New online business - need mentor?

brownbabygirl

Hello, I am just starting out on my business and plan to launch end of the year. I am working on my website and planning how I will action everything. My business will be purely online. Customers order and pay online from around the world and the product is delivered to loved ones in a particular country (Not UK). Since I have not sold online before I need some help/mentoring as to the basic practical stuff. Those of you who have done this sort of thing for years would appreciate your help and guidance. Please inbox me your email if you can. So I am worried about the following:

1. How do I set up my website to take credit and debit card payments. Is paypal sufficient or I need to make it in a way that people can also pay without paypal and how do I go about this?

2. How do I create shipping labels?

3. Pictures for the website of the products. Anything I need to bear in mind? Who is the best person to do this? Photographer in a studio? Then he edits it to make it look appealing?

4. Is there a software that will help me create order IDs, track inventory, track order fulfillment and that sort of thing?

I have so many more basic questions but this is what comes to mind now. Please help me.

martindow

You need to sort out all of these issues to see if you have a potential business or not. Until you know what your costs will be you don't know whether your idea will be feasible.

How are you going to market your website and what will this cost? It is not a simple as putting it up on the web and waiting for orders to flood in. Why will people buy through a website they've never heard of rather than going to companies like Amazon?

Are you proposing to hold stock or is this a drop-shipping operation? If the latter there are lots of potential pitfalls as your reputation and ability to deliver promptly depends on others.

Shopping cart software should deal with 1, 2 and 4 including the ability to take payments via a card acquirer and a bank and also to take Paypal. A professional photographer will be very expensive unless you only have a few products to photograph. Some suppliers may offer photos to use but many won't.

Everything involves fees of course.

I hope this doesn't sound too negative but you need to be realistic. There are places for relatively niche products to sell from web sites but you must check out all of the expenses involved before you invest money in your venture.


Good luck - I hope that it works out.

brownbabygirl

martindow wrote: »

You need to sort out all of these issues to see if you have a potential business or not. Until you know what your costs will be you don't know whether your idea will be feasible.

How are you going to market your website and what will this cost? It is not a simple as putting it up on the web and waiting for orders to flood in. Why will people buy through a website they've never heard of rather than going to companies like Amazon?

Are you proposing to hold stock or is this a drop-shipping operation? If the latter there are lots of potential pitfalls as your reputation and ability to deliver promptly depends on others.

Shopping cart software should deal with 1, 2 and 4 including the ability to take payments via a card acquirer and a bank and also to take Paypal. A professional photographer will be very expensive unless you only have a few products to photograph. Some suppliers may offer photos to use but many won't.

Everything involves fees of course.

I hope this doesn't sound too negative but you need to be realistic. There are places for relatively niche products to sell from web sites but you must check out all of the expenses involved before you invest money in your venture.


Good luck - I hope that it works out.

Hello thanks for replying. I know what I need to do and I have an idea of costs etc. I literally need help with the practical stuff I listed above. Literally lol. I don't need help with the business plan, feasibility and all that stuff.

Pennywise

You don't need a mentor. There are massive amounts of resources on the internet about setting up websites, choosing & setting up shopping carts, online marketing, social media marketing, etc. Not only are there websites, chatrooms, forums, etc., there are also plenty of step-by-step youtube videos showing how to create websites and integrate shopping cart software. If you can't do the research yourself, then you need to engage an internet website/marketing firm to do it for you, but it will be at quite a cost.

brownbabygirl

Pennywise wrote: »

You don't need a mentor. There are massive amounts of resources on the internet about setting up websites, choosing & setting up shopping carts, online marketing, social media marketing, etc. Not only are there websites, chatrooms, forums, etc., there are also plenty of step-by-step youtube videos showing how to create websites and integrate shopping cart software. If you can't do the research yourself, then you need to engage an internet website/marketing firm to do it for you, but it will be at quite a cost.

Ah OK. I have a professional working on the website so I guess he can sort all that for me:T:T:T

For the inventory stuff and tracking I will reach out to the ebay forum here.

nmn

I know you said you literally only need help with the practical stuff, so I hope you take this as pragmatic advice rather than business planning!


Do please take extra special care with online payment processing. Your business sounds very high risk from a fraud POV (non-UK delivery addresses, different billing address) and online PayPal account fraud is rife. Stolen credentials (usernames and passwords) are very cheap and as the seller, if you have dispatched an item internationally before you know about the fraud, you've lost your goods for certain (pretty much).


If your goods have any kind of resell value (even if not) expect to become a repeat target if you accept PayPal. The same goes for any online payment, of course, but because of the way PayPal works it is an especially easy & common route for online theft.

brownbabygirl

nmn wrote: »

I know you said you literally only need help with the practical stuff, so I hope you take this as pragmatic advice rather than business planning!


Do please take extra special care with online payment processing. Your business sounds very high risk from a fraud POV (non-UK delivery addresses, different billing address) and online PayPal account fraud is rife. Stolen credentials (usernames and passwords) are very cheap and as the seller, if you have dispatched an item internationally before you know about the fraud, you've lost your goods for certain (pretty much).


If your goods have any kind of resell value (even if not) expect to become a repeat target if you accept PayPal. The same goes for any online payment, of course, but because of the way PayPal works it is an especially easy & common route for online theft.

Thanks so much. This helps a lot.

soolin

Ensure you business policies are very clearly stated and legal. As you are based in the U.K. You will need to display a geographic address on your website , plus accept change of mind returns , make sure for your returns you are clear about buyer paying if it is just a change of mind.

Also to avoid confusion ensure you cover the issue of import taxes, duty and handling etc. Although this will be at the receipients expense it doesn't hurt to outline this in your policy as so many people ( as can be seen here on MSE) don't realise that costs are involved in importing goods to a non EU country. Also, you might need to keep someone on board who can react quickly to any changes caused by anything connected with Brexit.

Check your courier or delivery agents carefully, it might be that different couriers are better depending on the country shipped to, so check all that out. Make sure your goods are actually covered and not restricted, and you have appropriate tracking/insurance for the item.

brownbabygirl

soolin wrote: »

Ensure you business policies are very clearly stated and legal. As you are based in the U.K. You will need to display a geographic address on your website , plus accept change of mind returns , make sure for your returns you are clear about buyer paying if it is just a change of mind.

Also to avoid confusion ensure you cover the issue of import taxes, duty and handling etc. Although this will be at the receipients expense it doesn't hurt to outline this in your policy as so many people ( as can be seen here on MSE) don't realise that costs are involved in importing goods to a non EU country. Also, you might need to keep someone on board who can react quickly to any changes caused by anything connected with Brexit.

Check your courier or delivery agents carefully, it might be that different couriers are better depending on the country shipped to, so check all that out. Make sure your goods are actually covered and not restricted, and you have appropriate tracking/insurance for the item.

Sorry I should have made it clear. I am based in the same country as where the deliveries will be (outside EU). So the customers or those paying will be from UK/EU, US etc but delivery in non EU country where I am based. It is a gift company and those paying won't be the ones receiving. I will use drivers or motor riders to deliver the items. Hope this is clear. Thanks so much for your input.

soolin

brownbabygirl wrote: »

Sorry I should have made it clear. I am based in the same country as where the deliveries will be (outside EU). So the customers or those paying will be from UK/EU, US etc but delivery in non EU country where I am based. It is a gift company and those paying won't be the ones receiving. I will use drivers or motor riders to deliver the items. Hope this is clear. Thanks so much for your input.

Ah right, in that case for most payment methods you will still need to protect yourself against claims of INR. Just to explain- I am in the UK, use paypal to pay for one of these items and (importantly) remember to change my address to the outside UK one (which potentially is not possible) , the recipient claims item doesn't arrive, I start an INR with paypal and without tracking to the address I've given on my paypal payment paypal refund me and charge you. As I have alluded to it is not always possible to change addresses to a non UK one in paypal if based in the UK , so you may struggle with that.

Even with credit card payments buyers will retain rights if you fail to deliver or if it is considered that the goods are misrepresented,

As you are not in the UK most of your questions are going to be difficult to answer as I suspect all the advice, like mine, will be based on the UK legal situation. You might need to find a forum in your country where you can get specific advice.

forgotmyname

Do your drivers / motor riders have online tracking facilities?

Your not in a EU country but you will be selling to the UK/US buyers and using your own drivers/ deliveries?

Anyone else as puzzled as me?