My partner and I are in the beginning stages of creating a niche ecommerce web page. We have about $5,000 to spend on the start up, and we are debating whether we should:
1. Use a storefront template, like yahoo storefront, or some other fairly low-medium cost generic ecommerce package
2. Have someone code it for us and create a more "professional" looking site on a $5,000 budget
While I know that generally a business can get away with having a less polished, "template-y" front page for a while, I really don't know if ecommerce stores are the same way, since you are trying to establish trust and the quality of a product so that the customer feels comfortable exchanging money with you. The top ranked stores for our keywords have the templated sites or poorly constructed, old custom sites, so I figured that one competative advantage would be a more professional site. Some more questions:
3. Is it worth the initial outlay (up to $5,000) to build a more custom ecommerce site?
4. Are there customer trust issues with sites built with common ecommerce packages vs. custom sites?
5. Is having a custom site truly competitive advantage over one created with a template?
Thanks so much everyone!
1. Use a storefront template, like yahoo storefront, or some other fairly low-medium cost generic ecommerce package
2. Have someone code it for us and create a more "professional" looking site on a $5,000 budget
While I know that generally a business can get away with having a less polished, "template-y" front page for a while, I really don't know if ecommerce stores are the same way, since you are trying to establish trust and the quality of a product so that the customer feels comfortable exchanging money with you. The top ranked stores for our keywords have the templated sites or poorly constructed, old custom sites, so I figured that one competative advantage would be a more professional site. Some more questions:
3. Is it worth the initial outlay (up to $5,000) to build a more custom ecommerce site?
4. Are there customer trust issues with sites built with common ecommerce packages vs. custom sites?
5. Is having a custom site truly competitive advantage over one created with a template?
Thanks so much everyone!

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