_co_uk online-cufflinks.co.uk

[MatBrummitt]

Hi all,

I have for sale an e-commerce website selling cufflinks, which I intended to start trading with, but my time has now been diverted toward iPhone development with this project placed on hold. Therefore i'm interested to know if anyone would like to take it off my hands and make it the success I know it can be.

Online Cufflinks : Wedding Cufflinks, Novelty & more... - Online-Cufflinks

I don't hold any stock, because my intentions were to buy stock as it was ordered from the site (hence the 3 - 5 day free delivery) so you'd be buying the website content and domain name.

The site has limited products on at the moment, but more can be added to the site in bulk via an uploaded spreadsheet, if desired (or you can use the content management system to add items singularly).

The site runs on the iShop Flex content management system.

Please show your interest in this thread or by PM

Thanks

Mat

 

[orchardapple]

very nice looking site, looks very professional

Ballpark figure your looking at? PM if you want

 

[max99x]

same interested in knowing a ballpark figure

 

[MatBrummitt]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your interest. I work as a web developer for iShop where I build different shops all the time, so I guess my ballpark figure would be somewhere in the region of what we'd charge someone for the design and build of a shop, which usually equates to less than £5k.

The site comes with the fully managed and supported e-commerce system, iShop Flex - everything needed to maintain and grow the site, as well as process orders, run dispatch emails, stats and customer data, 3rd party feeds etc, exists within the iShop system so that you only ever have one place to come for support.

Also worth mentioning is that the site requires an internet merchant account with your bank in order to process payments. These are quite easily obtained with any major bank (Natwest, HSBC, Barclays etc) if you don't already have one.

Lastly, iShop Flex comes with some small charges which are preferable for small/startup businesses, since they are based on your previous month's turnover, and start at just £60 per month. This covers an aweful lot which can be discussed further. We have hundreds of merchants running on our system, including some very large businesses.

If this is still of interest please feel free to make offers by PM or in the thread, or let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks

Mat

 

[MatBrummitt]

Hey guys,

Any update on your interest in this? I'm open to offers of all sizes so don't be afraid to make them

Thanks

Mat

 

[RampageJackson]

Heres my constructive criticism on why you're still waiting on offers:

You're charging full retail for a store - but I don't get any say in what niche its in, I have no say over design, or anything else. If I wanted to pay £5000 for a store I'd rather go via your company on a new build one and have it built exactly to my spec.

Already being locked in to a specific product is a major downside - I have no interest in cuff links, I don't even own a suit and I can't remember where any of my shirts are I have no idea where to source cuff links, and I have no idea of the profit margin on them. Again, I'd rather go from scratch and sell something I had an interest in, knew something about, or knew I could source easily.

You're tying people into having a merchant account with their bank. This is a hassle and expense to set up, and most people don't have one already. Its far easier & cheaper to start a business using a Paypal system and then offer credit cards direct at a later date when you can show a bank trading history, and you know your business is working too.

I have no experience of your shopping cart system, but it seems expensive to start a shop from that might fail within 6 months. I assume anyone on this forum could have a similar looking site set up and running via Paypal shopping cart for 20% of the price. Maybe you have brilliant features and its worth the money for an already established business - but not for a startup you don't.

If I was trying to offload this, I'd be showing it around to stores who already sell this product, rather than trying to sell to random webmasters/domain owners.

Or (and I've no idea if this is possible with your system), I'd rip out the credit card processing, switch it for Paypal, offer to put a buyer in contact with whoever you were going to get your stock from, and slash the price, then you might get some interest here.

 

[MatBrummitt]

Thanks for the feedback RampageJackson.

Admittedly, in my original post I said that shop builds usually cost upto £5k. Sites like this are usually larger in size than the cufflink shop, but with a nice domain, ready-built shop and nice look I thought 5k was a fair ballpark figure which would inevitablly be haggled downwards.

Since you mention it, the iShop Flex system does have a wealth of features which more than justify any startup costs, especially since everything is under one roof unlike with many other platforms which require components of the site from multiple service providers. We are also actually in the process of integrating paypal into our system. The costs of having a merchant account are actually quite low (£15 a month typically) with smaller transaction charges than paypal charge, that's for sure!

Thanks again for the advice. I think I'll just hang onto this one for now and maybe get it running in time for christmas - it takes orders in it's current state though i'm not currently fulfilling them because I don't have the time to devote to this project right now.

Cheers

Mat

 

[orchardapple]

it takes orders in it's current state though i'm not currently fulfilling them because I don't have the time to devote to this project right now.

If an interest PM me some details and i'll review, as I run a couple of seasonal sites