Ecommerce/Retail website. Shopify any good?

Hi guys i was just wondering if anyone has used Shopify to create a retail site and whether they are any good?

If not who would you recommend? Who is good value and who provides nice design templates?

jimmii

If the site is going to be your main revenue driver I think its worth spending the money there if you have it. I guess starting up there's no harm using one of those sites to make yours then once you are happy that you are going to see long term profits then look at getting something done professionally. It takes quite a lot of time to do a diy job so take that into account too. You could always get someone to build you a site using one of these services obviously cheaper than a full build and you don't have to take up a load of time doing it yourself.

L.Jenkins

I'm using nopCommerce with hosting. I have the source for the site on my machine for any development and testing, but I find it to be a great solution and easily configurable.

Graham

Deleted User wrote: »

If not who would you recommend? Who is good value and who provides nice design templates?

What sort of operation are you trying to setup?

What are you trying to sell?
Is this a new e-commerce operation or a replacement for an existing one?
How many products?
How many customers?
What payment gateways do you need to support?
Do you need stock control?
Do you need to integrate with bricks and mortar stores?
How technical are you.
Are you outsourcing development of the site?
Are you outsourcing your graphic design.
What shipping methods/companies will you need to support?
Are you mostly B2B or B2C?
What's your budget?

Graham

Graham wrote: »

What sort of operation are you trying to setup?

What are you trying to sell?
Is this a new e-commerce operation or a replacement for an existing one?
How many products?
How many customers?
What payment gateways do you need to support?
Do you need stock control?
Do you need to integrate with bricks and mortar stores?
How technical are you.
Are you outsourcing development of the site?
Are you outsourcing your graphic design.
What shipping methods/companies will you need to support?
Are you mostly B2B or B2C?
What's your budget?

Product still in development so that answers questions 1 and 2. Hoping to have 10 variations of essentially the same product starting off if that makes sense. I cant reveal too much at the moment as im keeping the product up for wraps for now.

Aimed at irish market to start off with although im considering putting worldwide and eu shipping options in place as I believe there is an irish diaspora that could possibly be interested in this product.

I am aiming to sell alot so would need a form of stock control in place. The minimum order quantities would probably be 500 of each variety.
In terms of todays age im probably not technical enough but im hoping to more or less use social media as the store front and get the word out through various online channels

Mostly business to consumer to start off with.
I would probably need to get product photography done to start with as well as a company logo.

jimmii

You can do pictures yourself too just lots of tutorials out there that will get you decent results unless its something very big or very small.

It sounds like you can definitely get away with a self build site for now then you can always look at it again down the line.

Tritom

Shopify is suitable in most cases for online store setup. You need to think how to track your orders as well. I mean to think about the back office work. I'm referring to CRM software (Salesforce, amoCRM, etc.), workflow management software (Pyrus, etc.), planning (Google Calendar, etc.) and many more business tools.

sconhome

I looked at shopify before and it does present well. It also integrates nicely with Facebook now so you can sell direct from images posted there.

The only thing I found was the costs when setting up versus the income from the site at first was off-putting. Monthly payment to Shopify, merchant services etc. Could you start with a simpler OScommerce system and integrate Paypal ?

Graham

AKW wrote: »

Could you start with a simpler OScommerce system and integrate Paypal ?

If you're not experienced, how much is it going to cost to get a server setup, OScommerce configured, customised? How much is ongoing support going to cost? What backups/SLA's uptime guarantees are you going to get.

One of the big selling points with a hosted solution is the limited up-front costs.

sconhome

Graham wrote: »

If you're not experienced, how much is it going to cost to get a server setup, OScommerce configured, customised? How much is ongoing support going to cost? What backups/SLA's uptime guarantees are you going to get.

One of the big selling points with a hosted solution is the limited up-front costs.

True.

There is also a learning curve with Shopify (or similar) too.

Thinking about it I did have a simple site set up using a wix platform which provided a free shopify element which only became an issue once it had grown past x products (can't remember exactly how many) that could be an option for OP. If it is one or two products with SKU's it could easily be managed with Paypal buttons.