Anyone here run their own ecommerce site?

Diddums

Diddums

Diddums

Caporegime
Joined
24 Oct 2012
Posts
25,846
Location
Godalming
I'm dabbling in this ecommerce stuff on this new internet thing they've made, and I want to start listing some stuff for sale. Nothing big, probably about 5-10 items which will likely increase over time.

I've done some googling and can't make a decision so I'm here asking for any advice.

I've seen Medusa which seems pretty decent, however a lot of people also recommend Woocommerce which runs on Wordpress.

I need something intuitive, I'm not a coder or developer so my expertise is fairly limited and I'm not keen on spending hours banging my head against walls of code trying to fix things. It also needs to be self hosted and either cheap or free.

Any ideas?

Cheers :D
 
I know it's not what you asked, but why not just list your stuff on Amazon Marketplace, or Ebay, or Etsy? They'll take a cut of course, but you'll get all of that infastructure and exposure without having to maintain anything yourself. To put it another way, how will people find your site in the first place?
 
nightwish said:
I know it's not what you asked, but why not just list your stuff on Amazon Marketplace, or Ebay, or Etsy? They'll take a cut of course, but you'll get all of that infastructure and exposure without having to maintain anything yourself. To put it another way, how will people find your site in the first place?
Click to expand...

It's for stuff that my wife is 3D printing. I bought a printer recently and she's completely taken over, making little Christmas earrings and all sorts. It's never gonna be an Amazon or anything, but just a word of mouth kind of thing. I want something a bit "boutiquey" if that makes sense.

Just checked out Squarespace and it looks absolutely spot on, but I'm not sure I wanna spend £16 a month on it. If nothing cheaper / free comes up then I'll jump in and give it a go.
 
ColdAsIce said:
I thought squarespace along with web design also had full e-commerce functionality that can be added on too.
Click to expand...

throwaway4372 said:
Etsy or squarespace.
Avoid wordpress, that's a big juicy hacking target.
Click to expand...

As above, if this was a replacement for a job I'd be all over it, but as it's just a little side hustle I'm not keen on paying £16 a month. If nothing else comes up I'll give it a shot.
 
Please please please do not use Wordpress, it'll drive you crazy how insecure it is.

Squarespace I believe is good for this as others have said. Depending on what it is, maybe etsy might be easier/less aggro too.

There might be some smaller hosting companies that could provide these functions too, I used to work for one where cheap cheerful hosting with access to ecommerce platforms.
 
Use marketplaces like Amazon or Etsy(depending on the products)

For making a site, use Shopify. Even the base theme(Dawn) can be modified to suit you without touching a line of code.

For the latter, you’ll need to consider how to acquire customers (ads on search, social media etc).

As you’ll probably know, it’s not as easy as setting up a site and hoping someone stumbles on it which is why I suggest marketplaces first unless you have a budget.
 
You want Etsy I think --- then you're a shop front on a marketplace vs. doing absolutely everything yourself. Promote via Instagram

Edit: pics of wife?
 
Last edited:
dlockers said:
Edit: pics of wife?
Click to expand...

Sofia-Vergara-Looks-Unreal-Tiny-Bikini-Vacay-00001.jpg
 
Diddums said:
Ok, gonna give Etsy a go instead. Had a look and it doesn't look bad at all. If it takes off we can look at upgrading. Cheers all :)
Click to expand...
Deffo take the easy route as you can then spend the time on the listings, images, narrative and store front which early on will be better placed than a quality fully functioning e-commerce site. Plus likely to have a much wider customer reach.

Don't forget eBay is still pretty good for a huge customer base and SEO. For listing small offerings and prefabricated items ie examples of product to drive traffic to your brand / name / own site (which then links to etsy) even if you don't price to sell on eBay. Plus free of fees if remaining private seller.

It's still well worth building a simple non-commerce marketing focused site ie 'landing homepage covering the about us as team, vision and brand' so you can build the brand and direct traffic to the ecommerce marketplaces (ie buy direct from us on etsy etc link). This can be used to maintain your domain whilst you prove the concept before going self managed e-commerce.
 
Scrutinize said:
Deffo take the easy route as you can then spend the time on the listings, images, narrative and store front which early on will be better placed than a quality fully functioning e-commerce site. Plus likely to have a much wider customer reach.

Don't forget eBay is still pretty good for a huge customer base and SEO. For listing small offerings and prefabricated items ie examples of product to drive traffic to your brand / name / own site (which then links to etsy) even if you don't price to sell on eBay. Plus free of fees if remaining private seller.

It's still well worth building a simple non-commerce marketing focused site ie 'landing homepage covering the about us as team, vision and brand' so you can build the brand and direct traffic to the ecommerce marketplaces (ie buy direct from us on etsy etc link). This can be used to maintain your domain whilst you prove the concept before going self managed e-commerce.
Click to expand...

Excellent advice, thank you :)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom