Fancy your own Online Shop?

So recently I was approached from a friend of mine who wanted to know how I built my own online store.

I'm gonna cut things short and simple on how i built mine.

Being someone with nearly zero knowledge on HTML Coding and gizmo tech yada-yada wala-wala and sort like that, I was pretty much the typical internet and computer user.

So when I started my online shop, I depended mostly on the wealth of the internet to which i found Weebly (www.weebly.com). It is an online site which helps you build your own blog, site, online business, basically what ever you want it to be. It comes with the free version or you could pay a minimal annual fee of less than $50/year. As compared to paying someone to build a site for you at the cost of hundreds and thousands of dollars.

The great thing about Weebly is that you can use your own domain name e.g. www.yourshopname.com to it instead of www.weebly.com/yourshopname of that sort which may make your online business look less professional.The interface is pretty much straight forward and user friendly. All you need to do is pick a template, colours, fonts etc and start adding in your content. There are also functions like adding pages and sub-pages (or what I like to call as categories and directories for visitors to navigate around the site). There is also online buttons for your customers to click on. All you need to do is to add the words "Buy Now" to it and link it to your shopping cart. 

Paypal function is also included inside where you are able to add in features where your customer can pay for purchases from your site via Paypal. But please note that they lack of the shopping cart function itself so you have to source out for free shopping cart widgets and link them to your Weebly webstore. It took me quite awhile but i found mine, Mal's E-commerce (https://www.mals-e.com/). Not only do they provide a shopping cart for your site, their carts comes with transaction history capability and also user defined auto reply emails after your customer have submitted their purchase orders to you.

The professional layout, image and style pretty much depends on your creativity here. Don't fret if you don't get it quite right the first time. You can keep on improving and tweak your online store as you go on. Get a good camera and brush up on your photography skills. Humans are visual beings so good visual makes your customers stay longer on your site which can covert to sales. Check out on how other huge online stores set up their layouts.

Tagging your site with relevant words will ensure that people are able to find you when they are looking for something that you offer. So tag away!

Be sure to have a proper "Contact Us" page so your potential customers can reach out to you. I did not think this was important but I was surprised at the number of enquiries I had even right at the 1st month of going online.

I got my online store up in 2 weeks single handedly with less than a hundred bucks of capital.

So go on, give it a try!

links:

www.godaddy.com - buy your own website address / domain name

www.weebly.com - website/webstore builder

www.mals-e.com - Free Shopping Cart

6 ways to furnish your house on a budget.

Let's face it. Here you are at a new chapter of your life whereby you've found your significant other and both of you have gotten a house. Congrats! But wait... then comes the renovation costs and home furnishings cost. You're not going to sleep in an empty house are you? Well, here is how you get to furnish your house on a tight budget.

Before I go on, I would like to mention that this method may and may not or sound feasible to you. There are plenty of other methods around and this is just one of it. And of course, for this to work, you and/or your spouse should already holding a stable career. (I'll get to this later)

The biggest burden for a newly married couple is of course, getting their own house and settling down. And it is common for wedding event to be the one thing that will drain the bulk of their savings. Leaving them with little left for what is to come later - buying of house, renovations and furnishings.

So here are some tips to save some cash when buying furnishings and home appliances for your first home. Remember, these tips are only for those who are on a budget:

1. RESEARCH 

Start to do your own research on the price of the type of items you need like Tv, fridge, washing machine, bed, water heater, stove etc. Use these prices as the benchmark for each item. From there, start looking elsewhere and always settle for a cheaper price.

2. EXPO AND FAIRS

Always be on a lookout for I.T, Electronics and Home Appliances Expo. This will be one of the best place to buy 1st hand items and about 2/3 of the actual retail price and some offers may go as low as 50% off, with warranty and inclusive of delivery.

3. DIFFERENTIATE YOUR NEEDS AND WANTS

 Is there a spanking new  55" Ultra HD Tv just got on sale? Keep your focus on your objective: get what you need and not what you want... for now. Yes, it may be very tempting to look at the price slash of $500 or even $1000. But remember, even with those kind of obscene price reduction, Huge Tv sets may easily cost you over $2000 to $3000 even after the discounts thrown in. If you were to pick a decent 32" HD LED Tv, which now comes with a price tag of about $300 to $400, you can save a bomb! And those extra cash can be used to get you all the other necessities like the fridge and washing machine.

4.UPGRADES

Like I said in point 3, always get what you need first and get what you want later. Your objective now is to get what you need - to fill your home with the necessities. To make it as a proper home. Like I mentioned earlier, if both/either you and your spouse holds a stable job, in time to come, there will always be bonuses, increments and pay raise in the future. Once, your finance are pretty much stable, these funds can later be used to indulge yourself in upgrades. Maybe even by then, a new technology has taken over that 55" Ultra HD Tv  you saw on sale before - at the same price of $2000!

5. PRE-LOVED

If you do not mind getting pre-loved items, these will be able to save you further! You can find these on online classified sites like Gumtree, Craiglist, forums, your local Facebook Garage Sale pages and now even on mobile apps like Carousell. There are always sellers who are getting rid of their good conditioned items due to reasons like moving overseas, clearing spaces, moving house or even doing their own upgrades. 

The best time to look out for these would be when a festive season is coming and everyone would want a new look for their houses. Also, the beauty of it is that you will be able to bargain further from the price stated. Be sure not to low ball way below the seller's asking price though. It'll just reflect on your character really. Another thing to remember is to be mindful of the price stated. This is because you will probably have to get your own transportation and movers(for bulky heavy items) and this will cost you. So do your own calculation. Is it worth it to pay for the item and transportation or is it worth to pay just a tiny bit more and get a brand new item that comes with warranty - a peace of mind.

6. IKEA

Yeap. Ikea. Although not all of their items will last you through for a life time, but the key here is budget. They have wide array of furnishings which can be really cheap to very expensive ones. Of course here we would like to go for cheap. But you will get what you pay for - which is a decent trade off if you are only intending to use them till your finances get stable and ready for future upgrades. But I must say that they do have great built furniture that are comparable to furnitures elsewhere but at a fraction of the cost.

Have any other way to save while shopping for your home? Share them below!