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Only selling 1 - 5 products... best way to go?

 
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MattC

posts: 36

Jan 10, 2008 5:05 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Hi Everyone,
 
Such great info on this site.  I was looking into some of the eCommerce solutions (i.e. Volusion) but it seems most of these are geared towards companies with hundreds if not thousands of products.
 
I`m launching my business with one product and may get to 3-5 by the end of year 1.
 
Am I still looking into working with an eCommerce website designer or am I better off witha  regular website but adding shopping cart functionality?
 
Thanks
Matt
sddreamweavers

posts: 260

Jan 10, 2008 6:11 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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A cart may be too much `umph` and cost for one product.  Especially when it comes to credit card processing costs.  You may want to look at pay pal for just one product.  They have easy code to add into your website and they handle the credit card processing.


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CraigL

posts: 9051

Jan 10, 2008 7:09 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Hi Matt,
One of the things Kathy and I have been "conversatin` " about, to use a term my niece introduced to me, is exactly this type of issue. We have 1 product, split into three product lines, at the moment. Later, we have plans for a larger type of integrated product where we`ll have lots of different items for sale. But that`s for later, not now.

As more people are entering the e-commerce wave, it seems that more Web sites look pretty much the same. That tends to be mostly true for those who are selling something someone else created, as with retail sites. The result seems to be that all the templates, cookie-cutter shops, and other turnkey "solutions" pretty much look the same.

If that`s true, and we think it is, then being different is going to start mattering more and more. To that end, you`re only going to be different if you develop something on your own, using your own (and a developer`s) imagination.

So I`d recommend the designer route, and don`t be shy about consulting a bit with a layout artist as well as someone skilled at marketing.
CraigL2008-1-10 19:10:25
icollect

posts: 40

Jan 10, 2008 8:30 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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personally if your selling only a few products possibly ecrater "free cart solution" however you can only change the color scheme not the actual way the page looks and market through ioffer.com, blujay.com , craigslist.com and olx.com
vwebworld

posts: 1237

Jan 10, 2008 11:04 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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While most ecommerce solutions may handle 10, 50, 150, 500...or more products, the decision about if you should use an ecommerce program should not be focused on the number of products, but the features and functions you want/need.
 
For example: most ecommerce solutions handle a product database which is important but they also handles a customer database.... which is critical. PayPal buy me buttons can certainly be used to handle the sale of one or more products, but it does not capture customer information.
 
I would not hesitate to recommend using an ecommerce solution to sell a few products.
 
Also, the reason why some ecommerce sites are similar (cookie-cutter shops) to others is more a function of the person implementing/designing the site than the ecommerce program itself. Although some of the one-stop ecommerce solutions do have significant design limitations.
 
~Roland
vwebworld1/10/2008 11:06 PM


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CraigL

posts: 9051

Jan 11, 2008 12:49 AM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Yah, that`s what I was referring to...the one-stop-shop places. Very hard to make much customization, really, other than layout and colors. At least in our experience.
nhgnikole

posts: 2660

Jan 11, 2008 3:28 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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I don`t think most people actually need all the features that a full blown cart program comes with. We end up using a custom shopping solution that is very small for clients with only a few products. It saves the client a few thousand dollars.
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