Website advice required, please?

[The Reverend]

Any web designers out there? My business needs to change it's website & content following a hostile parting of the ways with a small husband & wife web team.

Ideally the new site will cater for retail transactions along with the usual writing & photos on several pages, so it falls under the heading of a e-commerce site umbrella.

But how should we choose the new web design & hosting company? I know the mistakes we've made & how to avoid that aspect, but how to judge a good, bad or downright crap company is unknown.

Previous customers? Recommendation? Any suggestions?

If you're a small business, things like this really drag your time down

 

[Loiq]

what's your budget and market? a good basic e-commerce can start from 3K and go up in leaps and bounds. you also need to link them with facebook and other social media amd have a central update which then drop your message onto the other sites. A central media manager as your PR engine.

most sites are brochure (what you do are etc.) media (promotion driving interest your way, via face book etc.) and a e-commerce solution which has adjoined checkout facilities via world pay, barclays, pay pal etc.

the most complex bit it populating the fields with data, (adding product to the shelves of the virtual shop so to speak and that costs the money, it takes time, you can spider your central supplier or get data from them buagain it all needs to be supervised)

good companies have a proces and are compliant with legislation, and are small enough to be cost effect but big enough to cope. No point having a one man band who them goes off on a RTW, then the site needs an update and he's done one.

I've used www.gencon.co.uk for ages 10+ years. they've built some big site for some of their clients.

this one of theirs http://www.gardentrading.co.uk

one site is never the complete solution and they've progressed sites for me, keeping to a theme, nice photography, clean layout, easy to find the till and buy stuff. They do all the coding themselves using open source so the sites should work on everything. The banking solutions come via other larger companies, such as banks or paypal. (you'll need to tell which bank your with and they'll advise you who and how to best deal with it.

ask them for a price,

my accountants manager (Richard Carmen) has just left there to join a bigger outfit who build stuff even bigger companies but proportionally cost more...

 

[richie]

I could give you a hand not doing much else.

 

[advancedbiker]

Try this web site

Try this web site : http://www.ekmpowershop.com/ I used to the web site for www.dhautos.com, but di not have the xepertise for internet shopping. So I out them in touch with EKM Power Shop. Works well and no complicted html stuff. Now they do everything themselves,

Good Luck

Nigel

 

[The Reverend]

Thanks for all the replies gang. We're having a meeting later to set out which way from here, as we revolve around the website.

I'll keep you updated (from the Job Centre, perhaps )

 

[richie]

Thanks for all the replies gang. We're having a meeting later to set out which way from here, as we revolve around the website.

I'll keep you updated (from the Job Centre, perhaps )

I was not joking