Advice for website creation

Mumha

Hi

I'm helping out a friend who has a small business that they realise needs to be online with an online store. As money is tight, they've asked me to help. I've no problem doing so, though I'm going to have to learn this from almost scratch. I am a programmer but on business systems (RPG etc.), but hope that this may lead somewhere, or at least add to my skillset. I would really pointers as to what I need to do.

I need to create a site that is a typical online store, on a small scale, with perhaps 100 or so products but searchable by product type/model/colour/size etc. I need to include ecommerce into this as well.

I went into Wordpress and started going through it but all I can see it creating is a blog ! Where do I go to from there ? Do I need to download a template/editor ? Can I create a rough draft of a site before shelling out money to Wordpress for the business version ?

Any help gratefully received.

KonFusion

Shopify might be worthwhile taking a look at.

Or woocommerce if you can get your head around wordpress.

There's a plethora of wordpress tutorials out there and it's got very good documentation.

tramoreman

you need to download a plugin i used woo-commerce the last time i did a ecommerce store there are plenty of other e-commerce plugins available. make sure the theme you use is compatible with woo-commerce or else you will need to download a new one

Kenny Logins

As mentioned, Shopify might be the best solution. No need to worry about updates or security certificates etc.

Mumha

Thanks for the advice, I'll hit those Wordpress tutorials before I ask any daft questions !

I had come across wix before I heard of wordpress, and it was clear that wix was grand for a very basic site, but it was too basic for what we need for the online store.

Mumha

Kenny Logins wrote: »

As mentioned, Shopify might be the best solution. No need to worry about updates or security certificates etc.

Updates and security was the number one thing that I was worried about, alright. Would you have an idea of the cost (outside of creating the site) for say Shopify and Wordpress, or is that a silly question ?

Kenny Logins

Mumha wrote: »

Updates and security was the number one thing that I was worried about, alright. Would you have an idea of the cost (outside of creating the site) for say Shopify and Wordpress, or is that a silly question ?

Shopify - http://www.shopify.com/pricing + themes and add-ons etc. if required.

Woocommerce isn't as straight forward, and will take some time to configure and maintain. It is 'free' though... (+ themes, hosting, plugins, SSL certificates etc.)

Mumha

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Shopify - http://www.shopify.com/pricing + themes and add-ons etc. if required.

Woocommerce isn't as straight forward, and will take some time to configure and maintain. It is 'free' though... (+ themes, hosting, plugins, SSL certificates etc.)

Am I right in thinking so that if I went with Shopify, I wouldn't need Wordpress ?

Wordpress is grand for the non shop type site, or is that wrong ?

devildriver

Mumha wrote: »

Am I right in thinking so that if I went with Shopify, I wouldn't need Wordpress ?

Wordpress is grand for the non shop type site, or is that wrong ?

Using Wordpress you will need to host, setup, maintain and configure the site yourself. There's quite a steep learning curve before you even get to the ecommerce part.

Shopify like other similar ecommerce products is a hosted application where all of the hosting setup and programming has been done already and you just need to add content, modify a predesigned template and configure some other parameters before you are ready to sell.

It's a much easier route if you are time and budget restricted.

Also consider Highwire, BigCommerce and Lemonstand.

http://www.highwire.com/

http://www.bigcommerce.com/

https://lemonstand.com/

Trojan

Unasked for, but my continuing advice for people helping friends with large technical projects: charge either zero - zilch - nada - or full commercial rates. Do not do an in-between "mates-rates" as that can and does often end in a world of hurt (both parties believing they're getting screwed).

Mumha

Thanks for the clarity and the advice, to you both. It's very much appreciated.

CelticRambler

Trojan wrote: »

Unasked for, but my continuing advice for people helping friends with large technical projects: charge either zero - zilch - nada - or full commercial rates. Do not do an in-between "mates-rates" as that can and does often end in a world of hurt (both parties believing they're getting screwed).

Seconded. I offered to design/build a site for a local music festival that I've been involved with for years and offering to do it for free turned out to be the best thing when it turned into a real "design by committee" farce. It would never have got done if I hadn't been able to turn 'round to them and say: my way or no way, and you've got three days to get all the content to me. You can't do that when you're hoping to get paid.

Mrs OBumble

Agree with the above, and offering some more un-asked for advice:

Only do it for free if the friend agrees to learn to maintain it herself once you've got approach designed and documented and the initial version set up. If you don't do that, then the on-going success of her business will depend on your willingness and availability: she can blame you for failures that would have happened anyway and were nothing to do with the website.

Also, as well as her website, get her thinking about her overall PR strategy and how social media fits into it. She probably doesn't need ALL of a Facebook page, Twitter profile, Pinterest page, LinkedIn page, blog, YouTube channel, professional-looking email address for enquirers .. but she does need some of them, especially if her website is totally hosted by a shopping solution (which is a good idea, IMHO, for a small business).

Mumha

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Agree with the above, and offering some more un-asked for advice:

Only do it for free if the friend agrees to learn to maintain it herself once you've got approach designed and documented and the initial version set up. If you don't do that, then the on-going success of her business will depend on your willingness and availability: she can blame you for failures that would have happened anyway and were nothing to do with the website.

Also, as well as her website, get her thinking about her overall PR strategy and how social media fits into it. She probably doesn't need ALL of a Facebook page, Twitter profile, Pinterest page, LinkedIn page, blog, YouTube channel, professional-looking email address for enquirers .. but she does need some of them, especially if her website is totally hosted by a shopping solution (which is a good idea, IMHO, for a small business).

We're slightly fortunate that my niece is doing a PHD in food business, so we've got plenty of good advice from her already (and you're spot on about the last paragraph).

Mumha

Anyone have an opinion on www.volusion.com versus shopify ?

KonFusion

Mumha wrote: »

Anyone have an opinion on www.volusion.com versus shopify ?

It's awful! And yes I'm bias towards shopify, but honestly it's terrible. I was testing them out to do a comparison, and they signed me up to their newsletter, even though I clicked not to, and even though I've unsubscribed I still get it. Also their sales people still ring me, even though I've asked them not to call. Stuff like that just makes them feel unpleasant to deal with, even before you dig into their platform.

Volusions theme templating is also a pain. It's very restrictive compared to Shopify, or even Bigcommerce. Tictail has a ways to go in that department yet, but I imagine it'll get better. Out of MagentoGo, Shopify, BC, Volusion and Tictail I'd rate Volusion lowest.

Mumha

KonFusion wrote: »

It's awful! And yes I'm bias towards shopify, but honestly it's terrible. I was testing them out to do a comparison, and they signed me up to their newsletter, even though I clicked not to, and even though I've unsubscribed I still get it. Also their sales people still ring me, even though I've asked them not to call. Stuff like that just makes them feel unpleasant to deal with, even before you dig into their platform.

Volusions theme templating is also a pain. It's very restrictive compared to Shopify, or even Bigcommerce. Tictail has a ways to go in that department yet, but I imagine it'll get better. Out of MagentoGo, Shopify, BC, Volusion and Tictail I'd rate Volusion lowest.

Thanks for that clear opinion ! I'll stick to Shopify then.

Hosted e-commerce is nice, in that it purportedly removes the worries of hosting, updates, scaling, and hopefully... backups - assuming you trust the vendor. Ultimately, I would rather host my own on a solid open source platform. I don't recall the last medium-sized e-comm site I built that didn't require serious customisation, therefore rendering it wholly unsuitable for a proprietary hosted solution.

With self hosted, I have the option to buy plugins, or code the extra features myself. With a hosted service, if it doesn't support the feature you want, with the variants you need, you're done. I say this swearing at the limitations of WooCommerce, Magento, Prestashop et al, but at least I can reprogram them to my will.

Mumha

Deleted User wrote: »

Hosted e-commerce is nice, in that it purportedly removes the worries of hosting, updates, scaling, and hopefully... backups - assuming you trust the vendor. Ultimately, I would rather host my own on a solid open source platform. I don't recall the last medium-sized e-comm site I built that didn't require serious customisation, therefore rendering it wholly unsuitable for a proprietary hosted solution.

With self hosted, I have the option to buy plugins, or code the extra features myself. With a hosted service, if it doesn't support the feature you want, with the variants you need, you're done. I say this swearing at the limitations of WooCommerce, Magento, Prestashop et al, but at least I can reprogram them to my will.

That's fair comment, but as I'm limited by time to get fully up to speed and am doing it for free (for my cousin), I think a hosted service, will meet her needs for quite a while.