Setting up an internet business

GRIGGSY

I am looking at setting up a homemade cards internet business, but dont know how to go about setting up a web page. can anyone recommend any good web designers etc and roughly how much could this cost? I dont think that i could set up my own web page as my computer skills are not that advanced!!!

Sugar_Coated_Owl

You're in a pretty similar situation to myself and the same products as well

Are you looking for an ecommerce site that you pay for monthly or one that is designed for you i.e you actually own it?

Have you thought of opening an eBay store and selling that way?

GRIGGSY

Hi razorbladekisses
Sorry for my ignorance but what is an ecommerce site? What is the difference between a pay monthly and one which is mine (obviously the price will be one but how much of a price difference?) Do you know how easy an ebay store is to set up?

Alison_B

The cost would depend on what you want doing, how many pages you want designed etc.

bargainhunt_3

I am also in the process of setting up an ecommerce, or internet shop. Its actually quite easy - although at times it does not seem it. You really need (1) a company to host your website (2) software to run the store (3) a method to collect payment. (4) possibly some security software or certificates.

Firstly you need a provider to host your web site (ecommerce site) there are many around. I have a basic package with https://www.another.com, they are not the cheapest but I have been with them for a while. However I have found their technical support to be almost instant. The downside is that it is basic and you will require someone to help you install all the online shopping software etc - assuming that is you cannot do it yourself. Another option is https://www.4uhosting.co.uk, a friend of mine uses them and says that while support is slow the package comes with a lot of the software already installed. In most cases it seems to cost around £30 per year, although I have heard of it being much cheaper. When looking at a provider a number of things worth looking for are the download limts, if this is too low after a certain point you will be charged more or potential customers will not be able to view the site. Another thing is the range of pre-installed software. Also do not be tempted by a dedicated machine to host your website, at least not during the early days.

As you will see I have mentioned software, well basically on your website you will need something which can take customer orders. I use OSCommerce (https://www.oscommerce.com) this basically free shopping cart software. It will let customers place orders and will store their details. Oscommerce works alongside two tools called PHP and MySQL. Therefore when you chose a company to host your site make sure you can use these technologies. PHP is a system used to generate webpages, all you really need to know is if that is available. MySQL is a database which stores all the transactions, customer information and stock information. Usually OSCommerce comes with a default database which you can use, all you need to do is set up your own details. There are other shopping cart options such as Zen cart and cube cart, I gather these are much easier to install, but you need to pay a free.

You will also need a way to collect payments, this usually involved taking credit cards. As you are a small business I would recommend looking at https://www.nochex.com or https://www.paypal.com. These providers only charge a % on each sale, which means there are no monthly fees. The downside is that if your customers want to spend more than £100 or £300 (respectively) in any one sale then they also need to register with these payment providers. The other advantage these providers have is that you do not store or process any of the credit card information! As I said both providers are free of fixed costs, Paypal accepts credit cards from any country as well as Amex cards ,where as if you want to accept cards from abroad on Nochex you will need to pay £50. However many people seem to prefer Nochex. Both Paypal and Nochex provide plug-ins for your website which make collecting payments easy.

Finally, I am not sure about this but you may also need to make sure your site is secure. I.e. hackers cannot get access to your customer information. I am currently looking into this as well, and as part of this you may need to get a digital certificate. There are a range of options but the cheapest I have come across is https://www.instantssl.com. I am not familiar with this aspect, so any comments people have on here about this subject would be most welcome.

If you are just going to be accepting online payments then you can probably also save money by banking with Abbey National. They have a free-for-ever business account which will let you pay in as much money (via electronic companies such as Nochex and Paypal) as you like. There are however limits on the number of cheques and cash payments per month.

Web designers can be pretty expensive, it may be that in the early days you can do your entire site yourself by buying a package to help you write the page, using standard designs which you customise a bit,or simply using OSCommerce and a template. While it is very nice to have a good site, if you have a nice enough one to being with you are unlikely to lose too many sales. I have seen people spend a fortune on websites and their sales have well stayed exactly the same. As long as its clean, simple, easy to use and looks good plus has the information your customers need you will usually be ok. You need to focus on the sales element, and making that easy for people rather than flashy graphics. The basic layout of Amazon.com is a good example of something which is clean and simple yet very successful. Although what goes on underneath is probably quite complex.
I used to do be involved in some aspects of website building for big companies like Legal and General, as you can imagine they had quite a high budget - so the cash gets thrown at it until it is almost perfect. I doubt you have quite the same budget, and I would avoid during the early days spending a fortune on such things. Keep all costs variable or free (os commerce) where possible. You want to avoid as many fixed set up costs as you can.

As someone also said you may want to look at an Ebay store. This is one way to sell goods the downside of Ebay is that their fees can be quite high.

I hope all this helps. I appreciate it all sounds rather daunting but its not as bad as it sounds.

Kind regards,

rod

Sugar_Coated_Owl

GRIGGSY wrote:

Hi razorbladekisses
Sorry for my ignorance but what is an ecommerce site? What is the difference between a pay monthly and one which is mine (obviously the price will be one but how much of a price difference?) Do you know how easy an ebay store is to set up?

An ecommerce site is an online shop.

With a pay monthly ecommerce site the basics are all there for you. Basically all you need to do is choose which payment methods that you want to accept e.g. PayPal and upload your products. Hosting is provided.

If you want a more individual/personal site then you would probably want one specifically designed to meet your needs. There are many people that could design you an ecommerce site from a few hundred pounds to a few thousand. You would of course have to seek your own hosting for the shop.

If you have no technical knowledge about websites e.t.c I would personally recommend that you go for the pay monthly option as it's basically done for you and most provide excellent technical support if required.

Also, I wouldn't have thought you wanted to spend a great deal of money at present because you don't know how well your sales will be.

If you haven't got an eBay store maybe that might be a route that you would like to consider first. At £6.00 a month it's great value and also you have millions of potential customers who could look at your items each day. With an ecommerce site you would have to submit your site to each search engine and then customers would have to find you whereas they are right there on eBay. Also if for any reason things don't go as planned you woudn't be losing much money.

eBay stores are really easy to set up. If you needed any help there are always many of us here that could assist.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

Can you post the links to the websites that you have designed?

GRIGGSY

Thanks for all your advice and help. I guess i have a lot of decisions to make before i go any further!!

Piers

If you are looking into setting up a ecommerce site, i can offer you hosting for this. My hosting packages can be any size you want (bandwidth, storage space). I can also install a e-commerce site for you but you can do this your self if you want it just a easy click on the next buttons and type in some information like what you want your store to be called. You get to choose from 3 diffrent types of site software these being cube cart (https://www.cubecart.com) oscommerce (https://www.oscommerce.com) and zen cart (https://www.zen-cart.com)

I use oscommerce for my site, that i am currently rebuilding it is very easy to use, but you do need some html skill unless you install the wysiwyg editior. When using cube cart it has a ready installed wysiwyg editior so at the start it is easier. But what i found is when errors occur it dosn't tell you whats wrong and what needs to be done, oscommerce dose this.

Like all other sites oscommerce can be fully customised there are thousands of templates and addons to make your site yours and look like no other. You can get a graphics/web designer to do this but it may cost between £50-£300 maybe more it depends how much you want to be done.

Oscommerce is free and there are plently of free addon available on the site for free, you need to pay nothing for it. The only money you will be paying is for the domain (about 7.50 for .co.uk for 2 years) and the hosting (between £2.50-£30.00 per month depening on how much space you want).

Please note i am in no way advertising any of my products or services i am only helping a fellow money saver.

CharleneUK

I strongly suggest you join shell live wire forums, that site has been amazing for me and will give you all the answers you need!

Good luck.

sunsetgirl

I suggest you look at https://www.etsy.com its a site to buy and sell all things handmade. I used to sell my handmade toys on ebay but the fees are too expensive for me. Etsy is cheaper by far only $.10 (5p) to list sn item for 6 months with 4 free photos. It is listed in dollars but it causes no problems.