Monthly Archives: March 2017

Services

How much should I pay for a Website?

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How much should I pay for a Website?

I wish there was an easy answer. Too many factors to consider including your pocketbook so let’s dig into it.

  1. The nature of the website? Is the aim of the website to present you and what you can do, or an ecommerce site where you will sell your products? Trust us, they are quite different. A presentation website is fairly simple whereas ecommerce sites require various plugins and the integration of a shopping cart and a payment gateway. Drop shipping may be involved, use of API’s to send order information to suppliers, download tracking information and provide customers timely details on the status of their order. Even a simple ecommerce site will cost you over $1,000 and the more complex ones cost well over $10,000. The more complicated the site, the more it is going to cost.

  2. Do you need the services of a web developer, web designer or both? Is a custom design absolutely necessary? In some cases, existing templates can be bought for a small fixed cost and tweaked by a web developer till they meet your needs. A custom layout is a different story. It takes more time to design and setup everything hence the cost will be higher on custom sites. But a custom design well set you apart from the cookie cutter websites and if that is what your objective is then you must go for a custom design.

  3. Domain and hosting costs. Domain names are usually bought for an entire year and then renewed annually whereas hosting is a monthly cost. If traffic to your website grows, which is a good thing, your hosting cost will also increase.

  4. Plugins: This may or may not be another substantial cost for your website depending on whether you use the free or premium versions. The more complex your website, the more plugins you may need.

  5. SEO. What is the use of a website if it does not show in search engine results? Interested parties will not be able to find out about what you do simply because few bother to look past the first few pages of search results. So, investing in SEO will definitely prove to be a smart decision.

  6. PPC: Pay Per Click. If you have the funds to invest, you can draw traffic to your website through Pay Per Click advertising. The more traffic you want, the more you spend.

  7. Content. Again, this will largely depend on what your website is for. You may or may not require the services of a content writer. Whether you hire content writers or not, you must plan to add content. You need to keep your website fresh looking with new content.

  8. Time. How much time do you have. If you must have your website up and running in a couple of weeks, you cannot have a custom website. You have to go the template route and later on when time allows, develop a new custom website.

  9. Demographics: Who are you catering to? Seniors or young families, millennials or veterans, athletes or nerds. Then design accordingly. If you don’t, your demographics may find the website unattractive and click away.

  10. Upscale, mid range or economy: If you are targeting a well heeled clientele but your website looks like Walmart, you will turn off your customers. Likewise, if your target market is penny pinchers but your website looks like a million dollars, you will scare customers away.

  11. Regional, National or Global: Yes it matters especially if you are selling globally. A simple thing like inches or centimeters helps customers relax and be at ease with your website. You may need to list prices in multiple currencies and even have multi-lingual versions of your website.

Based on the above points, do your homework and then discuss your budget with your web developer and see what is possible and what is not. If you really have only $500, ask your developer if he can make you a very simple informational website. If on the other hand if you have money to spend, make sure you emphasize your requirements and not the cost. Let the web development company focus on design and development and come up with a realistic estimate.

Now you don’t have to do it all at once. You can do it in stages. For example, in Phase I, you can create a simple but high quality informational website. In Phase II, you can integrate a CRM. In Phase III, you can add ecommerce. In Phase IV, you can integrate drop shipment. This way you can grow your website just as your business grows and as revenues start flowing in you divert part of the incoming funds to improve your website.

I hope you found the article helpful. If you think we can help you, call us or fill out the contact form. Let’s us help you with your website.

Services

Shopify Ecommerce Developers –Columbus- Ohio

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Shopify Ecommerce Developers serving Columbus- Ohio and beyond

Shopify is increasingly becoming popular among ecommerce websites. It’s a hosted solution, that is, you setup your website on Shopify’s servers and that takes the hassles of server management out of the picture. One less headache for the small business owner.

Online Store Maintenance
Online Store Maintenance
Shopify Ecommerce website

Another reason Shopify is getting popular is the speed and ease with which you can setup your ecommerce website. There are quite a few templates available to get you started quickly. A lot simpler than many of it’s open source brethren like OpenCart, Magento, Os Commerce etc.

So is your Shopify website delivering?

Shopify developers / experts / webmasters
Shopify Developers

You have good products, you have competitive prices yet you are not selling much. Why? Either you have no traffic or your website stinks.

Ecommerce sales are projected to grow to 434.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2017. Will you be able to capture your share of it?

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Ecommerce Sales

You would agree that most websites look like cookie cutter templates – right? Then why do people keep doing it? Maybe they don’t know any better. Maybe they think it’s expensive to have an elegant design.
What’s expensive is all those lost customers who come to your website and quickly click away.

Then there are savvy people like you who want to improve their websites and their user experience but don’t have the skills in-house to make the necessary changes. It’s hard to find Shopify developers and they are expensive at $60 to $70/hour even if you do get lucky. Paying them that kind of salary on an on-going basis may be more than your business can justify. What to do? When a job goes unfilled, projects get delayed. Delays cost you money and lost opportunities.

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Shopify Ecommerce example

That’s where we at Interloper, Inc. come in handy. You can hire us at a fraction of the price and we don’t have to be on your payroll for ever.
We provide you the resources you need. You still remain in charge and in control – you get your job done at a lower cost and on time.
Accolades and a leg up over your competition may follow.

Sometimes you may look at competitors websites and they look beautiful and generate more business. You wish your website looked that good and delivered results. You can have an even better looking site given the right talent. Generally we first assign you one of our creative designers who works with you to put together a design that reflects your vision for your website, looks elegant and professional and most importantly meets the expectations of the type of customers you are trying to attract. After that, we hand it over to our developers to integrate the design into the backend and incorporate all the necessary functionalities. We do it this way because you get better results by putting specialists on the job rather than letting one person do everything. Contact us
– we can only help. Whether you are in Columbus- Ohio or elsewhere in the world, we can help you.

At Interloper, Inc. our roots are in E-Commerce and it continues to
be the strongest part of our business. We ensure that your Shopify site is SEO ready, analytics and site map plugins are installed, payment and shipping integration is in place, and it has all the components necessary to conduct ecommerce in a safe and efficient manner.

What are the keys to an effective website?

1. Function – it must operate smoothly both for the customer and for the administrator.
2. Visual appeal – design is important. A visually appealing website makes the customer feel more comfortable about the company and it’s products.
3. User experience – Make it easy for a customer to find the information he needs, make it easy for him to place an order and build a follow up mechanism to stay in touch with the customer so he feels reassured that he is good hands.

Let us help you make the most of our Shopify website and do more business at a lower cost. Translation – greater profitability. Call or email us.

Ebay data entry product listing services
Ebay data entry
Shopify Ecommerce Columbus- Ohio, USA

We can also help you build customer follow up functionalities for your Shopify website that build customer loyalty and can generate additional revenues.

For future maintenance also, you don’t have to advertise and spend precious time going over resumes. You just let us know and we provide the right Shopify resources. Your job gets done economically, without hassle and on time while you focus on doing what you do best – running.

Serving Columbus- Ohio and clients worldwide.

Another service that we offer our Shopify clients is creating and
uploading product feeds to Google Shopping, Rakuten.com, eBay, Amazon, Shopzilla, Price Grabber, Shopping.com and Sears.com. The more customer exposure you give your products, the better the chances of making a sale. Whether you are based in the Greater Columbus- Ohio, USA or elsewhere in the world, thanks to the internet, we can help you with your Shopify ecommerce site. Give us a call – you’ll be glad you did!