question for web programmers on building ecommerce site

[AndyW]

Hi,

I'm a digital artist with some basic experience of web programming, but literally only very basic.

I want to start a new site that sells greetings cards to what will likely be mass market, slightly niche but not totally mainstream either. So I'll need to implement a site that will list cards and all that good stuff.

So I guess I need to know if there's anything out of the box I can use, or if that avenue only really leads to those sites that offer you a web shop and take most of your profit. I really want this to be a standalone company with it's own brand/identity. Don't have the capital to pay a programmer is the thing.

Any other advice suggestions welcome!

 

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[jason91]

Hi,

I'm a digital artist with some basic experience of web programming, but literally only very basic.

I want to start a new site that sells greetings cards to what will likely be mass market, slightly niche but not totally mainstream either. So I'll need to implement a site that will list cards and all that good stuff.

So I guess I need to know if there's anything out of the box I can use, or if that avenue only really leads to those sites that offer you a web shop and take most of your profit. I really want this to be a standalone company with it's own brand/identity. Don't have the capital to pay a programmer is the thing.

Any other advice suggestions welcome!

Greetings cards as in physical greetings cards or E-Greeting cards?

Customized or Already made cards?

A simple pre-made card only requires an add to cart, image, description and etc.

A customizable card is usually harder to set up on the website.

Your solution would probably depend on the specifics of your ideal shop.

You can create your own web shop (need web hosting company, a Content management system [CMS - Joomla, Wordpress, Magento etc.], and maybe third party extensions) - but of course this will take more coding and development experience.

I personally use magento for my online shop - but its quite complex and can require a lot of coding. Will likely take you at least 6 months to fully develop a website if you're new and need to learn step by step.

You can go with a more simple platform (bigcommerce, shopify, etc.)
Most online platforms don't take that much of your profit.. They charge a small % which is usually the same as a credit card proccessor fee. These are probably easier to get started with. But keep in mind -It will probably be less customizable.

Good luck - you will need to do some research based on your specific needs

 

[AndyW]

Thanks for the response.

These would be physical greeting cards. This is quite a new idea so haven't properly brainstormed it yet. But this has already highlighted a few issues that need resolving. One of which is the fact that you can't really sell greeting cards without the ability for the user to write inside them. So that's some extra programming that a site like shopify would likely not be able to accommodate (although I don't know anything about such sites and their various capabilities yet).

Then I have to consider printing. Would have to be print on demand and that service somehow automatically plugged into the system. Which seems a little complex :/

Knowing the above, does that change any suggestions and idea? I already have a host that I use and can use Wordpress, have designed a couple of basic sites in it.

 

[masterneme]

Just install Wordpress with Woocommerce, it's easy to manage, it has thousands of amazing plugins and you'll keep 100% control over it.

 

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[Digamma]

This is quite a new idea so haven't properly brainstormed it yet.

Then do it, or it's impossible to give you actual advice.
In general, if you need a online builder type thing (add text, choose font, preview it, etc) you will probably need some custom work done. Now, if this technology is central to your business, you might need somebody to be "inside" to support it continuously. This will cost - but you might find a tech partner.

 

[AndyW]

Just install Wordpress with Woocommerce, it's easy to manage, it has thousands of amazing plugins and you'll keep 100% control over it.

That seems pretty good. I was gonna say - but what if you don't have stock and you want an on-demand type of stock, and so I found this thing called Printful which plugs into Woocommerce. Only thing is it doesn't do greeting cards.

I hear you @Digamma - maybe I could get something set up and working and if that became workable I could then attract a tech partner and go in to customise the site. I think this kind of idea needs to be modular if capital doesn't exist. So iterate and grow rather than aim to produce the finished product before a grand launch.

 

[jason91]

Thanks for the response.

These would be physical greeting cards. This is quite a new idea so haven't properly brainstormed it yet. But this has already highlighted a few issues that need resolving. One of which is the fact that you can't really sell greeting cards without the ability for the user to write inside them. So that's some extra programming that a site like shopify would likely not be able to accommodate (although I don't know anything about such sites and their various capabilities yet).

Then I have to consider printing. Would have to be print on demand and that service somehow automatically plugged into the system. Which seems a little complex :/

Knowing the above, does that change any suggestions and idea? I already have a host that I use and can use Wordpress, have designed a couple of basic sites in it.

I have not personally built an E-commerce company on wordpress so I can't say how reliable or unreliable that platform may be. I know I read about some security issues a couple of years ago so I decided to Magento instead of WordPress - but don't take my word for it - I haven't used WordPress for E-Commerce. Just make sure you do your own research before choosing wordpress or another platform.

Here are some parts you need to know when running an online store (I'd suggest you google them all to have a basic understanding):
Accepting Payments Online (PCI-DSS Compliance or Off-Site Gateway)(If you lose your customers data through a hack or PCI decides to audit you - you might get fined.. so be careful about this)
If you decide to go with Wordpress / WooCommerce - http://docs.woothemes.com/document/pci-dss-compliance-and-woocommerce/
Page Load Speed (Depending on your web host and platform) This is very important. If you have a basic plan you need to make sure it's adequate to support an e-commerce environment.
Transactional Emails - When customer orders - you need a system to automatically notify them. This depends on the platform you use. Be sure to do some research on it.

^ There's so many other things you will need to understand after you choose a platform. Right now the first step should be deciding on a platform (Wordpress, Magento or other) - make sure it can handle what you need. Google every question you have and do the research - nobody can really give you a step by step beyond that

 

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[AndyW]

Hmm, might have to ditch this idea.

Trying to incorporate something low-maintenance along side main area of focus and I think this would end up needing 100% of my focus.

Still, really good to get some feedback and highlight some of the blind spots! Cheers

 

[jason91]

Hmm, might have to ditch this idea.

Trying to incorporate something low-maintenance along side main area of focus and I think this would end up needing 100% of my focus.

Still, really good to get some feedback and highlight some of the blind spots! Cheers

Haha yes, things always look simple until you get into the execution phase

 

[masterneme]

Well, you could use Ecwid.

 

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