I've just sold my digital marketing agency based in London, UK. We had clients in 4 continents - some being global corporations.
Listen when I tell you you're going about this the wrong way. I'll answer your questions first.
Do you recommend using a platform (bigcommerce) or hiring someone to build a custom site?
Any feature you need from your site will already be built in to the main shopping carts or available as a paid plugin/add-on. Getting a custom backend built for a site is overkill 99% of the time. As you're new to this it definitely is. Custom backends require constant maintenance to ensure your site stays safe from attacks, plus if there's bugs/problems/you need a new feature built later down the line you only have 1 person to turn to who knows the system inside out. Going with an existing cart will mean you have hundreds of freelancers on hand who can help and you know your site will be constantly updated to adhere to the latest security policies etc.
I recommend Shopify if you're looking for a hosted solution and Magento for self-hosted. If you're unsure of the difference go with Shopify. It's incredibly easy to set-up and manage and is infinitely scalable - simple enough for a beginner to learn on yet won't restrict you later down the line during periods of growth.
Do you recommend using middle men drop shippers (Doba)? Which one?
No. You're building a business. You're giving a crucial aspect of your business away by doing so.
Will they ship your products on time? Will they brand the packaging in your name? Will they slip in a flyer or 2 of their own so your customer can go direct next time? Will they allow you to put marketing material in with the order to increase brand awareness, customer retention and encourage repeat orders? Who handles returns? What volume of orders can they handle per day?
I've lost count of the number of times 'White Label Dropshippers' have burnt clients by stealing their customers. If you want to be successful in this business you need to commit. Scared of MOQ from wholesalers because you're not sure the business will work so you think drop shipping is the perfect solution, right?
'100% No Risk, Your Own Online Business Overnight!™'
It's a pipe dream. Don't buy in. They target people like you - new to the industry that want to jump on the internet money making phenomenon. Of course, there are exceptions...which brings us to your next question.
If not what are some suggestions for finding legitimate manufacturers or wholesalers?
Build relationships. Find local businesses/manufacturers with a great product that don't have the know-how to take it online. Any wholesale/dropship directory is a waste of your time. That product has probably been through 4/5 different middlemen with each one taking a slice of your margin. Take a good look at the prices on those directories and places like Alibaba etc. Then look what the product is selling for on eBay. Minus eBay's fees, Paypal's fees, shipping, packaging and I bet you won't even be able to come close to that pricing without making a loss on each unit.
Go direct, build relationships and offer them what they can't do themselves. By the way, no one will tell you where to find a good wholesaler on the internet. The ones worth anything don't advertise, don't have websites and you won't find them anywhere online.
The other option is to build a brand and manufacture your own branded product. It doesn't have to be better than everything else out there and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. If you build your brand properly the perceived value will mean you can charge more than the competition and have full control over the entire process...ie.
you can build an actual business.
Do you do your SEO manually or use a software?
First of all, don't build your site for the search engines, think bigger. Building an entire business resting on another company is a flawed business plan. But that's a post in it's own right.
I can tell from your question that you're out of your depth here. The days of SENuke spamming 100k links overnight as part of a link pyramid, keyword stuffing h1 tags and ranking for 'payday loans' the next week are so far gone. Aside from a press release you shouldn't be purchasing any links. Any gains you do make in the search engines will be temporary if you go this route. Unless you're churning and burning hundreds of sites a month this will never be viable for you. Get links that bring traffic and potential customers...not for SEO.
Build a brand and offer compelling content and products that people want to share. Reach out to authority sites in your niche and offer to write an article then drop in a link to your site. You could step this up and outsource the process with a VA building the list of prospects in your niche and reaching out via email, a copywriter creating the articles, then the VA uploading and managing the relationship. Again,
building an actual business.
Any other tips on cost effective launch etc etc etc?
Back to my original point. You're going about it all wrong. If I were you this would be my plan from here:
- Find a niche where you understand the market, the potential customer's pain points and how to reach them.
- Conduct competitor analysis. What do they do well? What can you improve on? Potential USP?
- Decide what image your brand will portray. High-end luxury or cheap and cheerful?
- Create a Shopify account. Purchase a theme from their resources page that fits brand image.
- Get a logo made that fits brand image. You can find a freelancer on eLance or oDesk to suit your needs.
- Write/outsource copy for site. About page, contact etc.
- Find generic products in your niche to upload to your site. Note: you're not actually selling them at this point, if you magically get any orders refund them.
- To the outside world you now have a fully fledged brand that sells products in your niche. So now when you approach manufacturers from their point of view you're looking to expand your existing offering of your successful e-commerce business rather than trying to start an online/eBay business based on the hype like every other clueless guy that approaches them 5 times a day.
- Close the deal. Remove the fake products you set up.
Obviously this is at an incredibly basic level and there's tons of stuff that I've missed out. But it's an actionable plan that will put you on the right path. Excluding the deal with the manufacturer, you could have all the above done in a day and for under £50. You will then be at a point where you can get stuck in to marketing your business and making your first sale - again, a post in it's own right.
The big internet money bubble popped a long time ago. If you treat your online ventures like a hobby you will never get anywhere. Build a business with a strong brand.
Throw yourself in to it. You said you've been researching. Now's the time to stop thinking about it and actually do something.
Enjoy.
