AceInArkansas Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Is a website worth the trouble? I am speaking of an ecommerce website because I sell antiquities, gold and platinum coins and bullion. I have heard yes and I've heard no. Can anyone help? Link to post Share on other sites
butterflydreams Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Like building a website to sell stuff? If you can get away with a fairly generic solution (meaning you don't need anything special) there are plenty of pre-built e-commerce software solutions you can just buy and install somewhere. Compared to having someone (like me) build an e-commerce website from the ground up, it'll be orders of magnitude cheaper and easier to deal with in the long run. Depending on the market of what your selling, you might also be able to do something like an Amazon.com storefront. I suspect ebay would have something similar. Then all the nitty-gritty of online selling is on them, which makes it easier for customers to trust you, and easier for you to deal with. Though it's not a complete site. Integrating Paypal into a non-e-commerce site to make it e-commerce isn't always the cleanest solution, but it works too. If you don't have too many things, or they don't change too much, or you can keep up with it if they do, going the paypal route might work. Link to post Share on other sites
zoidberger Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 I've wondered this myself. In the end I haven't gone through with it because I figured it'd be a real pain to drive any traffic. If you already have a business and it makes things smoother or more interactive for the customers I can't see it being a bad thing. Link to post Share on other sites
Prairie Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 If you currently have no online presence, it seems that starting with eBay/Amazon first would be in order, to get some experience with the general nature of shipping and customer service. Then you can decide whether your own site will offer any benefit. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Meh. Depends. If you have a large volume of online sales, then yes. If it's a small volume, ebay and etsy work for a lot of small businesses. Starting up an e-commerce site can be a pain if you don't know how to make a site yourself. Link to post Share on other sites
Rockblossom Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 The answer is a definitive "maybe!" For a small business, I'd go with what previous posters have suggested: Amazon, eBay, or Etsy While they will cost you some of your profit, they also provide reassurance to your customers that your business is legitimate and they will get what they pay for. These sites also generate traffic to your business because they already have a large customer base and the items up for sale show up in a Google search. If you want your own website - it can be done at a reasonable cost IF you are willing to do the setup/maintenance yourself, and IF you have some way to advertise your site to bring in customers. Hiring a techie to do the website will likely be too expensive. Unless you have a techie friend who will do if for cheap. Link to post Share on other sites
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