I have a customer asking for an ecommerce website.
WordPress + Divi has served me well in the past for basic marketing/promo websites for small businesses, but this customer wants something more involved. The main features I am not familiar with are:
1. They want a shop on their website
2. They currently sell on eBay and want to integrate it to minimise duplicate workload
As I am most familiar with WordPress it makes sense to stick with that as a platform, so Woocommerce as the plugin for the online shop is probably the way I’ll go. It’s well known, it’s supported, there’s lots of YouTube videos, etc. Makes for an easier first time use.
The eBay integration is where I’m falling down. The customer sells used car parts and has between 3000 and 5000 parts listed on eBay at any moment. While they have lots of products, their income is modest in comparison as the parts are reasonably priced as they’re used. Solutions that have quantity limitations, or ‘cost per…’ setups are therefore not going to be feasible.
Is duplicate workload (having to list items on their website and listing on eBay too) going to be a pill they’ll have to swallow with a limited budget/ongoing funds, or is it possible on a budget if you have the right tools? And to that end, can anyone offer advice on how they tackled a similar project and what tools worked well?
Another limitation is that I don’t have the money to buy-to-try products. Free trials would be OK, but again they pull on resource in terms of time investigating which works and what each can do. So some first-hand experience here would be useful.
For those of you who think I’m a worryer, you’re quite right. I’m actually autistic, so this project is one I really want to take on as I know the challenge will be good for me in the long term, but as someone who struggles with change and decision-making, I’m finding that first step tough.
I have been honest with the customer about my limited experience in ecommerce and will be charging them with that in mind if I take the work. This is more about making a proposal for the project that I know I can follow through on and deliver an excellent result. It’s just who I am – I want to do good work for them.
Anyway. Thank you for your time and support.
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This is not cheap, nor is it going to be free without a lot of programming knowledge. You can get the free version of WP-Lister to pull products back and forth from WooCommerce to eBay, but it does not synchronize sales without the pro version of the plugin (which is the most important part). It’s $50 a month or $299 a year. Building a custom plugin to function this way is going to cost a lot more and take months to develop.
I wouldn’t charge less than $5,000 and I would also charge them a monthly service contract. This is not a set it and forget it job. This is going to require constant maintenance from you.
You can’t dodge 5000 products. You can’t dodge 10000 products if you’re duplicating… It’s quite the hassle for just one guy.
As much as I do love WP & WC, they might be better with Shopify.
Check out: [https://apps.shopify.com/ebay-integration](https://apps.shopify.com/ebay-integration)
Import products from eBay to Shopify.
Then two way sync everything and let shopify do all the heavy lifting.
With the amount of products your cleint has, and they are on a limited budget, I don’t see how you’ll be able to get them on a VPS with enough power to run such an operation or if they would dare do it all manual.
Shopify seems to be better for your situation.
Are you a developer? If yes, just create a plugin where in the settings they fill in their eBay account details and other things you need.
Then adapt WooCommerce, hook into the function of adding a new product (dont know how it goes, havent done WP for awhile) and just as soon as you add a new product, get those details and then via some Rest API of eBay or RPC or whatever thet offer, go insert the product there too. Or maybe don’t do it everytime a new product is created but in the Admin panel have a feature “Clone to eBay” or so, and then take all products not yet synced, and create them in ebay or wherever they need to.
About a project estimation, I’m not sure but since it would take a few weeks(at least), I’d say setup quickly an eBay site and check how you can connect to it and add products. Then use a WP plugin boilerplate and just add some Product to your eBay site with hardcoded data. Then after this you would have a better idea how long it would take and what problems might occur.
Good luck!
Source: Dev with 10+ years of experience on web.
Check out Codisto – The best multichannel plugin for WC I’ve tried. Getting approval for the trademarks and GTIN exceptions if they manufacture is the hardest part of this whole set up. I also recommend Smart Manager by Store Apps for dealing with more than 1000 products. Allows for batch edits and will save you so much time.
If you want to build it with future proofing in mind, ditch Divi and move to a FSE block theme and Gutenberg. Blocks are basically the same as the Divi Builder, but with a way faster DOM. Anyone who is resistant to using them is stuck in the past. Avoid Flatsome and Enfold as well as they aren’t compatible with all WP and WC plugins and aren’t going to add functionality if you find a bug. I’d recommend Storefront with Storefront Pro and Storefront Blocks plugins.
Stay Way from Divi
I would charge them between 5k and 10k. If you want I can help. I have a WordPress design agency among other projects.
i see absolut no problem with the wordpress woocommerce divi route for this case – i do webdesign almost 20 years now – and thats the best way. no shopify is just the “lazy” way – because with this system you cannot customize the shop as well as with wp…
btw woocommerce has a plugin for connecting wc and ebay 🙂
p.s i had wc shops with up to 15’000 products and that works without a problem (but you need a good hosting no a cheap one)
I’m saying this with the best intentions, but this isn’t a job you should take imo. WordPress isn’t the right tool for this and with your limited experience with web development you could potentially end up with a unsatisfied client. Sometimes good consulting is also knowing your own limitations and refering to someone that can get the job done better than you.
What people don’t tell you about Shopify is that it is a tax on stupid people. Where Shopify takes a percentage of every item sold. That is even before the credit card processing fees and to add insult tot injury if you think WordPress plugins are expensive, wait and start using the Shopify plugins where you will be paying per month.
I am more than happy to send you the article on why you should never use Shopify.
There are a lot of multi channel selling tools out there, including many for woocommerce and one specially for woo-eBay for $199 a year.
https://webappick.com/best-woocommerce-multichannel-selling-plugins/
Sorry can’t help with reccomending one but if you read reviews and documentation you should be able to find one that fits your clients needs.
Best of luck