eCommerce

[Big]

I have owned a domain for numerous years and really not done anything with it to this point. I have had ideas over the years that never came to fruition. Now, the pen making has afforded a whole new realm of possibilities.

That being said, if you were going to move into the realm of ecommerce for selling your pens. What is a good hosting solution and ecommerce solution? It seems to me that the ecommerce software side would need to be user friendly for continuous editing with adding and subtracting from inventory for example. I realize that there are many venues and have seen people using Facebook, Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, etc. I have a personal domain that I want to use but really need to figure out the ecommerce side. I don't want something that is going to be too cost prohibitive either. Do most of them run about $30 per month?

Thanks for all the help with this. I am really scratching my head and don't know which way to turn for answers at this point.

 

[SteveJ]

While you can spend $30 a month, for a starter website there isn't really any need to do that. GoDaddy, siteground and vodahost are just a few hosting companies that offer packages with ecommerce at less than that. I used VodaHost for quite a number of years and found it to be a workable ecommerce solution which I think ran about $8 a month. Most of the hosting sites will allow you to use your personal domain. However, the experience of Leroy, George and Ed when tehy switched providers may serve as cautionary tales!

 

[ed4copies]

"Switching" providers was not a problem, a couple years ago.

The problem comes when you have data (products, customer names, etc) that you want to transfer to your new site.

However, if you want to sell stuff, it is kinda necessary to be on the first couple pages of Google. That won't happen if you "update" every few weeks----DAILY adds do not guarantee, but do make it more likely you will be seen by shoppers. So, before you decide to be a "web store", do a few (20 or so) web searches for terms you think your shoppers would use. See who is already entrenched in that space and determine HOW you plan to become a viable and noticed alternative.

Remember that 750 new websites are created EVERY HOUR of EVERY DAY!!!
How will YOU get noticed???

 

[Smitty37]

Related to Ed's comment...you will also need to watch very closely to see if ads drive enough new business to your store to make it worth while. If you're idea is to make money you won't want to increase your total volume while reducing your bottom line.

 

[ed4copies]

So, it's 9 PM!!

Did you set up your website yet?

Since you posted, 9000 new websites have gone "up". They all think they will succeed. What do YOU think?
(If google is correct, picture "Dolphin Stadium" near you, (5000 capacity) filled twice. If you started a website today, all those other people did too. Why will anyone pick YOU out of that crowd??)


Food for thought.

By 9 AM tomorrow, that number doubles!

 

[TellicoTurning]

So, it's 9 PM!!

Did you set up your website yet?

Since you posted, 9000 new websites have gone "up". They all think they will succeed. What do YOU think?
(If google is correct, picture "Dolphin Stadium" near you, (5000 capacity) filled twice. If you started a website today, all those other people did too. Why will anyone pick YOU out of that crowd??)


Food for thought.

By 9 AM tomorrow, that number doubles!

Ed, Surely Dolphin Stadium holds more than 5,000....maybe more like 50,000?? :biggrin:


Big,
The thing about ecommerce is that it's a constant battle to stay near the top of the search grid... As Ed and Dawn.... it's almost a daily promotion to stay high on the searches.

I've had a web site up for a number of years... haven't checked lately on the number of hits I get.....for a while it paid for itself in sales... this past year hasn't done so much... probably because of those 9000 website per hour that are going up daily.... my ETSY store gets about 500 hits a month and maybe one or two sales... fortunately it's cheap enough that I don't worry about that.... my website costs me $13.95 per month and is about to come down... I can list 70 items on ETSY for that same $13.95 and the listing is good for 4 months. The bad thing about ETST is that if you don't manipulate the site almost daily it too gets buried under the avalanche of new sites coming on line daily....

If you can get a decent flow of sales, it does beat the arts and craft show circuit... my booth is somewhat elaborate with folding baker's racks for the bowls, folding book shelves for the peppermills and wine glasses, tables for the shelves to sit on and for the other display racks... everything in the set up is getting heavier by the year.... plus the travel, loading and unloading, expense for food, booths, gasoline, etc....

Good luck with your website... it's kinda fun to work with them.

 

[ed4copies]

According to google, "Dolphin stadium" is used by a local high school in Pensacola.

 

[Smitty37]

Base! Base!Base!

One of the things that has not been mentioned so far is that most of the successful small vendors here at the IAP have an established customer base of folks interested in the products they sell. Some have used that base as a springboard to other internet selling other's like myself (for what I believe are very good reasons) really haven't. Ed and Dawn not to long ago were primarily dealing with customers from this site. I suspect that is probably no longer true, but that base them to grow, it allowed them to establish policies and methods of dealing with customers that set them apart and give folks a reason to shop with them. I can't say this for certain, but I can think of several other vendors including myself who rely on our IAP customers for much of what we do. You need to have a base of people who buy what you sell frequently and have a good reason to buy from you.

One thing I can tell you for sure - selling completed pens, you will never establish a base here at IAP you can get lots of lookers, lots of positive comments about your product but with very few exceptions no buyers for finished pens. In fact, probably half the members here are also trying to sell some pens.

 

[TellicoTurning]

According to google, "Dolphin stadium" is used by a local high school in Pensacola.

My bad, I ass u me 'd you meant the NFL stadium the Dolphins used... :biggrin::tongue: