Best Web DIY site with Ecommerce for shop

raspberrypi67

Hi,


hope this is the correct place for posting this...


I've created my own website at one stage using WIX and got it up and going without any major problems and then eventually bought my own domain to go with it and had it going for a year ( woodwork ) but then I lost the motivation to keep it going as I had no time to keep it going...
Well, now I guess I have more reasons to get it up and running again but I want to keep it simple as before but with the ability for the user to actually buy some of my products without too many complications for them...
I've looked at some of the offers that the likes of WIX have ( per month ) and it certainly adds up. Now I dont expect things to be free but my question is this....
Is this a facility that they are charging? Can I have a person design this into a website ( the ecommerce bit ) or is this just a standard charge that a provider gives the like of joe blogs..?
Do all people with websites where purchases are made have to keep paying a monthly/yearly fee for this or how does it work?


Cheers
Rich

Graham

raspberrypi67 wrote: »

Do all people with websites where purchases are made have to keep paying a monthly/yearly fee

Yes.

Regardless of whether it's your own website or you're using something like Wix/Shopify there are ongoing costs.

Your website sits on a web server (computer) somewhere, that server requires maintenance/management, cooling, power and an internet connection. None of these things are one-off costs.

raspberrypi67

Graham wrote: »

Yes.

Regardless of whether it's your own website or you're using something like Wix/Shopify there are ongoing costs.

Your website sits on a web server (computer) somewhere, that server requires maintenance/management, cooling, power and an internet connection. None of these things are one-off costs.

Is it not possible to host your own web server...?

Graham

Absolutely it is.

You will need a server, power, cooling, internet connection etc etc etc. Usually you would host your own server in a data centre so you would also need to pay for the necessary rack space.

Theoretically you could host your own server at home but you'd be getting into Mickey Mouse territory there.

raspberrypi67

Graham wrote: »

Absolutely it is.

You will need a server, power, cooling, internet connection etc etc etc. Usually you would host your own server in a data centre so you would also need to pay for the necessary rack space.

Theoretically you could host your own server at home but you'd be getting into Mickey Mouse territory there.

Ok, well i did at one stage have a raspberrypi set up at home and i could acess files of my own , so i wonder do I still have to go buying s/w to organise what my original question was, re: having to pay for a simple payment method for people buying goods from me.

So, id have my web server with my own ( bought ) domain and most likely some sort of word press template.

Now if I want a simple basket type checkpoint then I assume this wouldent

be too difficult.



Thanks


R

28064212

If you're using Wordpress, WooCommerce is a commonly-used option. Integrates with many payment options, like Stripe and Paypal. Can all be done for "free" (your payment provider will likely take a percentage of each payment).

Self-hosting is not recommended for any sort of serious project, it's fine for a hobby site if you know what you're doing (or are doing it as a learning exercise)

raspberrypi67

28064212 wrote: »

If you're using Wordpress, WooCommerce is a commonly-used option. Integrates with many payment options, like Stripe and Paypal. Can all be done for "free" (your payment provider will likely take a percentage of each payment).

Self-hosting is not recommended for any sort of serious project, it's fine for a hobby site if you know what you're doing (or are doing it as a learning exercise)

Why is it not recommended? Mainly I'm doing it as a hobby , dont expect many sales as such but more to be present with that option....

28064212

raspberrypi67 wrote: »

Why is it not recommended? Mainly I'm doing it as a hobby , dont expect many sales as such but more to be present with that option....

Security, reliability, speed and scalability:

• Security: how much do you know about webservers? Do you know how to configure one to be secure? If you don't, there's a likelihood of your website being hacked. Not too bad if it's just a defacement, but what if they redirect your site to their own clone of yours? Using the reputation of your website to harvest credit card numbers
• Reliability: Most hosters will be aiming for at least "three nines" uptime i.e. 99.9% uptime, or downtime of less than 9 hours a year. What's your home connection like? Do you ever have internet outages? Does your IP address ever change? Or have power outages, or router issues, or just the machine your webserver is on having issues? Your site is offline until you can get the issue fixed
• Speed: how much data can you transmit on your internet connection? Most home connections won't come anywhere close to what a real hoster can offer. People don't use slow sites. If your page takes more than 2 seconds to load, you're losing customers
• Scalability: say your site becomes more successful than you anticipate - how many visitors can your webserver handle at once? Or for that matter, what if someone wants to take down your site? It would be trivial to manufacture hundreds of connections a second, and your webserver would likely just fall over.

Graham

You are unlikely to have a static IP address which means farting around with dyndns or similar. Your internet connection won't begin to compare with a data centre. It's going to be slower so your website will be slower. It will be slower so your Google rankings will suffer. You'll have no redundancy of anything anywhere. You'll need to dedicate a machine as a web server. You'll probably have to do all sorts of funky stuff to forward the web traffic from your home router to your web server.

Hosting at home is real mickey mouse stuff. If you're doing it as a learning exercise, I suppose you could argue there's value in that.

Alternatively spring for some proper web hosting which costs from around a tenner a month for a Wordpress website and spend the 20+ hours you've saved on building your ecommerce site.

raspberrypi67

Graham wrote: »

You are unlikely to have a static IP address which means farting around with dyndns or similar. Your internet connection won't begin to compare with a data centre. It's going to be slower so your website will be slower. It will be slower so your Google rankings will suffer. You'll have no redundancy of anything anywhere. You'll need to dedicate a machine as a web server. You'll probably have to do all sorts of funky stuff to forward the web traffic from your home router to your web server.

Hosting at home is real mickey mouse stuff. If you're doing it as a learning exercise, I suppose you could argue there's value in that.

Alternatively spring for some proper web hosting which costs from around a tenner a month for a Wordpress website and spend the 20+ hours you've saved on building your ecommerce site.

Ok, thanks graham,
Yeah, I do understand now and certainly it does seem a bit mickey mouse, ok if only just for a learning excercise.

I mean, I know I can do it myself but as you guys rightly said, I think the security is the biggest thing here and , no, i wouldent want to put in a learning curve on this one

I dont think I'll be going down this road....lol


Am I allowed , does anyone know, to import free ecommerce solutions onto a 3ed party provider like WIX . IE, if I do up my own site on wix then intoduce a simple payment sceme for goods/

Graham

Why wouldn't you use the Wix store builder if you're trying to build a store on Wix?

I'm guessing by the fact you're using Wix in the first place that you're not overly familiar with html/javascript/web dev in general. Why overcomplicate things?

Axwell

You have a few realistic options:

1. Use the Wix Store Builder and add the functionality to your existing website - you are already on there, this is the most straight forward option to pursue.

2. Go with something like Shopify which is built for selling online
With both of these, you are paying the provider for the hosting of the site/shop etc.

3. Build a new website on WordPress and use WooCommerce for the eCommerce part. Here you need hosting from a 3rd party provider.

Depending on the above you will also have to pay transaction processing fees for debit/credit card using Stripe for example.

4. Post your products on something like Etsy and sell them there.


Considering you don't want to invest too much financially or timewise into it the most obvious route is just to continue with Wix and add eCommerce functionality to what you already have.

raspberrypi67

Axwell wrote: »

You have a few realistic options:

1. Use the Wix Store Builder and add the functionality to your existing website - you are already on there, this is the most straight forward option to pursue.

2. Go with something like Shopify which is built for selling online
With both of these, you are paying the provider for the hosting of the site/shop etc.

3. Build a new website on WordPress and use WooCommerce for the eCommerce part. Here you need hosting from a 3rd party provider.

Depending on the above you will also have to pay transaction processing fees for debit/credit card using Stripe for example.

4. Post your products on something like Etsy and sell them there.


Considering you don't want to invest too much financially or timewise into it the most obvious route is just to continue with Wix and add eCommerce functionality to what you already have.

Thanks a lot for that Ax....


The previous comment was correct, in that, I'm perfectly familiar with the hardware side of things , no overly familiar with the s/w bits but have a fair idea, put it this way, I have the ability to understand it but dont have the time at all as I'm likely to just forget it. Its the type of thing, I'm sure you know, where you just want to get it sorted and dont want to spend the money on things i know I can sort myself!! Guess there's a compromise...
I will go with WIX and start afresh...they seem to have so handy small templates ok ..see how it goes...


Thanks for all the input guys...much appreciated...

Scolly

Axwell wrote: »

You have a few realistic options:

1. Use the Wix Store Builder and add the functionality to your existing website - you are already on there, this is the most straight forward option to pursue.

2. Go with something like Shopify which is built for selling online
With both of these, you are paying the provider for the hosting of the site/shop etc.

3. Build a new website on WordPress and use WooCommerce for the eCommerce part. Here you need hosting from a 3rd party provider.

Depending on the above you will also have to pay transaction processing fees for debit/credit card using Stripe for example.

4. Post your products on something like Etsy and sell them there.


Considering you don't want to invest too much financially or timewise into it the most obvious route is just to continue with Wix and add eCommerce functionality to what you already have.

This is excellent advice.

I work in IT but not in this space at all. People keep asking me about how they get an online presence when I say I work in IT, they assume I just know all this.

In terms of small businesses, would something like Shopify be a good all rounder? and what about local business/shop irish - is there a government led initiative for this already in place. A lot of local business may not have a global reach but still just want an online shopping site

mneylon

Scolly wrote: »

In terms of small businesses, would something like Shopify be a good all rounder? and what about local business/shop irish - is there a government led initiative for this already in place. A lot of local business may not have a global reach but still just want an online shopping site

The local enterprise offices can usually help. There's a "voucher" scheme I believe that can help cover some of the costs.