# e-commerce - the basics!



## Ross B (Apr 28, 2006)

After reading the posts in JonWye's recent thread about e-commerce solutions like volusion, Nexternal and Monster Commerce, I'd be interested in the general consensus amongst people actually running online stores as to *whether it's best to go with one of these all-in-one solutions, or to try to do some things yourself, and outsource others* - not necessarily to the same expert(s). 

I've got some Tshirt designs ready now, but feel sort of stopped at this point. I know the next step is to set up an online store, and will probably start with CafePress. However, I am clear that I want to also sell my tshirts from my own online store. So, where's the hurdle? It's this:

It's still very baffling to me as to what basics really need to be attended to when setting up an online store to optimise the chances of being successful on a commercial basis. I have been to courses and researched this forum (what a godsend), but I still haven't got it clear. The following I think I do understand...


I have heard about SEO and know a little bit about it (but nowhere near enough to take it on myself...I believe it's now such a specialist area and so time consuming that most serious online businesses pay SEO experts to manage their SEO on an ongoing basis). I believe that SEO is vital to any online store's success, but that's where my knowledge ends.
I have heard about Google Adwords, believe it is pretty important to have a good Adwords campaign running, and believe it is not easy to do it yourself effectively. So, another aspect to outsource.
I understand that blogs linked to the store website are a good traffic-gathering/driving device. I like this part - I am a writer, and know a fair bit about writing commercial copy, so I can certainly manage the actual blog myself. BUT, I don't really understand *how* to use a blog to drive traffic to your site - even though I have heard pro net marketers claiming blogs are imperative these days, and fully accept this to be true. I don't even understand how to get people reading your blog in the first place, let alone how to channel your blog readership to your store!
I know what an autoresponder is, and suppose I can find out how to set them up through my web host. I am dimly aware of other such devices that are apparently necessary to optimise the success potential of online stores, but couldn't name them. *Any recommendations for other essentials?
*
I have no idea other than the above as to how to promote my store effectively. I know opt-in regular newsletters are supposed to work. Are there other promotion essentials not mentioned above, apart from conventional means such as getting print coverage, placing hard copy print ads etc?
I understand a website has to be clearly set out and user-friendly. I understand that some sort of ability to accept credit cards is vital, and a shopping cart. ANYTHING ELSE???
I have tried researching this stuff on the web, but was swamped by ultra-hypey sites all promising they had the secret to making millions. They all look tacky and make ridiculous claims; I don't trust any of them. Anyone have any recommended sources of good up-to-date information on net marketing, and running an online store effectively - books, websites etc?

*OR, do you think it's best to go for an all-in-one solution like volusion etc?* 

I am thinking that for a start-up Tshirt store such as I am planning it might be hard to justify spending the sort of bucks volusion require over a period of, say, a year. However, I am also well aware that many people fail in business because they refuse to put enough capital into it. 

I am not looking at an online tshirt store as a hobby. I want to make a reasonable income from it (sooner rather than later), and am prepared to do the work to make this happen - _once I know what that work is!!_ . But until I know people are actually going to want to buy my designs, it's hard to contemplate throwing thousands of bucks into it. 

Don't get me wrong - I know that there is a common view that net businesses don't cost much to run or set up, and that taking this view to an extreme will virtually guarantee failure. Like any business, you have to be prepared to put up some capital, and I am prepared to put up hundreds initially, but not many thousands. Once I can see that there is a market for my stuff, I would be prepared to put up thousands if necessary. 

I'm especially interested to hear from people who are walking the walk, not just talking the talk (no offence meant to those who are talkin' but not walkin' yet, but I have seen the theory - I'm after some essence of experience here, so to speak). So, hope I've described where I'm at sufficiently accurately to give the experienced online Tshirt store business folk amongst us some material to respond to. I'd be most grateful for your input.

Cheers


----------



## The60s (Jan 29, 2007)

i guess in this period, having a blog sure will be much more appealing for people to get info about you and your startup. To me SEO can be learnt, why pay professionals to do it. On the e-commerce part, i am too dumb to know those codes and i will be using yahoo! small business to do it. Blogging is definitely a must these days!


----------



## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I'd be interested in the general consensus amongst people actually running online stores as to whether it's best to go with one of these all-in-one solutions, or to try to do some things yourself, and outsource others


I don't know if there would be a consensus per se, since it will be different for each person's abilities, time available, money available, business needs, etc.

I can tell you from a t-shirt seller standpoint, that I've done it all different ways. Use (and still use) cafepress, had shirts printed and shipped to me and setup my own online store and handled all order taking, used a fulfillment service to handle all the printing, order taking, customer service.

Each has different merits and disadvantages. I like the control of setting up my own online store and processing transactions and dealing with customers.

I also value the time saved by using cafepress/printmojo/spreadshirt, etc. I don't have to be in my office to be selling t-shirts and making money. I can be at home by the pool or vacationing in Australia and orders will still be happening and t-shirts will still be shipped.

There are tradeoffs with each way.

The one thing that is a constant with any online store setup is that you have to spend time and money marketing and advertising your products.



> BUT, I don't really understand how to use a blog to drive traffic to your site - even though I have heard pro net marketers claiming blogs are imperative these days, and fully accept this to be true. I don't even understand how to get people reading your blog in the first place, let alone how to channel your blog readership to your store!


Blogs generally get picked up by search engines because they have constantly updated content and they are usually linked to by the big blogger sites like technorati, google blog search, digg, other blogs, etc.

So as you start posting more and more useful/interesting stuff, more content is created that people want to read. More content equals more possible keywords that your blog will show up for in search engine results. Those people coming to read your blog could then be interested in your t-shirt products (assuming your blog and t-shirts are related). 

For example, if you are an expert on brazilian cheese and your t-shirts are for cheese lovers, then you can blog about the best brazilian cheeses, what your tasting today, the worst cheeses, funny stories about cheese, etc. People will come back to read your blog because it's funny, informative, a nice diversion. They will share your blog entries with others who have similar interests. Other bloggers will link to your blog if it's unique or interesting. Search engines will pick up on your blog pages because it's relevant to cheese and has people linking to it. On all your blog pages you would include images of your t-shirts which link to your t-shirt store all about cheese lovers.

At least that's how it's supposed to work 



> I know what an autoresponder is, and suppose I can find out how to set them up through my web host. I am dimly aware of other such devices that are apparently necessary to optimise the success potential of online stores, but couldn't name them. Any recommendations for other essentials?


I don't really think an autoresponder is necessary. Some people use it as a tool to acknowledge an email has been received, but I don't think it will necessarily improve your sales.



> I have no idea other than the above as to how to promote my store effectively. I know opt-in regular newsletters are supposed to work. Are there other promotion essentials not mentioned above, apart from conventional means such as getting print coverage, placing hard copy print ads etc?


That's most of the ways. Word of mouth, search engine optimization, search engine marketing (buying keywords through Google Adwords/Yahoo), print coverage, hard copy ads, blogs, advertising in newsletters, advertising on related websites, contests, etc.

Think up creative ways to reach your target market. If it's cheese lovers, then think about what cheese lovers watch, read, search for, etc and get your product in front of their eyes. 

The first step is deciding whether you want to do it yourself, or setup an online shop at CafePress, Spreadshirt or a similar service.

If you want to do it yourself, you would register a domain name, get web hosting, install a shopping cart, take product photos, add your products to your shopping cart, find a payment processor (or processors), design the layout to your store, write all the copy for your store and products, launch your site. Advertise and market your site.

If you were going to a fulfillment service, you could still buy a domain name, setup a website, but from there, you would upload your designs to the service, pick which products you want to sell, and then either advertise and market the online store they setup for you, or create a unique presense for your products on your own domain name and website and then link that website to the online store they setup for you.

I hope that gives a decent general idea. Hopefully others can offer some tips from their experience as well.


----------



## KJtheGreat1 (Feb 14, 2007)

Dude, that helped! Well, it helped ME alot anyway! lol

My company has designs ready too, and we want to set up an online store but we also want some of our products in stores. Would a "Fulfillment Service" ship our online purchases AND send them out to stores that we get orders from?


----------



## Ross B (Apr 28, 2006)

Thanks a lot for your expansive post, Rodney. Big effort and it was a big help. Appreciate your generosity.


----------



## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Would a "Fulfillment Service" ship our online purchases AND send them out to stores that we get orders from?


Yes. A fulfillment service would print the designs, handle online orders, store your merchandise and ship out orders for you. If you wanted screen printed fulfillment (going by your post in another thread ), RawTalentInc.com and PrintMojo.com both do that.


----------



## Ezekiel33Graphic (Jan 23, 2007)

I have used Cafepress for 2 years & it has helped me a great deal for name recogintion. Now, I am ready to have my own homebased t-shirt business, but I will continue to have my store at Cafepress, because they have over 80 different products for customers to choose from, while my focus will be on t-shirts only (for the time being) & only white t-shirts, because they are the easiest to do with inkjet. If they want dark shirts they can buy them at my Cafepress store with their great DTG equipment. The only reason why I want to start my own business at home is because I can make the t-shirts for 1/4 the price Cafepress charges & lower the cost to my customer by $6-$7.00 a shirt which will increase my sales & income!


----------

