Friday, September 01, 2023
When I first decided (September 2021) to go online with my own ecommerce shop WiredShops I was very excited about the prospect. The entry I posted as a new shop owner.
I had several limiting factors:
- Website cost
- Domain Registration Costs
- Hosting
- Custom Site Design
- Listing Products
- Inventory Costs
- Time Available For This New Business Activity
I cannot say this online shop is a failure, because I love the fact I own it and my cost to own is/was very low.
The time it took to populate the shop was expensive and I use the API service offered by my drop shipper which is not as straight forward as I would like. I did not use a service like Shopify, which in most cases has an associated cost, whereas the API does not- other than my time. Coming up to speed on the OpenCart software was not as time consuming.
That said, I have only had one sale and that- because I asked a relative to ensure my cart/payment hookups were working. They are.
I also tested with the Paypal sandbox cart however, sometimes the results seemed to vary, the reason I tested with an actual sale. I believe there is unlawful interference with this business venture. I have asked DOJ to look into this.
- I registered the wired-shops.com for about $10 a year. wiredshops.com was available, however a lot more expensive.
- I installed the custom OpenCart site design myself.
- I decided drop shipping- at the time, was a more cost effective solution.
- The actual inventory acquisition costs were low.
So why have I decided to revisit my efforts in this area?
Lately, I have made a lot of garden salads and decided I needed a salad spinner.
I checked with my drop shipper and found a spinner I thought would also be
perfect for my online shop. Now, keep in mind, I have done some research since
the pandemic and knew shipping costs had been affected by the global issue and
then more recently- inflation rates. So I was sort of prepared for the new
shipping rates. Are you, if you are thinking about opening a shop?

I also found the salad
spinner I liked on Amazon. I think I am going to
place an order with Amazon for my personal use and to ensure the quality is
what I expect.
