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Need some advice on website
 

If you were to setup an ecommerce website to sell your product what hosting service or website services would you go with? I don't know much about this topic so i thought i'd ask. I would like to have my own domain name, be able to customize the site well, have a nice checkout cart/system, have a good payment processor, and be able to use an app that helps me keep track of my orders and which ones are shipped out ect.

Would prefer it to be as simple as possible. This will be my first website so i need all the advice/help i can get.

Thanks for anyone who replies!

Re: Need some advice on website
 

I've found that shopify is really easy to use. But I honestly haven't used any other website hosting service though

Re: Need some advice on website
 

I don't think it's as simple as asking everyone for one simple answer. Its something you need to test out. I went through about 5 or 6 different website builders and shopping cart providers before I found one that suited me. Each one though great and recommended lacked something really important for me, and I can tell you when you create product and write descriptions and set it all up, do it for about 10 products then realise this is not the platform for you... you also realise you've wasted a hell of a lot of time setting up those products and you need to do it all over again on another platform.

I tried for ages to have a free website and shopping cart. At first I built a really simple site on blogger and used ECWID's free shopping cart. In the end a friend built a new site for me for free as a favour and I ended up paying for the shopping cart because I really liked how ECWID works.

That was some time ago though, the other sites that I tried may have improved since, or there may be new options. But I sure as hell wouldn't want to set up 500+ product again, and I've never had any luck with database bulk uploads for products :D

Re: Need some advice on website
 

Researched this topic all night. Got answers to all the questions i was looking for. Just there is one problem. The problem is finding a payment processor that will be ok with me selling this product. And from what i read 99.9% will and will close my account.

It would be really helpful if anyone knew or could share some info on how one can find out the payment processor of a website/seller. I would think filing some type of charge back with the websites payment processor might reveal the payment processor but i would rather avoid doing that.

Re: Need some advice on website
 

This is where I went when I was shopping for an e-commerce website provider: http://www.top10ecommercesitebuilders.com/

In regards to your payment question.. have you considered using a merchant account? Assuming you aren't selling anything illegal, a merchant account would be the best option because it gives you the most control over your business and payments. You wouldn't have to worry about unexpected payment holds or sudden Paypal limitations. Plus you would have payments automatically transferred to your business bank account every day.

Just putting the option out there for you to consider. I recently set up my first merchant account AND I LOVE IT! I'm now able to accept credit cards over the phone, on websites, on eBay, and any other possible way.

If using a merch. account isn't an option for you for whatever reason, I believe that leaves you stripe or skrill.