The best e-commerce store is what?? Best item to sell??

Hi all

(Sorry if this is in wrong thread)

Im going to start an online store and im wondering what you guys all think.

After many months of trying to make money in ppc programs I have had enough.

How much traffic does one need?
Hours and hours of getting backlinks,submiting everywhere and anywhere.

So Im moving on to start a store of my own,after years of selling on ebay Im all so sick of the greed of ebay,fees here,fees there fees for everything and ending up with small profit.

So I ask all you great guys that have been around the web to please tell me what you all think is the best thing to sell online?.

I will be very greatfull for everybodys help.

Thank you all

 

I've seen that 1Shoppingcart and Ultracart perform the best.

But if I had to choose one I'd go for ultrachart... Why?
Because it's more flexible and you can customize basically every part of it.

Good luck

 

Sell what you are interested in. This way, you will be more motivated.

 

I am making a site on just that subject now, but here are a few ideas for you.

Sell SMALL items because you can store them in your garage and post them anywhere in the world.

Items must be unusual, not something anyone could pick up at the local mall.
Look to source them from Asia.

Give some thought to finding affiliates to sell for you. Many shopping carts have a built in affiliate program so that others can earn a commission from a link on their own website to your shop.

Think about this. Every school, club and sporting group in the world is always looking to raise money. Most often they have their own website too.

So if you can convince them to put an affiliate link on their site as a fund raising method and encourage their members to buy from you then they raise money with no effort and you get more business.

Now send me $79.95 at 3AM.

 

JoseArmando: I have had a look at Ultracart and it looks great,know for the hard part,What to sell.

There are just so many big companies out there its hard to compete with them in a lot of areas.

 

There is not a single best thing to sell online, rather there are items that are the best to sell to specific niches.

The most important part is to find a good niche and then finding the right product for them.

It seems to me you have it backwards. You want to find a product but you don't know for who are you searching it.

Imagine trying to open a new coffee shop but not knowing where will you build it. First you have to always know if there is a demand for the product you will sell in the niche you want to enter.

After you'll find a good niche you'll notice that finding a good product for them is in fact a piece of cake.

 

oscommerce software is good and its free

 

Sell something you like - that's what I did. Advertising for physical products is actually pretty easy.

My store has made thousands when i sent samples to youtube beauty gurus. (I sell beauty-related products)

Also, I have a good name recognition through ebay. Basically load your listing up with great keywords, and put it up for one cent + free shipping. You will get TONS of views and might even make a buck (yes, those listings to go up very high)

There's lots of other creative ways to do it, such as a fake review site. However I want to be fairly honest with my customers (i have lots of repeat customers) so I have chosen not to do that.

Google adsense does not make me a good profit, when i factor in the costs, but I'm not good at it so maybe an adwords pro could help me out one day.

Right now I'm sticking to youtube - ITS HOT. Make one video about your product, promote the video on forums etc, you will get lots of sales, especially if a "guru" talks about your product. INSANE sales.

 

Also - sourcing from asia is good, but dont ignore your local manufacturers/warehouses - they might have a better deal and at a lower MOQ (minimum order quantity) so that you dont have to buy 10,000 of one product to get started.

I've been a webmaster/ designer for so long and never really reaped the benefits until I started my own online store/business.

Another Tip: Make sure you use Usps's online shopping program or Paypal's Multi-ship - you'll save 5 cents on every shipment, it adds up when you have 100 shipments a day. Plus it takes less time.

I use prestashop - and it is very good if your goal is to brand something.

Branding is important - and I've branded absolutely every single item I sell. It takes a bit of time and depends on the product - but you need to be creative. I have done it all with things I've ordered online for cheap, and done it all in my home. This way I avoided high MOQ's (for factory branding) and was able to start for very little. If you have any questions feel free to PM me, as I'm not on these forums much.

 

Oscommerce is a piece of c*rap.

Yes it is "free" but so what?

Do you think the lady who owns a flower shop wants to deal with it?

She just wants to sell flowers, not spend the next six months learning programming.

You just want to drive your car. You do not want to have to learn how to give your car a tuneup and a valve job.

You are willing to pay someone to change your oil and tune your car.

 

IMO
the best selling product on the net is selling ebook
This is not only best selling but also generate major profit

 

Why are you saying oscommerce is a piece of c*ap? I don't get it. It is one of the best softwares around. I think so..

 

OScommerce is a train wreck. See http://www.magentocommerce.com/

Nigel

 

OSCommerce is great. Its open source which is the perfect solution, well for me anyways.
If you know php, mysql and use a few contributions you can have a pretty decent store without much effort.

Magento is another good solution too - you should check that out.

 

Magento is also very, very good! THe problem with Magento is that it uses alot of server resources. If you need a decent store, for <Magento you really need a dedicated server.

 

It all depends on what you want.
Zen cart is good for non-programmers
Magneto looks good but all the stores look the same, which sucks, and its a long process to customize it.
Prestashop is my favorite because it looks good for non-programmers but also very simple to edit. (+ its free)

 

X-cart is out of competition as it easy to optimize as 1-2-3, my IMHO

 

Isn't x-cart the best?

 

To customize Magento simply rename the default template folders and modify those so you don't have issues when you upgrade.

Stores only look the same if folks use the default template. Check out http://www.homedics.com/ You can do whatever you want with Magento.

Nigel

 

Magento and t shirts niche.. thats what i tot.. everyone buys t shirts everyday..