I may attempt a project for a small family-owned beauty supply shop that wants to get their store online. I was thinking FWP and Mal-E. What are some of the big check list items that I need to consider for such a project?
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Although I’ve ever only sold digital downloadable products, here’s a list of things I’d consider:
If you want more I can keep rambling, but these are things I thought of so perhaps it could help.
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All excellent points Dan! Thanks for taking the time to write that all out!
Again,thanks!!
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I have found a store I really like and it intertwines with FW nicely -
this is a site I did with the store ecwid.com
I love the idea of mals - but for a store that the client can upload etc… them self and it fits nicely w your design - I find that this is very easy to use. Also the customer service - is awesome
Julie
On Apr 7, 2010, at 9:37 PM, Beatrice wrote:
All excellent points Dan! Thanks for taking the time to write that all out!
- I have looked at sites that use Mal’s and looked into the FWP actions and the setup in addition to Mal’s options. It seems straightforward - the user is on the site and directly to the Mal’s site and then payment is processed via Paypal (owner’s choice). What am I missing?
- At this point it will be done in FWP but I think CMS would be the better option, but most seem too overwhelming. I have EE but the learning curve is steep as I have tried to work with it and ran into some issues (complicated database to start with that crossed over in too many ways that made my head spin). Maybe a product database would be more straightforward to figure out and use instead. I think applying the EE actions is where I fall short. Any tips there on learning more?
- Notifications is not part of Mal’s? I missed this one!
- Uptime is always important, but I think with a brand new busines, new to internet, it is secondary to their actual store getting off the ground first.
Again,thanks!!
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Nice checklist Dan. I am currently building a store myself. My comments follow your comments set in bullet points.
Can you include some recommendations for Payment Gateways & Merchants?
Any recommendations that work with FW?
I have a store for myself and a client. Do you recommend a CMS for my client? Will FW only suit my store needs?
My wife and I are more than ready.
Not sure about this one. I assume whichever shopping cart service I choose to go with will provide a feature for this.
What are your thoughts on Newsletters? Any reliable approach?
Yes!
I’ve considered Mal’s but I’m not comfortable with your comments regarding. Are you using another cart services?
Visiting your site, I noticed you used ExpressionEngine2. Did you imply this system into FW? What are the advantages of EE2? Learning curve, high or moderate?
Thanks much. -Dave
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Why don’t you also look at www.ecwid.com?
It’s a secure store that is a mark up item for fw.
I have some store site examples on my website.
Http://www.grassrootsweb.net
And for payment I think paypal is the least expencive (at least compared to authorize.net )
Julie
Sent from my iPhone
On Jul 21, 2010, at 18:31, Dave email@hidden wrote:
Nice checklist Dan. I am currently building a store myself. My comments follow your comments set in bullet points.
- Payment Gateway - how are people going to pay for these products? PayPal requires you to take a ‘convenience fee’ for using their services. Does that affect your pricing?
Can you include some recommendations for Payment Gateways & Merchants?
- Shopping Cart Integration - do you understand how to have users access or interact with the shopping cart since Mal’s is run outside of your website?
Any recommendations that work with FW?
- Managing Products - how do you intend to manage your product list? Are you using just Freeway or are you using a CMS?
I have a store for myself and a client. Do you recommend a CMS for my client? Will FW only suit my store needs?
- Be ready for legal action with angry customers. Think disclaimers and return policies.
My wife and I are more than ready.
- Think notifications - How are customers going to be notified of their purchases. Do you have an invoice template or any kind of automated setup you could use to email customers a receipt with their order?
Not sure about this one. I assume whichever shopping cart service I choose to go with will provide a feature for this.
- Contact - It’s important to promote contact information for customers to ask about product information either through a form or email of some sort.
What are your thoughts on Newsletters? Any reliable approach?
- Professionalism - Do you have the skills to build a store for a business that looks trust-worthy to your customers and provides a way to say “hey, this website is safe and secure with your information”. Identity theft is your number one threat.
Yes!
- Do you trust Mal’s as a store gateway? - Recently my store has gone down 3-4 times on Mal’s and I am currently investigating another issue with them. How important is uptime?
I’ve considered Mal’s but I’m not comfortable with your comments regarding. Are you using another cart services?
Visiting your site, I noticed you used ExpressionEngine2. Did you imply this system into FW? What are the advantages of EE2? Learning curve, high or moderate?
Thanks much. -Dave
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For the time being my ScreenCast and Template Store run on ExpressionEngine 2 for handling the details and feature pages, but under the hood it is run on Mals and built entirely using Freeway. Mal’s is a great system for people who need something set up for them, but me I like to have options and features and more bells and whistles. I do appreciate that Mals is free and the support offered through them is great considering it is a free service. For the future, if these two stores of mine grow, I would integrate a full fledge system and my choice would be CartThrob right now. It integrates with EE and it also offers all kinds of payment gateways and shopping cart features. Apparently, and I use that loosely, it handles software or download product transactions and sets up plenty of things for you. That would be ideal for me plus it integrates with my system. That’s something that is important because I do want to have member accounts so people can access their products and I’d love it to be all in one system.
In regards to my responses to the original poster, PayPal works for me. Some people say it is the devil, I however have never had an issue with them. I’d recommend Mals to get started with for those who, again, want something cheap and easy to work with.
As far as marketing goes for me, I do just an announcement email for new products. I haven’t dabbled into HTML emails or anything quite yet, but people like to stay in the loop and I have a cool campaign manager that works with ExpressionEngine. I’m also a big fan of not spamming people with useless emails or dumb surveys. I send out an email to everyone maybe 2-3 times a month.
When I brought up the issue of trust, it’s really hard to build a store that people are going to easily buy products from without some doubt. I know when I got started with my ScreenCasts I was getting about 40-50 emails a day from people asking all kinds of questions and so you have to spend some time building relationships and making people feel comfortable that they are buying from a trustworthy vendor who both offers support or anything for the products they sell and just to be honest with people. On the flip side there will be people who try to scam the system and those who try to get something for nothing. That’s the sad truth, but remember that people are more creative than you think.
Ok, I’m done rambling. Hopefully this response helped out.
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