How (Not?) to Set Up an e-Commerce Web Site

How (Not?) to Set Up an e-Commerce Web Site

Have you ever watched Monk on television? If so, you’ve noticed he’s very particular (to say the least!), and he has problems making decisions. Actually, I guess he doesn’t have problems with making decisions, because he simply can’t make them.

Well, for several years, my wife and I had been wanting to change our web site from the archaic, HTML-based version that had served us well for so many years to a glitzy, glamorous e-commerce solution replete with a shopping cart, automatic shipping calculation, on-line payment acceptance, etc., etc.

We searched and searched, at first just looking for tools to cobble into our existing web site. Later we searched for an entirely new full-service provider. Like Diogenes looking for an honest man, we plodded along, seeking the perfect solution.

Perfection, however, was evasive. This site lacked this; that site lacked that; this one too hot; this one too cold. At a trade show two years ago, we thought we found two excellent choices. Infopia was too pricey, but was acknowledged as the Mercedes-Benz within the industry. (For our lower-priced figurines we would have lost money on each sale.) We reluctantly rejected them without a trial. MarketWorks seemed the second-best alternative, and we took them for a 30-day test drive. 31 days later we cancelled our arrangement and resumed our search for the ideal e-commerce site. (For one thing, the MarketWorks people never heard of the word “security” or how to apply it in an IT environment. On top of everything, they billed us $.95 for that extra day beyond the 30-day test, which I thought was chintzy.)

At the trade show, we had also investigated a company called ProStores. (We actually investigated six or eight different e-commerce providers.) I dredged up their literature, gave them a call, and opened an account.

At first I was frustrated. With 1500 SKUs (at that time – now we’re over 2000 SKUs), I didn’t want to have to key everything in from scratch. Had I had only a few dozen SKUs, brute force would have saved time. However, with so many SKUs and so many fields associated with each SKU, I wanted to import whatever information I could.

Navigating through the ProStores Store Administration area was a bit of a challenge. It’s far from intuitive. Ultimately, I read one of their 200-page manuals four times and their other 200-page manual three times. After the second reading of each and a few calls to tech support, I felt comfortable maneuvering around the Store Administration area.

I tried every import technique they offered, including some that were alleged to import from eBay. We had 600 SKUs in an eBay Store, so I hoped I could at least import this chunk to save a little time. Of course, nothing worked. The bulk importing techniques burped when they encountered HTML code. They belched when they saw the funky codes that are embedded within Microsoft Word documents. All the imports failed.

I called tech support. I had them on speed dial. I recognized a couple of them by their voices. Some of the technicians were very sharp, and some were the opposite. ProStores had just hired a bunch of new staff, and the new-hires were still learning. When I got a seasoned veteran, I would pump him or her for all the information I could learn. I made progress, but I didn’t get the store up and running before the busy selling season hit in 2006. Not wanting to throw away what little handiwork I’d accomplished to that point, I kept paying the monthly fees to ProStores until the summer of 2007.

My wife gave me an ultimatum (my mate ulti-mated me – sorry, I digress). “Get the ProStore up and running before busy season, or die a slow, painful death.” From her perspective, everything she did was manual. People would visit our old web site, send us a list of what they wanted to buy, she would compose an invoice and send it to them, and they would pay via Paypal, check, or money order. All the correspondence was via e-mail, unless the customer wanted to pay with paper. On a typical day she would get dozens of orders, plus another two dozen or more inquiries from shoppers in our eBay Store. All this correspondence was driving her mad. It was repetitive and dehumanizing on the one hand. On the other hand, she really enjoyed the interactions with people and made numerous friends over the years. This new e-commerce site with ProStores would give her her life back. At least she was clinging to that hope.

Heading into the summer of 2007, I had just about figured out everything associated with launching our ProStore. All the products were uploaded into our new store, and I just had to finalize how to handle shipping. Like Monk, I got wrapped around the axle with some very arcane shipping problems. I lost sight of the fact that a gazillion on-line retailers are selling stuff on-line, so the shipping calculations must work reasonably well. I spent quite a few hours at the ProStores booth at that same trade show in 2007 working on shipping-related matters.

Well, you may have guessed, I missed Carol’s deadline. We went sailing into our selling season in 2007 using the old web site. That winter was the coldest recorded in Oklahoma since 1889. We even had an ice storm in December. (Now, that’s a story unto itself!) I didn’t think one woman could affect the climate so dramatically. Yessir, that’s my baby!

This year there would be no excuses, only executions. Forewarned, I got the ProStore primed and ready before the annual trade show. I spent the first two mornings at the show this year speaking with the ProStores staff, finalizing the store for the grand opening. The staff was gracious. I worked with four different people this year, including one of the original software developers, so he knew the code inside and out, all the tricks, and where the skeletons were buried. We went over every setting in my store and found two that were set incorrectly. Those poor ProStores people were sick of me, I’m sure, by the time I left, but I had my store ready to open.

When I returned from the trade show (Carol decided not to go), we set the date for the switch-over. We updated our web site to warn people that we would cut over on Monday, July 7. One week before the grand reopening, we sent out 4,000 e-mail messages to our closest friends and customers. Then, this past weekend, we put the finishing touches on the new web site, updated the on-line inventory, and adjusted the home page.

On Sunday Carol recommended some last-minute changes. So I signed onto ProStores to make the changes. However, things weren’t working right. Changing between screens was taking ten minutes. (That’s worse response than when we had dial-up Internet access!) I called tech support, and they said that our server was malfunctioning, but the on-call system administrator had been called, and, as soon as he sobered up from his Fourth-of-July celebrations, he would come out and take a look. (Okay, I’m embellishing a little.)

Holy #%^$! One day till D-Day, and the &*%^*@# server isn’t working! What else can go wrong? Well, stay tuned . . .

www.lemaxvillages.com