Make Your First Step the Best One
Tom’s philosophy is to guide his customers through the intricate steps that get them started in their online presence. Web-based marketing is evolving daily, and you need some experienced guidance to set yourself on the right path. Social media just isn’t enough. Your followers want to get a more in-depth understanding of you than they would get by scrolling through posting-date-ordered pictures and articles.
Having Fun Yet?
Tom has created and maintained websites using Magento, Word Press, Shopify and Squarespace.
Squarespace makes the best first impression. That’s why he is using it here. While Squarespace does support e-Commerce, supporting a wide variety of products and having daily or weekly specials gets “clunky.” Originally famous for weddings / engagements, it allows for RSVP’s and awesome photo displays.
Word Press began as a blogging platform and its roots are deep. Followers are gained because you are creating interesting content, so, first impressions are not as important. Handling comments is. Their WooCommerce integration allows for the sale of products, but the setup is intense and time-consuming.
Shopify is an emerging sales platform that has payment and shipping modules built right in. For a smaller seller, with a limited number of color and size variations, this could be a good choice. Shipping labels and integration with Stamps.com means this online “store” can be run on your kitchen table.
Magento is truly a seller’s platform with the ability to schedule “sales” in advance, to create bundles and full integration with an accounting system. Although not prohibitively expensive to begin, you should expect to spend money, and invest in several weeks of work to set it up; and, these integrations may also require you to maintain monthly maintenance fees. Customers can set up an account, save payment information and easily re-order based on their previous activity. There is ability to exploit abandoned carts, too.