The Tale of CMSI have long wanted to write an article and share my thoughts on creating an online store. I have some experience with them and therefore the prepared information can be useful to a number of readers. Immediately I will warn you that the
article is more likely for newbies in this business and people who want to open their own business in the field of e-commerce, but do not know how.
It is impossible to describe all stages in one article - from idea to realization. For the curious, I note that the
article by Arthur Welf is very good in the Kommersant Money magazine (I cite a link to Habra, because there is a useful discussion of the material). In the material, he offers an excellent analysis of the market for e-commerce in the field of home appliances and electronics. But this is only an analysis, a small calculation. The article did not set goals to create a guide to action. I'll try to get to the point. In my first article, I will cover the issue of choosing the engine for the site (in a scientific way - site management systems, CMS).
')
PreambleWe must remember that online commerce is not only teapots and microwaves, laptops and televisions. In the field of e-commerce there is the same small business, medium business and large. There are many areas of trade. I offer my classification.
Small business is engaged in the trade of T-shirts, badges, a small assortment of souvenirs, erotic toys and something similar. Such a business can be done without interrupting your main job. Very often, I heard from my acquaintances and partners how they opened small stores without some office: they hired one person who processed orders, delivered them and kept accounts. For example, one friend of mine opened a sex shop. His wife performs all the functions described above, and he monitors advertising, is responsible for the technical part of the site. Some kind of warehouse right in the apartment. A perfect representation of a small family business, isn't it?
There is another example. The manager of a wholesale company decided to open his own mobile phone retailer. The assortment I chose was the same as at its main place of work, made the site, filled it with goods. He, as a specialist in his market segment, keeps track of the assortment, can offer not only good prices, but also make money by selling no less than the others (he receives discounts as an employee of the company). Delivery and processing of orders is engaged in another person. Again business for two. There are many such examples now. Any “mobile store” is just their brainchild, managers.
As a matter of fact, such a small, or rather “small” business is in many respects an illegal occupation. I will not go into details, but I assure you that such things will soon become impossible: either the competitors, or the law in the person of its overseers. Small business in the field of e-commerce should "rise" to the next step and move into the category of medium-sized businesses.
Medium business . Here we are talking about real investment, albeit relatively small - from 400 000 rub. and higher. To open a store with a turnover of millions of rubles, a permanent office and a staff of employees, it will require both the constant employment of its manager and a structural approach. Such stores enter into contracts with suppliers, create delivery departments, customer service (call center), and are engaged in sales purposefully.
A separate
business is big business . And talking about him seems to be like it makes no sense, since getting into it with a rush will not work - this is absurd. Large companies have their long history of development and maybe someone who has just started with a small investment in 5-7 years will come close to a new frontier with completely different turns, regional expansion, etc., etc.
So, it is absolutely clear that barriers in this market are becoming less and less, and trust in online commerce is growing. So now online stores breed like rabbits.
***And now, after such a significant preamble, let us return to what we started with - the first step - the choice of CMS.
One of the most important issues for creating an online store is website creation. How to build it? You need to do just three steps:
1. Select CMS.
2. Design and design pages.
3. Configure the server, site and fill it (the site) with content.1. Choosing a CMSWebsite online store can be done in three ways:
* order the development of a team of programmers and write a store "from scratch";
* order a store based on a free CMS;
* Order a store based on a paid CMS.
What to choose?
Usually it happens like this: the project initiator goes to his friend programmer or admin, or maybe just to a friend who understands computers or web technologies and consults with him and most likely completely trusts his choice. The project initiator agrees rather out of ignorance (often the future director is a manager, not a technician) and further this process becomes uncontrollable. Why? A familiar programmer's initiative and interest disappears quickly and the project dies, because a lot of money is spent, and the result is zero. This is a common mistake, I have met it many times, and I want to warn those who are taking the first steps in e-commerce.
When choosing a solution, you need to seriously think about the following parameters:
* How many partners, the so-called "implementers", have experience with the selected solution.The number of partners can be judged on the quality of the system. Someone will say that this is just a marketing developer, but we can safely say that they will not work with a bad product, no matter how it is unwound. In addition, the creation of a network of partners requires financial investments or a very competent approach to the market. This is only a plus for CMS - whatever one may say.
* The quality of the services of these companies.View the developer partner portfolio. If among them there are many standing companies with large projects, then the developer should be trusted.
* Functionality.The more features a CMS offers, the more comfortable you are. Your development will not be hampered by the initially meager functionality of the site. Look in the portfolio exactly those sites that most closely match your vision. If there are none, then it may be worth looking for among other developers.
* Extensibility.Extensibility is the ability to add new modules. The possibility with the help of partners of the developer to add the necessary module from scratch is also important here. If the system is simple and logical, then there will be no problems with it.
* Security.In business, the most important thing is safety and reliability. The more stable the site, the more you earn.
* Updatability.Gaps in security are inevitable, but timely updating reduces this danger to zero. Updates are often also extended to new features, changes in the logic of the CMS, and other essential attributes.
* Customizable.The ability to set a discount in the store is functional. The ability to make a discount immediately on the entire group of products is customizable. The richer the customization, the better the system - you have more options.
* Cost.The cost of the system is often poorly related to the functionality. Other things being equal, you can safely choose a cheaper solution, because it does not affect the quality. And remember that to overpay for what you do not need and is unlikely to come in handy once - a completely useless exercise.
* Technical requirements.The more voracious the CMS, the more you will have problems with its work. The increase in traffic and site content will affect the stability of work, followed by warnings from the hosting, which can lead to critical situations. It is better to eliminate such a risk in advance by checking the system reviews for high tech. requirements.
* Documentation.Documentation is needed in order to independently and quickly cope with tasks, in order to entrust the site management to a person unfamiliar with the system, but who will have the opportunity to easily learn thanks to the documentation. Documentation may not be at all, and may be completely unworked.
* Friendliness.Friendly or not site - this is a subjective question. The device administration panel should not create additional problems with management, and the user part - problems with the choice and purchase. If you can easily adjust the arrangement of elements with the help of a designer, then the process logic is unlikely without additional programming.
Now let's talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the above site solutions.
Development order from a team of programmers from scratchMore often, the development team already has a “core for all solutions”, and then they are starting to cheat on it. This core is often an old forgotten CMS project that no one liked, or a university thesis from one of the developers or office owners. The site of their studio often has a small portfolio of the best works.
Pros:+ After thinking, all the advantages turned into minuses.
Minuses:- you will need a lot of time to write TK for development;
- it takes a lot of time to develop functionality that can be difficult to reproduce in a programming language;
- the site, most likely, will constantly “break”, because the developer will not have time to optimize the code;
- The site can often "break" as soon as your attendance will begin to envy;
- you will dream of a new functionality, but dreams are unlikely to materialize, because new modules to the system will, again, be written from scratch, which is quite expensive;
- most likely, you will be strongly attached to the developers (in all senses), because only they know how it all works (this is also a sentence);
- there are no updates - the developer passed the order and forgot;
- the cost of such a decision due to the fact that your requirements may change to be astronomical;
- often there is no documentation (it reduces the cost of development);
- friendliness will tend to zero - the project is being tested on you and, possibly, on other clients, so it will take a long time before everything is done at the proper level.
Total score: 0 / -10Many disadvantages can disappear if the functionality is limited to a catalog with two levels of nesting, and the name of the product and the picture to its text description. This is perhaps the only option when the decision to "write from scratch" is justified.
In general, the "self-made" store will be very expensive and lead to the fact that your business will be unprofitable.
Store order on a free CMSThe more popular free CMS, the greater the coefficient that can be put next to the advantages, but the greater the coefficient next to the minuses.
Pros:+ A lot of companies are ready to start creating a store - you will not have an end to those who want to do this for quite a little money;
+ A large number of free add-ons and modules;
+ large communities ready to support and help you with a problem or advice - replacing paid technical support, but no one guarantees that they will answer and help you here;
+ The older the version of the system, the more and more it improves, but at one fine moment its development may stop (the fuse will dry up) - this must be remembered;
+ free.
Minuses:- a lot of vulnerabilities, up to critical ones, which increases the risk of being left without profit at all because of a non-working site - the only source of customers in the online store;
- the site is constantly subject to hacking due to the fact that the system has been studied far and wide, and its security level is low;
- expansion of functionality is possible with the involvement of third-party technical specialists, but it is extremely difficult to carry out;
- updates are likely to be installed manually, rather than automatically, and come out with a delay;
- lack of official technical support;
- there may be no documentation or be incomplete;
Total score: + 5 / -6The most popular solutions on the following free CMS:
* Drupal
* Joomla (and VirtueMart module)
* osCommerce
* Shop-Script
and many others.
The main disadvantage of free CMS is their popularity and knowledge. Everyone has access to them: you can freely download and dissect, the code is open! On the one hand, popularity plays into the hands, and on the other hand, it closes access for free CMS to the business where the site is the main actor.
Store order on a paid CMSMore money was invested in commercial systems, which means that qualified specialists worked on them, the systems were tested, they were created more according to user needs. Their main goal - like the client.
Pros:+ unconditional technical support: all arising questions, problems are solved by specialists;
+ regular updates, eliminating possible errors;
+ upgrade system to newer versions with new functionality;
+ The paid solution does not create unforeseen server loads, stably and predictably: it has a more refined and perfect code, tested and tested by experts;
+ in a paid solution, all actions that a buyer will have to perform are optimized, because serious developers care about high usability;
+ the paid solution has already implemented all the functionality that may be needed, and adding a new one will be as simple and convenient as possible;
+ High-quality commercial CMS are alienable. That is, you do not lose independence and can change one regular programmer to another;
+ complete documentation that describes all the processes and mechanisms of the system.
Minuses:- it is paid;
- Some CMS suffer from chronic diseases - they are all different. Here it is important to identify the level of severity of these diseases for you as a customer. For example, not all solutions have full integration with 1C.
Total score: + 8 / -2The most popular solutions are on the following paid CMS (sorted by the cost of the minimum solution for the e-store):
* Amiro.CMS 18,990r.
* 1C-Bitrix 24 900r.
* NetCat 21 280
* UMI.CMS 20 790r.
and many others.
When I initiate a project, regardless of its complexity, I choose a ready-made commercial solution. There are no problems with it - isn’t it for a person who is willing to invest money?
I recommend to continue studying paid and free CMS on the site
www.cmslist.ru . Here you can see reviews, compare different systems in terms of functionality, chat with knowledgeable people.
2. Design and layoutThe next step in which you need to describe how your site will look, what you want to see on it and give this task to the design team and the web designers, who will draw the sketch and then impose it on the site (i.e. make a template for CMS, which can be installed).
The design can be ordered either from the studio or from a freelancer, whose work is usually cheaper. Any CMS (both paid and free) is strikingly better because it has a site design management setting, where you can change templates in one go - all that remains is to develop them.
A freelancer template design averages 15 000r. (3 pages) + 1500R. for the following pages. Layout template 6000r. (3 pages) + 1000r. for the following pages.
Pricing at the studio will be strikingly different and may be more than two or more times. For comparison, a freelancer with a little experience and imagination is ready to make a design and layout for 15 000 rub., And in the Petersburg studio for a slightly more qualified work they will take 35,000 rub.
The prices are given specifically for online stores, but they can differ dramatically from each other: it all depends on your success in searching for the performer of your order.
For search freelancers recommend using
* site
www.free-lance.ru .
To search for studios:
* section "Find a site developer" on the site of the selected CMS;
* advertisements for search queries in the Yandex system (“website development”, “website design”).
3. TuningAnd at the end of the creation of the website of the online store, set up the server and the site, fill it with content and, if necessary, integrate with 1C, if you plan to use it in contact with the site.
Server configuration depends on the selected CMS. Some of them are famous for the fact that they require large resources (sometimes a dedicated server or a special tariff plan - 1C-Bitrix is ​​already there for everyone), and some, on the contrary, are very flexible and not demanding.
Setting up the site depends on your experience, the complexity of the system. Perhaps you can do it yourself, or you can give it to the developer. This service will cost about 1500-2000r. However, you can set up any paid CMS on your own, if necessary, by requesting help desk support.
Slightly more complicated is the content of the site with goods. If you are going to sell goods that do not require a description, then they will be enough to take a picture, if for some reason you do not have photos. You can hire a student who is fond of photography - with a certain skill for him it will be easy.
If you trade in equipment where an extended description is simply necessary, then you will need a serious content. It is good that there is enough information on technology on the Internet and it is enough to simply copy it to yourself from reliable sources. The cost per hour for a content manager is $ 100 ... At one hour, he manages to fill up to 10-12 products. The cost of entering information of a single product in this way is about 10 p. Count!