WHAT'S INVOLVED IN BUILDING A WEBSITE WITH OSD?
Whether you are familiar with the process or not, I will help walk you through everything that needs to be done to have a successful web presence.
The first step is really to decide what kind of website you need, whether it's a brochure site for customers to get information and hours of operation, or a retail site selling a few products with a simple shopping cart. Or it might be a larger site with a significant inventory, that syndicates your products to marketplaces like Amazon, Ebay, Google, Yahoo Shopping, and others. Either way, I will help map out your complete online strategy.
Small Business Website
For a small business website, I will first create a detailed map of all the pages and functionalities of your site. We'll talk about how much budget your business can devote to the project. We'll discuss navigation, functionality, what you need the site to accomplish, how often you'll want to update it, and who will be doing the updating. We'll discuss whether you have products to sell, how many, and what type of shopping cart you'll need. Will you need a company blog? How important will it be for your business to be found in search engines? Many questions will need to be answered during this process in order to build the best solution for your needs.
How much will it cost?
The most often-asked question is "How much does a 5-page website cost?" The cost of a project depends on what features and functionality you want, how many pages you really need (detailed investigation into your project may reveal that you really need 10 pages, not 5), what your goals for the site are in terms of marketing and promotion, and so forth. To really understand what type of site is right for your business and get a firm estimate, we need to talk.
During the design phase we'll talk about the look and feel of your site. What type of emotions or feelings do you want your business to convey? How slick and up-to-the-minute technically does the site need to be? Who is your target audience and will they have accessibility issues that need to be considered? If your business needs a logo, I can create one for you. It's all part of the branding/design process. Once the design phase is complete, the buildout begins. I'll have you periodically review the site as it is constructed, until the site is ready to go live.
After the site is live, there is still work to be done to get the word out about your business. I'll guide you through everything you need to do, based on your business goals, to get found more quickly and easily on the web. This includes social media marketing, email marketing, search engine placement, blogs, and so on. And for sites using Expression Engine, a how-to session and training manual will be provided to you.
Small-To-Medium Size Business With Inventory To Sell On Multiple Marketplaces
If your small or medium-size business has a significant amount of inventory to sell, your solution will be different than the typical small business website.
Maybe you have never sold online previously. Maybe you've been selling a little on Ebay or Amazon but have found the process cumbersome to keep up with during peak order processing times, because you are trying to handle website orders, Amazon orders and Ebay orders coming from three different places. Maybe your business has hit a plateau and you are ready to ramp it up to the next level.
I have experience dealing with companies just like yours who have anywhere from 500 to 5000 products to sell, and need help managing the overwhelming task of managing inventory, orders, and promotions, and want to have their products in as many marketplaces as possible.
If you are ready to seriously sell your products on the internet, and you have more than a few hundred products, be prepared to commit to a solid investment of time and money to the effort. Setting up a good e-commerce site can take at least a few months, depending on the solution you choose. When should you start? A great time to start thinking about a new site is in the early part of the year, after the Christmas rush, when we have plenty of time to fine-tune the site before the next holiday season. What will it really cost? We'll need to discuss your business needs and objectives to arrive at a realistic estimate. But there are multiple options for setting up an e-commerce site, for budgets of varying sizes. Contact me and I'll walk you through it.
ZOOVY
For businesses with 500 to approximately 2500 products and/or doing less than $2m in revenue per year, my recommended solution is Zoovy. Zoovy is a third-party e-commerce provider that allows businesses to run multiple web stores, each with a completely different look and feel. It also simplifies and automates the process of listing products directly from your website to multiple marketplaces like Amazon, shopping comparison sites, and supply chain resellers. All your inventory data, orders, returns, and customer data are housed in one database. Your products are automatically fed from your website to multiple marketplaces such as Amazon, Ebay, Shopping.com, Google Product search, Yahoo Shopping, PriceGrabber, Jellyfish, and others. Any price changes, product changes, or new products within Zoovy are automatically sent to all marketplaces without you, the business owner, having to go to the marketplaces individually to add products or make changes. You don't have to figure out each marketplace's product feed spreadsheet format (and they all want something slightly different); Zoovy does it all for you, every day, automatically.
For the design of your own website, there are several options. You can use Zoovy's templates and customize them to your specifications, with some flexibility; you can have the Zoovy design team create a custom template for you. In some cases, I can create the initial design concept and work with Zoovy to implement the final version.
Why do you need me to work with Zoovy? The initial setup of the Zoovy system can be complex for some businesses selling online for the first time. Some implementations are complex and can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months, sometimes more. Most customers say they had no idea there was so much involved in building a true e-commerce site, and they were so grateful to have me as their partner in navigating all the options. By now I know all the ins and outs of the system, and can guide you along the way to choosing the best options for your business. I also have good relationships with the Zoovy technical staff, which makes everything easier.
It may sound complex, but the reality is that once it is all setup, the automation of the order process is worth the effort you put into it. After that point, it's just a matter of managing your inventory, processing orders quickly and cleanly, and focusing on what you really want to work on - the future of your business.
Learn more about Zoovy on their website.
CORESense
If your business is over 5000 products and is already doing over $5m in annual revenue online, you may be ready for a larger system. CORESense is my e-commerce platform of choice for this type of customer. CORESense also runs multiple webstores from a single database, and feeds your product data to the multiple marketplaces such as Amazon and Ebay, but it also allows you to connect to the POS systems in your retail stores, and to the Customer Service reps in your Call Center. It can handle products being managed in multiple warehouses, automatic reorders from vendors and manufacturers, and different pricing on different marketplaces.Let me be your partner in navigating the complex setup of a system like this. If your thriving business has outgrown its current
Learn more about CORESense on their website.
And finally...
No matter what type of website your business requires, I will guide you through additional aspects of marketing your product, from leveraging social media networks, to iTunes if you are selling music, to search engines, to blogs, email marketing, and so on. I will give you all the tools you need to market your business and products effectively.
Be prepared to spend some significant time marketing your business after the site development is complete. This means crafting promotional emails, doing customer segmentation and testing, writing informative articles for your site, keeping an updated blog, getting the word out about your company on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, buying banner advertising, developing promotions, and so on.
I can assist you with many of these efforts, but many of them require your specific expertise about your products. While your business can still be fairly successful without these efforts, working hard to maximize your exposure on every channel can significantly increase customer awareness of your business, and boost sales. If you as the business owner won't have time to maximize these efforts, be sure to appoint someone on your staff who will.
And remember, all these price estimates are just that. General guidelines. For a firm price quote, I'll have to review your business goals and objectives in detail. And if you are ready to work with Zoovy or CORESense, I'll put you in touch with the right people at those organizations to give you a quote for their services. If you are ready to take the next step to grow your business, I am here to help. Contact me.