New Website - Off the Shelf?

[Justin]

Looking to get another website up and running to sell personalised items. I'd been playing with Opencart etc. but I just don't physically have the time to finish setting it up, tweaking and maintaining it.

I've been thinking about buying a website ready made that I can just add products, pics etc. to and get up an running quickly. I did this with my last business and whilst the site was excellent it was very expensive and incurred an ongoing monthly cost.

Please don't tell me I need to persevere with Opencart, in an ideal world I'd love to carry on down that route but I'm stream lining key areas of my life to try and free up some time for other projects!

What I'm looking for is recommendations of companies that offer 'off the shelf' solutions, tried and tested to save me taking any expensive risks :-)

[ADP]

Have you looked at ekm powershop? im in the middle of setting up a shop from these and its going very well at the moment, Its simple to use and the one im doing looks really good at the moment :)

[Justin]

I'll take a look, not really keen on paying out every month and want to host myself :-)

I could get my old site back as it's still actually live for £25 p/m but when that's purely hosting space which I have in abundance I'd sooner be in full control.

[ASLCreative]

Have you looked at ecwid (ecwid.com) you can have a shop up and running in a couple of hours and they have a free version.

They host the site for you - I have played with it, but prefer to "Hack" the code.

[Justin]

Not seen this site before, I see that there is a monthly charge for the better plans again so perhaps not exactly what I'm after but I will look :-)

Like I say, really after something that's ready to go, just add details of products as per my last site, don't really want to be messing with themes other than banners etc.

[arko]

Have you ever worked with WordPress?... There is an app called ShopperPress, it contains a large amount of pre-made templates i.e. T-Shirts, Jewellry, Baby Clothes, Cars and and and... there is an extensive list. Its very straightforward by the looks of it and if you already have hosting, just install it and play around with it. That way you will only have a one-off purchase price and then you could look around for cheaper reliable hosting.

[ASLCreative]

Like I say, really after something that's ready to go, just add details of products as per my last site, don't really want to be messing with themes other than banners etc.

It is fully compatible with wordpress, all you do is use the plugin and the categories and products automatically appear on your website.

[Zipdorf]

Really there are two issues here. First, the actual website. And second, the shopping cart. To get ANY website where you can take orders online, and the layout just as you want it then the answer is - you have to invest some time, especially if you have a small budget. Opencart and others of that ilk are good but you need to "personalise" them, just like the products we all sell.

[Justin]

Thanks for that ;-) Appreciate setting up a site takes time and/or money and I've done it from both sides already.

The whole point to this thread is to look at companies that offer 'off the shelf' options as I've used before, I don't want to be configuring, adding in modules and so on. If I wanted to do this I'd carry on with my Opencart which is fully functional but I just don't have the time to tweak/work with it.

I'll look at some of the options detailed above thanks :-)

[Zipdorf]

I have never come across the perfect answer but this sure comes close: http://www.expand2web.com

I have set up websites using this and their support is incredible and the SEO has helped get the websites onto page one of Google. It also works really well on mobile devices.

Could be worth a quick look? Hope it helps.

[smitch6]

i have offered Justin to build his shop from OC and then upload products etc if needed and run the shop for him
so he just emails me what description he wants and pictures and i sort it all out from there.
the sale emails then go straight to Justin so he can fulfil the orders reply to customers etc.......

never done this before but as i have 3 or 4 OC shops myself it is something i can do for others as well if interested
all for a set fee each month quite low as long as it's over a good period as the initial time outlay for me to set everything up would be large

:)

[Justin]

Might not be a bad idea Steve, I've PM'd you. I'd wondered about you doing this for folks before but appreciate it can be time consuming.

[Stitch Up]

Any example websites Smitch?

I presently have a website being built for DTG but we have nothing for gifts/sublimation!

John

[smitch6]

my signature shows a few of my sites
and my others are
www.personalisedprinting.org.uk thats an OC 1
these 2 i built myself from scratch
www.norfolkdaycare.co.uk
www.spotlessvaletingwales.co.uk

and i have helped quite a few ppl on here with their OC sites but don't want to say who without their sayso

[chris_hosk]

open cart piece of cake I use to be a web developer but stopped as I no longer enjoyed it lol

[Justin]

Yes, but it still takes time....time that's at a premium right now :-)

[chris_hosk]

If you need any aside or help feel free to pm me :)

[smitch6]

not sure why i bother to pay for advertising when ppl come along and offer their help/services where i have to pay to advertise mine

Not getting at admin btw :)

[chris_hosk]

FYI i wasn't offering a service just advise if needed which i think is the point of a forum :) but i get your point buddy

[Justin]

Appreciate everyones input here but as I stated in the initial post, I'm looking for an off the shelf site. It could possibly be Opencart based and I do have an understanding of this but simply don't have the time to setup and modify. If anyone wants to quote for a maintained site that's fine.Steve, please PM me re. Your comments above thanks.

[Jersue]

Hi Justin Do you have items for sale set up on a spreadsheet CSV format? Using an Import and Export function in Opencart makes it easy to populate the site and also to make any price changes etc.

Have a few sites running opencart and it is time consuming setting it up but once done using the import function it becomes a lot easier.

Always willing to set up and update for a small fee for anybody

[Charlie_]

not sure why i bother to pay for advertising when ppl come along and offer their help/services where i have to pay to advertise mine

Not getting at admin btw :)


Thats life, I just put up with it as one of those things...............