E-Commerce - how to get it right and be successful
Discussion
I’m want to have a successful e-commerce site, but have failed in delivering that over many years.
A critical analysis of why its been a failure is as follows:
1. I’ve tried outsourcing the development, twice. Both times I feel the companies weren’t up to scratch and delivered a product that weren’t ‘professional’ enough. From their side, I think it’s fair to say that they needed more time from me, and this time is too much for me to give. There are certain basic things that I expect to be obvious, for them it’s not obvious. I expect them to think about things, like what a customer would want, without me having to spell out every last detail. (A couple of examples, international shipping was omitted as it wasn’t asked for, the site had some forms for a customer to fill it but no thought had been given to how we were to access the answers in an easy manner). I appreciate that software type developments needs a spec, but I’m a businessman, not a spec writer.
2. I want a premier league site. What I mean by that is that it must be able to compete with the biggest competitor companies out there, in terms of look, feel and functionality.
3. The industry has thousands of lowish value products. It’s therefore labour intensive to add and maintain content/products. I’ve never asked any of the outside firms to do this, but never really got a site to a stage where I feel it’s worth making the investment to fully add content/products.
Over the last 10 years, I’ve spent a total of £20-£30k on paying these two companies to do things, excluding monies spent on staff internally.
Recent quotes have been £30-£40k to get a new site. I don’t really want to spend this type of money, because, as a business owner, I feel, based on previous experiences, that the risk of having the same issues as previously is high. I also feel that most firms outsource the bulk of the development offshore, get the work done cheaply and charge me a fat premium. I don’t feel like I’m getting value for money this way.
So I was looking for advice on how to get a class leading/successful e-commerce business. I realise that advice from business owners will be different from people who work or own these type of development development companies.
Would an option be to work with people on sites like Fiverr & PPH and employing someone to co-ordinate?
I’ve probably missed key information here, so feel to ask further questions. But I will be keeping identities and specific industry confidential. Broadly speaking it’s health & beauty.
Appreciate your time and input.
A critical analysis of why its been a failure is as follows:
1. I’ve tried outsourcing the development, twice. Both times I feel the companies weren’t up to scratch and delivered a product that weren’t ‘professional’ enough. From their side, I think it’s fair to say that they needed more time from me, and this time is too much for me to give. There are certain basic things that I expect to be obvious, for them it’s not obvious. I expect them to think about things, like what a customer would want, without me having to spell out every last detail. (A couple of examples, international shipping was omitted as it wasn’t asked for, the site had some forms for a customer to fill it but no thought had been given to how we were to access the answers in an easy manner). I appreciate that software type developments needs a spec, but I’m a businessman, not a spec writer.
2. I want a premier league site. What I mean by that is that it must be able to compete with the biggest competitor companies out there, in terms of look, feel and functionality.
3. The industry has thousands of lowish value products. It’s therefore labour intensive to add and maintain content/products. I’ve never asked any of the outside firms to do this, but never really got a site to a stage where I feel it’s worth making the investment to fully add content/products.
Over the last 10 years, I’ve spent a total of £20-£30k on paying these two companies to do things, excluding monies spent on staff internally.
Recent quotes have been £30-£40k to get a new site. I don’t really want to spend this type of money, because, as a business owner, I feel, based on previous experiences, that the risk of having the same issues as previously is high. I also feel that most firms outsource the bulk of the development offshore, get the work done cheaply and charge me a fat premium. I don’t feel like I’m getting value for money this way.
So I was looking for advice on how to get a class leading/successful e-commerce business. I realise that advice from business owners will be different from people who work or own these type of development development companies.
Would an option be to work with people on sites like Fiverr & PPH and employing someone to co-ordinate?
I’ve probably missed key information here, so feel to ask further questions. But I will be keeping identities and specific industry confidential. Broadly speaking it’s health & beauty.
Appreciate your time and input.
Someone has to be the spec writer, even if you don't do that work personally. If you don't develop a detailed plan of what you are planning to deliver, how can you expect your chosen supplier to produce what you are after? Perhaps commission someone to work with you to develop that spec, which you can then sign off and provide to the developers to work from.
I'm not sure how you'd get on with Fiverr/PPH and the like, it sounds like a very high maintenance way of doing things, which you have pretty much said you don't have the interest in. I've only ever got small graphics jobs done on Fiverr, and I reckon I've spent as much time on the specs, as the suppliers will have done on the actual work.
I'm not sure how you'd get on with Fiverr/PPH and the like, it sounds like a very high maintenance way of doing things, which you have pretty much said you don't have the interest in. I've only ever got small graphics jobs done on Fiverr, and I reckon I've spent as much time on the specs, as the suppliers will have done on the actual work.
Real world is (in my opinion) that you will have to invest more of your time in the development stage.
As you have discovered what's obvious to you isn't obvious to a software developer and hence two failed projects.
There's no magic bullet and few enough mind readers about.
There's no off the shelf solution you can use then?
As you have discovered what's obvious to you isn't obvious to a software developer and hence two failed projects.
There's no magic bullet and few enough mind readers about.
There's no off the shelf solution you can use then?
I work as a web developer, and have worked for companies as their in house tech as well as for agencies that companies ask to build their sites for them.
First question I have to ask is what platform are these companies providing you with? Is it Magento? Shopify? WooCommerce? This bit, I feel, is key and dictates exactly how much money you should allocate to it. Magento isn't worth the hassle - and believe me you get the hassle with it for free - as it's often complicated to use and even more complicated to expand and develop.
Second question is have you worked out the ROI of the sites you've already had built? Have you monitored the visitor numbers and how they get to your site? Have you monitored their journey on the site? If you haven't done this then you're going to throw good money after bad. You need to understand how visitors get to your site, and how they use your site. Are they dropping off because the navigation is shoddy, or are they dropping off because they can't find information about returns and delivery.
It just isn't enough to have the mentality to "build it and they will come". You need to treat the site as you would do a physical shop. So if it were me, I would start to look at A/B testing and user habbits of the site before you spend even more money on it.
First question I have to ask is what platform are these companies providing you with? Is it Magento? Shopify? WooCommerce? This bit, I feel, is key and dictates exactly how much money you should allocate to it. Magento isn't worth the hassle - and believe me you get the hassle with it for free - as it's often complicated to use and even more complicated to expand and develop.
Second question is have you worked out the ROI of the sites you've already had built? Have you monitored the visitor numbers and how they get to your site? Have you monitored their journey on the site? If you haven't done this then you're going to throw good money after bad. You need to understand how visitors get to your site, and how they use your site. Are they dropping off because the navigation is shoddy, or are they dropping off because they can't find information about returns and delivery.
It just isn't enough to have the mentality to "build it and they will come". You need to treat the site as you would do a physical shop. So if it were me, I would start to look at A/B testing and user habbits of the site before you spend even more money on it.
You sound just like me, want an industry leading website but don't want to/can't pay for it 
The thing that I've learnt is to firstly determine your platform and requirements.
We're on Magento and currently migrating to Magento 2, which I regret as it costs a fortune to get anything half-decent and there just seems to be constant bugs, issues and problems. We've gone down the template route, which I also regret as I'm not happy with the new site we're about to launch as the template isn't as good as it first looked, lots of minor issues and we're currently not achieving the key reasons for changing site like mobile optimisation. Pretty depressing, and no one to blame but ourselves as we chose the bloody template! In too deep to start again or re-platform.
If you have simple requirements then it might be better to consider Shopify or WooCommerce, you can create a much better looking site, easier, than Magento. I have just migrated one of my smaller niche stores to WooCommerce, it's super fast, looks great and works better than Magento for what it is. It'll never be high traffic/high volume though so we're not going to be pushing the limits of WooCommerce. Best decision I made on this by a long shot. Cost us less than $200 to complete the entire site with built in trade wholesale system, although both myself and one of my staff are experienced in building Wordpress websites so we could handle it all in house.
It also depends on what industry leading means in your industry. If you sell bird tables then it's probably far easier and cheaper to get that "industry leading" compared to if you sold electronics...
In my opinion £25,000 gets a WAY better Shopify website than the same £25,000 on Magento. - assuming you have simple requirements that Shopify can handle out of the box as more of that budget will go to style and features compared to config, setup etc on Magento.
There's also way more to it than having a good website. Ever see a high-value site that looks crap and wonder why they do so well?
I'd highly recommend reading Ecommerce Evolved by Tanner Larsson. It's the best book I've read on ecommerce so far and shows that there is far more to a successful store than simply having a good looking website. I just wish I read it last year before I started re-platforming.
Since reading it I've realised that I'm wasting my time and money, we've been messing around with websites and platforms for WAY too long and all we really need is a good, fast website with the right features so that we can focus on MARKETING and revenue optimisation.
Don't make the same mistakes as me, get to a decent website as fast as you can then focus on the right things.
In hindsight, I'd have started our main website on Shopify and put all my focus into actually selling stuff.
The thing that I've learnt is to firstly determine your platform and requirements.
We're on Magento and currently migrating to Magento 2, which I regret as it costs a fortune to get anything half-decent and there just seems to be constant bugs, issues and problems. We've gone down the template route, which I also regret as I'm not happy with the new site we're about to launch as the template isn't as good as it first looked, lots of minor issues and we're currently not achieving the key reasons for changing site like mobile optimisation. Pretty depressing, and no one to blame but ourselves as we chose the bloody template! In too deep to start again or re-platform.
If you have simple requirements then it might be better to consider Shopify or WooCommerce, you can create a much better looking site, easier, than Magento. I have just migrated one of my smaller niche stores to WooCommerce, it's super fast, looks great and works better than Magento for what it is. It'll never be high traffic/high volume though so we're not going to be pushing the limits of WooCommerce. Best decision I made on this by a long shot. Cost us less than $200 to complete the entire site with built in trade wholesale system, although both myself and one of my staff are experienced in building Wordpress websites so we could handle it all in house.
It also depends on what industry leading means in your industry. If you sell bird tables then it's probably far easier and cheaper to get that "industry leading" compared to if you sold electronics...
In my opinion £25,000 gets a WAY better Shopify website than the same £25,000 on Magento. - assuming you have simple requirements that Shopify can handle out of the box as more of that budget will go to style and features compared to config, setup etc on Magento.
There's also way more to it than having a good website. Ever see a high-value site that looks crap and wonder why they do so well?
I'd highly recommend reading Ecommerce Evolved by Tanner Larsson. It's the best book I've read on ecommerce so far and shows that there is far more to a successful store than simply having a good looking website. I just wish I read it last year before I started re-platforming.
Since reading it I've realised that I'm wasting my time and money, we've been messing around with websites and platforms for WAY too long and all we really need is a good, fast website with the right features so that we can focus on MARKETING and revenue optimisation.
Don't make the same mistakes as me, get to a decent website as fast as you can then focus on the right things.
In hindsight, I'd have started our main website on Shopify and put all my focus into actually selling stuff.
Just to pick up on one point you made - "There are certain basic things that I expect to be obvious, for them it’s not obvious. I expect them to think about things, like what a customer would want, without me having to spell out every last detail. (A couple of examples, international shipping was omitted as it wasn’t asked for..." - International shipping is not what I would class as an obvious basic thing that should be there without the client asking for it. International Shipping is complicated. And depending on what the items are, it can be very complicated, with all sorts of rules over which carriers can carry the items, what customs paperwork you need, how it is charged for etc. I am surprised they didn't at least ask you the question "do you ship internationally" but to expect it out of the box without having to ask for it is pretty unreasonable.
I know this is probably not going to be the answer you are looking for, but if you want the best you are going to have to put the time in yourself and take ownership of the requirements, direction and ideas, and really collaborate closely with your technical partner to achieve your desired end result. Being busy, firing a few emails and hoping that because you've paid professionals lots of money stuff will just happen how you want it to is not going to work. It's an ongoing process that needs continued effort and input.
But the key point for me is your first sentence. What is your measure of success? What metrics are you using to come to the conclusion the current site is not a success? What data have you got to prove this? Is this your only sales channel or do you have B+M shops, mail order, resellers, B2B, others? If you can take a step back and define what success looks like you can start to piece together a strategy for your sales channels. It may be for example that having your own in house developed website is not the right solution and that having a stock inventory tool that feeds several channels like Amazon and eBay is a better solution. First thing is to understand where you're aiming at then figure out how to get there.
I know this is probably not going to be the answer you are looking for, but if you want the best you are going to have to put the time in yourself and take ownership of the requirements, direction and ideas, and really collaborate closely with your technical partner to achieve your desired end result. Being busy, firing a few emails and hoping that because you've paid professionals lots of money stuff will just happen how you want it to is not going to work. It's an ongoing process that needs continued effort and input.
But the key point for me is your first sentence. What is your measure of success? What metrics are you using to come to the conclusion the current site is not a success? What data have you got to prove this? Is this your only sales channel or do you have B+M shops, mail order, resellers, B2B, others? If you can take a step back and define what success looks like you can start to piece together a strategy for your sales channels. It may be for example that having your own in house developed website is not the right solution and that having a stock inventory tool that feeds several channels like Amazon and eBay is a better solution. First thing is to understand where you're aiming at then figure out how to get there.
Thanks for all the replies so far.
I was not looking for a bespoke build, currently we have Magento 1 with some modifications. I understand this is almost end of life. I chose Magento as is customisable and there are lots of developers available to do this.
I’ve not really looked into Shopify and don’t know how easily it’s customisable for things that Shopify doesn’t do out of the box.
I take on board all the comments people have made about my expectations and input required.
I was not looking for a bespoke build, currently we have Magento 1 with some modifications. I understand this is almost end of life. I chose Magento as is customisable and there are lots of developers available to do this.
I’ve not really looked into Shopify and don’t know how easily it’s customisable for things that Shopify doesn’t do out of the box.
I take on board all the comments people have made about my expectations and input required.
shopper150 said:
Thanks for all the replies so far.
I was not looking for a bespoke build, currently we have Magento 1 with some modifications. I understand this is almost end of life. I chose Magento as is customisable and there are lots of developers available to do this.
I’ve not really looked into Shopify and don’t know how easily it’s customisable for things that Shopify doesn’t do out of the box.
I take on board all the comments people have made about my expectations and input required.
Magento 1 is "end of life" by 2020, and it's probably likely to extend further as there is no real upgrade path from Magento 1 to Magento 2. I looked in to this myself in my last place and it was reasoned that it's essentially a new website build not an upgrade of the existing platform. In this case it'd be an idea to look beyond Magento at an alternative. I was not looking for a bespoke build, currently we have Magento 1 with some modifications. I understand this is almost end of life. I chose Magento as is customisable and there are lots of developers available to do this.
I’ve not really looked into Shopify and don’t know how easily it’s customisable for things that Shopify doesn’t do out of the box.
I take on board all the comments people have made about my expectations and input required.
A friend of mine works for a company in a similar position, they have a Magento 1 website and he's moving them to WooCommerce (which has been mentioned earlier). It's a far simpler process to work on and modify compared to Magento, as with Magento your developer is spending more time wondering what's going on and fixing things that break rather than creating or modifying the CMS.
In my experience (of doing it cheaply) the best route in my opinion is to:
1) Find a brilliant designer. Let them design all of the pages of the site properly. Review again and again until you are blown away by it. Don't be afraid to keep going back for tweaks. Be strong with them too; if you know what works and what your customers expect to see on the site then make sure that's done. A lot of designers go for the 'clean' and 'minimalist' look but the trouble is that it can easily end up looking like a 1 week old business with no content and nothing to shout about. Make sure any functionality that is designed in (specific filters, features, etc) can be easily coded or added with a cheap app (e.g. Shopify app's)
2) Choose your platform. We've had dedicated servers running Magento in the past at horific cost. We now use Shopify and couldn't be happier!
3) Find a developer. We use offshore developers from sites like Upwork. Pass them the designs (we always just give Photoshop psd files) and notes that the developer has made and get a fixed price for all of the work including testing.
4) Be prepared for the inevitable "we've finished the project, please check from your side" rubbish where they haven't done it properly or tested it. Keep going back to them until they have done it 100%
5) Do some testing yourself, especially on the mobile view. If you're really unsure, hire a freelance Indian tester to do some cross-browser testing for you.
In the above scenario I would expect that you'd pay around £2k for a UK based designer, and around £1k ish for an Indian based coder.
We're currently reskinning one of our Shopify sites that was orginally developed with just a free template. These are the costs we are looking at. This is an eCommerce site that has a turnover of around £500k per year.
This is all just my opinion of course, and granted I have got a fair bit of ecommerce experience from various businesses over the years. Yes, doing it this way will eat into your time, but then you could potentinally save a serious amount of cash (£30k ??!). The key is finding a brilliant graphic designer.
1) Find a brilliant designer. Let them design all of the pages of the site properly. Review again and again until you are blown away by it. Don't be afraid to keep going back for tweaks. Be strong with them too; if you know what works and what your customers expect to see on the site then make sure that's done. A lot of designers go for the 'clean' and 'minimalist' look but the trouble is that it can easily end up looking like a 1 week old business with no content and nothing to shout about. Make sure any functionality that is designed in (specific filters, features, etc) can be easily coded or added with a cheap app (e.g. Shopify app's)
2) Choose your platform. We've had dedicated servers running Magento in the past at horific cost. We now use Shopify and couldn't be happier!
3) Find a developer. We use offshore developers from sites like Upwork. Pass them the designs (we always just give Photoshop psd files) and notes that the developer has made and get a fixed price for all of the work including testing.
4) Be prepared for the inevitable "we've finished the project, please check from your side" rubbish where they haven't done it properly or tested it. Keep going back to them until they have done it 100%
5) Do some testing yourself, especially on the mobile view. If you're really unsure, hire a freelance Indian tester to do some cross-browser testing for you.
In the above scenario I would expect that you'd pay around £2k for a UK based designer, and around £1k ish for an Indian based coder.
We're currently reskinning one of our Shopify sites that was orginally developed with just a free template. These are the costs we are looking at. This is an eCommerce site that has a turnover of around £500k per year.
This is all just my opinion of course, and granted I have got a fair bit of ecommerce experience from various businesses over the years. Yes, doing it this way will eat into your time, but then you could potentinally save a serious amount of cash (£30k ??!). The key is finding a brilliant graphic designer.
SpeckledJim said:
What are you seeking in terms of site capability that a BigCommerce or Shopify site can't do for you for sub £100 a month?
I'm not sure if those two can be customised to do things like:1) Impose quantity limits on products
2) Allow users to upload a image, so that we can look at it and send a quote back, so they can click on a link and then pay for the basket we create for them
3) When a customer adds certain products to their basket, a questionnaire is presented asking them to answer or verify things to ensure suitability (like age etc)
shopper150 said:
SpeckledJim said:
What are you seeking in terms of site capability that a BigCommerce or Shopify site can't do for you for sub £100 a month?
I'm not sure if those two can be customised to do things like:1) Impose quantity limits on products
2) Allow users to upload a image, so that we can look at it and send a quote back, so they can click on a link and then pay for the basket we create for them
3) When a customer adds certain products to their basket, a questionnaire is presented asking them to answer or verify things to ensure suitability (like age etc)
1) yes, you can limit product inventory
2) no, but if your user can email you the image then you can create their custom deal/price in BC and send them a link to buy it online.
3) not without some customisation, but should be possible if you can find a whizz. And shouldn't be anything like to prices you've discussed.
SpeckledJim said:
shopper150 said:
SpeckledJim said:
What are you seeking in terms of site capability that a BigCommerce or Shopify site can't do for you for sub £100 a month?
I'm not sure if those two can be customised to do things like:1) Impose quantity limits on products
2) Allow users to upload a image, so that we can look at it and send a quote back, so they can click on a link and then pay for the basket we create for them
3) When a customer adds certain products to their basket, a questionnaire is presented asking them to answer or verify things to ensure suitability (like age etc)
1) yes, you can limit product inventory
2) no, but if your user can email you the image then you can create their custom deal/price in BC and send them a link to buy it online.
3) not without some customisation, but should be possible if you can find a whizz. And shouldn't be anything like to prices you've discussed.
I should have been clearer
Limits on max number of products purchased by the customer, variable per product
cervezaman said:
In my experience (of doing it cheaply) the best route in my opinion is to:
1) Find a brilliant designer. Let them design all of the pages of the site properly. Review again and again until you are blown away by it. Don't be afraid to keep going back for tweaks. Be strong with them too; if you know what works and what your customers expect to see on the site then make sure that's done. A lot of designers go for the 'clean' and 'minimalist' look but the trouble is that it can easily end up looking like a 1 week old business with no content and nothing to shout about. Make sure any functionality that is designed in (specific filters, features, etc) can be easily coded or added with a cheap app (e.g. Shopify app's)
2) Choose your platform. We've had dedicated servers running Magento in the past at horific cost. We now use Shopify and couldn't be happier!
3) Find a developer. We use offshore developers from sites like Upwork. Pass them the designs (we always just give Photoshop psd files) and notes that the developer has made and get a fixed price for all of the work including testing.
4) Be prepared for the inevitable "we've finished the project, please check from your side" rubbish where they haven't done it properly or tested it. Keep going back to them until they have done it 100%
5) Do some testing yourself, especially on the mobile view. If you're really unsure, hire a freelance Indian tester to do some cross-browser testing for you.
In the above scenario I would expect that you'd pay around £2k for a UK based designer, and around £1k ish for an Indian based coder.
We're currently reskinning one of our Shopify sites that was orginally developed with just a free template. These are the costs we are looking at. This is an eCommerce site that has a turnover of around £500k per year.
This is all just my opinion of course, and granted I have got a fair bit of ecommerce experience from various businesses over the years. Yes, doing it this way will eat into your time, but then you could potentinally save a serious amount of cash (£30k ??!). The key is finding a brilliant graphic designer.
Is it worth trying graphic designers on Fiverr etc?1) Find a brilliant designer. Let them design all of the pages of the site properly. Review again and again until you are blown away by it. Don't be afraid to keep going back for tweaks. Be strong with them too; if you know what works and what your customers expect to see on the site then make sure that's done. A lot of designers go for the 'clean' and 'minimalist' look but the trouble is that it can easily end up looking like a 1 week old business with no content and nothing to shout about. Make sure any functionality that is designed in (specific filters, features, etc) can be easily coded or added with a cheap app (e.g. Shopify app's)
2) Choose your platform. We've had dedicated servers running Magento in the past at horific cost. We now use Shopify and couldn't be happier!
3) Find a developer. We use offshore developers from sites like Upwork. Pass them the designs (we always just give Photoshop psd files) and notes that the developer has made and get a fixed price for all of the work including testing.
4) Be prepared for the inevitable "we've finished the project, please check from your side" rubbish where they haven't done it properly or tested it. Keep going back to them until they have done it 100%
5) Do some testing yourself, especially on the mobile view. If you're really unsure, hire a freelance Indian tester to do some cross-browser testing for you.
In the above scenario I would expect that you'd pay around £2k for a UK based designer, and around £1k ish for an Indian based coder.
We're currently reskinning one of our Shopify sites that was orginally developed with just a free template. These are the costs we are looking at. This is an eCommerce site that has a turnover of around £500k per year.
This is all just my opinion of course, and granted I have got a fair bit of ecommerce experience from various businesses over the years. Yes, doing it this way will eat into your time, but then you could potentinally save a serious amount of cash (£30k ??!). The key is finding a brilliant graphic designer.
Otherwise how have you managed to find yours in the past and what do you pay them
What is an example of a premier league site in this particular industry?
I’d be cautious about having another go without a clear idea of how the site was to be marketed against said premier league sites and at what cost
In a head to head battle, a site that you might rate at 80% there, if properly marketed, would almost always beat a site that you might say is 100% there but that is poorly marketed
Marketing online for an e-commerce site with thousands of products must always include spend on ads and similar
As a very rough guide have in mind that amazon fees are ~15% of sales including merchant fees. How does your marketing plan’s budget stack up against that sort of number?
I’d be cautious about having another go without a clear idea of how the site was to be marketed against said premier league sites and at what cost
In a head to head battle, a site that you might rate at 80% there, if properly marketed, would almost always beat a site that you might say is 100% there but that is poorly marketed
Marketing online for an e-commerce site with thousands of products must always include spend on ads and similar
As a very rough guide have in mind that amazon fees are ~15% of sales including merchant fees. How does your marketing plan’s budget stack up against that sort of number?
Health & Beauty sees you competing with players that have big margins and, often, lots of marketing budget - much of which is well spent
Have you considered starting in a small number of narrow niches first of all: Focus your efforts and spend. It might work out well - I can think of a few e-commerce startups that have done that in that industry with considerable success
Have you considered starting in a small number of narrow niches first of all: Focus your efforts and spend. It might work out well - I can think of a few e-commerce startups that have done that in that industry with considerable success
JPJPJP said:
Health & Beauty sees you competing with players that have big margins and, often, lots of marketing budget - much of which is well spent
Have you considered starting in a small number of narrow niches first of all: Focus your efforts and spend. It might work out well - I can think of a few e-commerce startups that have done that in that industry with considerable success
You are correct. I am planning to offer thousands of products but marketing certain niches or smaller brands (like a landing page / sub site) for each brand.Have you considered starting in a small number of narrow niches first of all: Focus your efforts and spend. It might work out well - I can think of a few e-commerce startups that have done that in that industry with considerable success
Do check the sites that you regard as premier league that you are intending to compete against
You may very well find that they are operating on wordpress / opencart / shopify or something similar
If you have been dabbling for 10 years already, you will know just how fast ecommerce has developed in that time. The functionality available off the shelf now is fantastic and there is rarely any real & justifiable need for anything bespoke to sell products that are already being sold successfully elsewhere.
Look and feel are, of course, very important, but it is easy to get so bogged down with such things that other things - like launching, marketing, updating, supplier management etc. etc. fall by the wayside 'for a prettier background colour'
You could do worse than grab a few minutes of pher DSLiverpool's time - he is generous with it and knows his stuff on ecommerce
You may very well find that they are operating on wordpress / opencart / shopify or something similar
If you have been dabbling for 10 years already, you will know just how fast ecommerce has developed in that time. The functionality available off the shelf now is fantastic and there is rarely any real & justifiable need for anything bespoke to sell products that are already being sold successfully elsewhere.
Look and feel are, of course, very important, but it is easy to get so bogged down with such things that other things - like launching, marketing, updating, supplier management etc. etc. fall by the wayside 'for a prettier background colour'
You could do worse than grab a few minutes of pher DSLiverpool's time - he is generous with it and knows his stuff on ecommerce
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