online selling?

[petsfanBooBoo]

I'm planning on starting a pet shop in the futur, asap, I'm aiming for about 5-8 years. For the time being I really want to get some experience in selling and advertising. I want to do this by starting an online shopping resource. Does anyone have any experience with starting something like this. I need to know how to get ahold of products I will sell and where to get hosting and all that good stuff for a good website. I'm basically starting fron scratch:p . That means there is a lot I need explained to me so it would be better for me, and anyone who wants to help me, if you know a site that explains all the stuff I need to know about getting an online shopping site started.I hope to get the online store started before summer rolls around so I want to start right away.

[Prickles]

I am thinking of doing the same thing at some point...

Btw, here are some websites for setting up online stores:

http://www.shoppingcartsplus.com/?track=2081

http://www.volusion.com/

http://www.netsuite.com/portal/products/neterp/webstore.shtml?promocode=g1111&gclid=CJae082F1YMCFU9FGgodVXaP7Q

...I have no idea how to get the products to sell. It would be great If I knew how...but I don't

[Kimmy85]

Hey guys. I'm not sure what caliber of online store you are wanting to start but you should check out pricester.com. It is free to have a web store and it goes through step by step how to set up a store. You don't have to pay them unless you choose to use bold print or you want your own domain name, things like that.

[Riosmommy]

Hi! I have an online pet store and have been in business 1 1/2 years. The first thing you need to do is write yourself a plan out. Decide how much money you have to start and exspect things to run higher always.
I use Value web- because they have great customer service and if you have aproblem doing something on your website the talk you through it. Many people use paypal for payment since you only pay paypal fee's when you sell things. The way I found vendors was looking up wholesalers ect.. You need to get a business license and also have to pay local taxes quarterly for sales tax. You need to contact your local Taxaton department to also get a Tax Payer ID so people will be able to sell to you wholesale. ALso check out shipping cost ect. I was using UPS because I alway like tracking numbers incase someone says they didnt receive something. I met with the post office and you can go on USP.com and order free shipping boxes but must be sent out by the post office and free labels this way saves you money on your business also. Advertising - I have alot of links and we also advertise in vets ect.. Also had shirts made up with our busines on them and wear them everywhere you would be amazed how much business that brings. I try to limit the amount of vendors I use and I want quality instead of quantity. I wish you great success in your ventures. It takes several months before alot of people find you. I have done more business now in the past 3 months then I did all of last year and before. Its getting your business name out their but not being pushy. Some companies just sign on places advertise and leave forums ect and I dont think they get much response. They also mutliple post places. Good Luck if I can help let me know.
Riosmommy

[Dustin07]

posting in forums and whatnot will give you backlinks and help SEO-wise for search engines, but it's not a great form of marketing. For online marketing I'd suggest PPC through overture.com or Google.com's adwords. Regular banner ads though are not worth the money, IMO, and text links are only worth the search engine results they bring.

as far as hosting goes... I have used and been very happy with:

Yellow House Hosting (http://www.yellowhousehosting.com)
Sixty6 Hosting (http://www.sixty6hosting.com)
Yahoo Hosting. <-not sure of url, just go to yahoo small biz, or google "yahoo domain hosting".


Yahoo has been the most user friendly for a newbie because it's all click, not really any hard coding needed. However, Both yellow house and Sixty6 have better/quicker customer service (like same day usually)

best of luck.

[petsline]

http://petsline.amasia.ca

Contact: Simon Lee
petsline@amasia.ca

[johnham]

I can't help you with where to find product or anything but I can help you with the webstore and business stuff.

I work for a company that makes point of sale software. Although we have a commercial product, we have a basic product that is free. It contains no adware and is not crippled in any way. It's just a stripped down version of our big product.

It's free and it will handle customer tracking and invoicing. We can also set you up with credit card processing and that will be handled inside the free software as well. It's like a cash register on crack.

The best part is there is also an integrated web store solution. It handles putting inventory and pricing online as well as bringing customer orders back to you for processing and invoicing.

So if you are interested, check it out.

http://www.myfreepos.com

It's made by POSitive Software Company (www.gopositive.com)

The webstore stuff for this product can be found here.

http://www.positivecommerce.com

Hope this helps. I know there are A LOT of people on here that can help you with the pet part of things, and I love my dog and my fish and petshub has been a great resource for me but I'm not super pet minded. I can help you with the technical stuff though and I hope I could be little helpful to you here today.

Thanks,
John Hamilton
POSitive Software Company
http://www.gopositive.com

[johnham]

I don't know about the pet stuff so much but as far as the technical business/website side of things, I think I can shed a little light on that.

I work for a company that makes point-of-sale software. We have a free product. It has no adware, no nags or crippling and is simply a stripped down version of our commercial product. You can use this to track your customers, create invoices, keep track of inventory. When you feel ready to accept credit cards. We can set you up to do that and the software just does it with no extra box or anything else.

It also has an integrated eCommerce solution. This means that the inventory you track and ring up in the software can automatically be uploaded to your website. It manages pictures and pricing with a few simple clicks. And your orders on your website can be brought right down into the software as ready to ring up invoices.

Like I said the software is free. You pay for support if you ever need it.

I can't imagine running a business without some kind of point-of-sale, no matter how small.

I am not very pet savvy. My dog and my fish are still alive and I have petshub to thank for that. So I don't have any pet-type suggestions but believe me I know software and web stuff. Here is the info on what I've mentioned:

Free Software:
http://www.myfreepos.com

It's from POSitive Software Company.

The website integration stuff can be found at www.positivecommerce.com.

Check it out, I know you'll be impressed.

Thanks,
John Hamilton
POSitive Software Company
http://www.gopositive.com