

If you post what features you need, we can help steer you in the right direction.

Gold Member Joined: Feb 13 2007 Posts: 1310

Take a look at FlexiShop. Does that meet your needs?

Platinum Member Joined: May 06 2007 Posts: 8546

Thank you so much everyone - the thing is, I just can't tell the difference between them! So far though, a lot of you have been mentioning wordpress, so I'm definitely going to look into that. Thank you and keep the comments rolling!

Senior Member Joined: Oct 17 2010 Posts: 142

Bigcommerce.com - definitely seems like it fits your needs... .

Hatzlacha!
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Diamond Member Joined: May 24 2007 Posts: 4658

I am a web developer that makes custom carts for users.
Recently I created an engine where users can sign up and pay a low monthly fee and have a full featured shopping cart for a fraction of the price with an easy to use backend to add all the products.
PM me if you want more information or references or you can see and sign up at www.awb4.com

Executive Member Joined: Aug 23 2009 Posts: 402

Bottom line is that shopping carts are expensive to make and customize--the web designers you have spoken to are not trying to rip you off.

If you are trying to start small, maybe you could open a Wordpress site, with pictures of your products, and then link to an Etsy page for people to actually buy them.

It all depends on how much you want to invest...