Help needed! eCommerce gurus!

gloomgurlie

Hello,

I am looking to launch a new online service later this month which will take the form of a single product being made available to purchase. The product will change every month.

The idea is similar to the Monthly Subscription boxes that are available and I have looked into the subscription based route and the back-end support for that. However, initially while I am still establishing the venture I want to be able to limit the products put out every month so I always have a grasp of what is going on and can choose to steadily increase the volume.

I do not have any experience with eCommerce (have always used eBay to buy/sell) so am looking for some help from people in the know as to what would be the preferred method. Ideally I'd like it to have some sort of stock-control I guess so that as soon as it reaches it's target, an out of stock notification would alert anyone looking to buy.

I am also looking for any info on the payment side of things - Paypal seems a good route to go down but I only say that as it's the payment method I am most familiar with.

Thanks in advance

scoly

You can set the number of items available for sale on ebay ... for any BIN listing.

I think you can do similar with amazon ... but you might need an upgraded sellers account to access that.

For ebay, you have to accept paypal ... and that's the way most people will pay you unless you also offer cash on collection.

For amazon, payment will be via amazon payments - the customer will just use their debit or credit card.

I'm suggesting these two sales avenues because of their existing viewer/buyer numbers.

To be honest, I can't see a brand new website offering just one product that varies month to month is going to catch on ... at least not without £millions in advertising, and even then it will probably fail.

Flyonthewall

You're looking to launch it later this month yet you don't even have the basics sorted? That's probably not going to happen.

I have to agree with the post above by scoly. I can't see it catching on unless the items are unique and you have very good marketing. I don't think it would be hard to start off with a few different items but the same still applies really - not sure it would be enough.

Anyway, for your own site, do you have any knowledge on creating a website? Are you paying someone else to do it? You can't just select some choices, click a button and expect a website wto be done and how you want, especially not to a professional standard. Generally if you have someone doing it for you it'll take them time and it'll cost a fair bit for the type of site you want.

If doing it yourself check out Wordpress. They have ecommerce features. Decide which plugin you like, add it to the site and set it up. I know for sure there is at least one where you can add stock control and they have payment options (including paypal and cards).

gloomgurlie

Hi scoly,

Many thanks for your advice - I don't think I made it quite clear enough but what I am going to be looking to launch is more of a service I guess rather than one product. It will be a box made up of food products that will change on a monthly basis.

Actually the more I think about it, the more I think a subscription based route could be best. I'm not so worried about the subscription bit, it was just regulating it.

I'll have a read around the web and see what hints/tips I can pick up.

Thanks for your reply ))

Flyonthewall

gloomgurlie wrote: »

Hi scoly,

Many thanks for your advice - I don't think I made it quite clear enough but what I am going to be looking to launch is more of a service I guess rather than one product. It will be a box made up of food products that will change on a monthly basis.

Actually the more I think about it, the more I think a subscription based route could be best. I'm not so worried about the subscription bit, it was just regulating it.

I'll have a read around the web and see what hints/tips I can pick up.

Thanks for your reply ))

So something along the lines of Graze box, for example? Not sure quite how that works but that kind of thing just different foods each month?

From what you've said I still think (most of) the previous comments apply, but obviously we don't know the full idea of what you're planning.

GolfBravo

I would recommend a Wordpress (free) website with Woocommerce addon (free), and modify it for a single product layout, and buy a template to save time/money and to make it look professional. Then add Paypal Standard payment module, and maybe Nochex credit card payments (no setup and ongoing monthly fee, costs the same as paypal).

Woocommerce offers full stock control, VAT, shipping, etc. You can run the whole order processing and stock control from your admin panel.

Before you approach any website developers make sure you have your content ready: product description, high quality images, shipping prices, FAQ, T&C's, about us, returns policy (standard EU will do), etc. Expect about 2 to 3 weeks including SEO.

Alternatively try Shopify, but this may end up expensive in the longer term (template + monthly fee) once you add up all the options.

peter250

The free wordpress (wordpress.com) will not allow the selling of items. To save the hassle of getting your site shut down after lots of hard work - Wordpress.org, and a domain name is what you will need with paid hosting and a cart feature. However, you should first sell on eBay and Amazon to leverage the traffic from those websites to gain exposure to your product and service. Build an email list and build a customer base. A subscription service is not recommended to begin with. Unless your product is super unique people can already use a subscription service with almost any product from Amazon, which is a trusted brand that people have confidence buying from. You will have to build that trust gradually.

One thing to note: Look at the company - Graze. They had / have a huge marketing budget and use a lot of it for TV commercials and giving away their product for free. If you don't have the money for that type of long term investment then you would be wise to use eBay and Amazon to your advantage. See where your product stands. Test the water so to speak. Good luck