website to sell products

andy t

looking for some info/help on a website

looking to sell some products online & just want to try find the quickest & reasonable priced way to go about it via getting a website going ...

maybe something generic..?

hairyslug

I'm using shopify for the site and blacknight for the domain, if I can do it, anyone can, they have decent templates, you can link up stripe for credit card payment and PayPal, can't remember what I'm paying for my domain but Shopify is $30 a month.
They offer a trial where you can build your site, see what it looks like and decide to stick with it or not.

zig

If you're very serious about quick and easy and dont care too much about it being generic then I would probably go with an out of the pack solution like https://www.shopify.com/, https://www.bigcommerce.com/ or https://get.weebly.com/online-stores/

pol12

andy t wrote: »

looking for some info/help on a website

looking to sell some products online & just want to try find the quickest & reasonable priced way to go about it via getting a website going ...

maybe something generic..?

I had a shop on ekm powershop for a few years.. Very good site..about €30 per month...

ironclaw

If you are remotely technical, you can get WordPress and WooCommerce set up very quickly in about an afternoon. Its slightly more challenging that the mentioned solutions but you're only cost would be an SSL cert and some hosting, which will come in far less than 30EUR a month. You can also make it more customizable with millions of free themes.

That said, the other options are definitely more point and shoot.

CatchingDreams

It all depends on what you want to sell and how you want to sell it and I suppose how much you are willing to invest. With all the free and paid ecommerce sites such as shopify, wix etc. you could end up being too restricted or paying way too much in the long run. I would recommend a self hosted wordpress website using woocommerce. They are both open source and depending again on the way your online store operates this could mean that all you need is a domain, web hosting and ssl certificate to get it set up. Im a freelance web designer/developer and I specialise in that area in particular. I just finished developing my own woocommerce store and I havent used any paid extensions as of yet. If you would like to get more info about how affordable I could make this option pm me. You can then compare my quote to other options and go with what is best suited for you.

StupidLikeAFox

I recently transferred from a self hosted option to Shopify for a few reasons.

1. You don't have to worry about SSL or your website going down. You don't have to worry about site backups, re-installing your SSL each year, ongoing maintenance, security updates and all that stuff. Again, you can pay somebody to do that, but they will probably charge more than €30 a month for that

2. The performance is great - its something people care about and Google cares about and if you were to buy that kind of performance you would probably be spending €30 a month anyway

Basically you can do a lot of the core ecommerce functionality out of the box really easily and you don't have to deal with the really technical stuff.

Naos

hairyslug wrote: »

I'm using shopify for the site and blacknight for the domain, if I can do it, anyone can, they have decent templates, you can link up stripe for credit card payment and PayPal, can't remember what I'm paying for my domain but Shopify is $30 a month.
They offer a trial where you can build your site, see what it looks like and decide to stick with it or not.

Are you getting much traffic to your site and if so, what methods have worked best for you?

hairyslug

Naos wrote: »

Are you getting much traffic to your site and if so, what methods have worked best for you?

I was very impressed with AdWords, I haven't got figures (my site is going thru an overall) at the moment but initially I was pushing heavily through Facebook and Irish pages that had direct connections to what I was selling, once I started using AdWords, it increased massively.

I'll be the first to say that my site is not as professionally looking as ones made by skilled builders but it does the job.

Digital_Guy

hairyslug wrote: »

I was very impressed with AdWords, I haven't got figures (my site is going thru an overall) at the moment but initially I was pushing heavily through Facebook and Irish pages that had direct connections to what I was selling, once I started using AdWords, it increased massively.

I'll be the first to say that my site is not as professionally looking as ones made by skilled builders but it does the job.

What kind of products do you sell / industry are you in can I ask?

hairyslug

Digital_Guy wrote: »

What kind of products do you sell / industry are you in can I ask?

Learning equipment and teaching aids.

businessdit

hairyslug wrote: »

I was very impressed with AdWords, I haven't got figures (my site is going thru an overall) at the moment but initially I was pushing heavily through Facebook and Irish pages that had direct connections to what I was selling, once I started using AdWords, it increased massively.

I'll be the first to say that my site is not as professionally looking as ones made by skilled builders but it does the job.

I would recommend shopify as a solution that anyone can work. They have a simple drag and drop function for building the site and you can reach good levels of customisation.

What do you mean by selling through Irish pages OP? Do you mean you sold through resellers in the same industry?

hairyslug

businessdit wrote: »

I would recommend shopify as a solution that anyone can work. They have a simple drag and drop function for building the site and you can reach good levels of customisation.

What do you mean by selling through Irish pages OP? Do you mean you sold through resellers in the same industry?

Irish Facebook pages or groups mainly consisting of Irish people connected with what I sell, one way or another. I've been lucky in a way that I was already known in some of these groups.

Jeffrey89

Online business is very lucrative these days, but you must have a specific "idea" for your online store. Generic business options are good but they will only take you so far. I would suggest doing some research and finding what thing is lacking in your local area ( as in your city, village or town). All the Best

mono_mac

How to get likes on a Facebook page though?

hairyslug

mono_mac wrote: »

How to get likes on a Facebook page though?

Facebook advertising, it cost a few euro but it gets you out there, also call in as many favours as you can and get friends and family to like and share pages. The last promo I did got about 5000 shares and about 500 new followers, I could also see an increase in traffic on my site.

Just to mention Shopify again, have a look at the paid for themes, I paid about €120 for one, it's a lot easier to maintain and looks a lot better than the free ones.

mono_mac

Thanks hairyslug I haven't a clue what I'm at. But I wanna get out of my current job. And this is something I'd love to try

businessdit

hairyslug wrote: »

Facebook advertising, it cost a few euro but it gets you out there, also call in as many favours as you can and get friends and family to like and share pages. The last promo I did got about 5000 shares and about 500 new followers, I could also see an increase in traffic on my site.

Just to mention Shopify again, have a look at the paid for themes, I paid about €120 for one, it's a lot easier to maintain and looks a lot better than the free ones.

Thanks hairyslug, this is interesting as a benchmark.

How much ad spend did you commit to on this post that got 5k shares + 500 followers?

Did you have a link to purchase page in the advert?
What conversion did you see, or was it more of a branding exercise?

Also how did you work the targetting? Was it tragetted to all of Ireland or did you go for a local targetting and specific age/gender profile?

Thanks for the interesting post.

hairyslug

Budget was about 300e, it was more a fishing expedition and I'm sure that about 10% of my new followers where bots or will never buy from me (middle/far east user). I should point out that I had a comp running at the same time for a like/share and that will have overinflated my numbers.

Tbh, I hate Facebook personally, i don't fully understand the appeal but my wife advised me on it, my ads are aimed at people like her so it helps.

Personally, I prefer AdSense, i just prefer it's UI and I find tracking the success of the ad to be easier.

Pivot Eoin

Not sure what you're going for Andy but I'd be happy to chat.

All online e-commerce people from scratch now are either sending traffic to Shopify or Amazon (FBA) stuff. Sales or Conversion Rates on Amazon a lot higher, but you give up 15% of the transaction as a fee.

Plenty out there making money on Shopify though too. Here is a link so you get a 60 Day free trial, not just the standard 14 day trial:

https://www.shopify.com/f6s

Also I recommend this Udemy course, it's lengthy but very good and details the ins and outs of modern Shopify e-commerce setups and dropshipping etc.

https://www.udemy.com/build-a-shopify-dropshipping-business-from-scratch/?couponCode=FB_GROUP_MEMBER

On top of that you should join these Facebook Groups:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/adbuyers/ - A community For seeking advice on beginning FB advertising.

&

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ecomempires/ - A community of fellow E-commerce online sellers, 95% using Shopify too.

Hope you found this information helpful, If you'd like to talk further or need any help feel free to DM me. I've been working in affiliate marketing and e-commerce, setting up my own stores through Shopify and Wordpress, as well as selling through Amazon for years. That offer is open to anyone