Starting an Online Cell Phone Store

[xGuasaGuasax]

I was just having a conversation with my brother and a friend of ours that owns a brick and mortar cell phone store and we decided to start an online store. I'm pretty decent at webdevelopment, so that's not going to be a problem. Can anyone recommend a good hosting site and a good domain registering site? Also any advices for us? What problems can we run into etc.

Thanks!

[angel_wing0]

well all i know is its always a good start talking to howard and advertising it on hofo

[91RS]

Be careful, don't do what Mermaid Wireless or something to that effect did. Don't list the phones on the site if you don't have them on ON HAND and ready to ship. It will get you in a world of ××××.

[xGuasaGuasax]

Yea, I know what you're talking about ^.
As of right now, we're trying to put together estimated costs etc. we're pretty stumped on one thing though, how to handle activations online. What I'm thinking is setting up some kind of secure form that will send all of the information into a database of some sort that from there at the end of the day we can pull out all the orders and manually activate them. My friend (the one that's going to be working with us on this) can then use whatever system he uses at his store to activate teh lines. We're still on like stage one of the planning process, so any input will be greatly appreciated

[BEorP]

Originally posted by xGuasaGuasax
Can anyone recommend a good hosting site and a good domain registering site?

Check out www.sharpregister.com for your domain.

[91RS]

I'd trust www.directnic.com for domain regististration. They are very fast in getting the domain up and running and they name and DNS server are VERY fast as well.

[xGuasaGuasax]

thats funny, b/c thats the only site that I know of (directnic) and I was just checking out their page. What about that other site that I heard some mentions about here on hofo, i think it was called godaddy.com or something

[91RS]

I've used direct nic for all the my sites and sites I've setup for other people.

[wifimama]

1nd1.com
godaddy.com
domainsatcost.ca or namespro.ca (if you're Canadian)

[fredwards]

godaddy.com or 1and1.com

i use both.

[walkguru]

good luck, with this online store.

[DiscoJoey]

i thought about doing that once but then i rember that i would end up keeping all the cells fones to myself

Thanxs,
Joey

[xGuasaGuasax]

LMAO @ DJ!

OK, first thing is first, the domain name. I was thinking of WirelessCity.com but apparently that's taken. citywireless.com is also taken. None of us can think of any non-corny names! Help us out lol.

So I think I'm going to go with goDaddy for the registration. Now how about the hosting, any suggestions? I'm pretty sure we are going to have to open a merchant hosting account so that we can accept credit cards and what not. Any input?

[xGuasaGuasax]

BTW, this is how this is working: I'm the tech-savvy out of the trio, so designing the website and getting it up and running is going to be mostly on me. My friend that already has a brick and mortar store is the one with teh connections for the cells and the accessories and what not, and my brother is the one with the deep pockets lol

[DiscoJoey]

Originally posted by xGuasaGuasax
LMAO @ DJ!

OK, first thing is first, the domain name. I was thinking of WirelessCity.com but apparently that's taken. citywireless.com is also taken. None of us can think of any non-corny names! Help us out lol.

So I think I'm going to go with goDaddy for the registration. Now how about the hosting, any suggestions? I'm pretty sure we are going to have to open a merchant hosting account so that we can accept credit cards and what not. Any input?

lol i was surrious

THanxs,
Joey