Small shop wants an ecommerce site

by 512 Designs

Posted: 13 years ago 19 replies

OFFLINE MARKETING

Ok. So I'm doing some cold calling to sell mobile sites and found a local store that doesn't even have a regular site. I talked to the owner about mobile sites and she said "I want an online store". She also said that she's currently talking to someone else about it. Then I said, we'll we can build online stores too and I'd love to meet with you next week to discuss your needs and get your a price.

Sure enough, she said "ok" and I'm meeting her next Friday.

I've built some online stores for myself using free scripts and software such as OpenCart and one for Wordpress (can't remember the plug-in name right now). But entering products was a bit cumbersome with those and the only reason I could do it was because I'm petty techie and can figure those things out.

This woman didn't sound techie at all and I'm guessing she wants something that she can easily enter her products, accept orders, and get reports.

So what do you guys think is the best ecommerce solution for your offline customers? Something that you can set up and hand over the reigns? I'll know more about exactly what she needs next Friday, but I'd like to check out some of your suggested shopping cart software before the meeting.

Thanks.

Mike

#ecommerce #shop #site #small

Harley101 13 years ago

I have used them all and for me BigCommerce is the best.. Very easy to set up and start making sells.. I recommend it with 200-300 product.

If its under 100 product go with wordpress Shopperpress theme that comes with a shopping cart.
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redcell1 13 years ago

bigcommerce,bigcartel,shopify are the few that I can name off of the top of my head.
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- guynextdoor 13 years ago
  
  I am using Webasyst PHP shopping cart software for all my clients. If you are able to set up a WP site then there is no reason why you don't host the cart yourself and charge your customer monthly or let him pay the license.
  
  http://webasyst.net
  
  They offer discounts for multiple license purchases. Support is sometimes little bit slow but good.
  
  One of my BIZ strategies is to offer SEO by categories ether for a fixed fee or for 10% turnover forecast.
  
  If i work for procents i keep 50% ownership of the domain (contract) so that the shopowner can not simply sell the shop. Usally i take a payment for set up, license and first 50 articles (i add them because of SEO Keyword strategies).
  
  This business model is longtherm very successfull and a WIN WIN STRATEGY. Most shopowners never heard about keyword research and till now i could get the first sale(s) for all my clients in first 60 days, starting from zero!
  
  A offer for SEO and taking risk for procents usally is a very strong advantage over your competition to get the job.
  
  Also i nearly never saw a webshop using advanced IM from beginning. It is easy to implement IM tactics in a webshop (AWEBER, Facebook like, etc)!
  
  Specialy LOCAL - in my eyes one of the best ways to earn big!
  
  Thanks
  
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  swasa Banned 13 years ago
  
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  guynextdoor 13 years ago
  
  Zencard may be one of the best opensource ecommerce scripts available...
  
  However.. the big advantage from a system like webasyst.. there are many addional scripts which working standalone but also fully integrated in the webshop and backend... helpdesk, email, newsletter, contacts and others...
  
  Easy backend administration... no 100 addons to install without support and documentation.
  
  It also looks way more professinal for the client to get his OWN license in his name .. knowing that there is support also from the programmers.
  
  Andy
  
  Thanks
  
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WebdevelopmentGroup 13 years ago

Try zencart. They will enjoy it! very easy & handy.
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Mar 13 years ago

I'd use CubeCart 4 - the new version is still having bugs tweaked out of it, so I'm leaving that till it's more settled. CC4 is very search engine friendly, works with various payment processors including PayPal - and will run a small mailing list for her. Not free but good.

Another option is JRox which is free till you have 50 customers, I think - it will run an affiliate program.

Mar
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somacorellc 13 years ago

Do this: Wordpress ecommerce and member management plugin | Cart66

It's wordpress based, so you don't have to worry about having a separate shopping cart and storefront. I could tell you all the features, but it's awesome and actually easy to use. Go to the site and check it out.

Zen Cart is a beast. Not recommended at all for non tech people.

Shopify is pretty cool if you could act as a third party and have her pay you some sort of recurring hosting cost. At least last year my experience was the themes were kind of limited.
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- mrcouchpotato 13 years ago
  
  Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
  
  It looks like most suggestions are 3rd party ecommerce websites which has a monthly fee. I'm not sure if that's what this customer is interested in (I'll find out Friday).
  
  But if so, what's the best way to approach this? Woudn't I need her to enter a credit card number for the monthly charge to get the ball rolling? Then she'll find out that it's a company like BigCommerce.....which turns into her saying...."I can get my son to set that up for me. Why do I need you?"
  
  Or is it better to find a nice Wordpress theme such as eStore Theme | Just another WordPress site and either charger her to set it up for a single price - or - charge a small setup fee then charge monthly for hosting?
  
  Thanks
  
  Mike
  
  Thanks
  
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  guynextdoor 13 years ago
  
  Worpress is a blog... really i will never understand why people try to set up everything with WP Where is the reason to use a blog content managment script for a webshop ?
  
  And why should you want to sell your client a 3th party solution ?
  
  Thanks
  
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sconlinemarketing 13 years ago

I used shopperpress foor my most recent ecommerce client. Although it is not done yet, here is a link. Commercial Plumbing Parts, Plumbing repair parts, plumbers
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TWalker 13 years ago

If you want to hand it over to non-techie try weebly.

Weebly never ceases to amaze me with simplicity.

True drag and drop product management. I have never created a full shop there but I did add products and was blown away by how easy it is.
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PhilaPM 13 years ago

I have used CRELoaded which is realy easy to setup and use.
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r2r 13 years ago

Use the shopping sites for that..
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Quentin 13 years ago

We do quite a few shopping carts however we approach it a little differently.

If the customer has a good range of products we set it up and get commission on sales using big commerce.

They pay us $40 a month holding fee and if we sell over this amount we deduct it from sales. Usually we make it 25% for first $1000 and the 30% for the rest depending on items.

There are some good carts around but I like big commerce as it has a nice mobile site integration.

Quentin
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- Mar 13 years ago
  
  Well, you have to buy Cubecart 4 - it's not free. It functions really well - you can set up as many categories and sub-categories as needed and put in as many products as you like. There are various skins - some you can buy, others are free - so the store can look individual.
  
  If you're doing an ecommerce store for a newbie, you really need something which works, which can be left in her little hands and which has a support structure ..... you can't skimp on this.
  
  Just my opinion
  
  Mar
  
  ps I would still hesitate to suggest CubeCart 5 - although it's getting the little rough patches smoothed out every day :O
  
  Thanks
  
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maricelu 13 years ago

I plan to buy Wordpress Shopping Cart | Wordpress Shopping Cart once I'll have some money and then use it for multiple projects. You could do it so.
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Chris Rivers 13 years ago

Hey Mike,

Good luck with your appointment. It sounds like you have a good game plan.

My piece of advice actually has nothing to do with the ecommerce platform you would use, but is about having a back-up plan for getting the client to actually do what they need to do AFTER you get it set up because you indicated that she might not be tech savvy.

On all the ecommerce sites I've done, the biggest issue is getting the client to gather and upload their product information. It's like trying to get water from a rock. Honestly, it can turn a nice, little website project on the side into a beast.

I've had some pretty rough stuff happen because the offline client wouldn't upload product images, prices, color options etc.

Now that I know better, I always give my clients a monthly option where I build the website AND do all of the grunt work for compiliing, uploading and updating the products on their new website for six months or as long as I'll think it will take.

In most cases, the manufacturer (not the business owner) provides the product pictures and specs., and all I have to do is hire a outsourcer to do the real work behind the scenes.

However, the money I spend is nothing because at the end of the day it makes a HUGE difference in the morale and excitement of the client for them to see their website constantly growing and being updated.

The truth is I probably sell that harder than I sell the frontend website because when the client has spent several thousand dollars to have a website built, only to find out that it has very little actual product on it, they feel like they've been screwed over, even if they were the ones who didn't do their part.

Go figure.

Chris
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malia 13 years ago

As an ecommerce merchant, I suggest considering Magento. Also, I suggest using a hosted shopping cart program and white labeling it. The reason is I see way too many circumstances where an internet marketer or developer set a client up with a shopping cart and that was it. No security patches, no upgrades, absolutely no concern about cardholder security and CISP compliance.
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danielkanuck 13 years ago

I would use Yahoo's Ecommerce service. I like the way their webhosting works too. Very easy:

Yahoo! Merchant Solutions: E-Commerce, Shopping Cart & Store Design Online
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Small shop wants an ecommerce site

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