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Advice - how to hire designer/developer to create ecommerce store on either BigCommerce or Shopify

by lisah4788
11 replies
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Hey Warrior Nation,

I'm a small ecommerce business and I primarily sell about 12 different products (total of around 200 SKU's) on Ebay and Amazon with a good bit of success thus far. I know that I need to move into my own ecommerce site.

I work full-time while trying to build this business in my "free time" (i.e. every evening/weekend/holiday/vacation) with the goal of hopefully quitting my grown up job to be an entrepreneur full-time.

As such, I literally don't have the physical time to build my ecommerce store. I need to hire someone to build my store for me.

I've done some research on ecommerce platforms and I've narrowed it down to either Shopify or Bigcommerce.

My question to everyone is - if you're going to hire someone to build your store for you, should you use Shopify or Bigcommerce? Or does it not matter?

Next, where could I find a person to do this at a REASONABLE price? I see that Sopify and Bigcommerce have "experts" you can farm this work out to, but the going rate seems to be between 2-3k. That seems a little pricey to me.

I could also try my hand at odesk or elance, but I'd worry about working with someone and getting taken advantage of. That's the unfortunate part about hiring someone to do something you don't know how to do - you don't know what they're missing and you don't know if they're taking a reasonable time to get the work done.

I'd love to hear what you all think. Thanks for taking the time to read!

Best
Lisa
#advice #bigcommerce #create #designer or developer #ecommerce #hire #shopify #store
  • Profile picture of the author Robert X
    Cool your jets Lisa. Don't go running out and blowing 2-3 G's just yet. I was actually just searching for the same exact thing today.

    What I did first was headed over to Fiverr to see what was up with guys over there. I didn't get too far into it but I did find a ton of guys that will set up your site for $5.

    Now, I'm sure you need much more than that but, what you could do is get started and maybe some sample work or even have them "start" on the building of your site. It's $5 bucks, what the heck. If they're not delivering you can trash it and you're only out a few bucks. And most will do much more than the $5 gig.

    I'm looking into Shopify and just about to get started myself.
    Just my suggestion.

    Robert C.
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  • Profile picture of the author mrjosco
    The benefit of a site like shopify is that it is a simple platform that doesn't require any technical knowledge.

    Certainly a programmer could offer great customization and design, but the overall functionality is available without the expensive help.

    Now, if time is the issue - then be ready to pay for it. Adding 200 SKU's to shopify can take a considerable amount of time, even if you are just copying and pasting "Titles" and "Descriptions" from already existing stores.

    After adding the items they will need to set up basic SEO, implement any graphics or internal pages and then set up the backend such as shipping and payment settings. $2000-$3000 for this admin work is likely on the high side, but that is assuming you are using a template and not getting a custom design.

    I am sure you can hire a reliable person from Odesk with good feedback and pay them on a 'per item' basis - but that will still leave you setting up the payment and shipping settings.

    Either way you are going to have to spend a considerable amount of time giving specific direction and feedback. Likely about the same amount of time it would take you to just do it yourself.
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    • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
      What you are really looking for, is not a designer, you are looking for someone to implement for you. It actually makes a difference. As for platform, again, until you define what you need, its really hard to tell you which platform is best for you.

      I use both Shopify and BigCommerce and like them for different reasons. Out of the box, BigCommerce has so much more built in but Shopify I think is easier to implement.

      And yes, I am one of those experts in the Shopify (and BigCommerce I think... need to check). Part of the fee I charge takes into account the time I spend with the owner showing them how to use the system, collecting all the information, talking about business options, shipping, returns, whether they need wholesale, etc. That information has value which I charge for.

      My advice, before you hire anyone, gather everything you will need to get your commerce store started. Everything to pages, products, category structure, etc. Having all that together makes it easier (hence, cheaper) for the person helping you.

      Here is a case study on a conversion I did for someone.

      Woocommerce to Shopify Conversion - Online Store Help
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      Learn how to set up a powerful, functional yet easy to use e-commerce website at cartprep.com.

      Not sure what ecommerce solution to use? Watch my video walk through of popular shopping carts.
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      • Profile picture of the author Trinipirate
        There is absoluetly no way I would pay someone to "design" a shopify site for me. Far less for 3K. I had a shopify store that I ended up selling. Shopify is a great platform to get up and running in less than a day. Pick a theme, add your SKU's and install a few necessary apps. The apps are what make shopify a simple platform IMO. I have designed sites in the past w/ dreamweaver and other software so I could have gone the extra mile and done something from scratch but shopify was just too easy to plug and play. The only outsourcing I did was having someone write product descriptions for me. However, the downside is paying the monthly fee.

        For my next site will I use shopify? NO. Although it was very convenient, I'd prefer the idea of owning and controling as much of my business as I can. I'll use opencart for FREE (extensions will cost) and if I need anything outside of my expertise, I'll pay a small fee for that. Fiverr is your friend as another poster alluded to. You can get a site built on that platform or wordpress for much more reasonable price on your own servers. 3K to do anything on shopify is overpaying IMO. You can have everything done for less than 1K depending on your expertice and patience. And most of all, you won't have to pay shopify a monthly fee.

        SEO is another story.
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  • Profile picture of the author lisah4788
    Thanks to all who have responded.

    Not to dive into another discussion, but Trinipirate, you mentioned SEO... is that impacted by the type of platform you use (Shopify vs. Bigcommerce vs whateverelse)?
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    • Profile picture of the author Trinipirate
      Originally Posted by lisah4788 View Post

      Thanks to all who have responded.

      Not to dive into another discussion, but Trinipirate, you mentioned SEO... is that impacted by the type of platform you use (Shopify vs. Bigcommerce vs whateverelse)?
      No, nowadays every platform is capable of giving you good on page SEO. I was alluding to off page SEO being another set of recurring costs IF you so choose to take that on. Not sure if you have your own private label brand and email list already but if you're selling common products it will be another expense to try to rank, on top of monthly shopify costs.
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  • Profile picture of the author braydencrown
    I think you should go with specific web development and design services
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  • Profile picture of the author Monkmoney
    Shopify is my vote..you may not have time but they have loads of templates, the grunt work is adding the products with descriptions and photos.

    Then you may need to pony up for a logo

    You get what you pay for..my advice..take your time and so it yourself, except maybe the logo

    You will have to take time to understand the fulfilment process anyways, which is different than ebay and amazon
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  • Profile picture of the author LaurLaurentiu
    Chiming in late to this Forum thread. Full disclosure: I work at Bigcommerce. @OnlineStoreHelp offers some great advice. In general, the old adage you get what you pay for holds true when it comes to hiring developers and designers. Yes, you can hire some for dirt cheap on Fiverr. However, the quantity and quality of work may not be to the standards that you want. This brings me to my second point. It's important that you write down your budget, the full scope of work of what you want done and more importantly what you are hoping to accomplish. This can be the doc you lean on to ensure the person you hire does what you are expecting. From there, it's generally a good idea to speak to a few designers to see what they can and can't do and allow a better way to gauge the average quote. Try and get referrals from your colleg
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  • Profile picture of the author AadhyaMehra
    Banned
    An experienced and skilled person can only create a website like shopify or flipkart. The websites of these companies are made with too much effort. Today's, I think Nationkart can only create these type of websites.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dante Galahad
    if i want to customize open cart how deep i need to know or understand when it come to coding from html, css, java script, j query and depressing php anyone?.
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