Want to start an e-commerce shop, advice?

Tony Williams

Tony Williams

Tony Williams

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13 Jul 2006
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Hey guys, I'm looking to build a very basic e-commerce website. I have no real experience with web design (apart from a few sites when I was in school but they weren't shops like this). I'm looking to learn at the same time really. I need advice on what I should use like WordPress, Dreamweaver, what templates, etc

It will be a very small shop with about 10 products mainly beauty and supplements so it's not complicated. I want the site to be able to take the payments via credit card, paypal, bank or even BitCoin this is the bit that confuses me a bit.

I have some books and training courses I just need to decide what I'll be using to make the site so I have a path.

I have a few WordPress themes too.

Any advice off you guys would be great.
 
wife runs a small site doing waxmelts and wax burners etc, using shopify,

painless and easy and costs her abour £18 a month or so.

completely simple and pain free
 
Something like Opencart is easy to set up and configure and the only charges you'll incur are from the hosting provider for the domain and the site hosting, which can be really cheap.
 
Don't worry about going to "custom" wix.com seems to be great for niche sites and products with some decent tools.

Or for a bit more control webflow.

When setting up a store for a few products focus on what the problem they solve is, everything else should be stupidly simple and foolproof. Work on marketing the product right because it doesn't matter how nice the site is if no one is looking at it.
 
I'd do it via Etsy/eBay first to handle payments and proof of concept. You can also have a simple site / blog showcasing products and linking to listings etc via Wix/Squarespace or whatever

E: or just toss the mattress out of the van and Dell Boy it down Peckham market
 
I'd set the site up (using advice already given here) but also sell in parallel on Etsy etc. Whenever you make a sale on Etsy then include a note with the order letting the customer know about your website. People will have gained trust from the Etsy sale and if you charge less on the website then they will be inclined to use it for repeat orders.
 
Hades said:
I'd set the site up (using advice already given here) but also sell in parallel on Etsy etc. Whenever you make a sale on Etsy then include a note with the order letting the customer know about your website. People will have gained trust from the Etsy sale and if you charge less on the website then they will be inclined to use it for repeat orders.
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I have noticed people selling on sites like ebay/etsy and had a website side lined. What I have had in ebay products is a leaflet about their store online and if I had ordered next time there would be a 10% all discount on items they sold.
 
Tony Williams said:
Hey guys, I'm looking to build a very basic e-commerce website. I have no real experience with web design (apart from a few sites when I was in school but they weren't shops like this). I'm looking to learn at the same time really. I need advice on what I should use like WordPress, Dreamweaver, what templates, etc

It will be a very small shop with about 10 products mainly beauty and supplements so it's not complicated. I want the site to be able to take the payments via credit card, paypal, bank or even BitCoin this is the bit that confuses me a bit.

I have some books and training courses I just need to decide what I'll be using to make the site so I have a path.

I have a few WordPress themes too.

Any advice off you guys would be great.
Click to expand...

I would suggest you ditch the idea of writing your own e-commerce website. Aside from design, there's so many considerations around security that you'll be setting yourself up to fail before you've started. It's actually a very complicated task to even create a basic store.

Instead, go to freecodecamp.org and follow their program - it's fantastic and free. You will learn so much more that way if you get involved with their community and dedicate some time. You won't be making shopping websites though, at least not early on.
 
balanceballs said:
I would suggest you ditch the idea of writing your own e-commerce website. Aside from design, there's so many considerations around security that you'll be setting yourself up to fail before you've started. It's actually a very complicated task to even create a basic store.
Click to expand...

What complications are you referring to? If he got himself a cPanel account with a half decent host, he could have a basic shop with theme and products, along with an SSL certififcate (Lets Encrypt for example) up and running in an hour tops. If he's offloading payment processing, theres only a small proportion of PCI compliance he needs to ascert to. Hardest part of it all is getting interest/traffic/customers to it ...
 
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