Can anyone here design a budget e-commerce site?!

JazzySheep

I used a Mr Site a couple of years ago and it was appalling, the only reply I ever got from support was via a forum where I made a comment that they don't listen and they spoke to me like I was 5 and they still didn't resolve the issue.

Jay makes an excellent point about looking at what you want from a site. Once you have that in mind there are lots of places who offer hosting and a fully installed site with a template for around the same price as a Mr. Site if budget really is that tight. Don't stint too much though you get less than what you pay for at a lot of places.

fuzzball172

In the world of web design £500 is not much and not much at all for an ecommerce site. Bells and whistles cost a considerable amount more. I agree you can download and install a zen cart shop in a matter of minutes, but changing the colours, layout, buttons, adding features, setting up UK tax, payment systems, SEO, custom graphics, adding widgets. moving widgets 4 pixels to the right, then back again because it looked better before... All takes time. The other aspect is training, how do you use the shopping cart, who is going to train you? Stock entry, that can take weeks for a large product range.
If you can get an ecomerce site, with bells and whistles for £500 either snap the persons hand off (but ask for references or to see previous work) or you are about to get taken to the cleaners... Usually with hidden extras, or the person doesn't really know what they are doing.

Lee

jamesb1239

fuzzball172 wrote: »

In the world of web design £500 is not much and not much at all for an ecommerce site. Bells and whistles cost a considerable amount more. I agree you can download and install a zen cart shop in a matter of minutes, but changing the colours, layout, buttons, adding features, setting up UK tax, payment systems, SEO, custom graphics, adding widgets. moving widgets 4 pixels to the right, then back again because it looked better before... All takes time. The other aspect is training, how do you use the shopping cart, who is going to train you? Stock entry, that can take weeks for a large product range.
If you can get an ecomerce site, with bells and whistles for £500 either snap the persons hand off (but ask for references or to see previous work) or you are about to get taken to the cleaners... Usually with hidden extras, or the person doesn't really know what they are doing.

Lee

OOOH i think my post got misunderstood, i meant that i dont know how much it costs, i learnt how to do it myself with bells and whistles. Yes it does take a while but £500 to me is a LOT of money, i could never justify spending that on a site lol i think i may need to put my knowledge to use and profit from it lol

fuzzball172

Ah! my apologies Jay... Knowledge is a product like anything else, somebody somewhere will pay you for it.
I was chatting to my wife today about something similar. We have been running our company for 3 years now and on paper I'm amazed it all works, our diary is only ever full about a week in advance at most. We have a small number of regular clients and a couple of current web site contracts. But it works... we have a nice balance between work and family life, best of all, no office politics! Getting made redundant was the best thing that could have happened for us...
Jay if you can make half decent ecommerce sites, go for it - sell your skills, there is enough work out there for everyone, just don't sell yourself too cheap.

Lee

PS good luck with the OU, I studied with them 2003-7... great course

jamesb1239

fuzzball172 wrote: »

Ah! my apologies Jay... Knowledge is a product like anything else, somebody somewhere will pay you for it.
I was chatting to my wife today about something similar. We have been running our company for 3 years now and on paper I'm amazed it all works, our diary is only ever full about a week in advance at most. We have a small number of regular clients and a couple of current web site contracts. But it works... we have a nice balance between work and family life, best of all, no office politics! Getting made redundant was the best thing that could have happened for us...
Jay if you can make half decent ecommerce sites, go for it - sell your skills, there is enough work out there for everyone, just don't sell yourself too cheap.

Lee

PS good luck with the OU, I studied with them 2003-7... great course

It's no problem Lee, Did you study the same course with the OU?

I always have this fear with technology and working for other people, I have done it before and dont like to seem a rip off so severely undercharge, but from experience a customer is never happy and by the time you have changed the colour and alignment of all the parts of the site that they want and then tweaked this and added that it works out that you may have well done it for nothing, plus they then stick an incompetent staff member in charge of it and a month later you have to go in and find what on earth in those many many files they changed to stop some feature or other from working.

So now i just apply my knowledge to personal projects (that admittedly dont last long, just to pass time) and things for family and friends.

Im glad that your business is managing to survive, am i foolish to assume that you are some way tied to web design lol.

fuzzball172

Jay, no i studied computers and web design. I had been working in computers for a while and wanted to improve my CV. The OU is great to study with, the courses are great, the tutors are very supportive.
I know what you mean about the problem with working with clients. Thats why I don't undercharge. I have learnt that its always best to lay out strict boundries as to what is included in the price and what will be extra. I also find that in web design, the maxim 'the customer is always right' is complete tosh... I find that most people have no real idea what they want,or have a design that their friends have been polite about and therefor think is the bee's knees. I find I spend a fair amount of time educating customers on what to expect from a website and the basics of design.
But saying that, it's still a great job and worth the minor niggly issues.

Lee
You are spot on with the web design, one of the services I offer is web design.

jamesb1239

Which courses did you do with the OU, i know you say computing etc but do you have the names of them? i need to add a few courses to my degree to get the required points and those additional points can be from anywhere so may be worth a look.

SuperMum2008

Thanks for the advice everyone - I do have a certain level of knowledge of stock control/maintenance etc and am a creative person, so I plumped for Mr Site and have made a good start designing my logo on corel draw. So Far so good, but I do appreciate all comments and advice, and perhaps some of you might dry run my site for me when I unclick the "under construction" checkbox!!

fuzzball172

will be happy to help