E-Commerce

fufidus

Hi, I've been doing alot of research over the past few months and want to set up an online business.

I have been in touch with a few web designers who all seem quite expensive and also say that they will charge extra for any alterations to the website after it's development. eg. special offers, new products etc.

By no means am I a computer whizz but i'm not totally uncapable either. I know the web developent is a long process but are little adaptations difficult to do and will I be able to carry them out myself if someone else programmes the site?

All opinions welcome,

Cheers

koHd

They should be building the site within a Content Management System which should make the small changes you're talking about easy for you yourself to do. Ask them about the content management system they will be using and say you want to have control of it when the site is completed.

nellyshark

fufidus wrote: »

Hi, I've been doing alot of research over the past few months and want to set up an online business.

Fair play to you and best of luck

fufidus wrote: »

I have been in touch with a few web designers who all seem quite expensive

Firstly there are two aspects to any ecommerce platform. The development of the the site and the design of the site. When you say that the web designers are expensive do you mean that the design alone is expensive or the design and development is expensive. What platform are you using? A custom developed platform, Open Source platform, Hosted platform or a Paid ecommerce script?

fufidus wrote: »

and also say that they will charge extra for any alterations to the website after it's development. eg. special offers, new products etc.

Quite rightly you should be charged for maintenance. However a maintenance agreement should be drawn up separately to the original contract.

fufidus wrote: »

By no means am I a computer whizz but i'm not totally uncapable either. I know the web developent is a long process but are little adaptations difficult to do and will I be able to carry them out myself if someone else programmes the site?

Most shopping scripts have an ability for you to easily add products etc through content management facilities so you theoretically should be able to manage the store yourself. However there are additional aspects that you may not be able to handle such as security patches, database connectivity, maintenance, backups, etc etc which would mean that you would need a maintenance agreement

fufidus

Thanks for the quick replies guys. When I asked for quotes it would have been for the design and development although I wouldn't shy away from the design aspect myself if it reduced costs.

To be entirely honest I have only heard of hosted platforms and was in two minds as to whether I would be better off hosting with my own web developer or with some one like blacknight.com.

What advantages have the other platforms?

nellyshark

fufidus wrote: »

Thanks for the quick replies guys. When I asked for quotes it would have been for the design and development although I wouldn't shy away from the design aspect myself if it reduced costs.

Do you have the necessary skills to design a site yourself. An amateur designer implies an amateur finish which in turn will put off customers. If you don't have the necessary skills it is a bit like you decorating a large retail unit yourself, I doubt many would do that tbh

fufidus wrote: »

To be entirely honest I have only heard of hosted platforms and was in two minds as to whether I would be better off hosting with my own web developer or with some one like blacknight.com.

I am a wee bit confused to what you mean here.

There are hosted applications such as shopify.com which are hosted by the company owning the app.

Then there are other such as Open Source apps, Custom built apps and apps that you purchase which you will have to host on a compatible web server and maintain the app yourself/maintenance agreement.

fufidus wrote: »

What advantages have the other platforms?

What are your requirements? Each platform has various pros and cons.
Some thing to consider are the features. Off the top of my head so do you need:
Unlimited Categories?
Unlimited Products?
Unlimited Manufacturers?
Multi-Language?
Multi-Currency?
Product Reviews?
Product Ratings?
Downloadable Products?
Multiple Tax Rates?
Related Products?
Information Pages?
Shipping Calculation?
Discount system?

The above is all front end. Then there are backend features
Backup & Restore Tools?
Printable Invoices?
Sales Reports? Products purchased vrs viewed?
Payment gateways?
Affiliate?

To name but a few.

fufidus

Thanks again nellyshark,

I have no experience on web design but I have made a list of quite a few similar websites whose layout and design I feel would fit my company and which our web design could be based on. I understand that getting a proffessional with experience is always best but as always in a start up business costs are a bbig worry. If the design costs are not more than €200-300 extra to the web development it would most likely be in my best interest.

I had only heard of hosted applications before!

As far as front end platform requirements go we would require the following:
6 Categories to begin with, possibly rising to 15 at the very most over the next 5years
100 products to begin with, possibly rising to 200 at the very most over the next 5years
Manufacturers won't be listed
English is the only required language
We will require two currencies
Product Reviews and ratings along with downloadable products are not required
Related Products is preferable
Information Pages? yes
Shipping Calculation is not essential as one standard rate will apply or free delivery over a decided order value threshold
Discount systems are not required either.

As for the back end, everything you listed with the exception of an affiliate is needed as well as an automated programme to track stock sales from each storage facility (4 small storage spaces estimated by the end of the first 12 months)

onedmc

fufidus wrote: »

Thanks again nellyshark,

I have no experience on web design but I have made a list of quite a few similar websites whose layout and design I feel would fit my company and which our web design could be based on. I understand that getting a proffessional with experience is always best but as always in a start up business costs are a bbig worry. If the design costs are not more than €200-300 extra to the web development it would most likely be in my best interest.

I had only heard of hosted applications before!

As far as front end platform requirements go we would require the following:
6 Categories to begin with, possibly rising to 15 at the very most over the next 5years
100 products to begin with, possibly rising to 200 at the very most over the next 5years
Manufacturers won't be listed
English is the only required language
We will require two currencies
Product Reviews and ratings along with downloadable products are not required
Related Products is preferable
Information Pages? yes
Shipping Calculation is not essential as one standard rate will apply or free delivery over a decided order value threshold
Discount systems are not required either.

As for the back end, everything you listed with the exception of an affiliate is needed as well as an automated programme to track stock sales from each storage facility (4 small storage spaces estimated by the end of the first 12 months)

I think you need a packaged solution as opposed to a web designer. I'm not sure the right one but X-Cart, zen car and the like are really easy to set up and you can gererally tweek them yourself. You need to do some research around this.

J_Wholesale

Everything you've asked for can be found in most of the big eCommerce packages. There's no reason for a bespoke system or for anyone to reinvent the wheel. Your finished site should be hosted using a hosting company like Blacknight, probably starting as shared hosting and migrating to a VPS or dedicated server if the business warrants.

What you need, is a web design company to build your site using one of the big eCommerce packages like Magento as the back end. They should be able to design you a fully customised front end (the web site the customer sees), and tweak the back end for you until it meets all your requirements.

Quotes for this sort of work will vary, but what you're asking for is simply a well designed eCommerce site - there's nothing out of the ordinary in your requirements. Expect to pay about €4000 for a good job. Any less than €2000 and chances are that it will be a piece of crap. Any more than €6000, and you're over charged.

For two currencies, if you're not using PayPal or Worldpay, you'll need two online merchant accounts. It's hard enough getting one in Ireland these days without a steady online trading history, and I wouldn't hold out much hope of getting two. If one of these accounts is sterling, you'll probably need a sterling account at a northern bank (crazy, but true).

You need to learn who is responsible for what. For example, adding new products and categories is down to you, using the backend. PayPal going down is down to PayPal, not your web designer or hosting company. Emails going down is a hosting company problem as is the site itself going down, etc. Once your site is up and working, your web designer is not responsible for things going wrong, and they will go wrong. But you'll still need to have an ongoing relationship with your designer, as changes will need to be made regularly.

nellyshark

Very good post by J_Wholesale above ^^^.

Some above mentioned Magento aswell. I do think the Magento is ace but there is a steep learning curve invlolved with it and it does need to be on a dedicated server/VPS which is an additional cost you will have to factor in.

Realistically for Magento development you would be looking at circa €2500 for development and design. I can recommend one person for this if you are interested OP.

Then there are other scripts out there. My fav of these being Open Cart which you should be able to skin for 1k or so.

Having said all that though sometimes to test the water you might be better off using a hosted solution such as shopify who look after the maintenance aspect for a reasonable price. Skining this would be cheaper that 1k but you cannot underestimate how a good site will convert to sales much better than a badly designed site.

fufidus

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you guys and thanks for all the help. I think it will be the best option for me to call in a web designer for this project and try and improve my IT skills for the future.

One last thing I have heard of however is YOLA.com. I have spent quite a bit of time on it and am growing fond of it. Is it too little and a waste of time?

onefuture

fufidus wrote: »

One last thing I have heard of however is YOLA.com. I have spent quite a bit of time on it and am growing fond of it. Is it too little and a waste of time?

Instead yola.com go for oscommerce template from templatesmonster.com
Templates for e-shop can be another long discussion, but if you are not sure about online bussiness and how it will be successful - it's cheap enough option. And good looking as well