Basic e-comm website

dwight-van-man

Hi, looking for some recommendations for who to use to set up a website. I've been seeling suucessfully on ebay for ages but losing massively thru fees so want to set up a seperate website. I'd looked at 1and1.co.uk as a friend suggested them but I'm in the dark as to how to compare. As I see it, I need a company that will do everything necessary to run the site and provide the means for me to design it, through templates or whatever. It's just a hobby so doesn't need to be top class, or at least i can't afford it to be top class.....
Any suggestions?
Thanks

needstoknow

i use streamline.net, it depends on what you want, may i suggest you learn a bit of website building as compaines will rip u off 4 templates. many free sites on google etc, dotn give your money away and remember you have to make ur site known whic costs money! so depends how much u sell on ebay

nads

Like plumbers and builders, recommendations are the best bet.

For me its catalyst2.com (I bought my domains from godaddy.com for $6.99\£3.70).

OSCommerce is a free e-commerce product which lots of free templates available. You've probably come across lots of sites that use it without realsiing it. The challenge is to customize OSCommerce (lots of good show case examples at oscommerce.com) and use the many plugins and addons to make a good experience for the end user.

Astaroth

If you decide to go down the route of a "proper" developer/ designer then I can recommend http://www.codingmonkeys.biz

OSCommerce is ok but your site will look like every other one that uses it - which is good as people know how it opperates but is obviously not great if you are trying to grow a successful business.

martindow

There are several considerations.

One is regarding optimisation. People have got to be able to find you. Optimising a site to be well listed takes time and effort and is something of an art. Using Ebay people are already half way to to finding your things.

Out of Ebay people are not so likely to want to use Paypal and you will probably need to get a credit card merchant account. This is around 25 pounds a month plus fees for every transaction.

Having said this, I don't want to discourage you from making a web site. You have lots more control over appearance, making changes and so on and you are going for a different market - people who go to Google to find something rather than starting at Ebay. A lot of people use both Ebay and their own web site for this reason.

Astaroth

There are cheaper option that a traditional merchant account - nochex do offer what they call a merchant account (though it isnt strictly in the traditional sense) but it can be heavily customised to fit into the look and feel of your site (would totaly agree with Martindow's comments on paypal for an ecom site - it does look very unprofessional)

millwalll

i guess it all depends on what you want to spend but i would say paypal as it pretty easy to set up your self u dont have to pay to use it and if alot of your customer are using ebay as well the change is they have a paypal account and then wont have the hassel of joing another site or adding there credit card to another site remeber as much as you want it to look good you need it to be user friendly and easy because it you selling sumthink and it takes me 10 mins to use your site and pay and i got fill in all my details and so on i jsut find another site that sells the same thing and alot easyer and quicker to use:j

as for web hosting and domain names shop about there hundreds of companys

also a good tip is instead of buying a template find a site you like and use there layout as your template and design it to your needs

Doublespresso

I have read good reviews about http://www.toast.it/ who specilaise in the field and offer a scalable service.
Their sites seem very nice IMHO, a lot depends on what you want to achive.

HTH