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