We are a company looking to build our first ecommerce site for our family business, which will have a quite a few specialized features. Design-wise we have found a site that is very, very similar to our preferences (www.vacheron.com). However, this site is not an ecommerce site.
We were wondering if anyone has any ideas on how we should proceed in order to figure out potential cost and implementation challenges we face (perhaps some of you can see some of these challenges immediately?) as our programming experience is limited. Initially, we are looking at using Magento.
Our first choice would be to hire a web developer and just ask. However, our budget is limited and we would like to get an idea of the cost before we get in over our head from a cost perspective.
Any help would be highly appreciated
Thank you for your time and effort.
P.S.:
We also wish to help the developer as much as possible and we were wondering if anyone has a template of sort on how, and what kind of, information we should give to the developer (we don’t want this to happen: http://www.topwebdesignschools.org/design-clients/).
you should hire a developer for you site which you can easily get in your local market or if you’re looking for online then visit freelancer there are lots of trusted web developer which definitely help you in creating the ecommerce web site. they are highly skilled and read their complete profile and choose the one developer they also tell you about their hourly charges of services. By the wordpress is best for ecommerce website devlopment.
you can just google and buy some template online , i knew not so much about building a website , but i managed to build my[ site , i brought a wordpress ecommerce theme online , i was barely crying every step i bump into an issue , so i add some wordpress group on qq , i know you are a chinese , u know the qq groups right , i cry for help there , but most of the time u have to figure out things yourself , just google you problem , sometimes u will get the answers there
I’ve often heard of similar situations, limited budget, not much knowledge, etc.
If you’re going to start a business online, generally you should have budgeted out all your expenses etc. I hear a lot of people trying to start selling online, but have no knowledge. It’s true that internet is the way shopping is going, but if you’ve not experienced it at all, you should definitely add to your budget to get expert assistance. The truth of it is, not many online stores will last.
Think of it this way, you own a brick and mortar store and pay rent. You own an online store and pay web development costs, hosting, domain, etc. Having had my own online stores, successful and unsuccessful ones. I really tell you to get some help with it and don’t be afraid to throw a few pennys into helping it work correctly.
I recently helped with somebody who wants an online store and selling things, but she’s not ever used facebook, never had an store before and doesn’t even shop online herself thinking it will bring in huge amounts of money where the reality is, it doesn’t… unless you hire people to market it, or put loads of time into facebook, social marketing, seo and more, you wont get much return for a long time.
I don’t say this to be mean or rude, I just want to make sure people understand that sometimes it can be hard to begin with and don’t be afraid to put money into your business, just make sure you do the research first and prepare yourself.
Hire a web developer for your project and explain things to him what actually you want. There are good developers having great proficiency in their field. Put some time and find the right person for you.
“Our first choice would be to hire a web developer and just ask. However, our budget is limited and we would like to get an idea of the cost before we get in over our head from a cost perspective.”
You are hardly going to go in over your head by simply asking a web developer. The web developer will ask you all sorts of questions to help gauge the kind of site you have in mind and give you an idea of costs. You don’t have to actually hire him to do the work. Just pay him for his consulting time.
If you are going to hire web developer then no need to worry. Web developer will be there to help you. The only thing you have to look is to hire a good and professional developer.
No if he doesn’t have his ideas clear. The thing is that if your specifications are wrong, the quote will be wrong.
@carljohan1234; I don’t want to offen you but basically you’re like 90% of the customers… the only thing you know is that… you want your site to look like this one or that one. And that’s it.
But if you want to know how much your store will cost, you do need to have a few ideas clear and you need to do that even before asking for a quote.
How many articles will you have?
Payment gateways and systems… which ones will you use? Mobile phone gateways too?
How will you promote the site?
How many articles will be added/modified/deleted?
Will you be hosting in a shared server or not? (although I assume that you’ll pay for it using Magento Go Plans)
Do you want a web designer, a developer or both (you should have both in my opinion)?
How much do you plan to earn with this shop? (you need a short and a medium business plan for this)
When does it have to be ready?
Who is it going to maintain it? (both content and the site itself)
That person(s) that will maintain the site… what do they know and which training they need?
I could think of a hundred of questions, too.
You should also make a list of sites that you like and sites that you don’t, explaining the reasons of what you like and why you like it (or why you don’t)
Also, you need a clear vision of your possible buyer, your target customer (age, preferences… the more you know, the better)
Magento is great but expensive. You say that you have a limited budget but you went for probably the most expensive eStore of all.
I’m not saying that this decission is wrong. I can think a number of reasons why it is the right one but you do need to be aware that a web developer for Magento will be more expensive. It is a tough learning curve.
Do your research well. You don’t want to end up with the wrong developer just because you’re short of cash. If you find a web developer that you can trust, it is normally better to pay the extra bucks.