Ecommerce site for a small business

[damci]

I'm looking at setting up an ecommerce website for a small business but at the moment I can’t afford the cost of paying someone to develop a site.

I have been looking into using a store hosting company that provides you with everything you need to get up and running for a monthly fee.

There’s one called ekmpowershop.com that seems reasonable at £19.99 a month, has/does anybody use them and is this solution a good idea? Any other recommendations?

[whygee02]

You tried ebay shops, cheap and cheerful easy way into the market, with the biggest existing customer base in the world !!

[Route324]

whygee02 said:

You tried ebay shops, cheap and cheerful easy way into the market, with the biggest existing customer base in the world !!

I'd second that - use ebay shops if you are selling a product rather than a service.

When you have built up enough reserves of income, then you might be able to get your own web site developed on the back of a strong brand or loyal customer base.

[timskipper]

What is it you want to sell?

eBay shops are no good for low-margin items due to listing, final-value and PayPal fees, and poor shop listing exposure in searches.

[damci]

Yes I am currently setting up an ebay shop and was also wanting to have an ecommerce site.

I will be selling products such as cameras/camcorders/projectors/ipods/PS3 etc so they are quite high value and the fees are stupidly high for anything over £500 using ebay.

I already sell through ebay but I'm wanting to take it to the next level using ecommerce.

[timskipper]

We've set up a few osCommerce based installations of CRELoaded http://www.creloaded.com/ both for ourselves and clients.

It's very good, and interfaces nicely with PayPal/NOCHEX etc for collecting credit & debit card payments online. Do you currently have a credit card merchant account for taking offline sales?

The only downside to this package is if you need to set a product-specific shipping price regardless of weight or product price. It doesn't handle that situation.

[jamesuk28]

http://www.geminiwebsitedesign.co.uk/cheap_ecommer...

[JamieBeeston]

All of our Register1 VDS Pro's come with OsCommerce 'quick install' so you could be online with a store the same day.

We do have a designer too, he could knock up a very nice store for you for ~ £500!

Check my profile and give me a bell if you fancy chatting it over.

J

[damci]

timskipper- thanks for the link I will take a look into it when I get home. I dont currently have a credit card merchant account as at present all sales are through ebay auctions. This is something I will need to setup in the future though.

JamieBeeston- might sound like a daft question but what is OsCommerce? Is this a shopping cart add-on to an existing website as I don't as yet have a website.

[JamieBeeston]

damci said:

JamieBeeston- might sound like a daft question but what is OsCommerce? Is this a shopping cart add-on to an existing website as I don't as yet have a website.

Popular free online shop



J