Coin Trader By Post — Project Proposal
Thank you for outlining what you plan to build. Below is how I understand the project, how I would approach it technically, answers to your questions (including eBay and the old Krafft store), and indicative timing and investment. I will treat the details of your plans as confidential.
This document is styled in red and white for WebWax only. The shop we would build for you would be branded to match the look and feel of your preferred reference sites — e.g. clean white pages, gold accents, professional bullion retail — not the colours of this PDF/page.
1. Summary
Build a WooCommerce shop you can manage day to day (products, stock, descriptions), with a visual direction aligned with your preferred sites such as BullionByPost and Gold Traders: white and gold, clear layout, strong trust signals, and product-focused presentation.
At the top of the site, display gold and silver spot references (with clear wording that figures are indicative / from a third-party feed).
For bullion-backed products, implement pricing from metal weight × spot + your premium, recalculated on a fixed schedule (e.g. once per day) — not tick-by-tick — then push updated prices to eBay from the same source of truth (WooCommerce), so the website and eBay stay aligned without manual re-keying.
2. Requirements (as understood)
| Area | Detail |
|---|---|
| Platform | WordPress + WooCommerce; you update listings and stock as stock changes. |
| Channels | Own website checkout and eBay shop, managed from one catalogue where possible. |
| Branding / UX | White and gold, professional bullion retail — in line with BullionByPost / Gold Traders and similar; you retain day-to-day control of content. |
| Spot prices | Gold and silver shown prominently; “live” in the sense of regularly refreshed from a data provider. |
| Product pricing | For relevant SKUs, sale price derived from bullion logic + premium; daily (or scheduled) recalculation. |
| eBay | Automated price (and ideally stock) sync from WooCommerce so eBay reflects the same pricing rules. |
| Domains | Primary: cointraderbypost.com. Existing dannystapletonjewellery.com — sensible cross-linking without tying the new brand to Krafft. |
| Security / operations | Shop not tied to a residential premises — hosting and workflows assume a normal commercial web stack. |
3. Proposed technical approach
WooCommerce as the master
All product data, stock, and calculated prices live in WooCommerce. eBay is treated as a sales channel that mirrors WooCommerce for mapped products.
Spot price feed
Use a commercial metals API (choice depends on currency, latency, and budget). The site would fetch spot rates on a schedule (and optionally cache them), drive the header ticker, and feed the pricing engine for gold/silver coin lines where you define weight, metal, and premium rules per product or category.
Daily price updates
A scheduled job (e.g. WordPress cron or server cron for reliability) would: (1) pull latest spot(s); (2) recalculate WooCommerce prices for products flagged as “bullion-priced”; (3) trigger eBay sync so listing prices update after WooCommerce is updated. Once-daily updates fit your requirement and stay within eBay’s limits on how often listings can be revised via API in a day.
eBay integration
This is a mature pattern. Typical options: WooCommerce ↔ eBay extensions (list from WooCommerce, sync orders, “sync price to eBay”); multichannel SaaS hubs; or a custom integration using eBay’s Sell APIs — more flexible, higher build cost. For what you’re building — a hands-on shop with a catalogue you update yourself — an extension or SaaS usually delivers what you need: WooCommerce remains where you work, and price changes flow to eBay on the schedule you set.
eBay fees and shipping often mean eBay price ≠ website price. We can implement channel-specific rules (fixed uplift or percentage on eBay) so margins stay sensible.
4. Design and content
Custom or lightly customised WordPress theme tuned to bullion retail: typography, spacing, trust blocks, mobile checkout. Branding and UI would follow the same family as your reference sites (white, gold, credible “established dealer” feel) — not the red/white of this proposal. Strong photography, clear grading and stock messaging.
5. cointraderbypost.com and dannystapletonjewellery.com
cointraderbypost.com — primary brand and shop for coins/bullion and eBay-aligned naming. dannystapletonjewellery.com — keep as jewellery / personal brand with short, honest cross-links (e.g. “Our bullion and coin retail: Coin Trader By Post” and reciprocal “Fine jewellery: Danny Stapleton Jewellery”). That keeps clarity while linking the businesses without merging two different propositions.
6. Old Krafft eBay store and reviews
Feedback and history sit on the eBay seller account, not on the shop name alone. Renaming or rebranding within the same account may be possible subject to eBay’s current rules — worth confirming in Seller Hub. Moving reviews from one account to another is not something eBay offers. If a Krafft eBay account still exists and is in good standing, reusing it for the new brand might preserve feedback — but it must align with eBay policies and how you want Coin Trader By Post presented. This should be confirmed against current eBay seller terms and your professional advisers.
7. Deliverables (phased)
- Phase A — Foundation: hosting recommendation, WordPress + WooCommerce, SSL, backups, security baseline, payment gateway(s), policy pages.
- Phase B — Design & build: templates, home/category/product pages, mobile UX, contact and trust content.
- Phase C — Bullion pricing: spot feed integration, product metadata (weight, metal, premium), scheduled recalculation, admin clarity.
- Phase D — eBay: connector or service chosen, listing mapping, SKU alignment, order flow into WooCommerce, price sync and tests.
- Phase E — Launch: DNS for cointraderbypost.com, go-live checklist, handover and training.
8. Timeline (indicative)
| Phase | Rough duration |
|---|---|
| Discovery, design direction, technical setup | 1–2 weeks |
| Core WooCommerce build & content structure | 3–5 weeks |
| Bullion pricing + daily jobs | 1–2 weeks |
| eBay integration + testing | 2–4 weeks |
| UAT, refinement, launch | 1–2 weeks |
Total: about 8–14 weeks from kickoff, depending on catalogue size, how many SKUs are bullion-priced vs fixed price, and eBay complexity. A smaller MVP (site first, eBay automation second) can shorten the first release.
9. Investment (indicative UK ranges)
Final quotes follow a short discovery call and written scope.
| Item | Indicative range |
|---|---|
| WooCommerce site (design + build) | £4,000 – £12,000+ |
| Spot price display + scheduled bullion pricing engine | £1,500 – £4,000 |
| eBay connector setup, mapping, order flow, testing | £1,500 – £5,000 |
| Ongoing (hosting, domain, SSL, spot API, connector subscriptions) | £50 – £200+/month |
10. Assumptions and exclusions
- Product descriptions, photos, and compliance copy are client-supplied or commissioned separately unless agreed.
- Legal/tax advice on precious metals sales is outside web development scope.
- Third-party fees (eBay, payments, APIs) are paid by you to those providers.
11. Next steps
If this direction works for you, I suggest a 30–45 minute call to confirm catalogue shape, eBay account situation, and whether you want one full launch or an MVP site first. I can then send a fixed quote or phased estimate and a short statement of work.