The Wholesale Forums

[joe97t]

I am supplier of spare parts of heavy vehicles. I want to start my online business for which I need a website which caters the Supply Chain Management of spare parts etc. in UK. I am looking for a web hosting solution that would fulfill my domain and other hosting needs. All suggestions and tips are welcome.

[anotheruser]

Hello and welcome, joe97t. How complex is your back-end requirement? In other words, are there lots of different stocks, many or few suppliers, do you want a simple warning that stocks are down so you can re-order in good time or do you want supplier secure access so they can monitor their supplies to you?

For the simpler end, and a tie-in to your stocks admin system which should be within the scope of any competent programmer - note the word programmer, I certainly do not mean a web designer or even a web developer - I'd take a look at the latest offering from osCommerce. Anything much more sophisticated and I'd be looking to do something bespoke.

Hope that helps.

Mike

[Pete]

Joe, I owned a group of auto parts stores and what we refer to in the US as a fleet supply company where we sold to heavy truck fleets such as the utility companies, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, ready-mix concrete and construction companies. This was before the world wide web for the most part but I'm familiar with what you are selling.

If you are selling one line of let's say truck lights or common stuff like wiper blades, you could do it with one of the open source solutions.

But, if you are a full line supplier, and it sounds like you may be if you are looking for Supply Chain Management, you are going to need way more than just a free shopping cart.

You will not find what you are looking for here. You need to go to three sources and then make a choice. They are - Trade magazines, there are usually systems suppliers advertising in the back of the publications. Trade shows - there are usually dedicated, vertical market solutions providers with industry specific knowledge more than willing to discuss your needs. Trade associations - here you may find solutions providers as associate members of the group and you will definitely find others in your industry with similar problems and solutions.

As far as supply chain management, you might also check with express services such as UPS and DHL. Here in the US they have available such solutions.

[ziondAvid]

Basically you need a web hosting solution that would provide a domain and help you through registration and parking. You can have a domain from http://www.b1hosting.co.uk and choose from the suitable one for you from the various hosting plans available their. Select the domain name, if it is available then select the hosting plan: basic/ silver/ gold. It would also help you in reselling hosting and other services like a dedicated server for a flat monthly fee. You can even have a basic web design for you by one of the website’s professionals.

[MustHaveMobiles]

Hosting deals are relative to your requirements, if you have an established customer base then your usage would dictate a heavy load server (maybe even a dedicated one). Whereas if you have no customer online base then a simple package will suffice but make sure you go with a reputable one so that it makes it easier to transfer at a later date.

As for back end/front end it is probably wise, due to the nature and complexity of your business, to go for a bespoke solution that gives you FULL rights to the software once you have paid (thus allowing for ease of updates at a later date)..

[madeinsiam]

If you merely want to have an online shop and online inventory there are several easy and not expensive solutions. If you required a tracking system so customers can track their orders this would be more difficult but not a massive task. if you could give more idea of exactly what you need i could be of more help

[Pete]

Supply Chain Management is so much more than a website and a shopping cart. If that is what you are truly looking for, you should do some google searches or as I mentioned above.

If you are looking for something not quite that extensive, here is a site I highly recommend. I sold a few of these packages when I was selling vertical market solutions and this is the premier product in it's class. http://www.dydacomp.com/

As far as hosting, you are talking about hundreds or thousands in software and implentation, why quibble over a couple of dollars a month on hosting? There is little real difference in hosting and in comparison to what you are talking about, the difference in hosting costs will not be much more than the cost of a meal.