[geneveve]

Hi Everyone

I'm new here,,,, i have been reading the posts and i must say it seems to be a nice helpful forum. Loads of information here to which i will be looking at to further my business.

I have a question which i've been struggling for a while and hopefully someone here may be able to help me.

I have OOAK templates designs for an e-commerce shopping cart as well as generic templates. I would love to offer customized work though this is where i get stuck!

OOAK means one of a kind so therefore we have built a template based on a business type that it would suit... using high quality graphics/illustrations etc.

What i don't understand is what does customized mean? so if one of our OOAK designs cost $5k and never to be resold again,,, does this also apply to customized?? would this be the same as OOAK? it would be a brand new design based on customers request and then it would never be resold? *these are all templates i'm talking about*

Or does customized mean, that they would pick out a pre-made design and then we would work off that to customize it to their needs?

I'm at a loss here, have been struggling with this for a few days and can't get my head around it.

What would the cost of a customized template be by the way? i know that it all depends on what they would like but around how much is the going rate?

Would you be able to sell a customized template design after project completion or that is different.

Your expertise in this area would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Gen

[Paul Millar]

Quote

Or does customized mean, that they would pick out a pre-made design and then we would work off that to customize it to their needs?

From my understanding, that would be right. Its a little bit of a cop out, but quite often thats what people offer when they offer customized stuff.


Im also asuming by OOAK you mean bespoke / original. These tend not to be resold. Customizing a few things and then re-selling it would also count as selling it twice (in my opinion) - Therefore not making it bespoke.

[Richard King BWP]

geneveve, on Jun 19 2009, 13:01, said:

Hi Everyone

I'm new here,,,, i have been reading the posts and i must say it seems to be a nice helpful forum. Loads of information here to which i will be looking at to further my business.

I have a question which i've been struggling for a while and hopefully someone here may be able to help me.

I have OOAK templates designs for an e-commerce shopping cart as well as generic templates. I would love to offer customized work though this is where i get stuck!

OOAK means one of a kind so therefore we have built a template based on a business type that it would suit... using high quality graphics/illustrations etc.

What i don't understand is what does customized mean? so if one of our OOAK designs cost $5k and never to be resold again,,, does this also apply to customized?? would this be the same as OOAK? it would be a brand new design based on customers request and then it would never be resold? *these are all templates i'm talking about*

Or does customized mean, that they would pick out a pre-made design and then we would work off that to customize it to their needs?

I'm at a loss here, have been struggling with this for a few days and can't get my head around it.

What would the cost of a customized template be by the way? i know that it all depends on what they would like but around how much is the going rate?

Would you be able to sell a customized template design after project completion or that is different.

Your expertise in this area would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Gen

I cant understand why you cant grasp this basic fundamental part of YOUR business

A one of a kind template is something a developer speculativley makes, knowing that one day it will sell to a business in the target sector

A custom template is something a developer makes, specifically for a specific job. The cost of such a template will depend on the work involved

[Paul Millar]

Richard King BWP, on Jun 19 2009, 22:49, said:

I cant understand why you cant grasp this basic fundamental part of YOUR business

A one of a kind template is something a developer speculativley makes, knowing that one day it will sell to a business in the target sector

A custom template is something a developer makes, specifically for a specific job. The cost of such a template will depend on the work involved

Amen

[geneveve]

Paul Millar, on Jun 19 2009, 13:22, said:

Amen

Thank-you for your replies.

No i couldn't understand, because i have come across many web-design companies that offer these two quite differently.

Once again, thank-you.

Gen

[Richard King BWP]

geneveve, on Jun 20 2009, 11:04, said:

Thank-you for your replies.

No i couldn't understand, because i have come across many web-design companies that offer these two quite differently.

Once again, thank-you.

Gen

Say for example I was approached by a online Opticians, wanting to sell prescription glasses online. They would want to collect information that a supplier of nuts and bolts would never want. When you go to a nuts and bolts website, you can buy 15 nuts, 10 bolts and 4 washers. Easy. With the online spectacle store you collect a whole lot more information

example:

prescription:
R +1.25 - 0.25 x 120
L + 2.25 - 0.25 x 140
Addition +2.50
Near oc=56
Far oc=60

Etc. etc..

The prescriptyion, as well as needing recording with the order, would need validating... Now the customer would be typing in gobledygook if the near OC was anything other than 3-5mm less than the far OC

The designer of the store can write a set of rules to validate the prescription that goes with the order

Now.. when you buy a pair of spectacles, it is a compound sale - 2 lenses, 1 case, 1 frame + 1 validated prescription + coatings + tints etc.

So the designer not only has to "visually template the store" the desiner also needs to add tables to the database, and write validation routines to the front end, to confirm the prescription isnt a pile of doggy doos

On top of that, he needs to adjust the front end to step through all the additional parts of the order. Iin this instance the customer doesnt buy 15 washers and 2 bolts, the customer chooses a single frame, and then chooses the lens options, then chooses the case options, and then enters the prescription, which needs validating, and then pays and confirms the order - it is a totally different process

Increasingly businesses dont fit the simple tempalted idea of a store, they need some form of customisaton. the customisation may involve:

the template
the database
the order steps
Discount and postage structure
Product bundling logic
Backending onto an accounts system
Backending onto a warehousing system

Customisation can take anything from 20 mins to 5 months of solid work. This will explain why pricing and approaches are totally different

E-commerce templates only work 100% effectivley for a basic business that sells simple un-linked products. Everything beyond that is a custom job. I cant think of a e-commerce store i have done so far that didnt require something customising. Many of your template customers will install the template, and then pay a web designer to do all the modifications... usually about a month afterwards when they get stuck with something

Think of your templates as a set of panels on a base car chassis. you could then present the same car in may different sets of panels in many diffeent sets of colours. The moment you want the car to have more performance, different width, wheels, or spec - it is a custom job

[geneveve]

Richard King BWP, on Jun 20 2009, 16:18, said:

Say for example I was approached by a online Opticians, wanting to sell prescription glasses online. They would want to collect information that a supplier of nuts and bolts would never want. When you go to a nuts and bolts website, you can buy 15 nuts, 10 bolts and 4 washers. Easy. With the online spectacle store you collect a whole lot more information

example:

prescription:
R +1.25 - 0.25 x 120
L + 2.25 - 0.25 x 140
Addition +2.50
Near oc=56
Far oc=60

Etc. etc..

The prescriptyion, as well as needing recording with the order, would need validating... Now the customer would be typing in gobledygook if the near OC was anything other than 3-5mm less than the far OC

The designer of the store can write a set of rules to validate the prescription that goes with the order

Now.. when you buy a pair of spectacles, it is a compound sale - 2 lenses, 1 case, 1 frame + 1 validated prescription + coatings + tints etc.

So the designer not only has to "visually template the store" the desiner also needs to add tables to the database, and write validation routines to the front end, to confirm the prescription isnt a pile of doggy doos

On top of that, he needs to adjust the front end to step through all the additional parts of the order. Iin this instance the customer doesnt buy 15 washers and 2 bolts, the customer chooses a single frame, and then chooses the lens options, then chooses the case options, and then enters the prescription, which needs validating, and then pays and confirms the order - it is a totally different process

Increasingly businesses dont fit the simple tempalted idea of a store, they need some form of customisaton. the customisation may involve:

the template
the database
the order steps
Discount and postage structure
Product bundling logic
Backending onto an accounts system
Backending onto a warehousing system

Customisation can take anything from 20 mins to 5 months of solid work. This will explain why pricing and approaches are totally different

E-commerce templates only work 100% effectivley for a basic business that sells simple un-linked products. Everything beyond that is a custom job. I cant think of a e-commerce store i have done so far that didnt require something customising. Many of your template customers will install the template, and then pay a web designer to do all the modifications... usually about a month afterwards when they get stuck with something

Think of your templates as a set of panels on a base car chassis. you could then present the same car in may different sets of panels in many diffeent sets of colours. The moment you want the car to have more performance, different width, wheels, or spec - it is a custom job

Thanks for your reply....

I guess my main fear is that because it is a *skin* for the store and not a full blown website where i would add modules to it etc. the price range for skins is quite dramatic... i've seen some developers/designers sell them for 20GBP and in my opinion we can't sell them at those types of prices due to the work involved. I use a professional graphic designer which charge me for the graphics and i'm worried that if i sell a OOAK for 5k and then what would my customize work cost? i am currently doing a draft of my business and putting it all together and test driving it to see how it all works. I've made a FAQ's page where all this information would go... such as do you want us to customize? etc. this is basically what i've said so far....

OOAK designs *Exclusive Purchase*

OOAK designs meaning *One of a Kind* is exactly that. They are exclusive designs customized for specific businesses in mind. Like all of our designs, they contain high quality graphics born from our professional graphics team and of very unique concepts for branding. OOAK designs are of a different price range due to the nature of work involved and mainly because after an exclusive purchase occurs the OOAK design is permanently removed/retired from our store and will never be available to any other customer again.it is unique and will only be sold once. This in turn is a bonus for you as it is unique in itself and will be remembered by your audience. A world wide branding technique that will assure any business with great prosperity for their identity. Read more...

I would like to have a template customized. What do I need to do?

Please submit a ticket for a customized quote. Be sure to provide the name of the template you would like customized, as well as a detailed description of what you would like changed. We can spruce up any of our designs by changing colours to suit, adjusting the display boxes to suit your products and any other recommendations. Depending on the complexity of the changes will determine the cost of the custom template. Our hourly rates are $45p/hour.

Any thoughts?

What i am in the process of doing now is putting a form together for any customized work. Just to simplify things and get as much information as possible from the customer.

Gen

[Richard King BWP]

who is doing the work? i.e. making the templates?

[geneveve]

Richard King BWP, on Jun 20 2009, 17:09, said:

who is doing the work? i.e. making the templates?

Well i'm the developer and i work with a graphics designer with a background in advertising.

;-)

Gen

[rtrahan]

Just to add my 2 cents; you're ok its seems just you and a graphics designer. But what if a customization requires loads of javascript and/or PHP code then what? That's the part I would be worried about if I offered customization.