Goods receipt

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First delivery entrance

230 different napkins arrived in a huge, in a very huge parcel. I thought about the different steps which need to go through, and organize it, so that it doesn't take to much time, but I must admit - first time, it didn't work perfect ;) But only the first time.

Steps which are needed:
- check order against delivery
- find own defined product number
- make photo of each one
- give the photos the corresponding product number and rework
- label each product
- introduce amount into Excelsheet (for first upload)
- finally store them

It doesn't seem to be much, but it takes a lot of time. Lucky that I had help, otherwise I wouldn't have finished not even in 2 days !

ToDo's:

• make photo
• label
• store

Conclusions:

• think of each step you have to do and organize it well
• you need help for the first big entrance

Which price ?

How much should it cost?

The decision is clear - product prices are in Lei. But how much? Fixed costs, one time costs, running costs ... And I am neither a bookkeeper nor a controller. I know that I have to take into account:
- purchase price
- delivery costs
- cost of packaging
- currency fluctuation
- ...and for sure some more, which I didn't

Can you imagine how much it takes to calculate the costs for all 500 different products. So, Gerda, keep it simple - I defined one formula for all the articles imported from abroad and one for those which I'm buying in the country. Sounds perhaps a little bit strange, but I didn't see any alternative.

For the products where I have competitors, I made comparisons - just to check if my price is a realistic one, and the conclusion: yes, but we are cheaper ;) I thought about this fact a couple of days, thinking if I should change my formula. And I didn't. Perhaps in half a year I will do it, but not now.

At the end of the year, I will know how wrong I calculated.

ToDo's:

• calculate fixcosts
• calculate running costs
• define product price

Conclusions:

• one person can not do everything
• one person is not specialist for everything

Which currency?

Euro or Lei or both?

Here in Romania, a lot of companies have the product prices in Euro. And makes sense ... you don't have risks regarding currency rate fluctuation. On the other hand, for me it's very strange to see and buy not in local currency.

It's clear, a lot of discussions followed to this topic, and a couple of ideas came up:
- to show both:  Euro and the calculated Lei price (on daily basis updated) for each article; meaning an extreme fluctuation in the local currency
- to show only Euro and only when ordering, the updated Lei price should appear
- to show only Lei - updated on daily basis
- to show only Lei, without daily update

I've chosen the last version. Reason: it's a romanian Online Shop and I don't agree with daily price changes  (that's nonsense from my point of view).

Now also my accountant is much more happy. It would not be very easy, if the products don't have a fix price for at  least half an year ;)

ToDo's:

• decide the currency 

Conclusions:

• it's a decision you can not change every day
• consult the accountant before deciding

List of Articles

How lucky - we have Excel !

The list whith the products planne for the OnlineShop, I have for a couple of time. Now I have to put into the Excel all other informations, which are needed, so that after the upload everything fits.  And it's a lot of work. A lot!! Days and nights I had to work on it, starting screaming because it didn't want to end. By the way, the upload of the articles and photos was part of the functionality requirements.

My Excelsheet for the upload of all articles, believe it or not, has 43 columns and 500 rows! Article number, product name, description, price, recommended products, category, subcategory, and so on and so on  .... and all these things have to be defined and written down. Why do I have so many products? Why did I chose all these stuff? Each piece needs to be weight (needed for the calculation of the delivery costs), supplier product number, different attributes (colour, length, width ...). And all the photos, photo 1, photo 2, decoration idea .... it took time, it took a lot of time to put everything in the Excel. And I got bored of it. Lucky that it's finished!

Then I presented it to CANDOO. They were almost shocked how many colums my sheet has. Meaning automatically a lot of time for the upload procedure. But, as you can imagine, we finally managed it. and all the informations are now in the system.

I didnt' like this part of the project at all. Boring work which has to be done :(

ToDo's:

• define all the informations for each article
• make photos for everything
• define recommended products

Conclusions:

• you can not have enough photos. Test photo size
• description must be short and very clear
• this task is completely underestimated

Storage place

Where to store? How?

When you start thinking of an OnlineShop, do you think immediately also of the storage place? Fantastic! I myself didn't. And if you've 500 different products you need a lot of place or you organize it perfect. I've chosen the second alternative.  To rent somewhere a place for the stock, was out of discussion.

We have a small mansarde using it for shoes, tools, hoover and things nobody needs - and this had to be changed. It had to be isolated (too cold), my husband build a lot of shelves and now each product has it's own place. Everything in apple-pie order, labels everywhere, and I can find immediately the WindowColor bottle, napkin, pearls, or ribbons. or  ...

For sure we have to rethink everything, if we start with a new handmade technique and with new products, but at the moment it's the best solution.

I have my own warehouse now. What I've forgotten to say, people higher than 1.60 have problems to stand up straight. As I said ... it's mine ;-)

ToDo's

• organize/build storage place

Conclusions:

• start early thinking about it

First stock order

Well stocked / Out of stock / Overstock

I know what to order, I know where to order, the BIGGEST question now: How much from each product? To be well stocked is the idea, not to run out of stock immediately but otherwise not to get an overstock, thinking also of the money I have to spend and the storage place, which exists.

How much Window Color do you order? 67 different colors, and each of them you should have on stock. How many napkins do you order? 270 different models planned to have at the beginning. Also a lot of accessories you can use in the different techniques. How much of each product? And the point is, you will never be sure that you do the right thing. You order to much or not enough. And no book tells you how to do it correct.

It took weeks until the decision has been taken. And I still have no idea how to do it better. There exists a lot of formulas for stock calculations, but in this case they were useless. I was feeling very insecure, but finally, listening to my husband : "Order what your sense and sensibility says. You can not do more.", I ordered. And I think it was not bad. We are well stocked, and not running out of stock to often.

ToDo's:

• place first order for all planned products

Conclusions:

• not insufficent and not to much. Find the balance
• don't hesitate, order early. You need the products for descriptions and pictures 

Blog versus Forum

Blog, Forum ... which one?

At this part of my famous project I felt out-dated. And I didn't like this feeling at all. Who likes it?

  

I had no blog and didn't read any blogs, so I've been automatically against an OnlineShop blog . I had "to fight" against all around me, people from the marketing company didn't accept my opinion and to cut a long story short, I lost the fight and we have a blog now. I even started writing one - as you can see/read ;-)

Regarding the Forum part, everybody was surprized, that I want to have one. "Forum's are out, are not used anymore". I didn't accept this statement. My idea/dream is a community of tinker fans, people who are publishing photos of their own tinkered things, a community of people with the same passion for doing yourself stuff. And that's why I wanted to have one.

If you take a look at my OnlineShop you will see that now we have both: Blog and Forum and everybody is happy. Now I need only the people to read, write and comment on it.

ToDo's:

• decision Blog or/and Forum
• define the recurrence of the posts

Conclusions:

• the administration of the Blog and of the Forum takes a lot of time

 

Distribution possibilities

How do I send the parcel?

Post, clear. But only with the post? No. Also with the courier service. Which one? 

Next investigation started. Which courier exists? Which is their delivery area? How expensive are they? Distance price, weight price, delivery time, reputation ... variables which I should take into account, and there are a lot of companies driving around. At least I've chosen one, NEMO Expres. 

One more contract to negociate and sign. And time keeps on slipping slipping slipping

Lucky that in the list of application functionalities these points were included: client possibility to chose from different delivery modalities,  delivery cost calculation depending of the delivery type, parcel weight and value.

ToDo's:

• define delivery modalities
• define the delivery cost calculation 
• contract with courier service

Conclusions:

• take client expectations and needs into account
• if no fix price defined, each product has to be weight. Takes time!

The Article number

Own ID for products

From the beginning it was very clear, I will define new ID's for my products. It's much more easier to take over the article number of the supplier, but if you have different suppliers for the same product? What do then? 

I started thinking, how to define the ID's. It's more sophisticated than you can imagine.

First question: "With business logic, yes or no?" I've chosen the yes answer. Why? I have the possibility to group the articles as needed. And when somebody calls and says: "I've a question to article number 1-..." I know that he is talking about Window Color. So I defined main groups (numeric code)

Second question: "With business logic within the group?" Once again I've chosen yes. Reason: Colors have a certain code, and now it's part of the number together with the bottle size.

The most curious part of this whole stuff is the fact, that for more than 10 years, as ERP implementation consultant,  I was saying to all my customers : "Chose numbers without business logic. You have other possibilities to group." And I personally don't listen to my own advice. That's it. 

Not taking over the product number of the suppliers, I put the needed functionality:  1 Tinker ID - n Supplier ID's on the list of software requirements. 

ToDo's:

• definition of article number

Conclusions:

• eCommerce software is no ERP system
• business logic makes ID's long. And long numbers are not feasable
• allocation of new ID's with business logic is time consuming
• difficult to change ID's after GoLive

Site navigation

What happens at each click?

At least for me, this was not a very easy task. To imagine and to write down, where to go, when clicking on one of the items. Once again brainstorming hours were needed, thinking how the whole OnlineShop should work.

When I click on Techniques, chosing one of them, what should happen? When I click on WindowColor, in the navigation bar, the different categories appear. OK, but what else? what should appear in the middle frame?

Questions, questions ... and finally, step by step, we found answers for them. It makes sense what has been decided and implemented. I hope so ;-) Check yourself: http://www.tinker.ro/


 ToDo's:

• definition of each page
• definition of the links between the pages

Conclusions:

• use eg. MindMap to draw the connections between the different pages
• don't forget SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Otherwise it can happen, that you have to reorganize the whole site!!

How want the people pay?

Payment, which type?

This is very clear: Credit card, Bank transfer and Cash on delivery. It is not very common here to pay with credit card, but for me it's unimaginable not to have this possibility. So it is part of the application functionality list and has to be done. What I didn't know - it is not cheap. You've to pay for each transaction at least 4% of the transaction value. I never thaught of that before. So take care what you do.

I've chosen the best known company in Romania for epayment - GECAD. They have different contract alternatives, depending of the functionalities you want and the number of transactions. Together with CANDOO (with the needed interface knowhow between Magento software and GECAD) we decided to go in the first step with the basic option and with payment for each transaction.

A contract has to be signed and for that you need to give some informations, like: Cod CAEN, Company name, Owner, Adress .... This is OK. But for the next questions I was not prepared yet. eMail adress for the clients, contact person for the clients, phone number ... So next question which had to be answered. Which eMail adresses are needed? Which email adress to put on the site, which phone number ...
We have now: office@tinker.ro (for all mails sent to the clients), support@tinker.ro (contact/support for the clients), payment@tinker.ro (only for GECAD payment and reports).

ToDo's:

• decide payment type
• sign contract with epayment company
• decide OnlineShop emails

Conclusions:

• epayment is not cheap
• software company should have epayment interface knowhow

Which Hosting company?

There are so many hosting companies! Which one?

For this decision I had help. My IT colleague took over the task.

The website technical requirements defined CANDOO. Linux Operating system, Appache web server , PHP compatibility, Magento know how, MySQL version and server hosting setup where on the list.

To these points we added, storage space, support, SLA, backup type, monthly traffic, monitoring .... 

Once again put everything in an Excelsheet including costs (need to split here if dedicated server yes or no), analyzed and from 3 names in the shortlist we had finally our Hosting company. Not quite so cheap as we thought at the beginning, but that's it.

It was the wrong decision. During the testphase it was clear for everybody, the site is to slow, we can not go live. A KO criterium didn't pass. Shocked, we moved the golive date and looked for a new server. Now it's working. And not bad.

ToDo's:

•  find the best hosting company for the shop

Conclusions:

• start early to look for the hosting, it takes longer than you think
• make tests befor you sign the contract with the hosting company

Layout of my OnlineShop

How should it look like?

I am sure that no day passed, without thinking about that. I know exactly what I don't want, but it was not really clear what I want. And than it becomes difficult. You are sitting in brainstorming meetings, looking at almost hundreds of online shops, at the colors, the navigation bar, the product descriptions .... and there are thousands of posssibilities and  thousands of colours and millions of combinations and you have to decide.

The order in which we proceeded was::

- Header with Logo and  Selling Line

- Navigation Bar

- Product Detail

- Product List

It was the longest phase of my project, from it's start up to the established layout. We changed it a couple of times coming each time with new ideas - it was a huge time consuming phase. But I liked this part very very much. Much more than the contract stuff. And the result is OK, still OK even after one month! Convince yourself http://www.tinker.ro/

ToDo's

• establish layout of the OnlineShop

Conclusions:

• the target group should like the layout, not you
• tomorrow you will see a much nicer shop than yours

Which Supplier?

From where do I get my products?

The decision which products I would like to sell is taken, now the next big question - From where? Who sells? To which price? Delivery conditions, payment conditions?

Talking to different suppliers and producers, getting offers, having long discount discussions, signing contracts - it was really nerve-racking. One product cheaper here, but with 500 Euro minimum order quantity, more expensive there but' with no order limit, payment conditions between 0 and 30 days, and all this I had to take into account. This was the moment (not the last time) where I was asking myself: "hey, what are you doing? do you really want to continue?"

Unbelievable. Now I have suppliers from Germany. I became importeur and stick labels with the romanian translation on some of the products. I am lucky that I don't need a translator for that. And I'm more lucky that Romania is in the UE.

ToDo's:

•  find the ideal distributors

Conclusions:

• on long term not always the cheapest is the best
• delivery time must be one of the variables which should be taken into account

A Logo is required

Lost in space

How do I let everybody know, that a new OnlineShop is in "town" . With great things which they don't know that they exist and which they must have starting with tomorrow.  Absolutely no idea!

So help is needed. A marketing company is the answer. And they must believe in my idea, otherwise it will not work! I found this company and also the perfect person. Sometimes you just need a little bit of luck.

It's the beginning of a very interesting phase.Definition of target groups short term and long term, selling line, shop objectives, logo brief ... . Have you ever dealt with these words? Not me. I was feeling almost helpless in this new world. And I tell you, it is another world!

We started to work on it.
The target group has been defined (women between 25 and 60, families with children and young people between 16 and 30 years which like nice things) . I think it's pretty close even if I not really like it.  

Regarding selling line ... I have so many things to say, so many messages, and now I must find a short phrase - the selling line - for my whole shop. Sounds not fair ;-) And it's not easy! A lot of brainstorming hours were needed, but we found it! Now I know my message! The message I want to deliver to my target group is: "Coloreaza lumea" (give the world colour)

And finally the Logo.

Strange drawings of cute things I have now in my album, all with the topic: Logo. We tried with animals, stars, blots ... and at the end ... our webdesigner had the phantastic idea. Do you see the world in color?

ToDo's:

• Define target group
• Find your Selling line
• Define the Logo

Conclusions:

• don't try to do the job of other people. It will not work
• it needs a lot of time for these 3 points. Much much more than you've planned
• Logo and Selling line you can not change easily!

My shop needs a name

"Tinker" is born

I know that the name has to be a word which is easy to remember. Perfect would be one word. Not two or three where it's not clear if you write them together, or with a hyphen. I'm looking for the perfect word. It's important! It's very important!

"Hobby"  - the domain is not free
"Creativ"  - domain not free
"Creative" - domain not free
"Bricolaj" - I connect this word with oinery
"Lucru de mana" - here I start thinking of  knitting and Window Color has nothing to do with it. and it is not one word
"Handmade" - domain not free
"Basteln" - meaning in german tinker, sounds to complicate
"Tinker" -  domain is free, sounds good, is one word, easy to remember => I bought the domain Tinker.ro

"Tinker" is born. I didn't know Tinker Bell at that moment ;-)

ToDo's:

• find and buy the perfect domain

Conclusions:

• Check if similar names are in. That's not good! You will not be on google on the first page, and not even on the 10th
• besides of .ro buy also .com and .eu . You can never know what the future is preparing for you.

Which eCommerce Software?

Frontend & Backend is needed

Meaning I need a Web designer for the site and an application behind for the whole adminstration and configuration stuff. That is clear. But which one? Thanks god we have the Internet!  My second "investigation phase started".

There exists companies, which make you believe, that with 250.00 Euro you can have a complete Shopping cart software. There exists also platforms just waiting for you, everything ready and in 2 hours you can go online. I didn't check it. Perhaps it is true, from my point of view absolutely impossible.  So I started looking for companies which can help me to make a good job, a perfect job. Looking for companies which can cover both frontend and backend, having all/most functionalities which I gathered in my first "investigation phase". 

Each day something new - you don't get bored fighting with PHP or HTML. Guys you must be a professional IT person, to understand it. And because my programming know how stopped 15 years ago, it was very clear that I need help. And I found it. Together with a colleague of mine we send to 10 different companies our Excelsheet and asked for an offer. Here a screenshot of the 85 different points I put together. If you want the complete list, just send me an email.

We got also replies (not from all companies), analyzed the answers and put 4 companies on the shortlist. These 4 we visited (even my husband joined me once), asked for a live demo and after 3 weeks we took the decision to go with CANDOO Solutions and the open source software Magento in PHP ;-)

At the end there was a head-to-head race between two companies. Software functionalities almost the same and only minor differencies at the price. Why did I chose Candoo? Good impression at live demo, client is taken serious, they will still exist in a year, they know their business. Finally it was the good feeling that I had, I will get what I expect, which decided for Candoo.

It was the correct decision.

To Do's:

• Companies shortlist (check portfolio)
• Live demo for at least 4 different applications
• Take software company decision

Conclusions:

• The cheapest software is not always the best
• Chosen company should cover both: frontend & backend

Which functionalities?

Do you know exactly how the shop should work?

"No, I don't"

That was a clear answer. I had no idea how this online shops are working. I had to find out. My OnlineShop investigation phase started.

Looking at a lot of online shops, writing down the funcionalities which I came across, analyzing if I like them, if I need them, if they are a must or not. You can't imagine how much of them exist and I am sure I don't know all of them. Simple example - possibility of working with two currencies, or possibility to order without registering. Do you need it? For sure?

It takes time, it takes a lot of time. At this moment I started to believe that my idea will really become reality and unfortunately started to assume the vast proportions of this new "hobby" business.

Attention:

• 2 different VAT needed ? (in case you have books and other stuff) Not each OnlineShop software can handle it

To Do's:

• List of required functionalities (Excel sheet, splitted in "Must" and "Nice to have" is OK. Helps a lot in discussions with possible software suppliers)

Conclusions:

• The big difference between the thousands of online shops is the user friendliness. The most important!!
• Not all functionalities fit to every online shop

What do you want to sell?

THE main question and not very easy to find the answer.

"I want to sell Window Color (WiCo). That's my hobby, and I am sure there will be interested people somewhere who will like it and buy it. And I want also to introduce the napkin technique"

This is an answer but far far away to be enough!

One brand or more?
Which WiCo colours?
Which producer?
What do you need for these techniques?
What accessories are needed?
Start with minim or maxim?
Which napkins? ...................

So I started studying catalogues, with hundred's of pages, marking everything interesting, online shops, making lists, a lot of lists, changing each day the products, accessories, the colours, possible brands, the napkins .... And it takes time. A lot of time. 2 months I was doing almost nothing else.ToDo's:

• Product List (Excel is perfect) with ALL products which you want to sell (at least at the beginning)

Conclusions:

• You can not start with everything!
• Trust in your decision, it's the best what you can do!

It starts always with an idea

Why not try?

Question I put myself for more than 3 years. Try to make business out of my hobby. A small business. Not a big one. As a hobby of my hobby.

That's how it started. August 2009, the idea became my new project. And now my hobby of my hobby is running for one month (her you can see it www,tinker.ro) and I start thinking about the famous lessons learned. And all the hundred's of steps we had to think of and we didn't, and all the hundred's of steps we thought of and went wrong, and all the hundred's of steps which we managed with more or less issues and problems.

I have no clue if there exists a checklist in the World Wide Web how to start an eCommerce. I hope not, because otherwise this is one more mistake I did. Nevertheless I will use this blog to put on "paper" things which we had to think of, decisions we had to take, most of them small things which are taking most of the time.

Each step with ToDo's and Conclusions. For sure it helps for next Online Shop ;-)

OnlineShop - Tinker.ro

http://www.tinker.ro/

... is the name of my OnlineShop.

We are selling all the stuff you need for two different tinker techniques: WindowColor and Napkin Technique.  In case you are interested in them, just follow the links to the different descriptions (romanian language)

And this is now my "logbook" of the last 6 month.
If you plan to do something similar - perhaps it helps you a little bit ;)

Good Luck!
Tinker