Thinking of Starting a Business Selling Items on The Internet

Gordon Minard

Hi All:

I was looking through the various Forums to try and "find a home" for my Question . . .I think that this appears to be the best . . .

I have a business idea involving selling a genre of items via the Internet. It would be my intention to start making these items in a small home workshop I have.

I have done very general "Business Plan"- Type investigation and, basically, it is appearing more likely that the best route to go would be to sell via the Web.

Ultimately, I have been told that a Website might be good but can be expensive by the time you have spent money getting it built and then in making it "Google-Friendly" etc.

I read in a "Start Your Own Business Pamphlet" very general Information on the concept of an "Online Shop" but it did warn to be careful as the costs can mount up pretty quickly.

I have sold individual items on eBay before and am familiar with the concept therein but I have no idea whatsoever about this online store / shop? For example, I know that if I put an ad in eBay that it times out after a couple of weeks whereas when I would, potentially, be putting a lot of items up it would be of no use whatsoever if they were to time out after a period of time.

Also, I would like people to be able to find the items, in my store/shop, from Google? Is this possible I wonder?

All advice greatly appreciated - recently retired and the "Man Shed" is not my scene . . . :-)

Kind Regards

Gordon

cormee

Hi Gordon

You could get a Wordpress shop set up easily using the WP eCommerce plugin ( https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-e-commerce/ ) and using a nice theme ( http://themeforest.net/category/wordpress/ecommerce/wp-e-commerce )for the front-end, it's a very quick job to set it up, and configuring, customising, and adding products to it would take a few hours. I'd imagine you'd be looking at about €500 to get someone to do it for you.

That's the easy part though, you'd also have to think about marketing it, that would be a lot more work, the easiest way to get it started would be to have a Google AdWords campaign and budget, so people searching for products like yours see an ad for your site when they do a search for the product. The cost of AdWords depends on the product you're selling, if there is little competition for advertising in the sector your AdWords would be cheaper.

John A

Yeah setting up wordpress and woocommerce on a free theme only takes about an hour and you can do it yourself if you are willing to follow tutorials. You'll need a domain registrar account and a hosting account (godaddy and hostgator for example). But like cormee says, getting set up is the easy part, it's getting traffic that's tough. In my opinion ebay is the way to go initially. Once you see that your products sell, set up your own site, then stick a note in with your ebay deliveries advertising your own site.

Another option is to go with a bigcommerce online shop. There is a monthly fee but their support is excellent. Either way I think you should start off with ebay.

Balmed Out

If it's just selling within Ireland maybe adverts.ie or for international if the item your selling is appropriate etsy.com. No idea but worth checking the story with selling via amazon.

cormee

John A wrote: »

ebay is the way to go initially. Once you see that your products sell, set up your own site,

I'll second that.

Gordon Minard

Thanks a Million for the great advice Guys . . .

I suppose that keeping Google happy / getting listed in Google would be priority . . .Would using the likes of eBay / Amazon give me an added advantage on Google?

Basically, I would be making parts of Model Railways - parts that would not be generally available e.g. Manufacturer no longer around etc. . . . I already do it as a hobby and know that I could put 20-30 parts up there that would get immediate low-level demand . . .

As you can imagine, revenues wouldn't be massive but "it keeps me busy" / "it's an interest" . . .

I want to be able to put an Item up once and it's there until I actually take it down . . as opposed to an ad which is generally a short term thing . . .

I've looked at etsy and it looks more orientated around crafts etc?

thegreatiam

Gordon Minard wrote: »

Thanks a Million for the great advice Guys . . .

I suppose that keeping Google happy / getting listed in Google would be priority . . .Would using the likes of eBay / Amazon give me an added advantage on Google?

Basically, I would be making parts of Model Railways - parts that would not be generally available e.g. Manufacturer no longer around etc. . . . I already do it as a hobby and know that I could put 20-30 parts up there that would get immediate low-level demand . . .

As you can imagine, revenues wouldn't be massive but "it keeps me busy" / "it's an interest" . . .

I want to be able to put an Item up once and it's there until I actually take it down . . as opposed to an ad which is generally a short term thing . . .

I've looked at etsy and it looks more orientated around crafts etc?

I wouldn't be an expert here, but it seems that would be a very niche market with specific search terms. just focus on selling the stuff through the usual channels and the google will probably take care of itself.

You'll probably be selling to a core of regulars hobbyists who will use specific search terms. those terms are likely to have very little in the way of competition. and once they have found you they will go straight back to you.

Have you looked to see what level of competition is out there? What happens when you search for the items online yourself? are there many sites making those parts?

My opinion would be that you'd be very easy to find on eBay and you'll get mostly repeat business and custom orders. Google won't really make much of a difference. Just have your WordPress site with a clear concise description of the item in a way that users will look for it. IE a part number and description of what the part is and the details of the original manufacturer description, if you're allowed to make that connection.

I wouldn't have even thought you'd need a specific site. I have a friend in a much more competitive market who gets a lot of trade solely on his eBay and facebook page and the facebook is pretty new for him.

I'd love to be corrected here, but I would say just focus on the listings for now, and see if you can keep up the production with the interest.

JMR

Sounds like you have expertise in a niche area which gives you a head start on most people that have ambitions of opening an online store.

I would advise listing your products on eBay for 1 month, read some tutorials that you'll find on the Web regarding the best way to create eBay adverts.
This will give you an idea of the demand for your products.

If the demand exists I would then research the business viability, taking all costs into account, including shipping, packaging, returns, website development and hosting etc

A website should only be paid for once you are sure that a viable business exists.

Interesting idea, I wish you all the best with it

Tails142

Check out shopify - you can set up your store at your own domain and list your items on it. It is just one of the many options open to you though.

Gordon Minard

Thanks a Mill for the great advice! I might post back in the thread ( if that's possible ) in a couple of months to let you know how I got on . . .

cormee

Also, familiarise yourself with SEO, a great book, written with businesses like yours and business owners like your in mind, is "50 Ways to Make Google Love Your Website".

That book really only relates to running your own website, but even if you go the eBay route initially (which you should), it's a very good primer on SEO and Internet marketing.

fortjames

I will advise to use keywords in your. Niche to see what people are typing when searching for your product. Use those keywords wisely to get page ranking. If you want the website and seo work done, pm me i know people who can help, good luck

jackluter

Based on your business select the web site and then find the user friendly searchable keyword.Built unique content in web site by setting meta tags in better manner and follow the seo on page techniques to rank your site in search engines.