I was wondering if any of you webdesigners would have a rough idea of how long you would take to make this kind of project

The following design brief:

Comprehensive e commerce solution gateway, to the level and quality of this *style* and this *type* of design architecture.

The exact website having between 200 and 250 products and of course so that it could be completely updated by the website owner himself

www.ebuyer.com
http://pcloaded.co.uk

I was particularly interested in what you guys thought about the approximate number of manhours to make this taylor made solution as compard to using some kind of *in the box e commerce solution* and what the differentials of quality and time taken to produce them would be.

Would it even be possible to get an *out of the box solution* that could be adjusted to the same level and quality as one of the above *styles and types* of websites.

(note to moderator): I appologise if this is in the wrong forum, I'm slowly getting to see which forums one should post things in.

p.s. my programming chaps came back with the time they thought it would take and I am wondering how much quicker one of the *taylor made packages* would be.

"Comprehensive e commerce solution gateway, to the level and quality of this *style* and this *type* of design architecture."

That one sentence is *all* the requirements for the project? No more detail than that? Seems way to high level to get to a meaningful staff-hours estimate to me.

Dan

I'm only talking about a very rough estimate. And yeah basically that is the *general* guideline. Also alot of it is in principle.

For example you can say for any given project A.

A taylor made solution will be X amount of hours
and a *out of the box* solution will be Y% of X on average.

That kind of rational I was enquiring about.

ahh.. Okay, I understand. Sorry, I didn't get it.
Sounds like you are asking someone who has done one of each to compare the time/effort involved.

Like, "Once, I did a full ecommerce site from scratch and it took about X hours (here's a link?). Another customer wanted it built on package ABC and it took Y hours, and had more features (here's a link)" .. or whatever.

Or even... "for those of you who have used package ABC, DEF, how long does it take you to setup up.... "

And then ... "for those who have built from scratch... "

Doesn't even have to be the same people to get the ballpark answer you seek, right?


Dan

you may get a better response in the web design section?

I'd agree with Dan. Ebuyer sets a high standard of design and usability, to emulate that could take some time (weeks/months).

Being realistic the design quality will depend on your budget as this relates directly to how much time is going to be spent on it.

Sorry to be so vague.

How many payment gateways? Just a regular merchant account? WHat about third party processors? How many do you need?

What about fulfillment? Does it need to tie into an inventory system or does that need to be built?

This should be in the Webdesign forum or Related Offers and Requests.

2-3 weeks is a rough estimate for this general specification in ASP or Asp.net

With a regular merchant account and either no inventory capabilities or basic inventory capabilities, special offers section and pretty much what you see on ebuyer.com

Sorry Dan I was probably not making it very clear. Yah I am generally getting opinions on

1. What level of time to emulate that kind of standard shown in www.ebuyer.com in a similar site selling between 200 and 250 products

2. Would their be a considerable difference if you tried to use an*out of the box* solution compared with using a taylor made solution to achieve the level of quality.

3. Approximate *general* level of time in terms of man months or man hours or man weeks it would take to emulate something ot that level.

As most know I'm not a techie/programmer and to be honest I was a bit taken aback when my programmers told me how long it would take to make similar quality and when I asked if they could make/adapt something out of the box, they said even that wuld take almost the same kind of time..just looking for *outside opinions*, wondered if their was perhaps better out of the box solutions my guys dont' know about.

Lauren: The site is so big I'm still finding my way around it, I see the forum your talking about, thanks, I'll try a posting in thier as well. I do try to be careful with where I post things and I hope nobody minds me posting it here.

Cpanel: How many payment gateways? Average number I don't have exact figure but approximately 2 I presume would be ok...
Inventory system: If it is normal then yes.
third party processing systems, then yes also approximately 2.

These are only general guidelines, nothing to specific that was in fact all the info I had to get a general idea of price.

Hello again Tanuk

In my opinion, it is really a matter of how creative you are, but alos, how good of a coder you are, because some people can code much much faster then others, therefore taking less time.

However, I give you this piece of advice, if you do design it yourself, make certain you dont get designers block. You'll start pullin out your hair like me.

:nuts:

Originally posted by G2-Hosting

However, I give you this piece of advice, if you do design it yourself, make certain you dont get designers block. You'll start pullin out your hair like me.

:nuts:

OMG... THAT's what happened to my hair!

lol

Dan

you could easily customize something like oscommerce and combine it with 2checkout to get a similar result. Those sites seem like basic e-commerce sites with a solid design. Am I missing something?

I'm hesitant to say the actual number of man-hours, but I'd have to go with the previous poster in saying that I could probably do this in about 2 weeks.

To be honest I was thinking the same as rafiki55 - a customized (and by that I mean the skin, not the underlying code) version of osCommerce, and some kind of payment processor.

The amount of time would depend entirely on how much skinning osCommerce required.

It's a good little package, and may be just what you're looking for.

Tanuk,
There's other dynamics in play... in my opinion, when a developer says, "it'll take as long to customize a package as write it from scratch".

It usually means they WANT to develop it. lol

It usually means they DON'T want to learn a new package.

It usually means they DON'T want to be replaced by someone who can be simply taught to customize a package - which of course is "easier" than creating from scratch.


As the owner (or at least the boss), it's important to consider the long term effect on the business. Do you want to spend the resources to create essentially a competitive product to the package systems?

Do you intend on attracting many customers to use it, as a "unique value proposition"... e.g. "Any web hoster can plunk down a generic, off-the-shelf package and say 'go for it'.... we developed our own because we care about our customer's success... " yada yada

Figure out what your breakeven point is for recouping your cost... how many customers will you need to sell on using it. . . and don't forget to include HEFTY maintenance every month as your people get it going over a YEAR ( I don't care if they say they can develop it in a month, they'll be working on it for a year - even after it's in production )

Consider what projects can't be done because the developers are busy. .. and the cost of losing that business.
You really are pitting your N developers against probably 5*N developers * M companies developing these e-commerce packages.


It might be a good thing to do.
Heck, I can think of a few features I've never seen done by the e-commerce systems I've used as a buyer, so there is room for innovation. I'm just saying "how much now" is only one question, and often not even the most important question. But, it is a great question for WHT. Lots of experienced people here.


Dan

Originally posted by DanPhx There's other dynamics in play... in my opinion, when a developer says, "it'll take as long to customize a package as write it from scratch". It usually means they WANT to develop it. lol It usually means they DON'T want to learn a new package.
It usually means they DON'T want to be replaced by someone who can be simply taught to customize a package - which of course is "easier" than creating from scratch. Dan

Dan, you are so so right, I see your a man of experience! This is exactly the reason I post and research on this site, to get my very *own* opinion and feel for these different technologies, this is the very same *exact* reason I do not simply go and ask my technology guys these questions that I post on the website. Here the information is *pure* and opinions are *pure*. Totally different than the opinions you tend to get in business, like if a salesman gives you an opinion about why their product is best, or if a worker tells you *why* you should purchase a labour saving machine or why they can't do a job. etc. etc. In my situation Dan, I am still learning the practical aspects of the different technologies combined with their practical limitations.

Originally posted by DanPhx
It might be a good thing to do. Heck, I can think of a few features I've never seen done by the e-commerce systems I've used as a buyer, so there is room for innovation. I'm just saying "how much now" is only one question, and often not even the most important question. But, it is a great question for WHT. Lots of experienced people here.Dan

Yes Dan, I agree strongly there are alot of genuinely helpful and good people on this forum, when I post I try to structure the questions so that others who read the replies gain knowledge as well by making it applicable to where others need solutions or need to fill a knowledge gap.

My guys said it would take one guy 5 months to make something equivalent to that.

Does anybody conceivably think this project could take one guy 5 months? Or is someone trying to create an easy job for themselves by using my lack of technical knowledge?