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Website Designs - Bit of Market research!
FASTdan - 20/5/13 at 07:24 AM

OK so I am finally going to pull my finger out and get someone to build me a proper website and web shop as I simply will never get round to doing it! I have a meeting to discuss later this week but in advance I need to know what features etc I would like.

So, as the LCB collective must spend many an hour scouring parts websites (among others) who's websites do you particularly like? Features, ease of use etc? Any general advice on what I should be asking for?

Will obviously have a main site and then shop with paypal and all the usual bells and whistles associated. Also Facebook/Twitter integration, maybe some sort of blog area (although that is sort of fulfilled by facebook, but then I guess not everyone is registered to FB).

designer - 20/5/13 at 08:58 AM

I am just doing a shop.

I used 'opencart' one of the many free available. Your current site Cpanel should have a download section where you can download it, or any of the others you might prefer.

Have U2U'd a link so you can see what I have done.

I have to say that I am a computer 'numpty' and found this very, very easy to build.

MikeCapon - 20/5/13 at 09:25 AM

Hi Dan,

My advice to you would be to do things one step at a time rather than trying to add all the "bells and whistles" from the off.

Get your main site sorted first. You'll soon find out that this is plenty to be going on with while you're running a business at the same time. You'll also find out that you'll go through several versions / updates before you're happy with the main site.

As an intermediate stage before on-line purchases you can easily add 'order forms' that don't need all the PayPal integration.

Finally you can do the all singing, all dancing version.

You'll find that each stage will bring you extra work and sales. By doing it step by step you'll not be overwhelmed and you'll get the initial site off the ground much more quickly.

Trying to build the ultimate site right from the off will be a huge amount of work which may ultimately prove too much..

Good luck,

Mike

FASTdan - 20/5/13 at 11:00 AM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeCapon
Hi Dan,

My advice to you would be to do things one step at a time rather than trying to add all the "bells and whistles" from the off.

Get your main site sorted first. You'll soon find out that this is plenty to be going on with while you're running a business at the same time. You'll also find out that you'll go through several versions / updates before you're happy with the main site.

As an intermediate stage before on-line purchases you can easily add 'order forms' that don't need all the PayPal integration.

Finally you can do the all singing, all dancing version.

You'll find that each stage will bring you extra work and sales. By doing it step by step you'll not be overwhelmed and you'll get the initial site off the ground much more quickly.

Trying to build the ultimate site right from the off will be a huge amount of work which may ultimately prove too much..

Good luck,

Mike



Some interesting points there - thankyou.

My thoughts were actually opposite to you but you have me thinking now. I was more keen to get a shop up and running than an actual site as one of the main motivations for finally doing something about this is that I am sick of ebay fee's. Whilst its all built into my pricing it is starting to make me sick seeing £300+ disappear each month. Undoubtedly ebay is a prime selling platform but its just getting a bit daft. Thats why I'm keen for the shop - perhaps I should look to go basic on the shop, only selling the straight forward plates/profiles etc. The only additional work this will generate is postage/packing/re-ordering of stock. Which is all time of course, but not labour intensive design/fabrication. This is all assuming it generates further revenue rather than diverting away from the current ebay shop.

Then as you say go for an order form or just enquiry form for any actual fabrication orders. I do appreciate what you are saying about time spent managing it though too - ebay can be quite hard to manage, add to this facebook page updates, forum post updates etc and it all soon mounts up.

designer - funnily enough I had recently seen a demonstration of opencart as part of a 'business online' seminar I attended and was inspired to give it a go. During the hour or two I managed to devote to it I must say I found it quite straight forward too and did manage to get a couple of items 'listed' (but nothing is live). My problem is time and each month that goes by is another month I could have had an operational shop if I'd just forked out and paid someone.

swanny - 20/5/13 at 11:50 AM

as others have said i'd go for a phased roll out of the shop. even if just for a few weeks, offered a limirted number of basic products. this will mean you can test everything live with real orders right the way through to completion and feedback.

tell your customers you are doing this and they are more likely to offer positive/constructive feedback on how future vgersions should look.

as you will have seen on here, orders slipping through the cracks of systems that arent good enough do nothing for your business. much better to do it gradually, keeping all customers happy.

paul