Feature: How To Set Up An Ecommerce Business #1

I'm helping a friend/client set up an ecommerce site. So every week I'm going to profile the "ins and outs", the pitfalls and learning's that I've come across during those seven days.

The story so far:
The person used to do the PR for Crystal Clear Boxes, which lead to some very high-profile people buying from the site. From this a strong relationship was built up with the site owner, who in time, decided that he'd wish to focus on the fulfillment rather than the marketing side of the business.

This is where I come in. It was agreed that myself and a Tanya Arturi would create a site (ok manage the creation of the site) and market it using my SEO, PPC, Social Media, Affiliate Marketing and Project Management skills, whilst Tanya would effectively fund it and manage the PR and traditional marketing.

We've come up with a domain name (Luxury Shoe Boxes) and I have knocked up a quick (very quick, crappy holding page) just to let it age in Google whilst we spend our time working on the business plan and spec'ing the site's features.

When taking over a site or e-commerce business it is important to have a thorough discussion about technology platforms, sales rates, profitability, fulfillment - basically every single feature of the business.

The major outcome of this meeting was that the current site uses Mamut to manage the fulfillment, stock levels etc etc. The issue we have now is developing a site that just works as a front end and integrates into their systems on a Windows box. My preference is Linux gear so we're going with that. The developers I've chosen are my trusty friends at Hallnet. So that's the stage we're at.

The tasks we've got are:

1) Finalising the pricing
2) Establishing the brand features
3) Listing the site features
4) What marketing we'll need to do
5) How much it's all going to cost
6) How long it'll take
7) What resources we'll need
8) Is it still worth it?

So basically, we've just moved past the concept stage and just getting the very basics done.

I'll be aiming to use social media as much as I can and I'll be noting all the successes and failures we have - so I hope you guys will find it interesting (and give some ideas if we're missing a trick)!