# Website domain/online shop



## nac34 (May 4, 2006)

Wondering if anyone can help.

I want to set up an online shop for my business but have no clue on how to go about doing this or how much it costs to run.

I already have a good following using a Facebook page which has helped massively especially with in the local area. 
I want to offer potentialy new and existing customers a way of viewing items online with the options to purchase. 

The nature of the business is food if this makes a difference

I'm not 100% on a online shop working but if I don't try I will never know. So I am looking for a fairly cheap or possible free trial for a few months to see how it goes

Any help or advice greatly appreciated 

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## Bulkhead (Oct 17, 2007)

nac34 said:


> Wondering if anyone can help.
> 
> I want to set up an online shop for my business but have no clue on how to go about doing this or how much it costs to run.
> 
> ...


A mate of mine did this last year. He went through three web developers as they seem to be universally shocking. They ended up doing most of the work, including all images etc. Then once it went live the games began. I now know why google uses $100 bills to clean the tables - the packages are a money pit. You have to pay them a LOT of money to get your website even remotely visable and then pay them more each time it gets a hit!! He threw 10s of $1000s at it. Having said that, he broke even after a year but his profit margin is huge (he makes and sells his own e juice for e cigarettes). Just make sure you look at ALL the expenditure and have a plan based on predicted sales and profit.


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## cossiecol (Jun 29, 2014)

nac34 said:


> Wondering if anyone can help.
> 
> I want to set up an online shop for my business but have no clue on how to go about doing this or how much it costs to run.
> 
> ...


The main thing to keep in mind is that you are dealing with peoples information, you would be surprised just how easy is it is to gain access to websites, all you need to one access point that's not properly coded in the website etc etc so my advice is to go to a well respected web designer and tell them what you're after.

Your other option is to approach some universities - my uni gets requests to "test" applications/websites all the time and there's always requests a few times a year for things like this, but specify that you're after final year students to do the work and you'll probably find you'll have a few websites to choose from and you can pick the one you like and pay a lot less :thumb:


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## nac34 (May 4, 2006)

Bulkhead said:


> A mate of mine did this last year. He went through three web developers as they seem to be universally shocking. They ended up doing most of the work, including all images etc. Then once it went live the games began. I now know why google uses $100 bills to clean the tables - the packages are a money pit. You have to pay them a LOT of money to get your website even remotely visable and then pay them more each time it gets a hit!! He threw 10s of $1000s at it. Having said that, he broke even after a year but his profit margin is huge (he makes and sells his own e juice for e cigarettes). Just make sure you look at ALL the expenditure and have a plan based on predicted sales and profit.


This is what I am worried about is the hidden extra charges especially if they take a percentage of the sales.

Im not expecting it to generate a huge income (although it be nice if it did), so I'm looking to just try it for a few months to see how it does.

I have seen a site called shopify offering a free trial but I'm really looking for advice or guidance6of people in the know before I try this option

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## Brad-ST (Nov 17, 2013)

nac34 said:


> This is what I am worried about is the hidden extra charges especially if they take a percentage of the sales.
> 
> Im not expecting it to generate a huge income (although it be nice if it did), so I'm looking to just try it for a few months to see how it does.
> 
> ...


You can use shopify which should be relatively cheap and if you can navigate a computer then you'll be able to do it yourself. You just drag and drop the elemnts you want on your pages so no need for coding.

Another option which is very cost effective is using Wordpress and an ecommerce plugin called 'WooCommerce' (I'm currently setting my site up using this).

With WordPress you can buy a theme and create the site yourself and use plugins like visual composer or unyson and again it is just a case of dragging and dropping text boxes, icons to the different parts of your website.

If you are struggling with getting your head around it then have a look for freelance developers as they will be much cheaper than using an agency to build your website.

Wordpress has no monthly subscription costs associated with it, you may just need a hand setting up payment gateways and importing your products into woocommerce but it is a fairly simple process providing your not importing tens of thousands of products.


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## asif03 (Aug 13, 2015)

nac34 said:


> Wondering if anyone can help.
> 
> I want to set up an online shop for my business but have no clue on how to go about doing this or how much it costs to run.
> 
> ...


Not sure if you got anything sorted but I'm able to make websites and although it isn't my main career it is a hobby/side venture so I can help you get set up and even if you'd like someone to maintain it going forward I can help. Let me know :thumb:


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## bustersolomon (4 mo ago)

There are many wonderful sites on Wix, but so many of them close down after some time. I really don't know what the reason is. Either it is the third party code that they dislike, or terms or anything else. In Windsor I want to find good shopify developers for reasonable price as I want to sell car spare parts online and in such a small town as mine there are no other opportunities to do it. The variant of selling them by Windsor and Eton Central doesn't count.


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## [email protected] (May 30, 2006)

Shopify. All day long.
You can try it for $29 per month for tbe basic Shopify which will be more than enough for what you’re selling.
Plus you can natively sell on Facebook and Instagram via Shopify. 

Have a look at my website for an idea how a Shopify website can work natively on phone / tablet / desktop

thanks


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## Ste T (Jul 17, 2008)

Guys, you do know your replying to a thread started in 2019. @[email protected] @bustersolomon @grabien 

this is a massive problem with the new DW, its pulling threads from the past based on your search / cookie data i would think, very much targeted ad's


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## Darlofan (Nov 24, 2010)

Ste T said:


> Guys, you do know your replying to a thread started in 2019. @[email protected] @bustersolomon @grabien
> 
> this is a massive problem with the new DW, its pulling threads from the past based on your search / cookie data i would think, very much targeted ad's


Getting more and more noticeable. Quite a lot of the time it's someone's first post too. Why join a detailing forum to reply to something totally unrelated, all seems strange.


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## YouMissedAbit (10 mo ago)

Threads over 3 years old should be automatically closed, so annoying.


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## Ste T (Jul 17, 2008)

YouMissedAbit said:


> Threads over 3 years old should be automatically closed, so annoying.


By doing that DW wont get the user interaction its sadly now money over content / user experience with the new DW


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## macca666 (Mar 30, 2010)

FFS how many spam posts can there be on a thread....

Bustersolomon and sabina Babington both spam accounts. 

Both with links in their posts no doubt to more spam and they think we can't see that?

I've reported both accounts so hopefully they'll get deleted


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