Ecommerce Today,

OK I have been playing with Magento for quite a while now and tonight I have offically given up.  The software seems very promising, but it is just not for me.  I am working off a shared hosting platform and that has really caused isuues with running magento.  I you had a dedicated server and alot of time and knowledge magento might be a good fit.  It is not a good fit for me at this time.  I have moved on and lookin for a new host.  I am working on some free trails right now to see what I like.  I will report back t this blog with my findings.

The downside of using eBay is that when a customer Wins an Item, They make it not available for Purchase by someone else,  but they don’t pay for it till later.  In some cases that can be a few days or more. The more and more I use Ebay.  The more and More I see wasted time.  Wasted time for me is expensive.  If you bought your inventory on Credit, a $300 item is costing you additional .006 every day, plus storage and Lost time that it could have been sold to some one else.

After black Friday comes Cyber Monday.  But all those Cyber Monday sales seem to be lasting all week or even longer.

I have found good results with posting to ebay this time of year.  Items that normally do not get any bid until the last few hours have been getting high bids early on and Buy it now is equally sucsessful.

I have also addes selling with Amazon on a few items, but Amazon’s restrictions on what I can charge for shipping is hurting.  I recently sold an item that Amazon would only pay 5 dollarsfor shipping but the shipping easliy cost me over $9.00.  Getting customers to buy from my own store is the most profitable for me, but you can’t deny the coverage you get from listing items on ebay and Amazon.

Magento’s complex design system has really hampered the launch of the new site. It is now a back burner project and using eBay has become more main stream for me. 

The killer with eBay is the fees.  The listing and paypal fee really cut in to any profit to be had.  The eBay market is intense and certain products can sell very quickly. 

Google also posted their SEO starter guide . 

This is a must read for any estore owner or blogger.   

As I outlined in my last Magento Commerce post , I have started down the path of using Magento as my Shopping cart on one of my sites.  Magento is not for Joe Schmoe who just wants to sell stuff fast.  To get Magento to work and look properly you must know HTML and XML. Even better if you know php, css, and java script.  Since I am not expert in these areas, but know a little I have come up with a plan.

I will edit and generate HTML that I need using the free WYSIWYG editor Komposer .  I feel that I can get the site looking respectable and functional by my self.  Once the site is working and back to generating a little money I will hire a professional web design company to redo the design for a more customized look and feel.

Magento is great free software full of features that you can’t find on other open source platforms. Magento is not a quick and easy store that you can put up in an hour or two.  It is going to take days or even weeks of programming to get it right, but after that it seems like it is easy to maintain.

There is more to come about my adventures with Magento.

I have been using a Virtuemart for Joomla for quite a while.  I was never fully satisfied with it’s layout and functionality and it’s code was too clumsy to easily modify.  So I set off to find a replacement.  I was originally looking for a paid full service host,  but then I found Magento.

Magento is an open source eCommerce platform that is built and supported by Varien. Magento has a very nice interface and many top level features.  It is one of the only open source platforms that I have seen in use by major companies.

The download and install on the store on my linux host was easy and straight forward.  I had a sample store up and running in no time. Now, I have to customize the site and make it uniquely PeakRacer.

In the next installment I will share some store setup tips.  Subscribe to the RSS Feeds Here .

Research and Markets has done a great story on the future of eCommerce in China.

The China Business to consumer e-commerce market is still in it’s infancey stage.  Most Companies there do not consider e-commerce as a primary channel for sales and have not invested in it’s development.  As China’s Middle class continues to boom  this tren is going to change and we will see tremdous online growth.

Look for China as a source for your next customer rather than only your supplier.

Iventa , a Commerce Planet, Inc. Company will become it’s own Publicy traded company.

According to the company’s press relaease,  Iventa will be givien a new name and they plan on being a leading provider of eCommerce solutions in the entertainment, community networking and small business markets. Iventa is currently serving enterprise clients in the lifestyle and entertainment industries. Rhino Records, SonyBMG, Warner Music Group, are just a few of thier big hitters.  They also work with numerous clubs and associations.

The economy is in the dumps right now, but all sources say that ecommerce is going to increase by 25% a year for the next 5 years.  That is amazing growth and that means every business should be doing some type of selling online if they want to survive.

I run a few ecommerce sites and I will be sharing my experiences here with you.

For those that don’t know what ecommerce is, it is simply selling your product or service online over the internet.