I need a website built

[keemaklan]

Hi everyone,

Please can you recommend a company or an individual who can not only create a bespoke e-commerce website selling products from the Afro Caribbean cosmetics market, but also have it linked in one way or another to Amazon/Ebay? So for example, I upload a new wig to be sold on my website. Once uploaded once, it can be automatically sold on Ebay/Amazon without having to input it all over again? Is there such a thing?

I don't know where to begin looking or even roughly how much I ought to be paying.

Break this down for me, and make it easy.

Kindest regards,

Fox.

P.S, all advice is welcome.

[DSLiverpool]

Hi

If you decide on Shopify we can help, also consider Bigcommerce, Magento and Woo / wordpress. Do your own research on this as its important.

Work on a few thou for a theme set up to any limit for a bespoke site, make sure you have stunning photography as the best sit will look crap with bad pictures.

Discuss how it will perform on search results but its possible your items would be better on social and paid adverts making SEO investment not required - this will come out when you look further into who your customer is and what their typical buying triggers are.

Look at Linnworks, channel grabber, channel advisor etc to balance your sales channels.

Happy to have a chat but be honest about your budget otherwise you end up with a solution that is more than you want to pay and its a waste of everyones time.

Good luck

[akirk]

would agree with the above - you don't want a bespoke website - using shopify or big commerce (or equivalent) should be sufficient - and then spend your money getting the business logistics set up (i.e. setting up as a user on Amazon / ebay / and integrating etc.) and on getting sales...

good photography is essential - other than that a standard theme is all you need initially - you can always update it later - don't waste money on look and feel beyond what is free / low cost - spend it on building the business

[keemaklan]

Let’s forget the word bespoke, and focus on “best”. What’s the best platform to use?

Budget - from £1-£6k. Preferably not higher, but I could be tempted.

[akirk]

shopify and bigcommerce are generally the two market leaders, both have positives and negatives, to give more advice then that needs someone you pay to sit down with you and work out what is right for your business...

both have the ability to set up a trial and play with the software...
you need to work out why you want to spend money - both systems can be used by those without technical knowledge, so are you buying the ability to not use your time but get it done, or are you thinking you need customisation, or do you just want the basics set up for you...?

how much are you prepared to do yourself?

[jonamv8]

The difference between 1k and 6k is quite large, narrow your budget a bit. IMO your probably closer to 4.5k and follow DSLIVERPOOLs advice, its credible from a chap with plenty of experience online.

My advice:
High end theme WP or similar with plug ins to support API push to eBay and Amazon.

Are you branded yet as that will influence theme?

[uber]

If it's off the shelf products and you already have the branding then any of these platforms will do the trick. Whats more important is the thoughts and process going into the marketing as that is what will make the site succeed. I have lost count of the times we have had clients come to us after spending 50k on a website with an agency who delivers a shiny website and no sales.

[anonymous-user]

uber said:

If it's off the shelf products and you already have the branding then any of these platforms will do the trick. Whats more important is the thoughts and process going into the marketing as that is what will make the site succeed. I have lost count of the times we have had clients come to us after spending 50k on a website with an agency who delivers a shiny website and no sales.

Marketing is the hard bit.

[jammy-git]

Is this a new business or a site for something already up and running?

How much do you want this to be something that is an on-going project and how much do you want it to be self-sufficient?

Is there any requirements for multi-currencies? Different tax rates in different regions/countries? Maybe a multi-store set up at some point in the future?

[Frimley111R]

EddieSteadyGo said:

uber said:

If it's off the shelf products and you already have the branding then any of these platforms will do the trick. Whats more important is the thoughts and process going into the marketing as that is what will make the site succeed. I have lost count of the times we have had clients come to us after spending 50k on a website with an agency who delivers a shiny website and no sales.

Marketing is the hard bit.

It depends. It's like anything, if you have or use someone who knows how to do it, it really isn't hard. In the same way someone can say its hard to build an e-commerce website but if that's your job then you'd not think so.

Building any new website without thinking about how anyone will even know it exists is even worse than opening a shop and expecting customers to magically walk in and buy stuff. And yet, despite the digital age being in full swing, many businesses still, and always will, fail to understand this.

[keemaklan]

Hi all,

Apologies for the belated response. It’s ramadan and I’ve not been able to find the time to respond. During the day I’m busy at work and in the evening it’s busy eating/going to bed soon after.

Thank you for your responses. I shall be in touch with one in particular after Ramadan ends.

In regards to the questions asked, it is already a 4 shop business within London selling Afro Caribbean products, but we’d like to finally join the 21st century and have a website from which we can sell our products. This will be a joint venture by myself and my brother.

We intend to do most the work ourselves, with only help initially to build the site and then later to help Market it.

[jammy-git]

I think Dave (DSLiverpool) would be the best fit for your needs. He could provide you with a Shopify site with integrated EPOS, if required, and he already has other clients in the health and beauty markets so he'll be able to give you some great advice on marketing too.