Best free online shop set up?

[GotMyGoat]

Hello,

I've just started a business selling pet supplies, profits are going to be tiny for the first year, so i'm hoping to sell on ebay at first, but would like to set up my own website so that once I have customers I can direct them to my website for future purchases etc.

I'm hoping to use paypal checkout in the first instance, and wont have many different items in the first year, so am hoping to get a free website, until I gather a bit more money.

Does anyone have any good ideas? I'm a real beginner, so want something that's easy to use, but still looks professional.

Shopify is supposed to be good, but I haven't used it myself.

ooh thank you, will have a nose.

weebly

Weebly looks much more like what I'm after, thank you.

Look carefully at your figures. Make an Excel sheet showing projected sales and then calculate the paypal and eBay fees associated with these. Then whop off a load more in light of eBay rapidly going to shit and automatically awarding your buyer.

Now find an internet shop package (I'm sure I've seen free Wordpress ones), calculate this annual cost - likely to be a one-off with an upgrade in a few years.

Now find 3 merchant payment packages, yes, they might be 10 quid a month - however this might prove cheaper and lesser risk than eBay/paypal.

Now you've got your figures you'll know which option is best and at what point another option is financially advantageous.

Useful thread thanks :)

DolomitesDonkey - thanks, you obviously know your stuff! I know ebay fees are pretty crippling for a low profit start up which Is why I'm keen to try and make it on my own. I'll be very happy to upgrade to a proper package/domain once i start getting some income, but I'm trying to start up without any start up cash,

Weebly does seem to be a fantastic website for a novice like me, have linked it up to paypal checkout and hope to be live soon!

I get where you're coming from really, I'm a huge fan of bootstrapping!

I have found Weebly fantastic. Their support is great and there is so much you can do really easily -like slide shows and video clips etc.

I use the paypal button generator on the paypal site now as there are more options (drop down menus etc) than the paypal buttons that come with Weebly. It's dead easy to copy and paste the button code into the 'Custom HTML' boxes on Weebly.

mum2mum, I just had tons of fun with the paypal buttons. If I can do it, I'm sure anyone can. The forum is really good too, I like the faqs bit with step by step instructions. I feel very at home