Web site Shop

[RogerBoyle]

Guys I am looking at putting together an on line shop it will have around 100- 150 products on it Maximum

I basically want to have pages like Home , About, Services, Contact and then a shop page with links back to the rest of the site I may add a Blog but Im not sure about that bit yet

I was looking at using something along the lines of open cart
But when I mentioned it to Sons in law I seem to be getting steered towards Wordpress and Woo Commerce as I have been advised that it would better serve my needs
They are both Electricians but I don't hold that against them :mrgreen: :mrgreen: and don't really know much more about the interweb thingy than I do

I do have a Domain parked up and I have got hosting sorted should I decide to go ahead with it..

I should add I can do some basic HTML in Dreamweaver and get a static site up running
But I know nothing about Wordpress or open cart etc

So what do you guys recommend ????

 

[Fatboy]

Wordpress takes some of the headache out of creating a website but limits you somewhat on the layout - unless they've added to that since I last looked at it. Open cart will help in having a stock inventory and product lines displayed properly and also make secure payment system easier too. Having a bit of skill with HTML is good but be honest with yourself about whether you know enough to set up and write the code for a site that will - hopefully - be talking money of the general public; that's not for the beginner.

Blogs are great as long as you are prepared to update it on a regular ie daily basis or at least 2-3 times per week otherwise it gets stale real quick.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Personally, I'd steer clear of Wordpress for e-commerce.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it specifically, but it's a very popular target for hackers, and there was at least one "zero-day" problem last year (something bad enough to require a fix applied in 'zero-days', i.e. immediately).

Other systems are available.

I would STRONGLY recommend not doing this at minimum up-front cost, but finding a local outfit who will manage the thing for you. It's a shop; it has running costs. It also needs to fit with your business plan - what are you expecting it to deliver, and over what timescale?

Unless your business is IT, you really don't have time to keep checking for security patches, etc., and as Fatboy said, it's not a trivial task. It's quite easy to find cart systems, only to be stuck later with something that doesn't meet your needs.

There are also a bagful of issues regarding what's called 'responsive design' - basically making sites that work a well for mobile devices as for desktop machines. That's important, as MOST web access is now from mobiles - tiny screen, awkward human interface 'n'all. Daft but true. Even the BBC has given in, although I suspect the latest version of its site is merely an excuse to have even less news content than previously. Talk about style over content, but I digress...

Plan it by all means - write out a hierarchy (it looks like you have this in your head already), maybe draw out what pages ought to look like, make a formal list of stuff you want it to do, then find someone who can complete the job for you. Don't forget to allow for a graphic designer, a copywriter (what I do, mainly), and setting yourself up with a product photography rig (if you sell smaller physical things), or budgeting for a professional if you can't do it yourself. Good product shots are a lot harder than you might think if you're not a good photographer already. Consumers are ever more demanding regarding the web sites they use.

Don't forget SEO too (search engine optimization). You CANNOT do this automatically, and there are no shortcuts. It's a balance between technical stuff, getting the content (words and picturs) bang-on, and arranging it all in the right way. It's the diference between success and failure.

Me? Webmaster since 1994 (not many people can say that!), recently been building Joomla sites and running them. Winding down as it's getting too tedious to stay on top of technology changes now (I've had enough of it).

E.

 

[RogerBoyle]

Many many thanks Guys
You have both really gave me a lot to think about
I'm going to do a bit more research on it and now with the info you have both gave I do now have more of an idea in what I need to be looking at including budgets LOL

Roger

 

[petermillard]

Just to add, if you're determined to DIY then all-in-one providers like squarespace.com and weebly.com could be worth a look - you get responsive design and integrated e-commerce as standard, for example, and they handle all the compliance requirements wrt e-commerce.

Pete

 

[RogerBoyle]

Thanks Pete

 

[RobinBHM]

I found the most economic solution for a website was to build the content, images and layout myself then pass it to a website designer to build.

If you need people to find the site through google searches, you will need to build your site with this in mind. The starting point is finding out what keyword phrases your potential customers will use and build your pages, headings, image titles etc around them. Dont rule out long tail word phrases, if they are identified correctly they can generate page 1 results and good conversion rates.

I used this company, based in Scotland:

http://www.kenkai.com

 

[nadynn]

In my opinion, Shopify is the best platform for building ecommerce websites. Since Shopify has a 14-day trial period, play around with it to know whether you want to continue using Shopify beyond the trial period. Personally, I'm owner of a Shopify online store and for the most part like the ease of use and general functionality.

 

[MrTeroo]

I would recommend you have a look at Ecwid

https://www.ecwid.com/

Very easy to set up and integrate into a plain html site

 

[Eric The Viking]

I think the decision was probably taken two years or so ago ;-)

 

[MrDavidRoberts]

How capable are you of doing it yourself?
WP+ Woocommerce is pretty good , that is IF you can customize it enough and know basic html code. + it's all free..
If you are green to it than just pay the mothly fee and go for Shopify, so easy to create everything there and their payment system is pretty good as well, actually you end up spending less when receiving payments with their fees than through paypal directly as well.
The only thing is, they have a monthly fee...



Well I just noticed I'm posting in a 2year old thread!
and the user who bumped it has 1 post and is recommending Shopify? an worker of Shopify perhaps?

 

[MrTeroo]

I think the decision was probably taken two years or so ago ;-)

So it was...

Maybe our new friend nadynn is connected to shopify somehow?