Online sales for bike shop...advice sought

Cianos

Hey folks,
I want to set up a website for a new bike shop I'm planning on opening. The goal is to prime the venture with some online presales to gain some capital to kickstart the business.

There are budget restrictions, so I'm hoping to get some advice on what the most cost effective approach is to achieve an efficient, secure and customer-reassuring online sales mechanism would be.

There'll be a small amount of products for sale in the beginning...maybe 5-10 products total.

Again, the website is yet to be built and I have yet to choose a designer so I'm open to all options.

Thanks for any help

TheWaterboy

Hi Cianos,

My advice would be to look at whats out there at the moment in online bike stores and take some ideas from that.

Im not sure what type or range of bikes you will be selling but with the high end bikes I think its important to have a lot of information about the bike and the equipment and make of equipment on it. Also decent images. Some of them have images where you can hover over to view larger images of individual parts of the bikes.

For your average run of the mill 150 euro bike then it might not be as important to have all the equipment listed but decent images of it and a wider range of bicycles.

Also lots of people dont know the difference beteen Road, Hybrid and Mountain bikes.

Accessories are also hugely important and probably a good money spinner.

I think its important that you offer information on the Governments Bikes for Work scheme and make it easy for companies to purchase from you using this scheme.

Id keep the checkout and shopping cart experience as simple as possible. Maybe use something like OsCommerce to do the site in and get a web designer to design a decent frontend. This is prob the cheapest option.

If you want any further advice then PM me.

Cianos

TheWaterboy wrote: »

Hi Cianos,

My advice would be to look at whats out there at the moment in online bike stores and take some ideas from that.

Im not sure what type or range of bikes you will be selling but with the high end bikes I think its important to have a lot of information about the bike and the equipment and make of equipment on it. Also decent images. Some of them have images where you can hover over to view larger images of individual parts of the bikes.

For your average run of the mill 150 euro bike then it might not be as important to have all the equipment listed but decent images of it and a wider range of bicycles.

Also lots of people dont know the difference beteen Road, Hybrid and Mountain bikes.

Accessories are also hugely important and probably a good money spinner.

I think its important that you offer information on the Governments Bikes for Work scheme and make it easy for companies to purchase from you using this scheme.

Id keep the checkout and shopping cart experience as simple as possible. Maybe use something like OsCommerce to do the site in and get a web designer to design a decent frontend. This is prob the cheapest option.

If you want any further advice then PM me.

Thanks for the reply. We'll be focusing in on a couple of specialised bike models and positioning ourselves as dedicated stockists of these models. Our customers will come to us because of the bikes themselves.

So the sites job is to really show off these specialised bikes, showcase their advantages etc and then make it easy for the customer to confidently purchase one.

I had a quick look at OsCommerce but I'm not too sure how secure it looks. When I proceed to check out in their catalogue shop section (here), it gives a warning saying the sites security certificate has expired. I would want an ecommerce package that takes care of all the security and looks 100% legit.

TheWaterboy

OsCommerce needs you to purchase an SSL cert. One of these are available from any of the hosting providers. It is giving an error as it is only a demo site and the SSL cert has expired.

Cianos

TheWaterboy wrote: »

OsCommerce needs you to purchase an SSL cert. One of these are available from any of the hosting providers. It is giving an error as it is only a demo site and the SSL cert has expired.

Right ok. So to have an eccomerce function on my website, I'd need the shopping cart system (eg OsCommerce), and a SSL cert to make it legit? What kind of prices are SSL certs and are there any ones that are better than others? My target market is all of Europe basically.

Thanks

TheWaterboy

OsCommerce is open source so it will cost you nothing.

An SSL cert can be bought along with your hosting. Not sure of the yearly price. A shared SSL cert will do the job. Prob works out about 50 euro per year.

Hosting & Domain name will be about 120 per year.

You will need a credit card processor. Realex / Worldpay will do this. Realex have a package for 29.99 per month. You will need to get a merchant account also from your bank.

You will get alot of information from this site: http://www.webpayments.ie/

Axwell

You only need an SSL cert if you are going to be taking peoples credit card information through your own website. If you use a payment processor like paypal then you dont as theydo all the processing of details. You will see on sites a lock symbol and where the http becomes https which shows that it is using a secure address to send the information.

Cianos

So basically if I want to be able to process transactions via my own site and have customers enter their card details etc, I'll need a Realex account and a SSL cert, whereas with something like Paypal all I'll need is the Paypal account, a merchant bank account and the shopping cart system?

Would I be right in thinking that using any kind of processor such as Paypal would appear less professional from the customer point of view as opposed to a secure page where they can enter their card details?

Axwell

A merchant bank account gives you a machine to take credit card details..ie using realex and taking details off the site and having an ssl cert like you said.

With paypal you dont need the credit card machine, ssl cert or merchant account. As regards paypal most people have a paypal account and are familiar with it so I dont think its seen as unprofessional at all. It however doesnt accept laser.

Pixelcraft

You need a merchant account with the realex option, not with paypal.

Cianos

Would having the Realex account and an SSL cert etc allow me to process credit card payments in the shop itself, ie face to face? Or would that require further costs?

Axwell

To do that you would need a merchant account setup with the bank, they provide you with the machine and there are fees attached.

Realex and paypal are payment gateways which also have fees attached per transaction but theres no machine and with paypal you dont need a merchant account or ssl cert etc.

Cianos

Axwell wrote: »

To do that you would need a merchant account setup with the bank, they provide you with the machine and there are fees attached.

Realex and paypal are payment gateways which also have fees attached per transaction but theres no machine and with paypal you dont need a merchant account or ssl cert etc.

Cheers. It looks like Paypal would make the most sense for us starting out, given how easy it is to set up and the lack of subscription fees etc. The main disadvantages seem to be the holding of payment for up to 60 days and the transaction commission of 2.9%.

So if we're going with Paypal, is OsCommerce still the best shopping cart platform to use?

Thanks

gracy

i am in the process of setting up a fashion website and have been advised to use realex to take credit card payments
I think having high res photos is very important.My designer is trying to use magento for the backend.I will be trying to sell mens suits so it is at a similar price level.
i have done lots of research on competitors.There is very little in ireland but lots to gain insights from in uk

daymobrew

Cianos wrote: »

So if we're going with Paypal, is OsCommerce still the best shopping cart platform to use?

I would recommend Zen Cart over osCommerce.

Zen Cart is a fork/split of osCommerce. osCommerce seems to have stopped being developed while Zen Cart has continued a bit.
Zen Cart is basically osCommerce with many enhancements included. From a designer's perspective Zen Cart is easier to work with because it has a template system which separates the shopping cart code from the front end.

Cianos

daymobrew wrote: »

I would recommend Zen Cart over osCommerce.

Zen Cart is a fork/split of osCommerce. osCommerce seems to have stopped being developed while Zen Cart has continued a bit.
Zen Cart is basically osCommerce with many enhancements included. From a designer's perspective Zen Cart is easier to work with because it has a template system which separates the shopping cart code from the front end.

Thanks. I had a look at a listed site that uses Zen Cart, and when proceeding to check out it requires the user to log in or submit their details. I don't want my customers to have to create an account in order to purchase something, so if I were using PayPal would this page just be replaced by the PayPal log in process?

Cianos

Does this guy sound like he knows what he's talking about?

Zen cart is ok when you have a small online shop to sell products such as 1000 products but in that scenario We would say best is Magento which is three interface for one shop such as for client/supplier/store but this is also for lots of products and zen cart/magento/oscommerce/virtuemart all are open source code under GNU license to develop. We can do Zen Cart but template design doesnt comes up that much great.

If you dont have huge amount of products than best choice would be a CMS with shopping cart such as Joomla CMS and Virtuemart in it. Its all open source but we need to develop it design and integration

daymobrew

Cianos wrote: »

I don't want my customers to have to create an account in order to purchase something, so if I were using PayPal would this page just be replaced by the PayPal log in process?

No

Cianos wrote: »

Does this guy sound like he knows what he's talking about?

Zen cart is ok when you have a small online shop to sell products such as 1000 products but in that scenario We would say best is Magento which is three interface for one shop such as for client/supplier/store but this is also for lots of products and zen cart/magento/oscommerce/virtuemart all are open source code under GNU license to develop. We can do Zen Cart but template design doesnt comes up that much great.

It does sound like he knows what he is talking about.
I disagree wrt the amount of products Zen Cart/osCommerce can handle. I help with an osCommerce shop that has close to 2000 products.
Others on this forum have found Magneto to be slow.

You should try out the admin sections (as you'll have to work with them daily) on OpenSourceCMS.com

Cianos

daymobrew wrote: »

No

I don't get it though...if the user has a PayPal account already, what's the need for them to re-enter all their contact information and credit card details?

daymobrew

Cianos wrote: »

I don't get it though...if the user has a PayPal account already, what's the need for them to re-enter all their contact information and credit card details?

If you are using PayPal you will not be storing their credit card details so these won't be re-entered.
If a customer has a PayPal account then they will only have to enter their PayPal password and confirm the amount - no address or credit card details need to be entered.
For a customer without a PayPal account they will need to enter their address, though you can pre-fill those fields using the address that they entered on your site. That is what I do on the site I maintain.

Realex is an alternate payment processor. One advantage with them is that they page where you enter your credit card number is branded like your site so users may not notice that they've been redirected to the Realex site. Customisation at PayPal is very limited for the basic account.

Eoin

OSCommerce has a checkout without registration contribution which works pretty well. Someone posted a link here a while ago that showed the increase in sales when customers don't need to create an account.

But as others have said, OSCommerce has become a bit stagnant, and it's a nightmare implementing any changes as there's no template system. Zen Cart has a lot of extra stuff thrown in - but you might still have to change some template files to make some functionality changes. It's a lot better though.

I would second Realex - presumably you'll need to take credit and laser cards in your shop, so you'll have most of the pre-requisites in place anyway. Despite how popular Paypal is, I think a few people get turned off when it's the only payment option. No harm in having both payment options available.

daymobrew

eoin wrote: »

OSCommerce has a checkout without registration contribution which works pretty well. Someone posted a link here a while ago that showed the increase in sales when customers don't need to create an account.

There appears to be an equivalent one for Zen Cart.

unnameduser

I have found Prestashop to be quite good also.

zAbbo

I'd be more cautious on creating an online bike shop, and would invest a hell of a lot of time in research before moving further.

As you are opening an actual store, this does not automatically mean than a transactional website is a good idea, in fact applying the same principles to an online store will more than likely result in failure.

In Ireland - Worldwide Cycles do it particularly well, as they know their audience and give them a real reason to come to the site, as well as building the level of trust that's required for people to purchase from them online.

Anyone recommending OsCommerce is either out of touch or clueless (or both)

gracy

When u said u were going to try selling bicyicles online my initiat thought was "very difficult".However i met a friend on a bike the other day and he told me he bought it online.There will be a market there but u need to find that market because it is a limited one.Lots of work on seo and promoting your site will be key.As i have already said we are going to be selling suits online and it will not be an easy product to sell but it can be done.A very important thing will be the software u use for the person to zoom in and see the bike.If someone is purchasing a bike they will want to examine it inminute detail.If u look at www.wilvorst.de you will see how it can be done with suits

Cianos

zAbbo wrote: »

I'd be more cautious on creating an online bike shop, and would invest a hell of a lot of time in research before moving further.

As you are opening an actual store, this does not automatically mean than a transactional website is a good idea, in fact applying the same principles to an online store will more than likely result in failure.

In Ireland - Worldwide Cycles do it particularly well, as they know their audience and give them a real reason to come to the site, as well as building the level of trust that's required for people to purchase from them online.

Anyone recommending OsCommerce is either out of touch or clueless (or both)

Thanks for your input. The online sales side of things is secondary to the main focus of the business which is the physical shop itself. Most of our efforts will be put in to getting people in to the shop. The website is there to make it easier for the customer to find us.

One element of the website I want to be quite prominent is the fact that we do have a physical shop. I'm hoping this will help build trust with the customer as they see we are more established than just trying to flog some products online.

As you are opening an actual store, this does not automatically mean than a transactional website is a good idea, in fact applying the same principles to an online store will more than likely result in failure.

Would you be able to expand on this? And what would you recommend in place of OsCommerce?

Thanks again

daymobrew

Cianos wrote: »

Most of our efforts will be put in to getting people in to the shop. The website is there to make it easier for the customer to find us.

The owner of Wheelworx Bikes found many people coming into his physical shop because of his web site. Some drove considerable distances for the in-store service.

gracy wrote:

When u said u were going to try selling bicyicles online my initiat thought was "very difficult".

I know numerous people on the Cycling forum that have purchased full bikes online. I buy loads of accessories online.

gracy

I know what you are saying about the physical shop being the proirity and you want the website to be primarily about getting people into the shop.Our site www.tom-murphy.ie is acting as a catalogue website for getting people int the physical shop.Google analytics shows we get about 75 hits per week and the majority of these are from local people looking to see what kind of stuff we have.We are now trying to create a website that will not alienate these people as they are a very important customer and we could have a good chance of getting them into store.I think however that a good e commerce section will attract the local audience and hopefully will spread the word.In other words the physical shop can benefit from an impressive looking online shop.Equally the online shop can benefit from seeing that the local market thinks highly of their shopping experience in the store.We have created a facebook account with fans who at the moment are mainly customers to encourage and give confidence to international customers.Also a blog will soon appear showing any well known customers etc.

zAbbo

Cianos wrote: »

Thanks for your input. The online sales side of things is secondary to the main focus of the business which is the physical shop itself. Most of our efforts will be put in to getting people in to the shop. The website is there to make it easier for the customer to find us.

One element of the website I want to be quite prominent is the fact that we do have a physical shop. I'm hoping this will help build trust with the customer as they see we are more established than just trying to flog some products online.

Building awarness of shop using website is good, don't expect huge online sales though.

Cianos wrote: »

Would you be able to expand on this? And what would you recommend in place of OsCommerce?

You'll need to evaluate what exactly you need e.g. if it's a CMS with addded ecommerce functions or ecommerce with CMS etc.

Personally I like Magento, but you could probably use Wordpress with a shop plugin.