Inputs for startup ecommerce website

itsme220

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Hello Experts

I am in the process of starting a small business for social cause. To begin I have only one product but packaged in different sizes. like 100 ml, 250 ml , 500 ml, and 1 litter. In Future I may add more products. Unlikely to have many. At the most 10 products.

I am going to operate at thin margin. I need to reach more customers. So I need to make the price affordable and provide good quality.

I would like to have website, apps in Android and iPhone.

what is the best way to start?

Should I have apps or have a website with responsive design?

What will be the typical budget?

Website should support English and Chinese. (Can be mixed content of chinese and english)

How do I accept payment? Typically what will be cost? what is the low cost option for accepting payment?

Please provide your inputs.

Thanks
 

Tiny Grass

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Apps are more costly, especially ios. Cheapest payment method might be bank transfer, however, you will need to validate payment for each transaction
 

urameshi_85

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Since u have a budget I will suggest u create just a website to display your name and products and some brief description. Buying of items can be done by creating an account in apps such as carousel or shopee then u link the shop link to your web page.
 

natnai

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Can you PM details of your charity/charity drive? I'm willing to do it free for charity.
 

pulsecch

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i feel that you should make a website that pc mac android and iphone can go, there're frameworks that a proper webdeveloper would know e.g. bootstrap that you make 1 website, and it will look nice in many platforms

also, i suppose your operations is still small, you can consider doing the payment manually first, that way, your website will just be display content, which will be way way cheaper than a website with interaction

when the volume goes up, i feel you can consider using paypal as they have a non profit section where the fees are lower. it's also cheaper to find developers who can develop using paypal
 

pulsecch

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Just curious, starting out too, will website builders like Shopify and Woocommerce solve these problem?

Yes of course they will, but very importantly, these are essentially tools that solve your problems, and not drivers for your business.

In fact, if you're selling things, why not put it on carousell / eBay / qoo10 etc. an awesome website will not encourage people to buy your goods if they don't want / need them

E.g. think of all the "motivational speakers who are also stock trading mentors" who have awesome websites, a quick search on hwz would show that many people think they're scam and will not sign up for them. So that's why I feel, website is to ease the business, not to drive the business (sure you can give Google as an example, but how many businesses can be like Google?.......)

For instance, I have an assignment that requires me to meet ~50 students. Initially I used google forms to let them fix appointments, but it became inadequate and caused quite a bit of manual work. So in the end I made a website for the students to book.
 

pulsecch

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Interesting and comprehensive response pulsecch! Thanks for making it clear for me. I am also running a startup on the side. I'd like to get your thoughts on my website because you seem quite experienced.

We help online sellers boost sales and lower customer support load. What's your take on the entire package? http://promotion.boodopt.com

I think design is good! Looks professional, english is good

But I feel you could be more clear on what exactly you're providing for your users.. Cuz I've clicked through quite a few, but I still don't really know what you're providing šŸ˜…

I mean, yea you described the problem and the need to solve it, but I don't really know what to expect if I sign up for your product.. Perhaps a demo? Or screenshot?

I no expert la >.<
 
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