in need of a simple website

kking_2

Hi,
I hope this is the right place. I am in the process of starting up my new business. I need a website that I can sell from. The client base I'm dealing with seem to be quite unhappy with using ebay and to be honest I'd prefer to have my own site so I don't have to deal with ebay and paypal fees. I need a domain name and a site that I can update myself. I've looked at a few services but I was wondering if anyone had had any good experience with one they could share. Thank you for your time.

DomRavioli

Hiya

I used freshstudios (https://www.freshstudios.com) as they were one of the cheapest ones I found, and know very little about websites so needed abit of guidance as to how to do all this. They talked me through what I wanted, and taught me to add new products into my online shop, and are still there now in case I get a bit stuck or forget what I'm doing.

I did go to a large company in Manchester (vanilla storm) who wanted just short of £1000 for the site, they did it for £400 for me which I was more than happy to pay. It took around 2 weeks which I am told is pretty quick, but I wasn't in a rush for it. The website has been great, never broken or down because of traffic and after some tweaks, its exactly what I asked for.

Don't be pushed about by people or companies when getting quotes, you go for what you want as they can be bloody ruthless in selling their products.

Hth

Dom

kking_2

I'll look into them. Thanks so much

gb12345

kking wrote: »

Hi,
I hope this is the right place. I am in the process of starting up my new business. I need a website that I can sell from. The client base I'm dealing with seem to be quite unhappy with using ebay and to be honest I'd prefer to have my own site so I don't have to deal with ebay and paypal fees. I need a domain name and a site that I can update myself. I've looked at a few services but I was wondering if anyone had had any good experience with one they could share. Thank you for your time.

You will need to register a domain name and arrange hosting - there are numerous threads on here asking for recommendations and everyone has their own opinions/experience. I have used 123-reg for a number of years for both registrations and hosting and have never had a problem with them.

The next thing that you will need to consider is the content of the site - you can either have it custom produced for you or you can go for CMS like WordPress, which has a number of e-Commerce plug-ins available. If it is custom produced then you will need some skills to be able to do your own updates, whereas with a CMS you should be able to do the majority of things through a GUI front-end.

One thing though - you mention wanting to avoid paying PayPal fees, so how do you plan on taking payments?

kking_2

paypal is still an option, and im looking into others. I just didn't want paypal fees AND ebay fees as it cuts too far into my profit margin.

Wywth

The problem with any website trying to sell something is it needs hits ... lots of them. And with billions of websites out there why would anyone choose yours?

eBay is a well known website where anyone looking to buy something online would probably look (together with amazon)
It's a bit like a seach engine - google have spent a fortune getting it to be the most well known and so frequented one.

Getting a website to be a consumers top choice, and remaining so, is not cheap - and that is why, in part, ebay charge fees.
To use ebay, you must offer paypal as a payment choice usually.

What many people do is start on ebay, and use that to try and attract traffic to their own website. I think you can have a link in your ebay mypage and if you use an email address linked to your domain that will also lead some customers direct to your own website. Some sellers include a little note with the goods they dispatch (perhaps a 'thank you for purchasing from us', or a custom dispatch note) which includes a website address.

Perhaps offer lower prices on your own website, reflecting the savings you make because you are not incurring ebay fees on sales from your own site? But still some buyers may prefer to buy via ebay/amazon for their own peace of mind.

If you can't offer your products at competitive prices on ebay (including the associated costs) and still make a decent profit, then ask yourself is this a viable business in the first place. Afterall, everyone else selling the same items on ebay are paying their fees.

kking_2

Most of the items I am selling are either one of a kind or quite rare. I have spent a long time gathering a good solid client list and one of the services I offer is a 'search & secure' service where I find the items they require. I have had too many problems over the years to feel totally comfortable. If I have an item I find hard to price I may use ebay as a method to auction

Wywth

kking wrote: »

Most of the items I am selling are either one of a kind or quite rare. I have spent a long time gathering a good solid client list and one of the services I offer is a 'search & secure' service where I find the items they require. I have had too many problems over the years to feel totally comfortable. If I have an item I find hard to price I may use ebay as a method to auction

Lots of rare/unique items sold on ebay. The advantage is where there is no competition and a buyer is really keen to buy, you can effectively name the price
Or if you want to be fair, offer for auction and let the market decide on the value.

I've sold before via ebay on a very similar basis. I had an item and I met an interested buyer on the internet. As we otherwise didn't know each other we agreed to process the sale/purchase through ebay & paypal for our mutual protection. We'd already agreed the price, so I listed it as a BIN and immediatedly contacted the interested buyer with the listing number, who then immediately bought it.

If you have had problems in the past using ebay, leaving you uncomfortable selling on this platform, I suggest you think carefully about setting up a new business selling online.

If buyers approach you to source a particular item, why do you need a website to advertise your goods for sale at all?

kking_2

I have thought very hard about my business and the way its set up. The website is mainly being used as a catalog with the option to buy. I have thought everything through and I believe I have made the right choice.

kking_2

Wywth wrote: »

If buyers approach you to source a particular item, why do you need a website to advertise your goods for sale at all?

Because I offer both things, I have the service and I have my items and I think a simple 1 stop shop approach is the best idea for me

johnhamelink

Hey guys, thought I'd jump in on this conversation :j

I'm a developer and run my own small business building both small branding/advertising based websites and big websites the provide services and help make peoples lives easier (text removed by Forum Team). My experience of working in the industry is simply this: you get what you pay for.

Some guys will do websites for £200-£800 a go. These websites by-and-large will not perform well on their own, because as Wywth noted there are plenty similar ones and yours doesn't stand out. The reason why these websites are so cheap is because they are built from pre-made parts which are then mashed together to make the final result. This can cause problems with excessive bugs causing the website to do silly things, and later on having no way to keep your website secure and up-to-date.

The way I see it is twofold:

• If you're going to be building a website to promote your business, have someone create a website with some static content, and some form of blog or news section that allows you to update the website with new information periodically. This is vital to make Google realise that your website doesn't have stale information in it. Once the website is built, make a point of adding new content to it regularly!
• If you're building an online business, it makes sense to invest in a quality company that you can have a long-term relationship with to provide support, expansion and maintenance with. I've had so many clients come to me because their previous company let them down, or went out of business, or they couldn't implement changes that the client wanted, or the client's website was hacked or broke down because nobody was looking after it. Find a company that's not going to go away any time soon, expect to spend more than £10,000 for a good job, and make sure to have a support retainer in place.

One other tip. While the customer is almost always right, it's important to note that you're not just paying for a website, you're also paying for an expert who can get you a ROI, and so you're also paying for his advice. A good relationship with a web development company will be a mix between the developer trying to be as plain speaking and honest as he can (even if that means that the client's dreams can't come true in the way they envisaged!) and the client knowing that the developer's job is to get results as well as to build what the client wants.

Hope that's helpful to whoever is reading!