What is the best site to start your own online store ?

  • avatar

    by: jet3enterprises
    New SaleHoo Member
    2 posts

    What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 2 Jan 12 2:36 pm.

    I see alot out there,,checking the prices and options they offer.Any suggestions,I already have my domain name,,,,looked at yahoo small business,,godaddy,,volusion,,bigcommerce,,3dcart ?????

    link hidden

  • avatar

    by: richellemonfort
    SaleHoo Staff
    3739 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 3 Jan 12 12:47 am.

    Welcome to SaleHoo jet3enterpises :)

    Personally, I haven't really tried using any of those that you mentioned. But some of them have god reviews like godaddy and bigcommerce.

    Then again why look far when we have our own stores to offer, if you haven't you might also want to check out SaleHoo Stores

    Cheers! :)

    Richelle

    Customer Support
    SaleHoo Group Limited
    Sell more with your own professionally designed and search optimized e-commerce website. Check out SaleHoo Stores now!

  • avatar

    by: Hounders
    Approved Supplier
    3 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 6 Jan 12 12:59 am.

    BigCommerce by far is the easiest and most reliable company to use when building an online store. There are many templates to choose from. They also have dozens of easy to follow videos to help you in getting your store set up. The sites are really easy to navigate for our customers as well. We tried several different companies until we settled on BigCommerce..

    OriginalSwatBoot.com

    Hounders
    link hidden

    Listed Supplier on SaleHoo

  • avatar

    by: fudjj
    SaleHoo Staff
    2969 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 6 Jan 12 1:31 am.

    Well I may be bias lol, but you really should check out the newly developed SaleHoo Store format before venturing too far and wide.

    You won't find better customer service than right here : )

    Marc Ransom

    Community Manager
    SaleHoo.com

    About the Community Manager

  • avatar

    by: planes
    Forum Moderator
    843 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 8 Jan 12 11:21 pm.

    If your looking for an absolutely free option, I highly suggest Weebly. I have a website with them for my customers with a business I do mainly off-line. It gives my customers all the info they need and gives me visitor stats as well as a Paypal option so the customers who must use a credit card can.

    What's great about Weebly is it is a cut and paste website design. I can add and remove text, pictures and product within minutes.

    If one wants to do the HTML they can but I hate the squinting and details, so I go with the cookie cutter design.

    I was with GoDaddy's shopping cart but it was incredibly unintuitive and clunky and 10$ per month. Funny how something for free can be so good.

  • avatar

    by: Krypton
    New SaleHoo Member
    8 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 9 Jan 12 8:32 pm.

    Hi

    Did some research online:

    In my opinion the web store development is not really up to date today.

    Why do storefront sellers do not integrate - the multilingual setup into their selling portfolio?

    It seems to be difficult for programmers...

    I used Wordpress alot in the past with the qtranslate plugin. Was nice, but sill did not really work well with the rest of the configuration and different themes within WordPress.

    If I search the internet for web shop-solutions with different languages to
    support, I get just a few - really professional sites on google.
    And they are expensive to for startups (with SSL Certificate Integration).

    Like:

    This one looks really cool, but expensive themes and addons to buy.
    But it looks very good, but never tried it by my self:

    link hidden
    link hidden

    This one seems to be cheaper:

    link hidden
    link hidden

    Best Regards - Alan
  • avatar

    by: fm1234
    SaleHoo Master Member
    593 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 10 Jan 12 4:27 pm.

    Professional quality translation is simply one thing on which you cannot skimp -- I speak a few languages other than my native English, some well and some pidgin-level, and even with my limited mastery some of the "translated" stuff I see online is laughable. You pretty much have to use a translator, and in most cases this is going to, uh, translate, into spending serious money (unless you luck out and find a college student or other bright soul fluent in both your source and target languages, who is willing to do the work for a song.)

    I've tried plugins on multiple carts, WordPress and other platforms, and found them almost universally coming up short. And when it comes to your customer experience, you really are better off just putting everything in English and letting them use whatever translation app on their own end to which they are accustomed, and letting it go at that. Over and above the benefit of providing a consistent user experience on your site, providing a translation that is incorrect makes you liable for any mistakes.

    Frank

    "Failure is not when you fall down. Failure is when you don't get back up."

    --J.J. Luna

  • avatar

    by: planes
    Forum Moderator
    843 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 10 Jan 12 5:52 pm.

    Hey guys. A little off topic there. He's looking for standard webstore info. Not translation serviced web design?
  • avatar

    by: fm1234
    SaleHoo Master Member
    593 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 10 Jan 12 6:00 pm.

    Well, perhaps so, but I was responding to the post-within-post re translation as a feature.

    In re the original post, hands-down the best place to set up an online shop is on your own domain and hosting, where you control everything. eBay, Amazon, even Salehoo's stores are just a step on the path. If you have a winning product, a good supplier, and the ability to sell it, you're short-changing yourself if you aren't set up on your own real estate (so to speak.)

    Frank

    "Failure is not when you fall down. Failure is when you don't get back up."

    --J.J. Luna

  • avatar

    by: Krypton
    New SaleHoo Member
    8 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 10 Jan 12 6:06 pm.

    Dear Frank, I agree with your opinion. It is true that it takes a lot of work, to translate all the stuff. But this is great, why not employ people, on elance for example. I let my logo being designed there for the Salehoo-Store. If you have a job and can afford it, you can have everything done just for a few bugs.

    I speak three languages fluently. I find - it depends on what kind of project
    you have in mind. I have a plan, and it took me a lot of time to figure out
    what I really want to do.

    Many people focus on different projects at the same time (a typical newbie mistake, sorry that I have to disappoint the "Fake!" Gurus on the web). I ask my self - how are they able to do this. I searched the web and learned - that they are overwhelmed with all the possibilities that are out there! I prefer to concentrate on one project at the time and make it impeccable.
    Of course this is not absolutely possible, because everyone is limited and
    therefore fallible. It doesn't matter, it just belongs to our experiences.

    I checked out the Salehoo Store and really like it, but it still needs some
    development. You are doing a great job! The support is super friendly and competent, and you are moving forward fast and effective.

    Writing in different languages will attract a lot of organic search engine traffic.

    PS: I hope it will be possible in the future, to add a Blog as subdomain to the store.

    PPS: Actually I found a quick fix solution for this, with Salehoo-Stores.
    You just add a link into your introduction text on the homepage,
    which links to another domain with the blog.

    But really nice would be - link hidden
    Or - link hidden

    If I could add a multilingual blog to the store, it would acctually
    take care of this problem. But it has to be within the same domain.

    PPPS: Yes Frank, I tried translation plugins in the past, which translated automatically, using Google Translation, or other services of this kind.
    These plugins translate all pages and keep them cashed. Very funny
    is that the widgets can't be translated really well - LOL.

    Google hates it totally, and it really sucks, that's true. :)))))
    You just ping their services for low quality, and ruin their image - as an excellent search engine and band at the same time - come on ;)

    Moreover it will ruin your pagerank, your business and your personal
    reputation all over the web. You will be mentioned as a cheap scammer on twitter and so on.... if you overdo it. Content quality is King now!
    We live in difficult times now, the web is changing rappidly, due to the
    Google Spiders. Acutually that seems to be good.... it sorts the crap
    out of the search results. Competion is good.

    Therefore it is so important to get things right at the beginning, if you are serious with your business.

    *A personal tipp: Why exclude yourself -> hide from others. Why not work with your competion. A lot of folks don't get this sorted out for themselves.
    They still believe that they can achieve more by hiding their intentions, not knowing, that everithing can be found out on the web.

    Good connections is the best thing that can happen to you.
    You will also have to work for it. Because society gives nothing to anyone who is not motivated. So it is best to choose something you like to do with
    your full heart at work, and get realy good with it!

    It is easier to go with, and you will have a strait direction. Every success
    will make you more solid.

    Best Regards - Alan

    Quote Krypton: A mistake is only a error if you don't correct it.
  • avatar

    by: planes
    Forum Moderator
    843 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 10 Jan 12 6:27 pm.

    Come on guys. You need to learn some forum decorum. It's a little rude to cut across someone's thread with your own topic.

    Thread topic:

    I see alot out there,,checking the prices and options they offer.Any suggestions,I already have my domain name,,,,looked at yahoo small business,,godaddy,,volusion,,bigcommerce,,3dcart ?????
    Coffee lounge is a great place to exchange ideas and have discussions.

  • avatar

    by: jet3enterprises
    New SaleHoo Member
    2 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 11 Jan 12 1:13 am.

    You guys ran off topic but after all the research i have decided to go with corecommerce.The trial helped me out alot.It's the best for the price.

    link hidden

  • avatar

    by: Cynthia13
    New SaleHoo Member
    7 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 19 Jan 12 11:52 pm.

    Hi does anyone know anything about webstarts.com I am thinking about doing my online store with them. Please let me know if you have any feedback. Thank you
  • avatar

    by: richellemonfort
    SaleHoo Staff
    3739 posts

    Re: What is the best site to start your own online store ?

    Posted 20 Jan 12 1:33 am.

    Hi Cynthia,

    I haven't used them personally but they seem to have been online for a number of years and generally have good reviews -

    link hidden

    Hope the reviews of actual users will help you in deciding if they are the host you are looking for.

    Hope this help, all the best :)

    Richelle

    Customer Support
    SaleHoo Group Limited
    Sell more with your own professionally designed and search optimized e-commerce website. Check out SaleHoo Stores now!