Forum Moderators: buckworks
I'm ok with my current revenue, but also know I'm passing by a lot of potential money. I sell clicks for $.15 , but the profit margin on widgets is $10-$50 per item. I could raise my prices on my clicks, or sell widgets myself.
I've talked to a few widget makers who told me they'd set me up as a distributor, and would drop shop for me.
The question is, how much work is involved in setting up a basic yahoo (or similar) storefront. How technical is it? Is managing the sales, etc a lot of work? If I do this, I'd start off very small and test the waters.....
I know there are a million "ifs" involved in this, but any thoughts and advice would help.
Thanks everyone.
How much work is involved in setting up a basic yahoo (or similar) storefront?
It all depends.
If you want a simple shop with just “buy now buttons”, it is extremely simple if you use a store builder (that yahoo and other services provide). Generally, the more time and effort you take on a store, the better the appearance, navigation, and customer order sizes. For example, if you simply have a black text on white page background, with a simple description and buy now button, it may seem un-professional. If you build a more elaborate store, your professional appearance will rise. Again, the more work you do on your shop, the better it will generally turn out.
How technical is it?
Again, it all depends.
If you use a store builder, it is not very technical and that is why most beginners use them. The store builders, make it so you do not really need to know HTML and other coding languages in order to launch your site. If you need a more advanced solution, some users may build their own store, and host it on their own servers.
Most of the time, store builders lack the tools and resources needed in running a large store, or a store with many options. This is where you have to decide if it is worth it, or not. If you decide that a store builder does not have the features you are looking for, you may want to look around the net for shopping cart scripts that will be hosted on your site. This is often the best solution.
One of my favourites, and I am sure others agree with me, is called osCommerce [oscommerce.com]. osCommerce is free (open source), and very customizable. Also, you may want to dig around Hotscript’s Directory of PHP Shopping Carts [hotscripts.com].
Is managing the sales, etc a lot of work?
If you have a small shopping site, the managing of sales and support is generally not too much work, although at sometimes there might be a handful. Larger sites should expect a lot of work for sales and support. This is where you should hire other people to cover this, as you’ll find it is way too much work to do all on your own.
I hope this helps, and best of luck!
Also, with some vendors charge s/h for the drop ship, and if your customer orders say, 3 items coming out from 3 different vendors, the s/h charges alone will kill the profit.
