Post edited 8:06 pm – January 31, 2010 by Steve
Thanks for the post and thanks for the question. I spent a while answering your post before but for some reason, I am not sure if it went through or not, because it it not showing up in the forum. It may have emailed you direct. Sorry about that, I'll try to recap:
Typically your going to run into 2 types of design firms (or at least the way they develop) and they work regardless of size.These are just generalizations.
1. Cookie cutter type design firms where they sell you a packaged deal. Their prices are cheaper but at the expense of their service. They make money by getting you and your site through a detailed process as fast as you can. These sites typically run in the 1-5k range. They typically outsource the work overseas, although you may have an onshore person as a liaison between you and the developers. You may get a custom design, but its typically based on templates with some customization to your preferences. You often have little choice of which shopping cart is used and you typically only have a few revisions until you have to move onto the next step. Good for beginners to get their feet wet, but long term you'll want something better.
Go to coloradowebsolutions.com or danielwooddesign.com/ to see examples of these types of sites. These sites happen to be specializing in Yahoo stores, but other web design companies cover a wide range of platforms. I have personally used coloradowebsolutions.com for one of my past stores and they did a decent job. Not excellent, but I would use them again if I needed to. The key here is to notice the packaged approach they use. $x to do 'xyz', $y for a widget x, etc. Again they want to move you through a rigid process.
2. Custom Design firms. These firms are typically smaller, but not always. They basically will talk to you a bit and then give you a quote. You typically do not see listed prices. They typically will work with what you want, but keep in mind they will often push you down a path they are familiar with if you do not have a choice. Not that that is bad, but these type of sites can nickel and dime you to death. Get a very clear, detailed contract and know exactly what is included and what isn't.
I have used both types of design firms. The cookie cutter sites are a cost effective way to get a professional design out there quick and can give you the basics, but you will eventually outgrow their services and will eventually want something bigger and better. Even with a niche site. The cookie cutter sites, typically do not have social media or blog integration unless you pay the higher end packages, and by the time you get there, you might as well went with option 2.
There is no easy way to guarantee you will find the right designer. I prefer local companies because I like sitting down with them in person, going over my requirements, and then getting a feel for them. I actually prefer going with a web design firm that is a web design firm second behind being an advertising/marketing firm. Anybody can build a nice site, but an advertising/marketing firm can make sure that design has the wording, graphics and overall feel of the site reflect your brand and target it to your target customers. That goes a long way in making you stick out amongst your peers. A nicely branded site will help prevent those cases where you have 1-2 seconds to make an impression. The site's "message" will jump out at you. (by branding I do not mean logos and letterhead, butrather the feel you get when you arrive on a site and one that is targeted at your most likely customers). You gave me some ideas to write about. I should expand on this in the blog posts. Stay tuned, I added it to my list… anyways two examples of branding popped up in my mind.
http://www.cabelas.com ; and momsmenu.com
Neither of these sites are mine although I wish cabelas was. I love that place. But visit each site and within seconds you can tell who their target market is. For cabella's, they are typically male, outdoorsy, rugged. For momsmenu, they are busy moms (notice the color schemes, graphics, portions of the site dedicated to kids in the kitchen and meal planning.)
You can sense it when you hit their site. Their sites project a message and an image.
Another thing I like is that both sites provide information above and beyond the products they sell. They give reason for visitors to come back. Its not "just" a product site. Momsmenu site should add social media like facebook and twitter because that target market is ripe when it comes to recommending things to each other and sharing experiences.
I do not know what your budget is, or what your expectations are as far as how far you want to take your site, but start small, but in a way that can expand. Grow your site as you business does. You do not need to spend more than 10k for your first store. I typically try to spend around 4-7k and build my site in phases. You do not need everything at once, especially if you are starting out, but you need a way to take it to the next level. My first site I ever build was on an all in one platform for $29.99 a month. Of course I paid nearly $60 in credit card fees since I had a bad plan, but for under $100 a month I had a basic site up and running. I only averaged $500 in sales and basically broke even for a few months until I figured out what I was doing. (I did not market much other than promote it to my eBay and Amazon customers). After a year it was grossing about 4000/month (not profit), and I decided to do a redesign. I realized my niche was not very well defined and that 4000 was coming from PPC ads which the way I was doing it, was causing me to just about break even… (it was funny, I increased my sales and my workload, and was making the same as the $500 month I was making.) It obviously wasn't working.
The only thing I can say about the all in one solutions are that they are very hard to move to another host. For example Yahoo uses a proprietary tagging format called RTML. It only works in Yahoo stores. Others do as well. To move off their platform is hard, and you often have to start over with a new design. If you go with a custom design through a custom web design firm, your site can be built to go where you go. And that is a nice thing to have. Another thing I do, but not everyone does, is I host my own sites with my own hosting providers. I do not let the design firm host it. That way, I have total control of my own site and can move it anytime I wish. I do not like a design firm holding it hostage.
Anyways, best of luck. Ask away on the forum and respond to any posts you would like further answered. The forum is new and there are not a lot of posts yet. But from site traffic we are getting over 100 unique visitors each day just on the forum page, so once some posts get posted, I imagine a few may jump in.
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