Interest in Ecommerce , advice welcome

leadersway

Hi everyone, could I please ask for opinions please in relation to ecommerce. I have a background in the public sector but I have an interest in ecommerce in my spare time. For the past few years I've been helping a family member run their shopify site at a very basic level as well as running some ads on Facebook. I've become fascinated with websites and specifically ecommerce ones. I'm also surprised with the amount of companies who are not selling online. Recently I've been looking at the magneto 2 platform and sm thinking about throwing myself into learning about it. My idea is to eventually begin approaching companies and setting up ecommerce sites for them, doing some marketing also. I'm just wondering what peoples views are. I have no qualifications in this area but font want to end up on a 3 year course covering stuff I mite not use. I'd rather concentrate on the ecommerce marketing side of things. I saw an ad recently where a company was looking for someone to sell ready made ecommerce platforms to customers. Would this be a good entry point bearing in mind it would have to be part time as I'll have to remain in my 9 to 5 to pay Bill's for the foreseeable. Any advice would be most welcome from those already established in the ecommerce area. Thanks.

Protelos01

leadersway wrote: »

Hi everyone, could I please ask for opinions please in relation to ecommerce. I have a background in the public sector but I have an interest in ecommerce in my spare time. For the past few years I've been helping a family member run their shopify site at a very basic level as well as running some ads on Facebook. I've become fascinated with websites and specifically ecommerce ones. I'm also surprised with the amount of companies who are not selling online. Recently I've been looking at the magneto 2 platform and sm thinking about throwing myself into learning about it. My idea is to eventually begin approaching companies and setting up ecommerce sites for them, doing some marketing also. I'm just wondering what peoples views are. I have no qualifications in this area but font want to end up on a 3 year course covering stuff I mite not use. I'd rather concentrate on the ecommerce marketing side of things. I saw an ad recently where a company was looking for someone to sell ready made ecommerce platforms to customers. Would this be a good entry point bearing in mind it would have to be part time as I'll have to remain in my 9 to 5 to pay Bill's for the foreseeable. Any advice would be most welcome from those already established in the ecommerce area. Thanks.

DM sent. But I would add there has never been a better time to jump in and make e-commerce a career. Also I am not sure you can even get s qualification for e-commerce and if you did it would be redundant in a month.

It’s all about getting stuck in and keeping up to date. I would say be carful in how you take on builds and if you don’t have the required skills (back end, front end etc) lined up you can very quickly get in over your head.

Tippbhoy1

leadersway wrote: »

Hi everyone, could I please ask for opinions please in relation to ecommerce. I have a background in the public sector but I have an interest in ecommerce in my spare time. For the past few years I've been helping a family member run their shopify site at a very basic level as well as running some ads on Facebook. I've become fascinated with websites and specifically ecommerce ones. I'm also surprised with the amount of companies who are not selling online. Recently I've been looking at the magneto 2 platform and sm thinking about throwing myself into learning about it. My idea is to eventually begin approaching companies and setting up ecommerce sites for them, doing some marketing also. I'm just wondering what peoples views are. I have no qualifications in this area but font want to end up on a 3 year course covering stuff I mite not use. I'd rather concentrate on the ecommerce marketing side of things. I saw an ad recently where a company was looking for someone to sell ready made ecommerce platforms to customers. Would this be a good entry point bearing in mind it would have to be part time as I'll have to remain in my 9 to 5 to pay Bill's for the foreseeable. Any advice would be most welcome from those already established in the ecommerce area. Thanks.

I would say there are few barriers for anyone to get into e-commerce if they have a reasonable understanding and a desire to learn.

You do seem to reference building sites but then the end of your post seems to lean more towards marketing the sites? Quite different skill sets and I would say marketing wouldn’t have as steep a learning curve. I’m also not sure why you have picked out Magento 2, what is your target client market? Magento has a steep learning curve and in my opinion would be more suitable for larger clients. Are you going to have the relevant credibility to target larger clients with bigger budgets, and the ability to customise the product to their needs? Perhaps you will partner with a developer or tech firm to assist you? Also, no matter how you try, appearance is everything and a strong creative and graphic design ability is in my view essential for a successful site and the area that’s often overlooked.

If you’re going to do it all yourself, I would tend to look to specialise with just one product that matches with your target market and is something that you could likely manage yourself eg Shopify. If you’re looking to target bigger clients it might be best to partner with someone and offer something like Magento 2. Maybe you plan on learning all the necessary skills to design, build, operate and market a site but it might be a bit ambitious for the first while with some of the more powerful platforms. You don’t want to end up getting asked to do some simple customisation by a client and not being able to deliver. And like for every business, you will need to try build your usp e.g. specialise in growing business in the Uk, experts in Shopify for small enterprises, etc etc,

leadersway

Many thanks for the advice and pointers. I may develop my knowledge of shopify via their partner programme. I could learn a lot here and maybe focus on helping clients set up stores.

roots2branches

Stay away from Magento, it's a nightmare and as Tipp says, it's enterprise grade software and not a good choice for SMEs.
Shopify, woo commerce etc are where the market is that you probably want to focus on.

MouseMan01

My advice. Niche down.

Studying/working parttime means you are not going to be able to compete with a generalist with 20+ years in the industry.

Pick a niche and stick with it. Development, design and digital marketing is too broad IMO.

Go 3 deep. Eg. E-commerce->irish SMEs->copywriting. Or E-commerce->irish SME's->Google Ads.

You'll fly further, faster and have a better chance of ditching the 9-5 sooner by becoming the go-to guy in your chosen niche.

Forget about proprietary content management systems. They are a bad idea for many, many reasons. Stick with WordPress/OScommerce.

I'd advise anyone looking to get into the industry to think about copywriting. Especially if they have a fair ability with the written word and dont mind putting in the hours to perfect their craft.

Unlike dev, design and marketing work. You need to be a native speaker of english to be an effective copywriter. Excluding pros on fiverr from low-cost countries. Second you need to have great knowledge of your chosen niche eg. The irish, ecommerce market.

Lastly. Find something you would happily do for free. Then study it. Then monetize it.

My 2 cents. Best of luck...

MrGaryFox

MouseMan01 wrote: »

My advice. Niche down.

Superb advice here. Pick a small niche and go after it. Whether its Shopify or your chosen platform. Become an expert in that.

You don't need a 3 year course. You need experience. Build projects for as many people as possible in the next 3 months. You'll learn far more that way. Nothing beats practical, hands on experience in business.

As other posters said, couldn't be a better time to be looking at this so just go for it. Good luck with it all.