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I think Simon is looking for something that is EASY. Godaddy or most of the other software's out in the market are most of the time not that easy to use. They offer too much to get started in a easy way and most of the users get confused and they end up in spending more money and time than what was anticipated initially.

I would suggest that you should shop around for customized e-commerce site, that is flexible, speaks and works for your business exactly the way you want rather than living with adjustments made here and there on a pre-build site.

If you think that your business has good market appeal, I would suggest you to go for a customized solution. You can shop around for professional website developers and easily get a decent quote within your budget. Just write down a basic document with your needs/thoughts and send it out for a quote. On request we can also provide you a quote that suits your pocket and business needs.

Momentum,

I hope our "point-counterpoint" dialogue is helpful to Simon07 (and others with a similar question). After all, it's HIS perspective that really matters here. I appreciate your comments.

If Simon's wife were an established jewelry maker with name recognition and an industry reputation -- or if she were operating a brick and mortar jewelry store making it's first jump into on-line sales -- I'd absolutely agree that a unique, professional website design is called for. I would not advocate that he do it himself.

I gathered from the question that this is a hobby or "weekend craft" type business now, and that Simon and wife are exploring the possibility of expanding it to the Internet (lots of crafters are doing that, because customers who may not buy at a show or fair will take a business card or brochure and buy from a website later -- in these cases, the site visitors already "know" the seller and have arrived at the site with an intent to buy something).

The advantage of a do-it-yourself approach in that case is that is provides a cheap and fast way to find out if you can actually sell the products you have on-line. (There are countless postings in this community by people who've spent big bucks on websites and got tons of visitors, but haven't sold a thing -- and they are writing to ask us "why not?" Often, the sad truth is like this: Just because my friends and I think my original Christmas songs are nice doesn't mean I should put them on a CD and have a professional website built to sell it on-line.).

I think the DIY approach also forces the "casual" business person to really think about her marketing strategies, products, and customers -- because she will be the one writing and plugging that content into the templates. Once the site is up and running, she will discover about twenty things a day for the first couple of months that she wants to change or that can be improved. She can change it immediately, and see (and measure) the results herself. She will also learn how much of a potential market exists in the world beyond her current customer base. With all that info, she can decide if she wants to expand the business further. If she does, she can then approach a professional web designer with clear set of design ideas and marketing objectives, and with all the basic content (product descriptions and such) written, refined, edited, and ready to go -- all of which will make the designer's job easier.

I appreciate your perspective and comments, and concur with your advice for an established enterprise -- just not necessarily for a new "hobby/casual" business endeavor. Either way, I hope others find our discussion helpful. Thank you sincerely for participating!