Chapters

Summary

Neil Gibson is the director of a development company specialising in ecommerce websites and large web applications. He has more than 20 years of experience in web design. He is also the co-owner of Popupshopup, a directory website and service for retailers to find short-term leasing spaces.

Simon asked Neil which ecommerce platform is better, Shopify or Woocommerce. He answered that neither of them is better than the other. He briefly goes through the pros and cons of each ecommerce platform. Neil also mentions Bigcommerce, which he prefers more due to its resilient system.

Simon then asked about the prerequisites for approaching a web designer. Neil raised three main points. First, get a good idea of what you want to achieve with your website. Second, make sure the designer will also be concerned about your end goals. Lastly, make sure to make an achievable promise.

The topic then moved on to working with freelance designers. Neil said freelancers are tricky. He shared a few stories where a company had a conflict with a freelancer on website maintenance. Neil regarded freelancers are better for a ‘get-in and get-out type job. However, he also warns that such difficulties can still occur with established companies. He concluded to keep a clean parameter and define your project’s end goal.

Neil shared some of his thoughts on people developing websites by themselves. He claimed that people would need to properly research the characteristics of each platform. For example, WordPress is highly accessible, but it has a steep learning curve. Simon also added that it will be a repeat of trial and error.

The final section of this episode includes tips about developing an ecommerce website. Here, we will note mainly about knowing your customer behaviour.

Neil claimed that ecommerce businesses should be curious about what caused a purchase. He recommended Hotjar, a service that shows how customers behave on your website. Neil also recommended some other web applications. Specifically, Google Suite and Webmaster Tools.

He concluded this podcast with his call to action, “get out there and ask your customers why they use you.” Once you get this information, you can constantly refine your offering.