Selling stuff online the only way to survive

It won't guarantee, there's too many variables, ie type of goods, competition etc, but having an online presence for an established bricks and mortar business has to be an easy win. If it's done well, the fact you have a physical presence should give you good credibility and shoppers confidence.

Thanks for the advice, i will definitely start looking into getting an online presence.

Its certainly not as black and white as being the only way to survive - that said, its is vitally important to have an online presense. Almost every industry sector has experienced a significant uplift in the proportion of business bought online. Its simply where most people now go to research and find information. I personally cant think of the last time I actually went to the high street to buy a product - unless I want to see a product before ordering for cheaper online! As above, being successfull depends on many factors ie competition and quality of site etc; however, more people now look online for their products so makes sense to have a shop online.

Having an online store will certainly help.
Many people these days use the internet to search for products and services, even if they intend to physically visit an outlet to buy.

If you decide to get a presence online, don't forget to budget for SEO as any website is only useful if it gets visitors.

What sort of price should I be looking at when setting up a online store and how many man hours could I be looking at to maintain it?

I think the most important thing is to get a content management system rather than a coded site made by a web developer. A content management system is effectively a website/online store that you can edit in easy by using pre built editors that make writing and managing content just like using Microsoft Word. Simply, it lets you do everything you need to do on your website without having any html code knowledge at all. I certainly would stay away from using a website developer that charges you for man hours. You are going to want to change your site regularly to keep up with trends in the market and you dont want to be charged for every change you make to your site. This could get very expensive.

You can go and buy a site that is bepoke built for your company needs that has a good content management system for a few thousand but as I say the advantage is you can easily manage the site content yourself with no extra costs after your site is built.

Have a look at www.kontrolit.net. That will give you an idea of what a content management system will cost and the benefits they provide

All the best!

Prices can be massively diverse depending on which company you deal with. I am happy to talk with you and let you know what we would charge to give you something for comparrison but you'd need to pm me for that.

Maintaining the store isn't difficult and shouldn't take up a lot of time, unless you change the details of products you offer constantly as this is where your own workload will be concentrated. General maintenence of the site itself should be carried out by the developer.

Some general advice

Most online stores offer pretty much the same features so you shouldn't need to worry about the actual functional side of things. However there are a few things that are determined by the company who will build and host the site for you and you should ask them what they offer in this area;

How many products and categories will you be allowed?
This figure can range from as few as 50 to an unlimited amount and even if you only intend to put a few products online now, you will need to have room to expand without extra cost so consider this when you organise a quote.

Is there any restriction on number of visitors to the site?
It's less common these days for any company to charge you a premium based on site visits, but make sure you have an unlimited package.

How much will they charge for hosting and maintenence?
Again this can be a bit of a minefield as not all designers will tell you up front and you may find you have some unexpected extras to pay for.

How much will it cost you to move to a new hosting company in future?
Most companies will retain the copyright on the work they do on the site, and quite rightly so, but they all have different charges to release that copyright so you can move hosting if they don't give you the service you want. Some can charge you thousands to prevent you from moving. Find out up front.

Is there a charge for advice or assistance should you need it?
When you buy an E commerce site you are given a password to enter the site back office. It is here that you can add and remove products, change prices and change some of the site settings. If you do something in your sites back office that changes things you didn't expect, you are likely to need some advice to remedy the problem. Some companies will charge for this so make sure your maintenence/hosting agreement covers such eventualities.

I've tried to think of everything but if you have more questions, I'm always happy to help.

I have made an on-line store through a site builder website, It's looks very good, it was affordable, it allows payments through Paypal, it is set up with Facebook shop, however the only downfall of it is, it is made using Flash, do you think this will have a massive effect on SEO?

Google does recognise it, it recognises keywords however I'm afraid it might have an effect on my rankings and serach engine visibility.

The website builder claims to be SEO friendly and I know Google are working with Adobe to help the site crawlers recognise flash better than they currently can but it could be a few years until this has been mastered.

There are certainly no guarantees in the business world, but as we move into the future, the online marketplace is quickly becoming the primary marketplace. Good luck with all your ventures.