Help with my New web store!

Hi, My name is Tom and I would like to get a web store up and running, but don't know where to start. Can someone give ma an idea on where to go to buy a webstore templete? Or is it eaiser to build one on me own?

I am new to this, but really want to give it a go. Any help wpuld be great. I have really enjoyed the information I have been able to gather from this site.

Thanks again,

Tom

Hi Tom and welcome to SaleHoo.

I personally think the absolute best way to go is to develop your own website, but I also believe that should be more a mid term/long term business strategy. There are many things a new seller has to learn, and heaping all that on top of developing and marketing their own independent website is quite a lot to deal with.

I would suggest using a ready made store platform such as a free store platform on a site like Bonanzle, Ecrater or even getting a basic layout on eBay if you have the stock profile to warrant a store.

Of course not having your own site will have its limitations, but having your own site isn't a key to success by any means. You have to have your products sorted, have good solid suppliers that you can rely on. You have to know your market well and on top of all that, know how to market your own site to generate traffic flow.

Taking one of the ready made options means that you will at least have some traffic flow, those numbers could well depend on which platform you go with, but at least not having to market your own site straight off can be a seriously big weight off your shoulders.

: )

I am also new to ecommercing and salehoo. I, too, would want to succeed or at least establish my ecommerce site. Before signing up, I have no knowledge how this all work. I am still learning and doing alot of reading here and there.

My little vision as of right now is to have my little shopping cart in which I am hosting myself established for the world to see. I know Ebay have a lot of competitions and I am steering clear from it. Ebay charges for everything and anything they can find. This in turns digs into our profit for newcomers like me.

My little shopping cart is setup and live. I have couple of items up to sell via dropshippers. I know dropshippers are not the way to go as far as profit is concern, but it is a stepping stone in the right direction (I think). The only fees I have incurred was a domain name and many hours of modifying this free shopping cart script I've found on the Internet. It is not the best, but it serves the purpose.

If you are interested, pm me. I can provide you the link to where I got the script. (I don't want to break any rules on Salehoo.) It is free and cost nothing. It includes a set of instruction on how to setup too. Html knowledge would come in handy if you want to modify the cart to fit your website layout.

I know ebays fees are a big negative for using it but they do have a lot of traffic I have read before it is a good idea to run sales alongside your own site and link your ebay listing to your site
Not sure if this actually breaks any of ebays listing rules but would definitely be a good link
if anyone knows how to do this without breaking rules please add on (if it does break rules that is)

I know ebays fees are a big negative for using it but they do have a lot of traffic I have read before it is a good idea to run sales alongside your own site and link your ebay listing to your site
Not sure if this actually breaks any of ebays listing rules but would definitely be a good link
if anyone knows how to do this without breaking rules please add on (if it does break rules that is)

Your point is a very good one swifty and it's a marketing technique that I personally use.

Now the way I do it on eBay is by harvesting emails. I encourage people to sign up to my newsletter by offering a discount and bonus offers to all subscribers, a membership essentially. No purchase is required, it's the email address I am looking for, and once I have that address I am able to fire off a monthly html e-newsletter, independent of the eBay system, and promote products I have available outside of eBay.

The Me Page on eBay also provides you with two links that you can use for promoting off-site websites. Now here is the sticky part, I've been told so many different stories by eBay support in regards to what sites I could link to, I'm as confused as anyone.

I use a custom template on eBay that is designed so the listing page has all the information linked to the eBay Me Page. So when a customer wants to know the shipping price, they select the shipping tab and that opens the information on the Me Page.

It was designed like this because you are only permitted to use those two links on the Me Page, you are not permitted to promote ANY other URL on the actual listing itself!

So the first issue you have is how to get customers to your eBay Me Page, and having it linked into a custom built template such as I have done accomplished that.

I was initially going to use the Me Page to promote my Facebook and Twitter accounts, however after being told that was ok by support, a double check (just to make sure) informed me that wasn't ok at all.

Getting a little frustrated, I asked if I could link direct to my own site, and much to my surprise, the answer was yes for some bizarre reason. Of course I had to contact support again to confirm that and yes... you guessed it... no that of course isn't permitted.

Having contacted support with this question now no fewer than 7 times, I am still no wiser as to what exactly these links can be linked to, but hey... if anyone else can get a firm answer, then drop a post because I would love to know 100%

Perhaps our resident eBay guru Erica may well know the answer to this, so you can try sending he a PM erika-garnica

The other that I know works quite well is register on eBay with your own sites email address, and then display that email address on your listing for inquiries. It doesn't mean that people will use it, in fact most will use the eBay messenger system, but it is marketing by stealth.

Anyone online these days will know that info@myshop.com means that there is a www.myshop.com out there somewhere, and that will encourage a few to go and look at your site.

Is that legal? Well to be honest I'm not 100% sure, but it's a technique I have used in the past to good effect and I know several that are using it now, and have been for the past couple of years, so who knows!

Of course if you are going to set-up a site and use eBay as traffic flow via any means, you need to manipulate your stock. It's no good selling the exact same stock on eBay as you are on your own site, only cheaper on eBay, because no matter how much eBay traffic you generate they will still buy where it is cheaper!