The quickest way to Ecommerce Success

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Can someone give me a quick run down on the quickest way to Ecommerce success. I have a direct relationship with many manufacturers in my niche and I am needing to create an Ecommerce based website. I'd like this to be solely Web Based even though i may eventually have a local shop or expand upon this.

I would like:

1. Summary of what it takes
2. References to learn more without reading 3,000 pages. I'm not against reading a good book if it really takes care of business.
3. what i will need?
ie: paypal account or paypal business account , subscribe to authorize.net, an appropriate theme or template site that looks good and is respectable,etc...


Thanks so much everyone. I really appreciate it.
#ecommerce #quickest #success
  • Profile picture of the author webbusineses
    Idea could be build and website, use social media to market your product or you can generate leads through email marketing once you build a list. You can visit Interspire Outsourcing, Choose a template customize it according to your need and then go for marketing. You can hit me up adnan.ahmed227 for more discussion regarding shopping cart
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    • Profile picture of the author brett701
      I actually am very familiar with SEO and have good corporate experience in this field. This is one of my strengths. Getting clients to the site isnt my challenge. The challenge is finding the time to create the ecommerce site that is fully functional(receive money) that doesn't look like junk.
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      • Profile picture of the author Daniel Elss
        And speaking of the site, be careful about putting any company logos on there, (sidebar, header etc.,) without permission. I had a pretty snazzy site but learned the hard way on this one. It takes work for sure, keeping products and prices updated, sizes updated. depends on who your dealing with i guess.
        As far as other ways to get exposure, and perhaps this was mentioned, Google Merchant has worked for me, then just put your SEO skills to practice after that :-D
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        • Profile picture of the author Strasburgo
          Lemme tell you a story. A story of a couple.

          I'm the guy, she was the girl. (we broke up, precipitated by what I explain below)

          Guy is well versed in many business topics. Guy is paid top dollar for managing other people's affairs.

          Guy decides he wants to make physical products to sell to a niche market. Does research, gets prototypes made, finds factory, gets good e-commerce platform, optimizes for SEO, ...generally builds a better mousetrap to compete with other mouse trap makers. Guy thinks product is well priced for the market. Initial interest is high in product.

          Girl is an online celebrity. Knows nothing about business, is in fact a little shaky on the math. She decides to sell a physical product that she makes herself. Asks guy for advice. Takes some of it, ignores the rest.

          Guy launches, moves ~3 units. (2 of which are to friends!)

          Girl launches and sells out her first lot, and continues to sell out until she moves to a bigger facility. (Girl of course realizes Guy was right on pretty much everything about her scaling business and takes rest of Guy's advice)

          The quickest way - build your market before you put anything on sale.

          Strasburgo
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          • Profile picture of the author brett701
            I appreciate this advice but I think your situation is rare where famous has to do with the situation. How do you recommend us every day Joe's sell? How do you recommend building my market before selling? Thanks
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            • Profile picture of the author jrgattison
              Hi Brett. I am not sure if you have found what you are looking for but if not I want to see if I can add some help as well.

              The initial topic of the thread was to focus on the quickest way to Ecommerce success and I think it has been answered with the excepton of success can be achieved in 30 days or less if you are willing to do the work.

              The level of what you consider success is going to determine what time additional is going to be required for you to meet your goals. I have a few suggestions from my perspective which may be different than others.

              First I would not go with a wordpress based site. That is just my opinion based on the fact that there are many other platforms that are Ecommerce specific and have been in the Ecommerce game far longer than wordpress plugins to run a site. Also platform like OpenCart, Magneto, ZenCart and others are going to give you a much nicer site along with everything you need to have an easy to operate administration panel.

              Second I believe you are going to have to find good suppliers in order to make it worth your while. You want to either hook up with the manufacturer or at least a large enough importer so that your gross profits can be large enough to make it worth while. You can also sell unique products for better profit margins.

              Seeking to do large volume sucks when starting out so I suggest to make decent profits first before seeking to do large volume because doing large volume is going to take time to ramp up to by getting traffic ramped up.

              Third I suggest marketing using social media networks like facebook. You can quickly get into profit by building value through social networks. This is the wave of the future in marketing because people love to communicate AND buy but people don't like to be sold to. Social networks let people recommend or be exposed to information and products more on their terms.

              There are things that can shortcut your getting going like buying a site already setup, paying for someone to setup your marketing plan and getting some paid information targeted towards what you are trying to accomplish.

              This is not an exhaustive list of things you need to do but these are the keys to get your Ecommerce vehicle moving in the right direction.

              I hope this is of help to you and I wish you success with your Ecommerce store. Take action and get into motion.

              Kendall
              Signature
              Kendall "The Awkward Entrepreneur"
              Floors | Tiles | Decks | Concrete
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            • Profile picture of the author edatepro
              I agree, You can get up the website as quick as you want but your product must be completely air tight! Once you put it up make sure your website is interchangeable,depending on where your manufacturer is you may have to change up your business especially with China!
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    • Profile picture of the author brett701
      My issue is that website has a page rank of Zero. I would not use it. No offense.
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      • Profile picture of the author webbusineses
        Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

        My issue is that website has a page rank of Zero. I would not use it. No offense.
        What website you are talking about! Is it about InterspireMods yes it is new website but from the old provider, Hostings House is in the market since 5 years and InterspireMods is the subsidiary of Hostings House. Well you can post some example of your dream eCommerce website that don't like Junk may be I could help you to get better than this..
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  • Profile picture of the author chiwawa
    The quickest way to ecommerce success is seo. Create of build a website, optimize this site so well that it attracts visitors. Market or promote your product through offpage and on page optimization. You can use social networks and social bookmarking sites to promote your product.
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    • Profile picture of the author brett701
      I agree. I can take care of the SEO / internet marketing portion. I am talking about setting up a site as quickly as possible that looks professional & trustworthy and is ready to accept payments via credit cards/google checkout/ paypal. Automated email replies and tracking of customer purchases. The site would also need to have an ease of adding and subtracting products.
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      • Profile picture of the author Blase
        Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

        I agree. I can take care of the SEO / internet marketing portion. I am talking about setting up a site as quickly as possible that looks professional & trustworthy and is ready to accept payments via credit cards/google checkout/ paypal. Automated email replies and tracking of customer purchases. The site would also need to have an ease of adding and subtracting products.
        This isn't the quickest way to success, but it's the quickest way
        to get a site up that does everything you mentioned.

        Check out ProStores and or Store Coach

        They both have EXCELLENT support and their
        systems make it pretty easy to get going fast.

        good luck
        Signature
        "Nothing Happens Until Something Is Sold"
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        • Profile picture of the author brett701
          Thanks. This is a temporary solution to get things rolling. I will upgrade in time.
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      • Profile picture of the author malia
        Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

        I agree. I can take care of the SEO / internet marketing portion. I am talking about setting up a site as quickly as possible that looks professional & trustworthy and is ready to accept payments via credit cards/google checkout/ paypal. Automated email replies and tracking of customer purchases. The site would also need to have an ease of adding and subtracting products.
        Webstore by Amazon is also a good resource, which is different than, but works with Selling on Amazon/ Amazon Seller Central. It also has payment integration. But nothing really can work WELL w your margins. You're assuming you can squeeze out more w your manufacturer, not considering inflation or other things that affect prices (changes in import duties/taxes etc).

        I would not use WordPress w Ecommerce. If you are really trying to scale and make money, it has limitations in its flexibility becuase you're putting ecommerce on top of a blogging/cms platform. While the store LOOKS great, it doesn't do well when it comes to the "back-end" and as someone who has been doing ecommerce for a long time, the back end is really where it's at.

        The front end isn't anything, almost every cart can do the same on the front end, it's the administration, merchandising, crm, payment processing, etc that really makes or breaks the deal. Otherwise you end up layering something on top of something on top of something to "mimic" a decent ecommerce back end, compared to what "built FOR ecommerce" solutions can do, and integrate with, via APIs.

        No offense to anyone who loves the WordPress + ecommerce plugin set up, it's just... I mean it is what it is.

        Competing on price is not a good strategy. Seriously, if you go in w low prices thinking you can raise them you're thinking wrong. There will be somebody else bottom scraping and getting your customers becuase you competed on price to begin with, which isn't a strong enough differentiator for customer retention.
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        • Profile picture of the author Same
          I have a couple of ecommerce sites and they are not easy... I did my hard for almost two years then Google slapped me down... That hurts... Plus I made a big mistake when I first started I went after five of my major keywords which was very competitive... I should have went after all of the long tail keywords in my niche which would have been a lot easier to rank and about 50x the traffic... So be careful...
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          • Profile picture of the author WmStout
            Originally Posted by Same View Post

            I have a couple of ecommerce sites and they are not easy... I did my hard for almost two years then Google slapped me down... That hurts... Plus I made a big mistake when I first started I went after five of my major keywords which was very competitive... I should have went after all of the long tail keywords in my niche which would have been a lot easier to rank and about 50x the traffic... So be careful...

            I agree. I have some sites up (I use Zen-cart) and they were making good money until Sept. Now, basically only repeat business. I went about choosing/targeting my keywords all wrong. Do your research first and save yourself some headaches.
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          • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
            Banned
            Originally Posted by Same View Post

            I have a couple of ecommerce sites and they are not easy... I did my hard for almost two years then Google slapped me down... That hurts... Plus I made a big mistake when I first started I went after five of my major keywords which was very competitive... I should have went after all of the long tail keywords in my niche which would have been a lot easier to rank and about 50x the traffic... So be careful...
            ... or don't put all your eggs in the Google basket. A lot of ecommerce stores get their traffic from PPC and ads rather than ranking in Google.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jesse L
      Originally Posted by chiwawa View Post

      The quickest way to ecommerce success is seo. Create of build a website, optimize this site so well that it attracts visitors. Market or promote your product through offpage and on page optimization. You can use social networks and social bookmarking sites to promote your product.
      This is ridiculous.... :confused:
      SEO is the slowest way and tells me you have no idea on how to sell products in a pinch.

      If you really want quick sales then you are going to want to advertise and NOT hurry up and wait on (snicker) Google...

      Study PPC startegies, laser target, have outstanding customer service, create a user friendly website with proper call to actions and then finally SEO along the way... when you find time.

      Yes, SN can help, but it does take time. You want action? Then take your offer straight to the client instead of fishing around for lost stragglers.

      JL
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  • Profile picture of the author contentwriting360
    Banned
    Brett, seriously, if someone here knows the QUICKEST WAYS to e-commerce success, he/she won't give it out. If I knew it, I will never tell it to anyone. I will keep it myself.

    The best thing you can do is to conduct a sound research. Spend 10 to 15 days reading resources that are readily available online. Read threads on e-commerce related forums/sites. But believe me, if someone knows the quickest ways, he won't tell you that for free.

    Just saying.

    Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

    Can someone give me a quick run down on the quickest way to Ecommerce success.
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    • Profile picture of the author brett701
      Thanks for your reply, however, I felt as if this were a community that people would share. I am not in direct competition with anyone as I am working in my own field. Even if i were in direct competition, it would not be affecting them significantly in such a small community. I know that i will post on other forums laying out very detailed information as to how I will approach things and people are very appreciative and i don't feel as if I am hurting myself when I do this.
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    • Profile picture of the author Andy Lemos
      Contentwriting360 appreciate the honesty you gave Brett. Its not easy and one may have to be self reliant to get everything down packed
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      • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
        If you are focusing on a tight niche, involving yourself in on communities i.e forums will allow you to stand prominently as an authorative vendor.
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        • Profile picture of the author Audarah
          I wish I knew that answer too. You have been given a lot of great points. I am starting out as well and plan to go with shopify: as well as certain goals I will meet to drive traffic. I agree with other posts- I wouldnt put all of my SEO or Traffic driving into just google when there are so many other venues and ways around google and their ever changing algorithms, etc. Also, thanks Brian for the steps on your site. I think I just spent an hour there taking notes!
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  • Profile picture of the author DevMarkovich
    Be patient to wait for months before your page rank gets higher while you will collect quality backlinks.
    Once your pagerank is around 2, start a paid campaign on google with budget of 200$ for first run. But spend the budget wisely, first 50$ in first day, analyze keywords and then continue...
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  • Profile picture of the author DevMarkovich
    e-commerce sites are hard to begin collecting earnings, but rather possible.
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  • Profile picture of the author ThomasOMalley
    Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

    Can someone give me a quick run down on the quickest way to Ecommerce success. I have a direct relationship with many manufacturers in my niche and I am needing to create an Ecommerce based website. I'd like this to be solely Web Based even though i may eventually have a local shop or expand upon this.

    I would like:

    1. Summary of what it takes
    2. References to learn more without reading 3,000 pages. I'm not against reading a good book if it really takes care of business.
    3. what i will need?
    ie: paypal account or paypal business account , subscribe to authorize.net, an appropriate theme or template site that looks good and is respectable,etc...


    Thanks so much everyone. I really appreciate it.
    The problem with your question is that it's so broad.

    Yes, people share on this forum absolutely. But to answer your question would require a book.

    No one is going to write a book for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

    Can someone give me a quick run down on the quickest way to Ecommerce success. I have a direct relationship with many manufacturers in my niche and I am needing to create an Ecommerce based website. I'd like this to be solely Web Based even though i may eventually have a local shop or expand upon this.

    I would like:

    1. Summary of what it takes
    2. References to learn more without reading 3,000 pages. I'm not against reading a good book if it really takes care of business.
    3. what i will need?
    ie: paypal account or paypal business account , subscribe to authorize.net, an appropriate theme or template site that looks good and is respectable,etc...


    Thanks so much everyone. I really appreciate it.
    It's alwasy better to get a Paypal business account if you're going to do business with it, or at least a Premium account.

    A Woo Commerce theme for Wordpress is my choice for getting an ecommerce site up and running quickly and more importantly, easily. They have a lot of extensions, including tons of different payment gateways. If you're using just Paypal though, no additional payment gateway extension is necessary.
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  • Profile picture of the author juztin
    Just a quick tip

    1. Know which niche you will be on. Study that niche
    2. Find suppliers...DO NOT USE DHGATE OR DOBA crap.. Contact the merchants directly.
    3. DO NOT USE A CRAPPY THEME. Just get a nice Magento template from themeforest and modify the design so it will look original. This way, you can get a nice unique design for below 50$
    4. Now once your site is done and your products are displayed properly. Start workin on the SEO
    - make sure on-site SEO is correct
    - Make sure you have done your keyword researches
    - Run a project based on 3-4 keywords.
    5. Get a 1-800 number

    The goal is to look professional and legit with good products
    I will also recommend you ask your dropshipper to send your business cards or any promotional pamphlet when sending the package to clients.
    Signature
    Visit my personal blog ---> OneRookie.com
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    • Profile picture of the author davedenholm
      Bigcommerce or shopify will get you up and running fast and looking good for starters.
      Whats your niche that is not competing with anyone else?
      Good Luck
      David
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    • Profile picture of the author jessenjaye
      Tats cool man thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author MattWell
    I have always found setting up the website to be the quickest and easiest part of the process, but maybe thats just because I enjoy it.

    I would reccommend Wordpress with the WooCommerce plugin and a good woocommerce theme (either on Woothemes site or there are some good ones on ThemeForest). Then you just put it all together, customise it and launch it. It would probably take less than a week.

    You can also outsource this part. I normally charge $200. Some charge more, some may charge less. If you have any questions about it, just send me a PM and I'll happily help.
    Signature

    For more of my knowledge, go to my blog at MatthewWellington.co.uk

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  • Profile picture of the author sroth
    Hi Brett,
    I have been an internet retailer going on 4 years now. I can tell you what would be the wisest thing to do if you are starting out so your business doesn't go down the tubes in the first year as is the case with so many businesses carrying or marketing physical inventory.
    If you have a relationship with many manufacturers, start with testing both product marketability and availablity. Check if the product is selling on Amazon and the ranking of the product. If a product ranks at 100, it is selling really well on Amazon, which is a great indicator. If it ranks at 350,000, it is selling very slowly or not at all. This is how their ranking system works. Also check the price that the product is selling for on Amazon and Ebay. If you cannot compete with the price after all your expenses to sell the product, that may not be a good product to start selling yet until you have an established website with good established traffic (ie. fullfillment costs + your cost for the product + shipping costs + storage costs + any commission costs (ecommerce channels like Buy.com, Amazon, all have a commission or PPC rate if your product sells on their site).
    You should realize that selling physical product by carrying inventory is more profitable by the piece than dropshipping, however, it is not scalable without having staff to manage the fulfilment and customer service. You will have to hire this staff or pay for a good fulfillment service.
    Dropshipping on the other hand, is more scalable but must be done in great volume to realize a decent profit. The risk you run here is that you still have to swallow the cost of return products and you must be able to pay for the product and deliver it to the customer in a very timely fashion. If your merchant account delays your access to the funds paid to you by your customer for the product, you will have to have $ available to shell out first to get the product to your customer.
    Lastly, consider affiliate marketing to sell physical goods first, especially if you can find the product on Amazon, Sharasale, or Comission Junction. That way you can learn how to market these products to your niche, build a blog that centers around the niche and its customers and their needs, and build a customer list from your blog. You will make some money with only the risk of your time and effort and you may find out a lot about your niche and products you want to sell in the process. You can also be building traffic that you can use later to sell physical product if your affiliate marketing efforts are successful.
    In short, if you can't sell affiliate products, you will have difficultly selling physical products for which you are responsible for inventory, and that can be dangerous financially for a business just starting out.
    Hope this helps
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    • Profile picture of the author phillipmonster
      Originally Posted by sroth View Post

      Hi Brett,
      I have been an internet retailer going on 4 years now. I can tell you what would be the wisest thing to do if you are starting out so your business doesn't go down the tubes in the first year as is the case with so many businesses carrying or marketing physical inventory.
      If you have a relationship with many manufacturers, start with testing both product marketability and availablity. Check if the product is selling on Amazon and the ranking of the product. If a product ranks at 100, it is selling really well on Amazon, which is a great indicator. If it ranks at 350,000, it is selling very slowly or not at all. This is how their ranking system works. Also check the price that the product is selling for on Amazon and Ebay. If you cannot compete with the price after all your expenses to sell the product, that may not be a good product to start selling yet until you have an established website with good established traffic (ie. fullfillment costs + your cost for the product + shipping costs + storage costs + any commission costs (ecommerce channels like Buy.com, Amazon, all have a commission or PPC rate if your product sells on their site).
      You should realize that selling physical product by carrying inventory is more profitable by the piece than dropshipping, however, it is not scalable without having staff to manage the fulfilment and customer service. You will have to hire this staff or pay for a good fulfillment service.
      Dropshipping on the other hand, is more scalable but must be done in great volume to realize a decent profit. The risk you run here is that you still have to swallow the cost of return products and you must be able to pay for the product and deliver it to the customer in a very timely fashion. If your merchant account delays your access to the funds paid to you by your customer for the product, you will have to have $ available to shell out first to get the product to your customer.
      Lastly, consider affiliate marketing to sell physical goods first, especially if you can find the product on Amazon, Sharasale, or Comission Junction. That way you can learn how to market these products to your niche, build a blog that centers around the niche and its customers and their needs, and build a customer list from your blog. You will make some money with only the risk of your time and effort and you may find out a lot about your niche and products you want to sell in the process. You can also be building traffic that you can use later to sell physical product if your affiliate marketing efforts are successful.
      In short, if you can't sell affiliate products, you will have difficultly selling physical products for which you are responsible for inventory, and that can be dangerous financially for a business just starting out.
      Hope this helps
      I don't know about the affiliate side of things. I mean you have to think marginally as well in terms of dollar amount. Being a blogger these days just isn't what it use to be anymore. Sure it can give you insight into your niche. But you still have to build a subscriber base to get sales of some kind people don't go to blogs and buy things like they use to anymore, email marketing is not what it use to be anymore either. If you're just starting out you still need to learn how to scale a business through paid advertising and with the margin of being an affiliate you won't recoup your investment for a little while even if you have a base to draw from. Email marketing isn't what it use to be.

      Besides being an affiliate usually means you don't actually talk to suppliers or anybody for that matter. Which is bad, it gives you no experience in negotiating or just networking for other possible opportunities and ventures. It's always best to just jump in. Specially with drop shipping. It's fairly low risk specially if you learn to just keep in communication with suppliers. I remember when I started and I didnt get the money funded from paypal. I just told them and kept a steady line of communication and we've been good ever since. Adjusting terms isnt all that hard specially if you don't have a contract with that supplier.
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  • Profile picture of the author brett701
    Thanks so much for the replies. The information is invaluable.

    Shopify seems as if it takes 1%. I do not want to lose a % if i don't have to.

    -Also important to me is making certain that the users have the maximum methods of payment. Id like this to be easy to set up.

    ie:paypal, Authorize.net, Credit cards, whatever else there is....

    -I would like a filter option. Similar to a Zappo's. I will have many products.

    -Also , I would like a 1-5 star system for each product as well as a user review portion like amazon


    Thanks so much for your help and direction
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  • Profile picture of the author pavv
    Hi Brett,

    I'd suggest WooCommerce with an awesome looking theme.

    Also important to me is making certain that the users have the maximum methods of payment. Id like this to be easy to set up.
    WooCommerce comes with Paypal built in, additional payment methods are easily purchased and installed.

    I would like a filter option. Similar to a Zappo's. I will have many products.
    Products can easily be set up with 'attributes'. Sidebar on the side allows customers to easily find products with predefined filter options.

    Also , I would like a 1-5 star system for each product as well as a user review portion like amazon
    This is built into WooCommerce, easy as pie

    Happy to answer questions if you attempt this, alternatively you can shoot me a PM for a done-for-you solution
    Signature
    Let Me Build Your Ecommerce Store!

    New to eCommerce? Please take a look at my product which teaches you how to find and research a product/niche, then how to build your own store.
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    • Profile picture of the author oscarb
      I'm new to e-commerce but have been sourcing products at liquidation prices via thrift stores, tag sales, book sales and craigslist. My wife and I are selling these items on Amazon.com via the FBA program. We're not in profit yet but we started on a total and complete shoe string five weeks ago and are seeing margins of as much as 1,000 percent (low ticket, for the most part). We're projecting a solid third month in the black once we reach an inventory threshold, get our productivity up (with systems and outsourcing) and good feedback from data analysis tools provided largely by the Big A. At some point soon, we hope to add wholesale products to the mix and branch in to selling the direct route of merchant to customer as well.

      Your question begs an answer but it's difficult to do so because the word "quick" is nebulous. What's quick for you? Most businesses take some time to get up and running. I'd love to be profitable today but that's not realistic yet. I know the IM space is notorious for enabling a fantasy mindset.
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      • Profile picture of the author brett701
        honestly id like to be making money within 3 months. I have very good pricing compared to amazon.com. My plan is too offer at or below cost initially to get sales rolling in and building trust. and then slowly increase till i have a 5% profit margin and then sit there for a long time. From there i will continue to push prices down with the manufacturer through negotiations. Anything over 5% will be gained via negotiation or high quantities.
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        • Profile picture of the author pavv
          Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

          honestly id like to be making money within 3 months. I have very good pricing compared to amazon.com. My plan is too offer at or below cost initially to get sales rolling in and building trust. and then slowly increase till i have a 5% profit margin and then sit there for a long time. From there i will continue to push prices down with the manufacturer through negotiations. Anything over 5% will be gained via negotiation or high quantities.
          Brett are your products high cost? A 5% profit margin is pretty thin unless your sales volume/revenue is high. Sounds like you have the product end well sorted but have you worked out how you will market this to get that volume?
          Signature
          Let Me Build Your Ecommerce Store!

          New to eCommerce? Please take a look at my product which teaches you how to find and research a product/niche, then how to build your own store.
          [WSO]I Made $70,689.71 Sales In The Last 31 Days, Let Me Show You How To Do It Too
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          • Profile picture of the author brett701
            1. Ecommerce site with woo
            -set up authorize.net
            -paypal business
            -secured site
            -Reviews on site
            -1800 number
            -Great customer support


            2. My projected top 5-10 Products listed on amazon. Have great support and get great reviews(on my amazon, my site, google plus, and elsewhere) without receiving any profit and possibly taking a loss on the first 50 sales.
            -My margin will be extremely minimal, but will always be very thin, but they will increase as my buyer power increases and my leverage on the manufacturers increases.

            3. Internet marketing
            ORGANIC
            Organic will consist of a press release every other week with anchor links aimed back at my site.
            I will join multiple forums and I will contribute to users to the best of my ability.
            I will have My social presence created, but i won't be putting forward an excess on it bc/ to have it be VERY effective early on requires an excess of time. Most focus will be on linkedin and google+ most likely.

            I will create an external blog that is related to the topic and i will write an article/create a review on an industry product on a weekly basis.
            Inorganic
            -After month I project a 300 per month budget for PPC campaign which will be growing at a steady monthly rate as sales increase.(the date and capital spent are subject to debate.


            ----------
            Things to Consider doing
            -selling on ebay and having an ebay store. ( I dont know much about ebay strength and whether or not it is worth using.

            Tactics are to enter super cheap and stay cheap and push out mass volume(similar to walmart.) If i control the floor i control the market. Many high quality rating reviews is much more important than a low rating and bad review ratings of having 2.5 stars.

            As I learn I will be constantly adjusting and finding ways to chop a quarter of a % here and there without sacrificing quality.

            That is the quick guide as of now. And after typing this it makes me realize that i SHould probably do amazon.com before i do anything so that i don't waste time creating everything else and then realizing it will fail.

            maximum growth and minimum profit is my goal. High & increasing traffic with a happy customer base, plenty of knowledge and not going bankrupt is the initial goal.

            Eventually i may create tutorials on youtube with anchor backlinks aimed at my site.

            This is the plan for now. Thanks !
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    • Profile picture of the author brett701
      Can you send me some information and examples in your done for you sites. Thanks
      Originally Posted by pavv View Post

      Hi Brett,

      I'd suggest WooCommerce with an awesome looking theme.

      Also important to me is making certain that the users have the maximum methods of payment. Id like this to be easy to set up.
      WooCommerce comes with Paypal built in, additional payment methods are easily purchased and installed.

      I would like a filter option. Similar to a Zappo's. I will have many products.
      Products can easily be set up with 'attributes'. Sidebar on the side allows customers to easily find products with predefined filter options.

      Also , I would like a 1-5 star system for each product as well as a user review portion like amazon
      This is built into WooCommerce, easy as pie

      Happy to answer questions if you attempt this, alternatively you can shoot me a PM for a done-for-you solution
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  • Profile picture of the author dexlink
    Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

    Can someone give me a quick run down on the quickest way to Ecommerce success. I have a direct relationship with many manufacturers in my niche and I am needing to create an Ecommerce based website. I'd like this to be solely Web Based even though i may eventually have a local shop or expand upon this.

    I would like:

    1. Summary of what it takes
    2. References to learn more without reading 3,000 pages. I'm not against reading a good book if it really takes care of business.
    3. what i will need?
    ie: paypal account or paypal business account , subscribe to authorize.net, an appropriate theme or template site that looks good and is respectable,etc...


    Thanks so much everyone. I really appreciate it.
    SEO... and SEO is the ultimate success. It will take time but you need to adopt it. All attributes should be properly arranged with good keyword management.
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  • Profile picture of the author derekwong28
    I cannot emphasize this more enough. You need to have a SEO-optimized shopping cart. I have been out of e-commerce for some time do I don't know which are the best one. If you make the wrong mistake on your cart, you would have condemned your business.
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    • Profile picture of the author brett701
      Originally Posted by derekwong28 View Post

      I cannot emphasize this more enough. You need to have a SEO-optimized shopping cart. I have been out of e-commerce for some time do I don't know which are the best one. If you make the wrong mistake on your cart, you would have condemned your business.
      So what do you recommend. My plan is to get a Woo ecommerce site which i believe has a good "seo" shopping cart. However, before that i have decided that amazon is the first step to test the process without doing all the other work and failing.
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  • Profile picture of the author PeckhamPirate
    Make sure to have your site ready for international viewers, that's the kicker for me.
    Almost nobody targets non-English speakers and foreign markets are nowhere near as saturated as the US, UK, Australia and Canada.
    You'll be amazed at how much traffic will hot your site with very little effort on your part.
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    • Profile picture of the author brett701
      Originally Posted by PeckhamPirate View Post

      Make sure to have your site ready for international viewers, that's the kicker for me.
      Almost nobody targets non-English speakers and foreign markets are nowhere near as saturated as the US, UK, Australia and Canada.
      You'll be amazed at how much traffic will hot your site with very little effort on your part.
      Great Tip. What do you recommend i do to ensure this?
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  • Profile picture of the author Justin Lavoie
    I second that, 5% profit margin is really low. In my case I aim for 15-20% profit on average...unless I could get a very high volume of sales and I have to compete with very low prices.
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    • Profile picture of the author brett701
      Originally Posted by Justin Lavoie View Post

      I second that, 5% profit margin is really low. In my case I aim for 15-20% profit on average...unless I could get a very high volume of sales and I have to compete with very low prices.
      Can you give me an example of what your amazon.com costs would include?


      39.99 per month amazon fee? +4% shipping fee(this is just approximate for the example. The

      I order the product from china manufacturer $10 and shipping is .40 (that is not the case for shipping its much more.

      10.40 I mark up the price to 15.40. I make 5.40 at this point(where do taxes come into play?)

      I then need to subtract the processing fee of authorize.net or paypal business which is 3% which is .30 cents

      and this brings me down to 5.10 per item. maybe 3% for Credit card processor?


      What is missing in this equation? (I believe there is a 39.99 cost for amazon monthly, but this is not a concern over a year if that is the only cost amazon is charging me?)

      Thanks!
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      • Profile picture of the author krzysiek
        Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

        Can you give me an example of what your amazon.com costs would include?


        39.99 per month amazon fee? +4% shipping fee(this is just approximate for the example. The

        I order the product from china manufacturer $10 and shipping is .40 (that is not the case for shipping its much more.

        10.40 I mark up the price to 15.40. I make 5.40 at this point(where do taxes come into play?)

        I then need to subtract the processing fee of authorize.net or paypal business which is 3% which is .30 cents

        and this brings me down to 5.10 per item. maybe 3% for Credit card processor?


        What is missing in this equation? (I believe there is a 39.99 cost for amazon monthly, but this is not a concern over a year if that is the only cost amazon is charging me?)

        Thanks!
        You have something wrong. If you're making 5% and then PayPal takes 3% of your total, you don't have much profit left.
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        • Profile picture of the author brett701
          Originally Posted by krzysiek View Post

          You have something wrong. If you're making 5% and then PayPal takes 3% of your total, you don't have much profit left.
          These are my approximations. I was hoping someone could clarify with actual #'s that they have encountered. Thanks.
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          • Profile picture of the author derekwong28
            Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

            These are my approximations. I was hoping someone could clarify with actual #'s that they have encountered. Thanks.
            It is not only PayPal fees. There will always be lost shipments, returns and chargebacks dur to fraud or disputes. You need a margin at least 20-30% to be safe, depending on the products.
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      • Profile picture of the author Justin Lavoie
        Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

        Can you give me an example of what your amazon.com costs would include?


        39.99 per month amazon fee? +4% shipping fee(this is just approximate for the example. The

        I order the product from china manufacturer $10 and shipping is .40 (that is not the case for shipping its much more.

        10.40 I mark up the price to 15.40. I make 5.40 at this point(where do taxes come into play?)

        I then need to subtract the processing fee of authorize.net or paypal business which is 3% which is .30 cents

        and this brings me down to 5.10 per item. maybe 3% for Credit card processor?


        What is missing in this equation? (I believe there is a 39.99 cost for amazon monthly, but this is not a concern over a year if that is the only cost amazon is charging me?)

        Thanks!
        Well I never tried amazone for this type of business. Ive done it as an affiliate but not as a distributor.

        If its the kind of profit you get selling your product there... run away.
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  • Profile picture of the author alksense
    Step 1: Choose your Niche
    Step 2: Find you Competition & your Suppliers
    Step 3: Build the Framework of your Website on Shopify
    Step 4: Start Contacting Drop Shippers
    Step 5: Upload Products to your eCommerce Store
    Step 6: Optimize your Store to Increase Conversions
    Step 7: Start Marketing and Get Some Sales!
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    • Profile picture of the author satriasaka
      Originally Posted by alksense View Post

      Step 1: Choose your Niche
      Step 2: Find you Competition & your Suppliers
      Step 3: Build the Framework of your Website on Shopify
      Step 4: Start Contacting Drop Shippers
      Step 5: Upload Products to your eCommerce Store
      Step 6: Optimize your Store to Increase Conversions
      Step 7: Start Marketing and Get Some Sales!
      great , i agree
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  • Profile picture of the author rajivonweb
    An ecommerce site integrated with social networking platforms will see a good success.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anvilek
    Hard-working and focus on targeted & long-term customers
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    • Profile picture of the author malchiang
      Yes you will need free and paid traffic to make it work well
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      • Profile picture of the author marco005
        Hi,

        you don't need an paypal business account when you have an paypal private account, you can set up your paypal private account easy when you are an individual entrepreneur, an individual entrepreneur has often the same private bank account,
        (not an corporation company), paypal needs some formula from you (your individual entrepreneur formula) , you set up the payal payout limits- and you be done to make business.

        Question; what does these The FREE M2E plugin do for me? List my store products in ebay ( Imust pay an ebay shop too), does this works for my amazon affiliate store too? (does amazon allowed this?)

        Question: When I build an amazon affilliate store,can I support these amazon products to shopping portals/ comparison sites too to get traffic? (does amazon allowed this?) or I have only the chance to get seo traffic to rank each product category from my store?
        (not rank with the product page itself, the little product descriptions are the same as amazon has)

        Question: Which plugins/scripts I need to build such an amazon affiliate store like:
        TopTenREVIEWS Expert Product Reviews????
        Who puts in automatically my selected amazon product with little descriptions and add an comparison chart ??? Which plugins/scripts do that? I have not found it.


        marco005
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        • Profile picture of the author Palomino
          Originally Posted by marco005 View Post

          Hi,

          you don't need an paypal business account when you have an paypal private account, you can set up your paypal private account easy when you are an individual entrepreneur, an individual entrepreneur has often the same private bank account,
          (not an corporation company), paypal needs some formula from you (your individual entrepreneur formula) , you set up the payal payout limits- and you be done to make business.

          marco005

          Incorrect. As I specifically mentioned PayPal Payments Pro and Payments Advanced for processing the credit cards on site (in lieu of AUthorize.net), those services require a PayPal business account.
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          Lover/Fighter/Gamer/Serial Entrepreneur
          McKinney Web Design
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        • Profile picture of the author Palomino
          Originally Posted by marco005 View Post

          Hi,

          Question; what does these The FREE M2E plugin do for me? List my store products in ebay ( Imust pay an ebay shop too), does this works for my amazon affiliate store too? (does amazon allowed this?)

          Question: When I build an amazon affilliate store,can I support these amazon products to shopping portals/ comparison sites too to get traffic? (does amazon allowed this?) or I have only the chance to get seo traffic to rank each product category from my store?
          (not rank with the product page itself, the little product descriptions are the same as amazon has)

          Question: Which plugins/scripts I need to build such an amazon affiliate store like:
          TopTenREVIEWS Expert Product Reviews????
          Who puts in automatically my selected amazon product with little descriptions and add an comparison chart ??? Which plugins/scripts do that? I have not found it.


          marco005
          The M2E Plugin will, yes, send your products to eBay and Amazon (Amazon support is in beta right now but working for many people). On top of this, it will manage the stock both ways- say you have 10 quantities on an item in your store. If someone purchases 1 on eBay, it will update the stock in your store. It will also record the sale there as well, so you have all of your sales data in one place for monthly tracking.
          If someone buys an item in your store and say you run out of stock, you can set it to end the auction, or if you get stock refreshed quickly, let the auction continue.
          I haven't messed w/ the Amazon side of it yet. All of our client setups have been eBay, as the Amazon side just went to beta in the past few weeks.

          2) Good question. I'm not 100% sure. You'd need to review the terms and conditions for the feeds you're trying to submit to. I'm almost certain some of them have prohibitions against simple affiliate sites, as it would be seen to drag down the reliability of their network's image, as it may be seen as misleading customers when they expect to make the purchase on your site.
          Again, not sure, try it and see what you can get away with.

          3) This is one a client used. Magento Amazon Products Manager If you are on another platform, you'll need to research it yourself.
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          Ryne Landers
          Lover/Fighter/Gamer/Serial Entrepreneur
          McKinney Web Design
          Skype Me: ryne.landers

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  • Profile picture of the author brandon_holcomb
    Focus on a physical product in a small niche. Create your social following using facebook, twitter and linked in. Utilize solo email ads as well as build your own email list. Keep in touch with your customers make them feel apart of a community and bam you have got it. But you need the product and niche first. Good luck
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    • Profile picture of the author philip221
      1. Find a good host. Its very important that they have good customer service. I'm using HostGator and they are pretty good
      2. Have a programmer program the site in HTML or set it up yourself on Wordpress. There are pros and cons to both. If you use Wordpress you can handle the site yourself without having to resort to a programmer.
      3. Either use Authorize.net or Paypal if you're going through Wordpress. My bank and is Chase and they offer a good Authorize.net package for the merchant and gateway.
      4. If you use Wordpress and you don't like the look of your site, you can build your own template with Artisteer.
      5. Hire and good marketing person.
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  • Good eCommerce platform + SEO = SUCCESS
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  • Profile picture of the author sbrettoncm
    If you come up with your very own E commerce site for your business, then it is very vital for you to promote your site effectively. There are several ways to fulfill this mission:

    1) Use experienced writers to come up with great content and articles for your site. Upon clicking on the hyperlink on these articles, customers will be taken straight to your website.

    2) For a mobile e commerce site, you may also try Social bookmarkings and Forum Postings. These will help you to generate the much needed backlinks for your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Faber
    My first online experience (8 years ago) was with an e-comerce site. I used Yahoo stores. I don;t know if that is a viable option, but i would bet there are better, more value oriented ones available.

    I used drop shippers, but only legitimate suppliers. Use the same distributors that also sell to brick and mortar businesses. Don't use those high fee / price sropshiping services that abound on the Internet.

    I stayed away form products that required difficult set up and/or were likely to generate significant retyurns, such as consumer electroncs. I know suppliers with warehouses full of "defective" returns. That will kill your profits in a hurry, especially with low margin products such as consumer electronics.
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  • Profile picture of the author GettingBetterAtIt
    I agree with everything said about using a dedicated e-commerce system. A good system will allow you to track inventory, track sales, optimize each product page for SEO, print invoices/packing slips, labels, integrate with your postage system etc.

    There's too much going on without needing to play server admin. Get a professionally managed platform and leave Denial of service attacks, form bots, back-ups, upgrades, PCI compliance, system integrations to the pros. A typical cart is $25/mo. for that nominal cost why would you dink around trying to cobble something together for yourself.
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  • Profile picture of the author audi008
    Hello,

    Actually, the store design does not require a lot now days, as long as the full function and make customers check out as easy as possible, then u have a nice store.

    I can build up wordpress ecommerce store, powered by woocommerce, using my customized 2011 child theme within around only 1or 2days!!

    If anyone interested, please pm me for more information as well as portfolio!

    Good luck everyone there)
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  • Profile picture of the author javarog
    This site is a woocommerce site,, it has changed my way of thinking about wordpress e commerce sites,, Diamond Dozen - Indie Clothing Label From London, UK
    I'm not affiliated in any way.
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  • Profile picture of the author kostenlose
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by kostenlose View Post

      Once we asked people to register first, our sales dropped by about 60%. Plus you can run the purchases through Paypal. This will save you from having to setup a merchant account, file an application and also get an ssl certificate. You can do that later if you want to run the payments through your bank. Thats just my two cents. I'm sure their other options out there too.
      Woo Commerce has Paypal standard built in to accept payments, but be aware that not all stores comply with Paypal's Acceptable Use Policy. I have one that doesn't, so I got a great, easy merchant account and with the authorize.net extension, no SSL certificate is needed. All security is handled through authorize.net Direct post method. But if the products are Paypal friendly, Paypal Standard is built in to Woo Commerce.
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  • I think wordpress is the easiest solution to build a ecommerce presence. I have used opencart, wordpress, and various php cart scripts.
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    Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant - Daily Internet Marketing in a budget!
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  • Profile picture of the author Anton543
    I actually don't like Woo themes much. Have gone through them and they look nothing special. I think the ecommerce themes at Themeforest are much nicer.
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    • Profile picture of the author Palomino
      Originally Posted by Anton543 View Post

      I actually don't like Woo themes much. Have gone through them and they look nothing special. I think the ecommerce themes at Themeforest are much nicer.
      THIS /\
      I swear by Themeforest for ALL of my personal and client work! They provide the absolute best value for themes. The best things about them are the stunning designs, the lifetime FREE cloud hosting of your purchases (so you can re-download a theme or file anytime, from anywhere), layered, sorted PSDs (absolutely essential if you want to modify complex themes), and great prices. Themeforest averages $40-$50 for WordPress themes and $80 for absolute, top quality Magento themes. Template Monster on the other hand charges $180 for an equally-great looking, but much-crappier-under-the-hood Magento themes. I used to use Template Monster, but their themes look good on the outside and are a nightmare to work with otherwise. I avoid them now.
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  • Profile picture of the author NickSway
    Originally Posted by Brian Owens View Post

    It's a shameless plug, but I did a pretty detailed article about this on my blog a few months back. I still think ecommerce is one of the most viable ways to get started online, and I've done it myself. So I wrote an article called 11 Days To a Profitable Online Business | BrianOwens.Biz.

    Hope that it's helpful
    Definitely a very helpful post outlining the steps. Though I will say don't go into it thinking it's going to take you 11 days to have a profitable business. It takes much much longer than that to develop everything, but like I said the steps were well written and pretty spot on.
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  • Profile picture of the author srodoks
    this is a temporary solution to get things rolling. i will upgrade in time.
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  • Profile picture of the author waqasnu
    Use worpdress to build your site.
    Your wpecommerce wordpress plugin to add ecommerce functionality.
    You can integrate paypal or several other payment methods with it so start selling.
    That's it
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  • Profile picture of the author rana1863
    Anyone please answer these questions we well:

    1. Will it be fine if I only offer credit card payments (all major cards but no paypal)? What volume of sales will I be missing, if any?

    2. Any advice on SSL, security certificates and verifications in order to make customers feel secure in start?

    3. Starting with few 10s of products, or hundreds/thousands of products?
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    • Profile picture of the author Palomino
      Originally Posted by rana1863 View Post

      Anyone please answer these questions we well:

      1. Will it be fine if I only offer credit card payments (all major cards but no paypal)? What volume of sales will I be missing, if any?

      2. Any advice on SSL, security certificates and verifications in order to make customers feel secure in start?

      3. Starting with few 10s of products, or hundreds/thousands of products?
      1. Yes, it is possible to go this route, however you will definitely be missing sales. Paypal officially says that you can gain an average of 18% more sales by using PayPal, however, I think the # is much higher, especially in some niches more than others. I know that I, for one, will abandon carts at checkout if I have to manually create an account for each vendor. PayPal is as easy as logging into your email account or Facebook- just a username and password and you're good to go. Why would I want to go through the hassle of typing all of my personal details in a strange store when PayPal is so much easier for me? I know a lot of people my age (tech-savvy 20-somethings) work the same way.

      2. SSL- some places provide shared SSL certificates. Magento Go provides a shared SSL certificate, however, when the customer goes to checkout the URL will show yourstore.gostorego.com during the checkout process, as it is hosted on their payment servers.
      Some hosting providers, like HostGator, provide dedicated SSLs for their mid and upper tier packages. You would need to contact them once set up to figure out how to implement it.
      Most common 3rd Party SSL providers are GeoTrust and Verisign. GoDaddy also provides one, but I do not know if you have to be hosted on their servers to use it (avoid this at all costs).

      3. Try to work with dozens or hundreds of products at first. I attempted a 40,000 SKU store on my own and gave up due to information overload; there were simply too many logistics to think of, and opening a spreadsheet that large took literally minutes each time.
      On the other hand, we opened a store on Magento Go just in time for Christmas with around 200 products and it made just over $6,000 its first month.

      Many merchants we work with range from 400 to 3,000 SKUs, but Magento Community can support over 1,000,000 unique SKUs.
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      Ryne Landers
      Lover/Fighter/Gamer/Serial Entrepreneur
      McKinney Web Design
      Skype Me: ryne.landers

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  • Profile picture of the author demersj0
    Don't discount PPC traffic. This is the fastest way to find out if your website "Sells"- If your website can't convert, it needs work. Why wait years, months, or weeks for SEO traffic to see if it ultimately converts.

    Best,
    Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author Palomino
    Originally Posted by brett701 View Post

    Can someone give me a quick run down on the quickest way to Ecommerce success. I have a direct relationship with many manufacturers in my niche and I am needing to create an Ecommerce based website. I'd like this to be solely Web Based even though i may eventually have a local shop or expand upon this.

    I would like:

    1. Summary of what it takes
    2. References to learn more without reading 3,000 pages. I'm not against reading a good book if it really takes care of business.
    3. what i will need?
    ie: paypal account or paypal business account , subscribe to authorize.net, an appropriate theme or template site that looks good and is respectable,etc...


    Thanks so much everyone. I really appreciate it.
    Hey Brett,

    Good question. I'm sorry that it seems like, so far in this thread, a lot of people are throwing around buzzwords and opinions on sideline items, without really addressing your actual questions. So, I'm going to attempt to do that for you here, in a quick succinct post.

    Who am I? I work at a Magento Partner, (our site) we have Magento Certified Developers on staff, and we've all got several years of experience in Internet Marketing and eCommerce. Many of us run our own eCommerce stores; I run a freelance business on the side, and before this, I headed up SEO for Dallas's "Fastest Growing Company", D Magazine, 2011. We started as an official Ebay partner, migrating their merchants from ProStores to Magento Go after the acquisition, and we have a very close-knit relationship with Magento directly. Data and Design Migrations from other platforms to Magento Go and CE is our specialty.
    If you've got any questions, please let me know, and I'll see what I can do to help you out.
    The biggest thing to consider is the length of time it will take to import the data into your store, and how to structure the data. This should not be underestimated!!
    That is often the most time consuming, most difficulty part of switching platforms or getting off the ground, which a lot of people screw up.

    So, assuming you've got a list of products (based on your comment that you know the vendors and have close relationships with them), and assuming you know your market (again, based on your statements), you can skip 95% of what people in this thread have said.
    You can also skip their advice about SEO and social media and all that other "filler" talk, since you asked how to find success quickly; those things are irrelevant until you've got the store up, except insofar as you use them in your business plan's marketing portion (which it sounds like you've already figured out).

    So, how to get off the ground?
    The first thing is to pick a platform. I'm partial to Magento, as that's where I've cut my teeth and got all my experience. However, the reason I started there is because Magento is the world's largest, most popular, most well-supported ecommerce platform in existence. It is the WordPress of eCommerce platforms- it has a metric crap-ton of functionality out of the box, and if there's something you're looking to do that isn't included out of the box, chances are great that there is a plugin/extension that can add that functionality for you.
    For instance, the other night, I was looking at moving over 200 categories and subcategories over for to a new store for a freelance client. I didn't want to do them by hand, so I did some digging and found a script to do it automatically. Installing the script's components took me about 15 minutes all told, but the hours it saved me in doing the categories by hand is innumerable, and I've since duplicated that effort on 2 more stores.

    OK, eCommerce 101
    1. Get your Federal Tax ID (EIN). Most vendors will not talk to you before that. Even if you have a relationship, you'll need that for their accountants to set up your resale account.
    2. Open a payment processor account. PayPal offers everything you need, including taking credit cards on your site (just like Authorize.net) with the Payments Pro and Payments Advance solutions. You'll need to set up your account as a business account.
    3. Connect your PayPal account to a bank account. Get PayPal to verify the account so that you can withdraw funds over the $500/mo limit.
    4. Crunch time. Determine how your store's data will be structured. I will cover this below, addressing your specific question about Zappos' filterable navigation. Next, determine what 3rd party support you'll need- to really take off, you'll need to get your products in shopping comparison engines like Google Shopping and The Find Feed. What about selling your products on established marketplaces like eBay and Amazon? The FREE M2E (Magento 2 eBay) plugin will do this for you. Do you have an autoresponder you want to integrate to build a list? Mailchimp integrates w/ Magento. By studying these needs and asking these questions up front, you can figure out which platform will meet your needs.
    5. Hire someone to do the data entry and design for you. Yep, it's true, people who know what they're doing are faster than n00bs. You asked for the fastest way, not the cheap-ass way. :-D We can help with that for as little as $299.
    6. OK, it's business building time. Submit products to feeds. Start advertising, using CPM/banner networks and free or low cost methods, like SEO and Facebook campaigns. In general, avoid AdWords, but try Google Shopping- it is running us about $.04/click right now, so very competitive.
    7. Repeat the last step. Expand your efforts. Benchmark along the way. Make sure to put money into the marketing efforts that work. Don't discount the ones that don't -you may simply have not optimized your efforts there. Try some different approaches to those, I suggest 3 times, before giving up an effort.

    Special note on that Zappos navigation thing: the word you're looking for is "Layered Navigtion". Layered Navigation is comprised of product's "filterable attributes". A Filterable Attribute is an attribute of a product that can be used to sort, or filter, the products in your catalog, hence the name.
    If this is important to you, this is going to limit the eCommerce platforms you can choose, as not all platforms support this.
    So, what are some examples of Filterable Attributes?
    • Color (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Puce, etc)
    • Price (you can create price *ranges* as filterable attributes, just like you see on the big sites. $20-$50, $51-$100, $101-$175, etc.
    • Brand or Manufacturer. This is very common in shoe shops (like Zappos) and electronics shops, like Frys or TigerDirect. Nike, Asics, Birkenstock, etc. for shoes. HP, Gateway, Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Intel, AMD, nVidia, etc. for computer items.
    • Gender (is this a man's clothing item, or a woman's?)
    • Dimensions. You can set Height, Width, Length, Weight, Volume, etc. as sortable attributes.
    • Materials. Think Cotton, Polyester, Wool, Poly Blend, etc on clothing sites, or grades and types of metal on a metal/machining supplies site.
    • Just about anything else you can think of that would be useful to help customers narrow down their searches to what they're looking for.

    NOT Every eCommerce platform supports filterable attributes, as I found out recently. I've known for a long time that ProStores does not have attributes, but I just learned yesterday that BigCommerce does not have filterable attributes. (Someone suggested ProStores, and I would strongly suggest avoiding it, as eBay bought Magento and has been migrating users to that platform away from ProStores. The days of them supporting ProStores are numbered. Additionally, there is next to NO 3rd party support available, there are no filterable attributes, and it really ONLY makes sense to begin on that platform if you are already heavily doing business on eBay, as it pulls your stock from your eBay store, not the other way around. This was its primary appeal to eBay years ago when they bought it, and now its limitations are pushing them to sunset it.)

    SO, when starting your store, you need to determine your "attribute sets" and your categories. I have no idea what niche you're in, but I can show you a client site to help you out. This site sells ethical, fair trade kids clothes and you can see that we set up their categories by gender, then set the filterable attributes to sort by Price Range, Brand, Size/Age (same thing in the case of toddlers' clothing), and Color.
    How you decide to structure your data is going to determine a lot of the build of the project. Most suppliers only provide the bare minimum of details about their products- colors, prices, weights for shipping, and a short description (if any- some don't provide those). This means that setting up your data in the store properly is not simply a matter of zapping an Excel spreadsheet or .CSV to your server- you're going to have to set up the categories and attributes and attribute sets in the store first, then make the updates to your product spreadsheet, then upload it, and likely have to make some changes during that process. The more complex your attribute sets and attributes, the better looking and easier to navigate your store will be, but the time to get off the ground will be exponentially longer. Of course, it beats rebuilding your catalog in the middle of running your store when you discover you didn't do it right in the first place... :-/

    If I had to recommend a place to start, and if I knew that you were only doing simple products, I would strongly suggest Shopify for its ease of use and speed. If you were keen on eventually building a full eCommerce business, I feel the only real option is a Magento build. However, I would recommend that you start with Magento Go, the hosted option, to get used to the back end, setting up the catalog, the layered navigation and all its complexities, etc. Plus, the prices for Magento Go are competitive with what you'd pay in hosting for a CE build or ZenCart build, or WordPress, etc. The other thing is that as a paid product, Magento provides ticketing and technical support for Go.
    Then, you can very easily transition to Community Edition (read: the version everyone is talking about when they say Magento) when you're ready to expand. The data is nearly identical, so exporting it is no problem.
    This period when you're ready to grow could be a few months, it could be a year or more. Magento Go is a very flexible platform that has a lot of power, so a lot of medium sized businesses doing up to $1.2 million per year are even well served by it. It has a hard limit of 10,000 SKUs, and the expandibility of CE is much better, so eventually you'll want to transition to that. Magento Go's list of 3rd part extensions is limited, but the most common ones are there, and their Google API integration is the absolute best in the business, far surpassing even CE's. Plus, M2E, for eBay integration, is there, and there are a couple of plugins for other Comparison Engines support, so all of your early-game needs will be covered by it.

    Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions on how to get started or anything else I can do to point you in the right direction.
    Signature

    Ryne Landers
    Lover/Fighter/Gamer/Serial Entrepreneur
    McKinney Web Design
    Skype Me: ryne.landers

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  • Profile picture of the author marco005
    Hi,

    Palomino, thanks for your information.

    I come from europe, paypal says to me; I can use my previous paypal private account (bankwire- with bankaccount), an individual entrepreneur can use his own name and his private bankaccount to make business like; Micky Maus online marketing or so, so my private bankaccount in paypal; =Micky Maus,
    they need only my business registrstion as =Micky Maus online marketing, they need no more.

    So they accept this,when not I must open another bankaccount in europe (!!) and with them another new paypal account- although the name remains the same= Micky Maus online marketing.

    In europe when you get an bigger business credit above 50.000 Euro as individual entrepreneur, then you need a separat business bankaccount with your bank not your private bankaccount, but not before,or when you make more than 10.000 Euro sales in month.

    In my private paypal account is this option; set up my same paypal account for an individual entrepreneur business to set up the payout limit thats all.It's possible that this is different in usa with paypal?

    Notice: Yes when your clients or your affiliate partnerprograms pay you per credit card not bankwire, then you need an paypal business account.When I have that understood right, I can not switsch from privat to paypal business account, for paypal business account, I must opened an another new bankaccount and with themanother new paypal business account (?) please correct me if Im wrong.

    But are affiliate partnerprograms/vendors (exclude amazon) not capable to make bankwire to europe, come on?



    best wishes
    marco005
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  • Profile picture of the author marco005
    Hi,

    sorry for my missunderstood, yes it is better to change my paypal private to paypal business ist easy upgrade with my same name and bankaccount.


    marco005
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  • Profile picture of the author Qamar
    Hey Palomino, I am planning to launch an ecommerce site soon. I have take a couple hundreds of product's photographs. How much do you charge for an ecommerce site with simple layouts as I am selling locally only?

    You can PM me your pricing and details.

    Thanks
    Zul
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    Want Me To Help You? click ==> High Ticket Closer.

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    • Profile picture of the author Palomino
      Originally Posted by Qamar View Post

      Hey Palomino, I am planning to launch an ecommerce site soon. I have take a couple hundreds of product's photographs. How much do you charge for an ecommerce site with simple layouts as I am selling locally only?

      You can PM me your pricing and details.

      Thanks
      Zul
      Hi Zul ("Are you the Key Master?"),

      I would like to help you set up a site, but I do not have time right now between my full time day to day stuff, my freelance clients, and my own projects. As soon as I knock out the current client project and my own, I will be happy to help set aside time for more projects.

      Alternatively, our company can get you set up on Magento for as little as $299 for a basic setup, including configuring shipping and taxes, loading your logo, uploading your images, and creating 25 products for you as a template you can use to create the rest of your products. Products can be simple or configurable (configurable products are those which have selectable options such as colors, weights, sizes, materials, etc).

      We are Certified Magento Partners, as well as partners of eBay and members of X.Commerce. You won't find a more knowledgeable Magento group out there.
      Signature

      Ryne Landers
      Lover/Fighter/Gamer/Serial Entrepreneur
      McKinney Web Design
      Skype Me: ryne.landers

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  • Profile picture of the author Alliee
    The quickest way to Ecommerce Success is:-

    1-Free shipping boosts ecommerce conversions--especially on oversized or heavy items.

    2-Consistent on-site branding improves the customer experience.

    3-Consider why your customers abandon ecommerce carts.

    4-Remarketing efforts can recapture lost sales.

    5-Utilize user generated content to improve your site's credibility.

    6-Use promotions to drive traffic to your site and increase conversions.

    7-Add a blog to your ecommerce site to improve your site..
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  • Profile picture of the author stig
    Zul -

    There are plenty of free shopping cart solutions you can use. No need to spend a lot of money.

    One of my favorites is Zen Cart http://www.zen-cart.com/. Many hosting services carry ZenCart as part of the cPanel admin and Fantastico suite. I know GoDaddy and Host Gator use it. You can setup a basic hosting account for less than $10 per month and literally be up an running in less than 30 minutes.

    There are plenty of free ZenCart templates available to personalize the look of your store, or you can buy one for under $50 that has a bit more polished look.

    I'm currently running two commercial sites using Zen Cart. It took just 2-4 weeks for the products to begin showing up on the first page of Google. Though truthfully both these markets only have to battle SERPS of less than 50,000 so SEO is not much of a problem.

    Quite honestly, you can become familiar enough with Zen Cart's admin area to configure your store and start loading products in a single weekend.

    One of the nice things about Zen Cart is that it has a very large user community. If you have a question or are looking for a special plug-in, just Google it, and you'll find lots of posts and solutions.

    I don't have any affiliation with Zen Cart. This isn't a sales pitch. I just found it to be a very workable solution for a quick e-commerce site on a budget.

    Good luck,.
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  • Profile picture of the author marco005
    Hi,

    but how rank a ecommerce product site who has only little content, nomore that the product title and 5-6 sentences of content?

    marco005
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    • Profile picture of the author stig
      Originally Posted by marco005 View Post

      Hi,

      but how rank a ecommerce product site who has only little content, nomore that the product title and 5-6 sentences of content?
      I've never had a problem with it. For me, commercial sites are all about providing good product documentation. So each product page has brochures, user guides, technical papers, accessories, etc.. So not only do the product pages get indexed, so do the PDF documents.

      I'm sure it's a different story if you are selling some generic commodity product and battling 2 million SERPS. But what's nice about industrial products is the Internet competition is small, usually less than 50,000 SERPS, and the profit margins are high. So you don't need much traffic or many sales to bring in a good paycheck.
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  • Profile picture of the author marco005
    Hi stig,

    Ok, but how you get such high industrial product brochures and user guides?

    In fact most manufacturers have send their user guides, product brochures send to pdf sharing sites and rank with them over you, you have this same content on your website, now..........????

    Please correct me if I'm wrong there.

    marco005
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    • Profile picture of the author stig
      Originally Posted by marco005 View Post

      Hi stig,

      Ok, but how you get such high industrial product brochures and user guides?

      In fact most manufacturers have send their user guides, product brochures send to pdf sharing sites and rank with them over you, you have this same content on your website, now..........????

      Please correct me if I'm wrong there.

      marco005
      If you're a dealer or reseller for a product line the manufacturer is going to provide you with that documentation. I've never had a problem with PDF sharing sites ranking above my sites.

      I think most folks find those technical document sites annoying. They are trying to sell access to an information product that was originally provided free of charge by the manufacturer.

      You don't use those documents as a site, or even a stand alone page. You load them on your own host server and link to them from within the page for the product you are selling.

      Here's an example >> Hitachi KP-D20B Color CCD Camera. I used to own that web site. Notice the use of specifications, datasheets, brochures, and even software. All documents are linked from the product page. Notice the structure of the URL. Now do a Google search for 'Hitachi KP-D20B'.. you'll find it right at the top of 47,000 search results. Notice the price is displayed in the search result... very important for shoppers.

      There's probably less than 200 searches a month for that phrase and that product, very small potatoes. But guess where they all go? And with 20%-30% profit margins you're getting a pretty nice return for very little work. ..and yes... many of those products can be drop shipped. Load up 200-300 products like that and you have a six figure income.

      I love the online industrial market..... small micro niches, small serp competition, nice profits...
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  • Profile picture of the author usmanuk
    Select the type of product or service you wish to sell. The internet practically offer everything you can imagine and for to determine which product sells more than others, you will have to do your research. There are a lot of sources you can read to help you find out which products or services are trending today and which ones you should avoid.

    The importance of having a website and a business name is as important as the business itself. It reflects your own ability to handle the business well. So, much like your own personal store, your website is where you do all of your transactions. Determine what you want inside your website and find a name that will suit your business.

    Then, you can start with the overall design of your website. You can hire a web designer for this task or you can do it for yourself. Most of the time, you will need to have a simple interface so that your customers will not have a hard time navigating your entire website.

    Learn search engine optimization. This is how you can get customers from all around the world. SEO is the key to becoming successful with online businesses. All you need is a good SEO expert and some quality contents to be published for you to have your customers thrusted towards your website.

    Some of these marketing strategy is through backlinking and article writing. Some offer newsletters and email marketing to broaden their line of customers. The more work you put to your marketing strategy the more traffic you get to your website.
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  • Profile picture of the author marco005
    Hi,

    @stig, this is great! I learned so much here from the wf professionals.
    Wow you rank on spot #1 for that keyword!

    But I understand not so what is the benefit,when I give the user a link to download an product brochure?
    I thought I must give the use very less options to choose to get an high ctr rate to the amazon/vendor/cb sales page?

    Which is a realistic conversion rate case (visitors to buyers) to build such product sites-
    1%, 2% either 3%?

    best wishes
    marco005
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  • Profile picture of the author marco005
    Hi,

    to build a dropship website is not so easy for me,it is too complicated for me these csv file things, each shop system is different and the csv files are not uniform to work on all shop system/platforms.

    I need an easy to understand guide how do import products via csv file.
    Would that be easier to do it with shopify-or with an free cms like joomla?

    When my shop has 10 categories so I must split my huge large csv file into 10 different csv files to import each to the special category?

    I need an easy guide how do this.

    best wishes
    marco005
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  • Profile picture of the author swamuluk
    There is no shortcuts to success. Getting success in E-commerce business involves lot of patience and time but worthy. Whether you are selling on marketplaces or own online store success might delayed but delivered. few things are most important to survive or rise above competition.

    1. Unique Product
    2. Excellent Customer Support
    3. Competitive Pricing
    4. Numerous Varieties.
    5. Easy Return Policies
    6. Genuine Deals And Discounts
    7. Trust Building

    Don't try to sell but help what exactly customers looking for . Once they started believing , you are on the right path in success. offer multiple choice than they want , impress them , mesmerize with your quality products , Easy return processing , timely delivery and above all makes you a customer Champion.

    Once Again Keep In Mind : " Don't Sell But Help Them in What They Want"
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