e-commerce advice

17larsson

I am setting up an online shop. The products I'm selling aren't too cheap so to start off I'm not going to stock much until I see how it catches on.
I don't like having a .ie website that can't deliver in Ireland within a day or two but unfortunately at the moment I just can't afford to carry much stock.

I am very green to the workings of this end of things. Setting up payment methods, organising shipping, when somebody buys something do I order it from the peole I deal with or can I get a program that does that automatically, what is the story with returns, etc.

Basically I am looking for somebody that I can talk to about this or a website that explains everything. Anybody here that would sell some of their time to go through the basics or know a company that could help? Would it be worth spending €200 to go to the ecommerce expo in Dublin next week?

_Brian

17larsson wrote: »

I am setting up an online shop. The products I'm selling aren't too cheap so to start off I'm not going to stock much until I see how it catches on.
I don't like having a .ie website that can't deliver in Ireland within a day or two but unfortunately at the moment I just can't afford to carry much stock.

I am very green to the workings of this end of things. Setting up payment methods, organising shipping, when somebody buys something do I order it from the peole I deal with or can I get a program that does that automatically, what is the story with returns, etc.

Basically I am looking for somebody that I can talk to about this or a website that explains everything. Anybody here that would sell some of their time to go through the basics or know a company that could help? Would it be worth spending €200 to go to the ecommerce expo in Dublin next week?

Do you intend to hold stock yourself or have it delivered directly from your supplier to your customer ?
If your holding the stock then you'd send it out once payment has cleared.
If your not holding the stock then you take payment, then order from your supplier providing your customer's address as delivery, this model is called dropshipping - its widespread with items sold on e-bay.

For someone new setting up payment methods its hard to pass PayPal. Maybe then you could look at Strype or similar for credit card transactions.

Graham

17larsson wrote: »

I am very green to the workings of this end of things. Setting up payment methods, organising shipping, when somebody buys something do I order it from the peole I deal with or can I get a program that does that automatically, what is the story with returns, etc.

I wouldn't even think about automatic ordering until you know your level of business. It could be expensive and time consuming to implement and a complete waste of time if you're getting one order a week.

17larsson wrote: »

Would it be worth spending €200 to go to the ecommerce expo in Dublin next week?

Looking at the website for the expo, it looks like it's largely geared towards existing e-commerce operations.

Have you looked on meetup.com for any local e-commerce groups, might be a good (free) place to start.

jimmii

17larsson wrote: »

I am setting up an online shop. The products I'm selling aren't too cheap so to start off I'm not going to stock much until I see how it catches on.
I don't like having a .ie website that can't deliver in Ireland within a day or two but unfortunately at the moment I just can't afford to carry much stock.

I am very green to the workings of this end of things. Setting up payment methods, organising shipping, when somebody buys something do I order it from the peole I deal with or can I get a program that does that automatically, what is the story with returns, etc.

Basically I am looking for somebody that I can talk to about this or a website that explains everything. Anybody here that would sell some of their time to go through the basics or know a company that could help? Would it be worth spending €200 to go to the ecommerce expo in Dublin next week?

Go to your local enterprise office and see what courses they have that are relevant to you. You should probably start with a start your own business course but they often run ones specifically for online retailers that are definitely worth doing

In terms of delivery times as long as you are up front people don't mind if its a little longer its when they have no idea when something is going to arrive that people get frustrated. Make tracking details as accessible as possible to them (Paypal have a section where you can add in the tracking number and who is handling shipping so its nice and easy for customers to find out where something is).

To start with you should probably have a little bit of stock ready to go then if things work then look at implementing drop shipping as your required stock holding outstrips what you can physically manage. Its going to be important to get those first customers to be repeat customers so making the experience as good for them as possible is key to that. If someone orders from a new website they are a lot more likely to get use it again or recommend to a friend if it arrives as soon as possible and ideally with a note of something kind saying thanks we even throw in a small pack of Haribo its amazing how often we get an email saying thanks for the sweets and it costs us all of 10c to do.

In terms of payment processing Paypal is the obvious one and that is what I use for website sales as it works out cheaper than Stripe its also a brand that people know and (mostly) trust. I use Stripe for telephone sales their UI is so much better and quicker for that sort of thing but it is that bit more expensive once you hit around €2k+ sales a month which is why I use Paypal for the majority of the sales non-customer facing sales.

For shipping I use An Post for about 90% of things and then use Fastway or GLS for things that An Post won't take. What is best for you will depend on the value of the items and how much cover you want to have. You can buy bundles of Parcel Post labels (25) for €4.95+VAT you can either call up An Post to arrange it or just contact your local parcel delivery driver (they get commission for selling them so you can earn some goodwill from them which might come in handy in the future).

17larsson

Thanks for the replies lads, genuinely appreciate it.

jimmii wrote: »

Go to your local enterprise office and see what courses they have that are relevant to you. You should probably start with a start your own business course but they often run ones specifically for online retailers that are definitely worth doing

In terms of delivery times as long as you are up front people don't mind if its a little longer its when they have no idea when something is going to arrive that people get frustrated. Make tracking details as accessible as possible to them (Paypal have a section where you can add in the tracking number and who is handling shipping so its nice and easy for customers to find out where something is).

To start with you should probably have a little bit of stock ready to go then if things work then look at implementing drop shipping as your required stock holding outstrips what you can physically manage. Its going to be important to get those first customers to be repeat customers so making the experience as good for them as possible is key to that. If someone orders from a new website they are a lot more likely to get use it again or recommend to a friend if it arrives as soon as possible and ideally with a note of something kind saying thanks we even throw in a small pack of Haribo its amazing how often we get an email saying thanks for the sweets and it costs us all of 10c to do.

In terms of payment processing Paypal is the obvious one and that is what I use for website sales as it works out cheaper than Stripe its also a brand that people know and (mostly) trust. I use Stripe for telephone sales their UI is so much better and quicker for that sort of thing but it is that bit more expensive once you hit around €2k+ sales a month which is why I use Paypal for the majority of the sales non-customer facing sales.

For shipping I use An Post for about 90% of things and then use Fastway or GLS for things that An Post won't take. What is best for you will depend on the value of the items and how much cover you want to have. You can buy bundles of Parcel Post labels (25) for €4.95+VAT you can either call up An Post to arrange it or just contact your local parcel delivery driver (they get commission for selling them so you can earn some goodwill from them which might come in handy in the future).

Thanks for the taking the time to write all that jimmii. If I dropship it's not possible to put my own logo on or add a little something to the parcel is it?

JMR

If you already have a website created the developer will have discussed payment gateways etc with you.
If not, you need to decide what eCommerce platform you will use to begin with. I recommend Wordpress with a WooCommerce plugin but I don't have much experience of other platforms. This is what I use and I find it quite good.

As for holding stock, I would advise initially holding your potential best sellers for immediate shipment and everything else on a longer lead time (dropship if that's the way you go)
The most important thing is to be completely up front with the customer about expected delivery times, let them know some items have a longer lead time.

Start with manually placing the order from your supplier when you receive an order from the end user and down the road you can look at automating this if it becomes too cumbersome or time consuming.

I wouldn't spend any money seeking advice at this stage, it's freely available here and other places on the web. The eCommerce expo would, in my opinion probably be a waste of money at this early stage.

Best of luck and feel free to throw any and all questions out here