E commerce. Easy or difficult?

[Mbstarz]

Hi I am looking to set up a retail website to run as a side business and wanted a bit of guidance.

I am in very early stages and just putting some ideas together, but would like to know if it's a long winded process to set up and run or straightforward.

Also what sort of set up costs am I looking at.

If anyone could recommend a set up guide that would be great.

 

[dinoy]

best to to go for for pre designed format what u need to identify the selling style if it is auction or classified.

once u establish the format there are plenty of ready made stores or even getting virtual stores on amazon ebayfacebook aliexpress or the like

of course having your own will involve more investment as you would need hosting and the software installed.

i am sure once you put your decisions the recommendations on applications to use

 

[Red C220]

eBay/Amazon are no longer easy. There are far too many hoops to jump through and also too many fraudulent buyers.

However the biggest issue you have on the above two sites are Chinese companies that ship from within the UK without charging VAT. It's fraud but is openly supported by both eBay and Amazon and it's very difficult for HMRC to police, although they do try.

Setting up a website is relatively straightforward, getting it noticed by Google not so straightforward.

I had a friend build our website and we also run eBay and Amazon stores as well as doing business in the traditional manner.

Our real world customers and our on line customers are completely different to deal with.

Get familiar with the new consumer Contract regulations that recently replaced Distance selling regs.

Offer Paypal, it is becoming increasingly popular. Find a card processor, we use Barclaycard and find them competitive and easy to deal with.

Good luck.

 

[MancMike]

You'll have to buy a domain, about a tenner, get hosting, anywhere from a tenner a month upwards depending on how important uptime, and speed are to you (very, i'd suggest).

The shopping cart platform will likely be free, there's Prestashop, which is excellent, Magento, which is huge, and probably overkill for your needs, and lots in between.

The design however won't be free, don't scrimp on that, pay a web designer. That should cost between a few hundred and a couple of grand, depending on your requirements and if you go for a freelancer, or a company.

I'm a web developer, and so it's my bread and butter, so I'm happy to offer any advice you need.

Oh, as for a payment gateway, you can use Paypal, for ease and convenience, but they do charge a decent fee! A proper payment gateway like Sagepay or Secpay are far better, and a better user experience (as sending them off to paypal seems cheap and 'unfinished'), but will need a little more setting up, although the shopping carts usually have plugins, modules, etc for the different gateways, so there's little in the way of coding involved now.

 

[MancMike]

You'll have to buy a domain, about a tenner, get hosting, anywhere from a tenner a month upwards depending on how important uptime, and speed are to you (very, i'd suggest).

The shopping cart platform will likely be free, there's Prestashop, which is excellent, Magento, which is huge, and probably overkill for your needs, and lots in between.

The design however won't be free, don't scrimp on that, pay a web designer. That should cost between a few hundred and a couple of grand, depending on your requirements and if you go for a freelancer, or a company.

I'm a web developer, and so it's my bread and butter, so I'm happy to offer any advice you need.

Oh, as for a payment gateway, you can use Paypal, for ease and convenience, but they do charge a decent fee! A proper payment gateway like Sagepay or Secpay are far better, and a better user experience (as sending them off to paypal seems cheap and 'unfinished'), but will need a little more setting up, although the shopping carts usually have plugins, modules, etc for the different gateways, so there's little in the way of coding involved now.