Storefront Help And Suggestions - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 8 / Views: 1,420
nohope587 Pillar of the Community United States 5953 Posts	Posted 10/28/2012 10:37 am Storefront help and suggestions I have tried a whole bunch of approaches to online commerce but none have worked out as I have pretty much had to put everything on vacation setting for 90% of the year due to work. So I thought I would go for the simple approach. Here is an example of what I came up with. Suggestions for changes and or improvements are most welcome. Keep in mind however the idea is to keep it simple and easy to maintain from anywhere. http://www.mycoins.us/Shop/Store.htm I am not going to show up in any of the major search engines I know, and frankly I could not keep up if I got a large number of orders. But I often get people asking me if I sell online so I think this would cover that. Report this Post to the Staff

macmercury Pillar of the Community United States 5832 Posts	Posted 10/28/2012 12:51 pm I say you would need to built templates to standardize how you want your site to look like at first, perhaps sketch it out and find similar sites you like and start building there. There are different ways to approach this depending on how you want to update your inventories, which required building a database and preferably a search engine to go along. It maybe to large of a task to start, where you require knowledge of design customization and testing. And as you said that you are at work 90% of the time, that leaves you little time to manage the storefront from the beginning, you maybe able to find extra help hiring someone you can trust like a family member to do your basic inventory from the on set, then you can update it yourself later on. I have my site that I used WordPress as a starting point for ease for updating anywhere, you would need some HTML, CSS and MySQL background to make it work, the plugin I used for the storefront is eShop, which gives you all the CC options along with Paypal and other more than you need. Report this Post to the Staff
Williamsonj320 Pillar of the Community United States 538 Posts	Posted 10/28/2012 12:57 pm I have quite a bit of web programming background and would be more than happy to give you any tips or answer questions you may have if you need it. Report this Post to the Staff
Wade Pillar of the Community Canada 2781 Posts	Posted 10/28/2012 1:24 pm Quote: I have tried a whole bunch of approaches to online commerce but none have worked out i think whats not working is your honesty! letting people know you aren't available for weeks at a time is probably discouraging sales. personally I appreciate the fact that you are clearly stating what to expect, but at the same time I wouldn't buy anything (or especially pay for it) with out a reasonable and confirmed ship date. Report this Post to the Staff
nohope587 Pillar of the Community United States 5953 Posts	Posted 10/28/2012 1:54 pm I guess I should have mentioned low cost as well. I am not out to make lots money but I don't want to loose any either. Hiring a programmer or buying storefront software is not going to be an option my target is three or four sales a month which I can handle fine anything above ten sales a month and I would not be able to keep up. My inventory is going to be less than 100 items so database functionality is not needed. I could fancy up the layout a little and use CCS but it does not work well with older browsers. I feel obliged to tell people the truth. Most of the people who will be going to the site will be directed there by me anyway and are aware of my work situation. Report this Post to the Staff
nohope587 Pillar of the Community United States 5953 Posts	Posted 10/28/2012 1:56 pm Maybe I should change the paypal button to place order. Report this Post to the Staff
mdpmedia Pillar of the Community United States 3546 Posts	Posted 10/28/2012 2:56 pm Richard, My suggestion is not an attempt to support the USPS but rather to provide a straight forward and brand name(U.S.) recognized solution for potential international buyers wanting to know ‘in advance' their related freight and insurance charges for each item purchased. Many potential buyers shy away from sellers that do not display a fixed or easy-to-determine shipping rate on an item for sale: especially international buyers unfamiliar with the common intricacies involved with a normal sale... In order to increase one's exposure to the often untapped and usually beneficial international market it would be advisable to provide the exact and applicable URL that one would use to calculate the international shipping charges (including insurance) for each item up for sale: http://ircalc.usps.gov/ Along with the photo and product description of each item I would also include the following details so that anyone could calculate IN ADVANCE their ‘womb-to-tomb' charges. The destination of Angola is used in the following procedural description for illustrative purposes: A) method of shipping service: a) describe one of the 15 available flat rate services that will be used: Express Mail Flat Rate Envelope, Priority Mail International Flat Rate Envelope, etc.... or b) select a shape: letter, square envelope etc.... B) total weight in ounces (0.75 ounces etc....) of the completely wrapped, ready-to-be-shipped package, C) postage price calculator: a) choose one of the available options/products that will be used: First-Class Mail International Letter, Priority Mail International, etc. b) click on ‘Price charts and complete information for Angola' to obtain the applicable insurance rates. At the end of each product description a statement could be included such as, ‘The above product and shipping details have been included to provide potential buyers with a quick and easy method to calculate the entire applicable shipping, handling, and insurance charges for the purchased item etc.' In summary just provide along with the product description the USPS service to be used, package shape, total package weight in ounces, method of shipping, insurance charges, and USPS URL (http://ircalc.usps.gov/) for each item BEFORE the sale. This type of approach provides additional clarity and alleviates wasted time on your behalf since interested parties will be able to determine this information on their own ‘before' the sale for shoppers that DO end up buying or ‘before' the sale for shoppers that DO NOT end up buying etc.... IMHO mdpmedia PS: As always I am always open to constructive criticism to my above narrative since ‘no one knows everything'... Report this Post to the Staff
nohope587 Pillar of the Community United States 5953 Posts	Posted 10/29/2012 06:29 am mdpmedia thanks for the suggestions. Do you think it better that I break down the cost of the shipping instead of just stating that ts included in the price? I am leery about shipping to some countries and would prefer to have some one request a coin via e-mail first if they are outside the continental USA that way I can decide if I want to deal with that country or not. Back when I was using zen Cart I had the USPS lined to the items to calculate shipping based on country and I got several large orders from India and Russia which were clearly scams and It is a real pain to cancel transactions after the fact I would rather just deal with the USA and Canada and treat everyone else on a case bay case basis. I will include a link to the USPS site however so others can estimate their shipping costs. I have also modified the wording some what to try and make it clear that payment is to commission an order rather that have the item sent out right now. Report this Post to the Staff
mdpmedia Pillar of the Community United States 3546 Posts	Posted 10/30/2012 11:25 am Quote: that I break down the cost of the shipping This would only be necessary if the S/H is calculated on a case by case basis depending upon each buyer's location. Otherwise, FOB destination, freight prepaid would not necessitate the itemization of these charges since the majority of buyers are just interested in the overall grand total of charges necessary to bring an item to their doorstep etc. Insurance should be a 'required' feature since its presence could save you a tremendous amount of time and the avoidance of headaches especially when dealing in the international arena: phone calls, emails, tracing, language barriers, poor feedback, unfair perception from the perspective of the buyer leading to an unjustifiable reality for the seller... IMHO, mdpmedia Report this Post to the Staff
	Replies: 8 / Views: 1,420

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