Single product ecommerce site

[joshcowin]

Hi I have used the search but nothing relevant appeared.

I am in the early stages of starting a small business. The business would be online only and selling just 1 product priced around £50.

The webpage would be simple with information on the product and a link to purchase.

What are my options with payments and website hosting? would it be beneficial to utalise a service such as opencart? or would pay pal be the easiest option.

I have very little experience in the tech side of this, so go easy on me!

Any pointers would be great.

[anonymous-user]

1 product? Is this one product only available from you? Is it easily copied? A lot of people HATE Pay Pal, we offer it, for the haters we offer card payments too (ironically via Pay pal Pro but the end user has no idea of that!). Depending on what volume of product you expect to shift would dictate the best option. I don't want to piss on your chips but I'd be VERY wary of selling one product online. I've been selling online for over a decade and it's never been harder than now.

[joshcowin]

Dave_ST220 said:

1 product? Is this one product only available from you? Is it easily copied? A lot of people HATE Pay Pal, we offer it, for the haters we offer card payments too (ironically via Pay pal Pro but the end user has no idea of that!). Depending on what volume of product you expect to shift would dictate the best option. I don't want to piss on your chips but I'd be VERY wary of selling one product online. I've been selling online for over a decade and it's never been harder than now.

Thanks for your reply!

Yes one product, as we are targeting a market that has become to complicated for the customer, we are focusing on simplicity, quality and value (Huge value for money). Our marketing would emphasise this value for money and simplicity option.

Relatively modest volume say 100 units per week.

What is involved in linking the payment to an account? Do I need to facilitate this or does paypal take care of that!?

[Undirection]

How will you drive traffic to your website?

[joshcowin]

Undirection said:

How will you drive traffic to your website?

Marketing campaign - Mags, social media (Facebook predominately) and baners/flyers.

The product is aimed at the fitness industry

[Du1point8]

I sell only a few products online...

3 to be exact and we do ok out of it.

One question I will say is as above, how are you going to drive traffic to your site?

We have been in many magazines/papers and even on tv and that doesnt come close to driving much traffic through.

[anonymous-user]

joshcowin said:

Thanks for your reply!

Yes one product, as we are targeting a market that has become to complicated for the customer, we are focusing on simplicity, quality and value (Huge value for money). Our marketing would emphasise this value for money and simplicity option.

Relatively modest volume say 100 units per week.

What is involved in linking the payment to an account? Do I need to facilitate this or does paypal take care of that!?

Are your demographic likely to use/like Pay Pal? If they are I'd look at offering Pay Pal and have them take care of the card payments too via Pro too, that way one set of fees. (Assuming you would have customers who refuse to buy via Pay Pal! Pay Pal can take cards no problem but because it's branded some people abandon the check out process, Pro takes away all of the branding but is harder to code). For one product it would be easy, any off the shelf cart or simply a buy now button (NOCHEX or Pay Pal offer this) would suffice.

[joshcowin]

Du1point8 said:

I sell only a few products online...

3 to be exact and we do ok out of it.

One question I will say is as above, how are you going to drive traffic to your site?

We have been in many magazines/papers and even on tv and that doesnt come close to driving much traffic through.

Thanks for the info, what would be your suggestions? What has worked for you?

I will say the adverts and images used will grab peoples attention!

I believe once people have ordered they will re-order and also tell people about it! It is a genuinely good product at the lowest price!

[joshcowin]

Dave_ST220 said:

joshcowin said:

Thanks for your reply!

Yes one product, as we are targeting a market that has become to complicated for the customer, we are focusing on simplicity, quality and value (Huge value for money). Our marketing would emphasise this value for money and simplicity option.

Relatively modest volume say 100 units per week.

What is involved in linking the payment to an account? Do I need to facilitate this or does paypal take care of that!?

Are your demographic likely to use/like Pay Pal? If they are I'd look at offering Pay Pal and have them take care of the card payments too via Pro too, that way one set of fees. (Assuming you would have customers who refuse to buy via Pay Pal! Pay Pal can take cards no problem but because it's branded some people abandon the check out process, Pro takes away all of the branding but is harder to code). For one product it would be easy, any off the shelf cart or simply a buy now button (NOCHEX or Pay Pal offer this) would suffice.

My demographic is mixed in terms of age and gender, so having the card payments is a must. I wouldn't pay via pay pal (I don't have an account).

I really like the idea of a 'Buy Now' button!

As you use Pay Pal Pro, how easy was set up, and what did they require from you?

Thanks for all the information!

[Du1point8]

joshcowin said:

Du1point8 said:

I sell only a few products online...

3 to be exact and we do ok out of it.

One question I will say is as above, how are you going to drive traffic to your site?

We have been in many magazines/papers and even on tv and that doesnt come close to driving much traffic through.

Thanks for the info, what would be your suggestions? What has worked for you?

I will say the adverts and images used will grab peoples attention!

I believe once people have ordered they will re-order and also tell people about it! It is a genuinely good product at the lowest price!

Don't believe adverts will work... we have been in or on.

Telegraph
Time out
The times
Love your garden (TV Show)
Grand designs
Top 5 pick from Ideal home show
Elle magazine
Vouge
GQ

Very few people order after seeing in the magazines.

Web campaigns get expensive, but are necessary evil.

Trade shows make us money.

Resellers are where we make most of the money, that is a lot of cold calling and visiting companies.

[jammy_basturd]

Personally I wouldn't worry about going Pro just yet, if you do you then need to think about the increased responsibility of PCI-DSS compliance.

I'd go with PayPal and something like Stripe. Both should be nice and easy to integrate into your site, having both will cater for people who like PayPal and those who don't, and neither should contribute much to cart abandonment.

One you're up and running and know your likely sales per month, then play around with payment gateways and try to get such overheads down.

Oh, and if you need help with the website side of things...

[joshcowin]

Du1point8 said:

Don't believe adverts will work... we have been in or on.

Telegraph
Time out
The times
Love your garden (TV Show)
Grand designs
Top 5 pick from Ideal home show
Elle magazine
Vouge
GQ

Very few people order after seeing in the magazines.

Web campaigns get expensive, but are necessary evil.

Trade shows make us money.

Resellers are where we make most of the money, that is a lot of cold calling and visiting companies.

The product cannot be sold via a retailer, so driving people to our website or social media is the way forward!

We plan on launching in the new year, so we have time to plan and organise our strategy!

I really like your furniture by the way! Very cool

[joshcowin]

jammy_basturd said:

Personally I wouldn't worry about going Pro just yet, if you do you then need to think about the increased responsibility of PCI-DSS compliance.

I'd go with PayPal and something like Stripe. Both should be nice and easy to integrate into your site, having both will cater for people who like PayPal and those who don't, and neither should contribute much to cart abandonment.

One you're up and running and know your likely sales per month, then play around with payment gateways and try to get such overheads down.

Oh, and if you need help with the website side of things...

Thanks, we have someone in mind, but if that fails I will be in contact!
Can you PM me your details please.

Thank you

[anonymous-user]

jammy_basturd said:

Personally I wouldn't worry about going Pro just yet, if you do you then need to think about the increased responsibility of PCI-DSS compliance.

I'd go with PayPal and something like Stripe. Both should be nice and easy to integrate into your site, having both will cater for people who like PayPal and those who don't, and neither should contribute much to cart abandonment.

One you're up and running and know your likely sales per month, then play around with payment gateways and try to get such overheads down.

Oh, and if you need help with the website side of things...

Pro Hosted doesn't need any PCI-DSS, although it is then branded! I'd use NOCHEX as although branded it doesn't seem to have haters like Pay Pal. PCI-DSS is the biggest bunch of bullst ever.

[jammy_basturd]

Dave_ST220 said:

Pro Hosted doesn't need any PCI-DSS, although it is then branded! I'd use NOCHEX as although branded it doesn't seem to have haters like Pay Pal. PCI-DSS is the biggest bunch of bullst ever.

Well exactly. I didn't really see the point of going to the extra hassle of going Pro Hosted if you're doing it for the PayPal haters. As you say it's still branded so it doesn't solve the issue of not putting them off.

I'd also suggest that there are more people nowadays that are happy to use PayPal and trust it, rather than detest it.

[anonymous-user]

They do a 3rd option which is an iframe integration , again no PCI-DSS as the payment data is not on your website. We actually have our system setup so we can switch between all 3 options at the click of a mouse. As I said, the nice thing is your fee's are then set for ALL payments so even if you have a split of 20% Pay Pal and the others paying by card you will get the same lower fees as in reality ALL transactions are via Pay Pal. Fee's are going to add up on 100 x £50 a week! (& I'll be amazed if a new product generates 100 sales a week TBH).

[anonymous-user]

joshcowin said:

My demographic is mixed in terms of age and gender, so having the card payments is a must. I wouldn't pay via pay pal (I don't have an account).

I really like the idea of a 'Buy Now' button!

As you use Pay Pal Pro, how easy was set up, and what did they require from you?

Thanks for all the information!

That has to be the most common mistake from buyers, you don't need an account to buy via Pay Pal but to this day people still think you do! A buy now button is what you get when using Pay Pal's own "cart" or a NOCHEX button. Pro is a lot more complex to setup, your best bet would be to ring them. I'm not sure they will even allow you to go straight onto Pro as you have no sales history. You then have to setup 3DS via a third party (currently Cardinel Commerce). IMO you will need a developer to set it all up unless you really know what you are doing. They will perform credit checks which is why without sales history you may struggle. We were turned down at first but it turned out they had used our old address (we'd just moved) however we had already put 10's of thousands through PP at the time. It was a long time ago but by memory we had to fax them some documents & complete an application form.

[joshcowin]

Dave_ST220 said:

joshcowin said:

My demographic is mixed in terms of age and gender, so having the card payments is a must. I wouldn't pay via pay pal (I don't have an account).

I really like the idea of a 'Buy Now' button!

As you use Pay Pal Pro, how easy was set up, and what did they require from you?

Thanks for all the information!

That has to be the most common mistake from buyers, you don't need an account to buy via Pay Pal but to this day people still think you do! A buy now button is what you get when using Pay Pal's own "cart" or a NOCHEX button. Pro is a lot more complex to setup, your best bet would be to ring them. I'm not sure they will even allow you to go straight onto Pro as you have no sales history. You then have to setup 3DS via a third party (currently Cardinel Commerce). IMO you will need a developer to set it all up unless you really know what you are doing. They will perform credit checks which is why without sales history you may struggle. We were turned down at first but it turned out they had used our old address (we'd just moved) however we had already put 10's of thousands through PP at the time. It was a long time ago but by memory we had to fax them some documents & complete an application form.

Dave, a developer is going to be setting this up, however I feel I would like to know what is going on behind the scenes as this part of the business is my responsibility.

You have given me plenty to think about, much appreciated!

[anonymous-user]

No problem, good luck with the venture!!

[loafer123]

We use SagePay and Paypal via ECWID and are PCI-DSS exempt as we hold no payment details ourselves.

ECWID is free for one product, so might work well for you and does have a Buy Now button.