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Rukdafaidas
04-05-2005, 09:27 PM
Does anyone know of a person/company that is good at designing retail websites?
I'm considering hiring a company to do so, but don't have a clue where to look for a good experienced developer. If anyone has a retail website or knows of a good devloper, please let me know.
Thanks!

carlos3652
04-05-2005, 09:48 PM
my bother in law designed and updates these websites:

http://www.eveningextraordinaire.com/
http://bluewaterspas.com/ (my company)
http://www.collegechurch.com/ (he works here as a web designer)
http://www.collegechurchkids.org/

He has / and is doing many more.... Let me know if you are interested, either PM me or let me know and I will give you his number and email address...

Dartgod
04-05-2005, 09:52 PM
Check your smokes.

C-Mac
04-05-2005, 09:53 PM
Why yes...yes I do.

dtebbe
04-05-2005, 09:56 PM
Are you going to be doing e-commerce on the site (aka shopping cart) or is it mostly an informational site for your business. If you are going to do e-comm I have some advice that will save you lots of $$$ and headaches.

We've been running a quite successful e-commerce biz since 1997.

DT

Iowanian
04-05-2005, 09:56 PM
There are several members on the planet.

You'll have a hookup by lunch tomorrow I'll wager.

HemiEd
04-05-2005, 09:58 PM
I shopped and shopped, these guys came in well under budget and better than we hoped. Our site is working well for us.
http://www.jdtechsystems.com/

Rukdafaidas
04-05-2005, 09:59 PM
my bother in law designed and updates these websites:

http://www.eveningextraordinaire.com/
http://bluewaterspas.com/ (my company)
http://www.collegechurch.com/ (he works here as a web designer)
http://www.collegechurchkids.org/

He has / and is doing many more.... Let me know if you are interested, either PM me or let me know and I will give you his number and email address...
Yes, please send the information. Those sites look great.

Rukdafaidas
04-05-2005, 10:00 PM
Are you going to be doing e-commerce on the site (aka shopping cart) or is it mostly an informational site for your business. If you are going to do e-comm I have some advice that will save you lots of $$$ and headaches.

We've been running a quite successful e-commerce biz since 1997.

DT
Yes, this would be for e-commerce. Let's hear it. :thumb:

HemiEd
04-05-2005, 10:01 PM
my bother in law designed and updates these websites:

http://www.eveningextraordinaire.com/
http://bluewaterspas.com/ (my company)
http://www.collegechurch.com/ (he works here as a web designer)
http://www.collegechurchkids.org/

He has / and is doing many more.... Let me know if you are interested, either PM me or let me know and I will give you his number and email address...

Wow, those first two were impressive! :thumb:

C-Mac
04-05-2005, 10:14 PM
Can you give any more details on your business other than it being E-commerce?
Also are you planning on updating the site yourself or are you going to hire that all out?

dtebbe
04-05-2005, 10:37 PM
Yes, this would be for e-commerce. Let's hear it. :thumb:

How many items do you anticipate having in your catalog, and how many orders per day do you expect? Do you have an back-end order processing systems in place? What is your initial budget, and what is your monthly budget for hosting/shopping cart? How my $$$ in sales do you expect each day (on the high end).

In general I have found you get what you pay for. Guys who charge $120 an hour usually get 3 times as much done in an hour as the guys that charge $40/hour, and THEY ACTUALLY GET DONE! Make sure to choose a host who provides front-line support for the shopping cart system you are using. Again.. Make sure to choose a host who provides front-line support for the shopping cart system you are using. DID I MENTION.. MAKE SURE TO CHOOSE A HOST WHO PROVIDES FRONT-LINE SUPPORT FOR THE SHOPPING CART SYSTEM YOU ARE USING. Hopefully you get the point there, saving $$ on the hosting bill is great until your site is down for 2 days and you loose more than the hosting costs for the year....

Answer the questions above, (you can PM me if you like) and I will give you some solid advice. We are in the middle of a redesign right now and just spent some pretty major $$$ choosing a system. It's really important to consider scaleability now, because it's a bitch to build it up once the orders start coming in. Especially on the back end.

DT

Rukdafaidas
04-05-2005, 10:57 PM
Can you give any more details on your business other than it being E-commerce?
Also are you planning on updating the site yourself or are you going to hire that all out?
I have a few totally different types of products in mind, but I'm early in this and a lot will depend on how everything goes in dealing with the manufacturers.
I have zero experience updating websites, but I'm willing to learn if it's not too difficult.
I've been looking for a business to own for a couple of years now, but only recently started looking at website businesses and I'm very intrigued. I've looked at a few semi local website retailers who were selling their business and a few have been very successfull. Some were able to get their suppliers to drop ship the merchandise, so they carried no inventory and spend very little amounts of time working the business.
One thing I'm interested in learning more about are effective ways to drive people to their website. One lady in particular only used pay-per-click advertising (I don't know what company) and she was very successfull. When I googled the product she sells, her website wasn't listed until the second page and it was under the advertisers section. Almost all of the previous websites listed, sold the same or similar product for equal or lower cost, so how was she successful?

dtebbe
04-05-2005, 11:06 PM
If you have any competition, forget drop shipping. It is a customer service nighmare and you won't be in business long. Online customers expect thier merchandise to ship yesterday at the lowest price. If you don't deliver you will be up to your elbows in returns, which really costs $$$. I suggest starting off with what you can stock, and then build from there.

Yahoo Stores are pretty tough to beat, until you really start doing numbers, and then the revenue share (uncapped) gets a little out of hand.

I would suggest going with a Miva Merchant store, and there is no better host on earth for Miva than http://www.Hostasaurus.com

$50/month gets you a solid ecommerce platform with a solid provider who knows Miva inside out. Miva is great because of all the inexpensive plug-in modules and huge development communtiy. There's not much you can't make it do, $30 module at a time. There are also nice back-end solutions that interface with Miva and Yahoo stores, so those are a good place to start.

As far as driving traffic, prepare to give your first-born to Google. Google adwords will get folks there, but it costs and you have to turn those clicks into sales or you will be in the red quick.

DT

carlos3652
04-05-2005, 11:09 PM
Rob Gaut

If you like Flash, he is the man... he developed my website (blue water - I sell tubs) and he developed EE (brides) for my wife's work, she doesnt work there anymore but thats beside the point...

Just let him know that his bro in law recommended you to him (Carlos) he might give you a discount, or charge you more since you came from me( J/K ).

rgaut@collegechurch.com
http://www.collegechurchkids.org/quest/questhome.htm
click on sponsers, he is middle guy on the bottom. He designed this as well...

Rukdafaidas
04-05-2005, 11:11 PM
If you have any competition, forget drop shipping. It is a customer service nighmare and you won't be in business long. Online customers expect thier merchandise to ship yesterday at the lowest price. If you don't deliver you will be up to your elbows in returns, which really costs $$$. I suggest starting off with what you can stock, and then build from there.

Yahoo Stores are pretty tough to beat, until you really start doing numbers, and then the revenue share (uncapped) gets a little out of hand.

I would suggest going with a Miva Merchant store, and there is no better host on earth for Miva than http://www.Hostasaurus.com

$50/month gets you a solid ecommerce platform with a solid provider who knows Miva inside out. Miva is great because of all the inexpensive plug-in modules and huge development communtiy. There's not much you can't make it do, $30 module at a time. There are also nice back-end solutions that interface with Miva and Yahoo stores, so those are a good place to start.

As far as driving traffic, prepare to give your first-born to Google. Google adwords will get folks there, but it costs and you have to turn those clicks into sales or you will be in the red quick.

DT

Thanks for the help DT! Sounds like I have a lot to learn.

Rukdafaidas
04-05-2005, 11:16 PM
Rob Gaut


Thanks Carlos!

Fat Elvis
04-06-2005, 07:20 AM
You might smoke ZepSinger. I think he was doing it for corporate, but now he is flying solo.