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Up0The Internet Bloke, post: 55252 wrote:The shopping cart you choose should be appropriate for your circumstances.
Unfortunately, too many people just recommend their favourites, or the most expensive one that they sell.Well said Eric. Worse, some people think that offering advice is the same as throwing up an affiliate link to whatever ecommerce affiliate program their signed up to.
Up0There’s too many variables to give a worthwhile answer.
What is the product? Is it technical or complex in nature such that a video might help me understand it better? Is it strongly “visual” such that a video might help me get a better idea of what it looks like in real life (eg a diamond ring)?
The thread that FS Concierge pointed out talks specifically about using video within (or as a replacement for) long copy sales letters particularly selling the “make money online” dream. Love or hate the guys that use them, one thing is for sure – flashy video works for their market.
Ultimately, the solution is to split test video and non video versions of landing/sales/product pages and look at real conversion rates. The market will tell you which is better.
Up0When you say hits are you talking about unique visitors? It’s really something to reach 100 – 200 visitors 2 days after launching the site. Congrats.
Alex Tew achieved his success by doing something that, at the time, was quite remarkable. The mainstream press coverage that the site got was huge.
Without an amazing twist you’re not going to repeat the same level of exposure by doing the same thing. Its not that you “may cop a lot of criticism for copying etc” – more that your site will simply pass by unnoticed.
I’d suggest thinking about what has changed since 2005. An obvious example is social media.
Btw, Alex Tew has just announced his latest venture – to some extent still riding on the back of the million dollar homepage.
In any case, best of luck with the site.
Up0Hi Fay,
Well done for pushing on with the brainstorming. Keep it up!
I’m afraid I cannot give you any preferences because it would be too subjective (ie my own personal taste) and also your business is not aimed at me being a guy.
Having said that, to me words like gala, bloom, ballad and beauty might have a slightly older feel than would appeal to your target market.
Also, dont feel constrained to have the word boutique on the end of every name that you consider. Im assuming you’re going to open a bricks and mortar store so having the word boutique may be redundant – since it would be fairly evident.
Up0Thanks for sharing Robert – that is an excellent resource.
Up0Its most likely a combination of trust and convenience.
If you look from the client’s shoes they’ll likely feel more comfortable having someone they dont really know or trust yet come to their office to do the work rather than work remotely. They’ll also probably feel that communication (and therefore efficiency and reduced opportunity for error) is improved by having someone over the other side of the room.
As Greg said, its up to you as the expert to convince the client of the benefits of you working offsite. Schedule flexibility might be one benefit off the top of my head? Your own workspace is better set up for efficient work? You wont be eating their office biscuits?
Up0Hi fay,
Although at first glance it seems simple enough, choosing a name/brand identity can be one of the most difficult parts of starting a new business – particularly a retail business.
To choose the right name you first need to think carefully about who your target customer is (age range, income level, lifestyle etc) and your positioning – how you’d wish to present your business to that customer (fun, sophisticated, chic, cool etc).
With those two basic blocks clearly in mind you can start to think of words and phrases that feel right. You’ll initially want to brainstorm lots and lots of names without considering whether they are right or wrong. Come up with a big list and then start to filter it down.
There are a bunch of general articles online about dos and donts of naming a business including this one.
Personally, I think for fashion/clothing retail you need to choose a name that is both remarkable and also connects emotionally with your customers. I use the example of the popular fashion website in the US – Rue La La. You may or may not like that name but it most definitely stands out from the competition and their customers (20-30s fashion conscious, online savvy women) love it.
To me, Rainbow Boutique seems a touch conservative and also a little generic. But then again, I’m not your target customer so you can ignore me : )
There is also the “legal” side of naming a business to consider. You’ll need to search on your shortlist of names on the ASIC database to ensure that someone else hasn’t registered the same or a similar name, and also check the availability of the .com.au domain at a registrar such as Crazy Domains. Finally, you should also check for existing trademarks on the IP Australia website.
Up0Hi Mike
If you cant stretch to a custom design then your best option is to start out with a decent template. Template Monster has nearly 100 ecommerce templates for jewellery websites. Heres the link (Thats an ugly link so if it doesnt work then visit templatemonster.com and filter on ecommerce and jewellery).
Pretty much any of those templates coupled with your product range – and what looks like some good creative promo ideas that you have should give you a good start.
Up0In the early stage, with a brand new website and not much traffic you dont really have a whole lot for companies to be interested in.
My advice (and Im sure others would have different ideas) is to get the website up and running and start promoting it to end users in any way you can – SEO, social media, forums, advertising etc etc. Get people using the site, clicking on links, signing up to a newsletter etc.
Once you have some traction you’ll have an asset you can take to companies to sell advertising or do affiliate deals.
You can of course sign up to the affiliate networks, adsense etc but for a website that focuses on vouchers, coupons and discounts etc in the end you’ll probably need to work out exclusive stuff that other sites dont offer.
The other thing you need to think about is who is your target market? Is it business people? families/moms? or a particularly sector like fashion? This will influence your branding and promotion strategy.
Up0Hi PapillonBlue
Sorry I cannot answer all your questions – but I think jewellery parties are a really great idea especially if you make your own jewellery or are fashion/design savvy. I encourage you to give it a try!
I also recommend you take a look at Stella and Dot based in the US. They are a beautifully marketed jewellery party company that will do more than 100 million in sales in 2010. If you dig around particularly in the Become a Stylist section you’ll find a bunch of videos that will give you some insights into how they operate.
The founder got the business up and running by selling jewellery she’d made at home.
Up0Hi sirtobster
I’d say that advertising and affiliate links would be your best bet to make money off yr model. You’ll need to build a fair bit of traffic and preferably a good sized email list to make good ROI.
I’d recommend getting started promoting the site asap either without any advertising at all or with something simple like Adsense to start you off.
Once you can prove to advertisers/vendors that you have good volumes you can start doing more sophisticated stuff like getting exclusive offers just for your site.
The alternative approach is a closed membership site which would be potentially more lucrative but you’ll have to work very hard to prove to people that the vouchers / promos / samples they’ll find inside are 1) of interest to them and 2) worth the membership fee. A little bit like Simple Savings
Up0In our experience you’ll look better in the eyes of the customer if you demonstrate that you have the connections to pull in experts who are the right fit for their project (or at least you present them as such).
I think this model is fairly accepted these days so long as you stay on top of quality as you and others have mentioned.
Great to hear you’re doing well.
Up0Hi Glen,
the first thing to note is that the location of your website hosting is not connected to your choice of domain name (.com.au vs .com) and is also not connected to your business setup.
To cover the business setup first, your best bet is to talk to your accountant about selling within Australia and selling overseas. You’ll need to take GST and other stuff into consideration.
For your domain name – if you’re selling exclusively or almost exclusively in Australia then usually a .com.au domain name is your better option. Customers in Australia recognize the relationship a .com.au domain has with Australia and typically trust it more. You’ve also got a better chance ranking in Google for local Australian searches with a .com.au domain.
Conversely, if overseas is a significant part of your strategy then consider a .com Its become the defacto international TLD and will have a better chance of ranking worldwide. If your website is a .com.au and you want to sell to the UK or US you will have virtually no chance of ranking for searches made by people in those countries – unless they qualify their search with “australia” in some way.
Finally hosting, as I say, hosting has no relationship with domain names so you can host in the US and have a .com.au domain name. The only slight downside of this arrangement is your website may slow down a little due to the latency over the longer distance.
If your website needs to serve large files such as video consider having your website hosted locally and storing the large files on separate hosting such as Amazon S3 We’ve set up this configuration several times before particularly for podcasting and sites with lots of video and it works well.
Up0Hi Andrew,
Personally I think that if you’re serious about making the business work long term then you need to get your foundation assets in order from the start. They include:
– brand identity (name, logo, visual style)
– registered business name / ABN
– company structure
– trademark
– .com.au and preferably .com domain names (plus .net and .org domains to protect your brand)
– social media accounts for your business name – twitter account, facebook page etc etcClients will get a feeling of substance in your business – and you’ll be comfortable knowing that the hours of effort you put in are contributing to building an asset (your company).
Up0Hi Carodi,
It really depends on your specific needs. The bulk of your initial investment in a shopping cart is the visual design.
A custom visual design varies widely but can cost anywhere from 2k – 20k and up. If you can compromise on the design a little – i.e accept a generic design rather than a custom design then your initial price will reduce significantly since most carts come with a range of templates you can use right away.
Another decision is whether you wish to host your shopping cart on your own website hosting – or whether you’d prefer to have it hosted by a provider.
There are fors and againsts for each.
If you host your own shopping cart then you have greater control over it for example it is easier to have the design and functionality customized. But you are responsible for your own maintenance, backups and also PCI DSS compliance (which is an important consideration).
X-Cart is a good self hosted shopping cart solution. There are also a number of high quality free carts available inc Magento and OS Commerce.
If you choose a hosted service then the provider is responsible for all the maintenance and compliance stuff leaving you to focus on selling. The down sides are that you’re up for a monthly fee – and also if you want any special customisations then you’re usually out of luck.
Big Commerce is a good option for self hosting.
PayPal is a good way to get started but you’ll likely grow out of it fairly quickly.
