This is a question I answer on a daily basis… so here is this article to help anyone who finds themselves in the same situation as many of my students both in business and at university.
If what you want is an e-commerce that you can manage yourself, that has all the features it should have, with a minimum investment and controlling all the management parameters without having to depend on anyone... This is what I recommend:
First, you have to decide What e-commerce platform are we going to use?.
- If you are going to have a lot of products, I recommend a Magento (check this website –> www.textura-interiors.com, this is a Magento). Ideal if you want to connect your website to your warehouse management software or any other program. But you will need the help of your IT professional to make the connections.
- If you are going to have few products and you can manage them by hand, with a WordPress plus an e-commerce plugin will suffice (check this website —> http://www.vinosdepostre.com/ This is a WordPress with a plugin)
Where to host an e-commerce website?
I recommend a hosting that has the software you are going to use pre-installed (the two I recommended above, or any other content manager). In my classes I recommend Hosting Júnior from CDmon https://www.cdmon.com/cas/hosting/ It comes with most content management systems pre-installed and costs 70 euros per year. Other companies such as Arsys also have them pre-installed in some of their hosting plans, so ask your internet service provider.
Design templates for the content manager
All the content management systems you'll find pre-installed on hosting services have a ton of free templates that are great. But my advice is to choose one that has a professional design and that someone has verified its usability... especially, in this case, the shopping cart template.
That's why I recommend buying professional templates. The market where I buy them is www.themeforest.net There you will find WordPress templates and Magento templates (as well as templates for other content management systems). The cost of the templates is between 45 and 55 euros for WordPress templates, and 80 euros for Magento templates. Sort them by “best sellers” and make sure they have 5 stars. This way you will be sure to select one that will not cause any problems.
Do I need a domain name for my e-commerce website?
Yes. Don't hesitate. It's your corporate image and you need your website to have a name of its own. You will also need email addresses with your domain name. You can buy them from any company that offers this service. A domain usually costs between 10 and 15 euros per year.
On the Internet (both on Google and on Youtube) you will find manuals, videos and tutorials that will help you throughout the entire process of creating a website, both in the case of WordPress and Magento. WordPress is much simpler than Magento… so if you don’t have experience with this type of website, I would start with WordPress.
In total you will need an investment of around 200 euros… and you will have the online store in a few days (the time it takes to enter the content).
If you still need help, I recommend attending one of our courses of WordPressWe finished the April one last week, the May one will be held at the Sabadell Chamber of Commerce and will last 3 days, in June, we will hold one in Barcelona and it will last 4 days, and it is possible that we will hold another one in Terrassa also in June. When the dates get closer, I will publish it on this blog.
I hope everything goes well. I hope I have been of help.
A hug.
4 responses
Hopefully WordPress will catch on.
All of us who have come here have asked ourselves this question. I recommend WordPress because I think it is becoming popular.
I like Magento, although I prefer Prestashop. WooCommerce (the WordPress plugin) is more fun, but the bad thing is that as soon as you add too many products, it gets saturated.
very good