G. P. on 11/10/2011 20:01
Hello Chris... Do you have the "skills" (knowledge) of how to manage your site content? Who is going to administer product information, customer orders, payment processing, the fulfilment process, etc...

Modern eComm systems come with a comprehensive admin console, where the shop-owner manages all this day-to-day stuff.

Generally, these consoles are "easy" WYSIWYG input and editing systems, so no code knowledge is required.

Bear in mind that the easier you want the system to be (for management), the more sophisticated the code used to drive the site.

And along with sophistication, comes price.

We have built eComm sites for people with very little computer knowledge, so it's quite achieveable.

My question is, how prepared are you to learn what's needed to manage your webshop?

G. P. on 12/10/2011 18:17
Hello Chris... Your reply to my clarification message:

"Hi, I am fairly competent with computers but not coding. I'm happy with back end menus etc within applications but am useless with site building.
What I would like is for a user to buy the products and pay through a payment portal such as a Paypal payment application and then for an e-mail to be sent to me with the order details.
I then click a button to mark as dispatched.
Sorry if that's a bit vague but I hope it helps a bit"

The technology used these days is, fundamentally, aimed at providing the online store owner, with a range of "electronic" features that replicate those that would need to be applied in a "bricks and mortar" hight-street shop.

So if you think of all the administrative and management operations that a conventional shop owner needs to manage on a day-to-day basis, your eComm platform needs to "enable" these as well, except that they all happen in the context of an online environment, and not in a "real" physical shop.

If you think about it, a shop on the high street will be thinking not only about how they process payments, but also they would be looking at marketing-related issues. How to "up-sell" customers... "Buy product "A" and consider also buying products "B, C, and D" "... "This week's Special Offers are...", "Use this discount coupon for 10% off on the following...", and so forth.

Now, whether you NEED or WANT these functions NOW, is not as important as knowing if you want them LATER, because if you DO want them (at some point, and most people do) then the choice of eComm platform is very important. If the eComm platform you choose NOW has these features already installed, ready for use when you need them, then you will be saving a lot of time and money in the code development phase.

Down-stream costs could be very high if the WRONG platform is chosen now, because it will mean that either you have to CHANGE the software, or a skilled and expensive coder will need to write the functionality down the line.

So...

BEFORE you finally choose a developer, you should build a VERY comprehensive list of all the possible functions you may want to incorporate in your site. The best way of determining this is to take a detailed look at competitor websites - particularly those that feature strongly on Google search results for yoru product range's keywords - and to then study how the owners of these sites have incorporated various selling, marketing and ease-of-use features that make them attractive to customers.

This "best practice" approach sets the benchmarks of how YOU want YOUR site to operate, and a comprehensive list of features and functions gives developers a much clearer understanding of what you need, and what software platform best suits those needs.

eCommerce, as I am sure you know, is very sophisticated and competitive these days, and there is one fundamental rule that governs success of a site...

... the EASIER it is for customers to use your site, the MORE DETAILED will be the code that drives it. Ironically, sites that appear "simple", are usually those that a huge amount of highly specialist knowledge has gone into.

This degree of competence does, however, come at a price...

Whatever you do, make sure that your developer takes into account the scores of retail functions that you (may) need to have - both now and later. The greater the degree of detail, the more you can "pin the developer down" to an exact specification requirement.