Dave's wife needs advice on setting up an online shop

[Bobby Dazzler]

A colleague of mine, Dave, told me today that his wife is setting up a small business and plans to trade using an online shop, with typical transactions being for multiple items with a combined value in the region of £200.

Dave has spoken to a website designer who recommended WooCommerce, but wasn't blown away by the quality of advice received generally and so is looking for a second opinion.

1. Any thoughts on WooCommerce specifically?

2. Any recommendations on an alternative to WooCommerce!

3. Any recommendations on an appropriate web designer, ideally in London?

All thoughts and comments appreciated.

 

[gIzzE]

Take a look at Shopify, tell her to download the free trial package and see what she thinks, you don't need anyone else to do anything for you, it is very slick and nice and easy.
Plus it is cheap.

Makes all the others look a bit dated imho.

 

[brucemillar]

Maybe tell Dave to keep his paws away from your wife.

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Take a look at Shopify, tell her to download the free trial package and see what she thinks, you don't need anyone else to do anything for you, it is very slick and nice and easy.
Plus it is cheap.

Makes all the others look a bit dated imho.

Have you used it, or do you use it? I recall you're in (quality) retail yourself?

Shopify and Magento are the two which leapt out to me, probably because they're big names, but I have no experience of either, or of any equivalent tools.

The closest I've ever got was building an online store with Dreamweaver, JavaScript, and PayPal, but that was a long time ago! No need now with off the shelf options.

 

[gIzzE]

Yeah I have used it, and the company I originally used to design my website who used Magento, I got rid off as I never like the look. Magento always looks better for lots of cheap things, ipod cases etc. etc. But lots of work to get a minimal clean look, like John Lewis etc.
This is where Shopify wins hands down.
That web design company is now using Shopify themselves, which says a lot.

You can get a website up and running yourself with zero web design experience in a day.
If you have less than 1000 products it is only £40 a month for everyrthing, that includes hosting etc.
That is it.

Why pay someone else to do a website, spend that on SEO to get the site seen.

We have stopped selling online due to not being able to get stock quick enough and the shop being busy and our main priority, with my product it needed a full time team to upload new products. We have 32,000 products in stock this season including variations, being clothing and footwear every size or colour is a new product.

However, I have just been asked to do something else in the AV world and I will definitely use Shopify for that where there is only around 40 variations.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

gIzzE that really is fantastic insight, thank you.

Shopify it is then.

If I was Dave I would set it up myself, but on this rare occasion Dave is actually a real person, albeit not named Dave

 

[V12]

Have used Magento, Prestashop and osCommerce.

There used to be a big difference but having looked at this again late last year it looks as though there isn't much between them anymore in terms of functionality and interface.

If eBay/Amazon integration is a factor to get the shop off the ground then I would seriously look at Magento. Whilst all options offer some sort of ebay functionality, Magento rules here.

Don't have any experience with shopify but it looks good.

 

[Benzowner]

When I set up our online shop a few years ago, there was a tremendous problem in making sure our payment site was secure. You can't just open the shop and let people pay into your bank, there are all sorts of security issues with retention of banking cards etc. In the end we decided to go down the route of using Sagepay, I am sure there are many others around, but be aware. There are also a number of template sites where you construct your own shop so to speak. Good luck in their venture.

 

[gIzzE]

This is still the same. Best to decide which package you are going to go with and then see what payment partners they are integrated with. By this I mean make sure you use a payment gateway that the buyer can use on your chosen site, ie Magento, Shopify etc. so the customer is not taken offsite to pay.

Loads of payment providers out there like Worldpay, Barclays, Sagepay etc. etc. but not all the website package integrate with them all.

Also, remember it can take up to 4 weeks to get the payments up and running, and you have to meet certain criteria such as having all card logos on site, having a proper contact us page with full address, having a proper About Us page etc.

The payment set up integration was the most difficult bit, and the one bit she may need help with.

 

[V12]

We run sage pay and when I reviewed payment methods in march 2013, PayPal accounted for over 60% whereas in march 2011 it only accounted for under 10%.

The average item sale price on that webshop is £750ish.

PayPal integration is very simple no matter which package you go with.