Business start up website advice????

Lmnover

Hi
I am in the processing of setting up a furniture sales website for modern well priced furniture. Just wanted to know if anyone has seen any good websites lately that are well laid out, easily readable and usable and that stand out in their minds - its doesnt matter what they were selling.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks in advance

nellyshark

Is the site an ecommerce site where you will be selling or a showcase website?

Lmnover

Its a ecommence site for furniture but will then be showcasing other services such as interior design and fitout packages

Overflow

Themeforest have a great collection of designs for ecommerce stores. Its a great site to get some inspiration:

Here's an example of one, im sure there are many others you could get some ideas from:

http://themeforest.net/theme_previews/40046-blue-commerce-complete-ecommerce-theme

http://www.themeforest.net


Also you should check out an open source ecommerce solution called Magento.
You can get some great templates for it here:

http://www.templatemonster.com/magento-themes.php

DoMyBooks

I love the work these guys do.
http://www.fitzdesign.ie/

nellyshark

Do you know what eCom solution you will be using or has that even being decided?

I agree with Overflow that Magento can be pretty niffty ( going to be slaughtered for that) but the configuration of Magento can sometimes be a mess.

What payment methods are you looking for?

Are you looking for inspiration from similar sites or are you looking for recommendations of website providers?

showcasing other services such as interior design and fitout packages

That will be just static content with contact info or a full showcase piece using galleries etc?

Im sure this all these decided/discussed beforehand but no harm to refresh

donnaille

DoMyBooks wrote: »

I love the work these guys do.
http://www.fitzdesign.ie/

Might not be too expensive either as it seems they customise magento templates if you decide to go that route.

nellyshark

http://www.shopify.com/ might be an option too?

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

Lumovr,

Can i ask what your background is in regards to tech? How much do you know about SEO, SEM & CRO?

Although this is a really great area to do business in, it's massively competitive, existing business have tonnes of money behind them but massively declining sales (hence so many 50% off clearance sales at the moment) and very low online conversion rates. The main issue being that people love to look online at this stuff for ideas, but when it comes down to pulling out the wallet they really want to touch and feel the furniture.

Is it 1. purely e-commerce your thinking, 2. e-commerce and bricks and mortar or 3. brochure site for bricks and mortar?

I know a fair amount about this area as my company is launching a Kitchen Appliances business in the latter half of this year and there's a lot of overlap between the two in terms of the research. As in people buying kitchen goods will often be looking to buy a kitchen table or might be renovating their house.

Competing with the like of Ikea and Harvey Norman (who are loosing money btw) won't be easy. I don't mean to put you off just go in with a clear USP and your eyes open. Any advice you need though feel free to PM me.

ecommerce website designer

Doing an ecommerce site with cms application, will provide the users with more functionalities than any other.Search for ecommerce web developers in google you will get more professional companies which provide services too..try with google,because google is the major search engine according to me..