Intro Cancel Ecwid Account
Have you ever Wondered if you are using the right ecommerce platform for selling on the internet? Do you sometimes stumble upon a new service that’s more practical and more economical than what you’re using now? Starting a small business is all about keeping your prices low, and locating an ecommerce platform that will help you with half the battle. Unfortunately, when you run a small company site it often becomes tricky once you would like to bring on a brand new ecommerce platform or even just alter your site whatsoever. Read our Ecwid review to find out more about this solution. Cancel Ecwid Account
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Many solutions Intentionally create a closed system, which can be tedious to maneuver away from once you get started. However, with a platform named Ecwid, you no longer have to worry about this. In fact, the entire goal of the business, which began in 2009, is to quickly and inexpensively make an online store system on your present websites.
You don’t have To create a whole new website. Just implement Ecwid on any platform, CMS or social network (in five minutes) and you are good to go.
That raised my Attention, because I understand the struggles that come along with attempting to migrate sites, especially in regards to ecommerce. So, I needed to gather a comprehensive review of this Ecwid system to find out if it is worth the time.
How Many Men and Women Use Ecwid?
It’s quite Remarkable what Ecwid has done since 2009, with over 1 million merchants getting signed up. What’s even more cool is that the Ecwid merchants span over 175 different countries, demonstrating that this isn’t just a platform for people in the US or Europe. Even companies in developing countries have a opportunity to find an internet store going, and you don’t even have to squander your previous website if you have one.
The usership Continues to grow, especially considering Ecwid is now PCI DSS Level 1 accredited. If you are not sure what that is, it’s pretty much the gold standard for security in the ecommerce world. You can rest easy knowing that you and your customers’ data is safe and protected.
Along with The overall merchant count, over 20,000 active users are using the Ecwid Shopping Cart for WordPress. The gap between that 20,000 along with also the 1 million is the fact that you don’t need a WordPress site to implement Ecwid. So, the 20,000 simply identifies WordPress users with the plugin.
What is Ecwid, and how does it work?
Ecwid is a hosted Solution for building an internet store. Unlike competing products such as Shopify, Bigcommerce and Volusion, which allow you to build a new website with e-commerce functionality, Ecwid is geared more towards people who currently have a site and just wish to add an internet store to it.
Much like other E-commerce platforms, Ecwid allows you to install’catalogs’ of all goods, and add photographs, pricing, weight etc. . each. You can specify shipping prices, accept credit card payments etc — all the crucial things that you would expect to be able to perform using an e-commerce alternative.
However it differs Apart from competing products like Shopify, Volusion, Squarespace and Bigcommerce in that it is not actually designed to let you produce a fully-featured, standalone e-commerce site; instead, it’s intended to enable you add an internet store to an present online existence.
(That said, Ecwid have Recently added some new functionality, known as’Starter Website’, which does let you create a one-page standalone offering. We are going to chat through this in more depth later on in the review.) Cancel Ecwid Account
Click Here to register up to Ecwid today!
The Product operates by giving you a widget that gets put on other websites — hence the title Ecwid: it’s short for’E-commerce Widget’. You receive a couple lines of HTML code (the widget) to add into an present site or societal media profile, and your shop is displayed wherever you have inserted this code.
Features
Ecwid makes Strides in the market by catering to businesses which don’t want to start a brand new website. The main feature is that you can take your old site and quickly incorporate the Ecwid system inside a few minutes.
You can also Mirror the machine onto various other sites if you plan on selling elsewhere online. Handle all of these websites from 1 location rather than switching between multiple dashboards.
Another nice Feature is the syncing between multiple devices. Sell on-the-go together with your smartphone. This usually means you could go to a tradeshow to generate a few sales and each one these sales are reflected on the back part of your website.
The system is Also designed to integrate well with social networks, so that you may sell your items on Facebook if needed. 1 part of Ecwid we especially enjoy is the delivery facet. With real-time shipping integrations you always know what’s going on with your requests and at which they’re being sent to.
What other cool Things are included with Ecwid?
It runs on a super quick framework
It comes with an address book for customers and clients
The system has over 43 translations for selling around the world
You get a Lot of promotional tools such as vouchers, discounts, bulk pricing and more
Produce your personalized email alerts
Utilize the automatic tax solution (automatic taxation rates at checkout, tax reporting and submitting )
Point-of-sale performance
Thank you Into Ecwid’s point-of-sale (POS) performance, you can use your Ecwid shop to sell not only online but in physical locations too — in shops, market stalls, in theatres and so on.
With Ecwid’s POS Performance, regardless of if or not a customer purchases a product in shop, online, on their phone or through Facebook, everything remains in sync – i.e., the merchant’s catalog, inventory and client / transaction info.
There is a few methods that you can take advantage of this feature: the easiest is likely to use’Paypal Here.’ This involves downloading the Ecwid iOS program from the Apple’s App shop, linking it to the Paypal Here service, then taking payments utilizing a cell card reader (pictured above).
You’ve got two choices when it comes to POS Hardware and Paypal Here: you can buy a processor and swipe reader (for $24.99) or a chip and also tap reader (for $79.99). Both can be ordered straight from Ecwid.
There’s a couple of Things worth noting the Paypal Here integration: first, it’s only available to merchants in the US and UK. Secondly, it’s not yet available on Android devices. (On their site, Ecwid say it’ll be available shortly — but they have been saying that for quite a while now). Cancel Ecwid Account
If you are located outside That the US / UK, or want to utilize another mobile device kind, the fantastic thing is that Ecwid also functions with the Vend, Clover, NCR Silver and Square POS systems. These all ease utilizing a larger range of hardware in a physical retail location (full-sized card readers, receipt printers, cash drawers tablet racks etc.) and are usable in more nations.
Although you can avail Of the Paypal Here POS option on most of paid-for plans, you will want to be on the most expensive’Unlimited’ plan if you want to avail of a Vend, Clover, NCR Silver or Square integration.
Reactive storefronts
Ecwid Storefronts are responsive, meaning they will display properly across devices — desktop, tablet computers and mobile. In a age where smartphone internet surfing is eclipsing desktop browsing, this is important.
Free program
Unlike many similar Products, Ecwid provides a totally free program.
Granted, it’s a pretty Basic plan, in which features such as discount coupons and service aren’t accessible, and it merely lets you sell up to ten products in two categories — but this may actually be sufficient for some customers, and using it’s a fantastic way to try out the system.
But, A vital point to notice about the free plan is the fact that it is not good from an search engine optimization point of view — you have to be on a paid program to make certain that your product pages talk to search engines accurately (more on SEO below).
Language detection
Ecwid is forward of the Pack in that its storefronts can be mechanically translated into nearly 50 distinct languages — clients can see your store in their own language, without you needing to worry about producing alternate versions of this. Ecwid provides this performance by detecting visitors’ language mechanically based on their browser preferences / IP address.
Competing products like Shopify And Bigcommerce are nevertheless to provide this sort of functionality — they force you to rely on third party apps, the production of multiple shops or Google Translate to provide different language versions of your store, which can be less than ideal. So a definite triumph for Ecwid here.
Ecwid and search engine optimisation
Search engine Optimisation (SEO) in Ecwid is a pretty straightforward affair. You are able to edit the title of your page and its own meta description; the relevant fields are pre-populated for you automatically, but you can tweak them to match your SEO objectives.
As far as I can tell But you can not manually change the URL of a product — you need to make do with the one which Ecwid generates for you. This is not perfect because keywords in URLs are used by some search engines to categorise content through indexing.
However, The URLs that are automatically generated by Ecwid include the name you’ve given to your own product – so in the event that you include some keywords in your product title (maybe not a bad idea anyhow ) that your URL will include them also. This functions as something of a workaround, but I would prefer full control over URLs. Cancel Ecwid Account
One place where Ecwid doesn’t perform so Well on the search engine optimization front involves AMP — accelerated mobile pages. As the name suggests, AMP pages load faster on mobile devices. This motivates people to remain longer on your webpage, thus increasing’dwell time’ –something which is believed by many search engine optimization experts believe to be rewarded by Google with preferential treatment in search results. Furthermore, Google occasionally highlights AMP webpages in carousels in search results, providing AMP articles an extra little boost.
Regrettably However — and unlike competing products like Bigcommerce or Shopify, you can not create AMP versions of your products using Ecwid.
Importing and exporting data
Like many competing Goods Ecwid allows you to import and export your data in CSV format.
The Export option permits you to export merchandise data, orders and customers (again, in CSV format) and ensures that should you feel the need to migrate your shop to another e-commerce platform, you should not have any significant problems doing so.
Utilizing Ecwid with other programs
Ecwid and Twitter
WordPress does not Supplied any e-commerce performance out of this box, so anybody wishing to market on the platform will require a third-party solution like Ecwid. There’s an Ecwid plugin available, so adding an Ecwid shop to your WordPress site is quite simple — you can get up and running with a few clicks.
You simply sign up to get an Ecwid account and then install the free plugin.
Ecwid and Squarespace
Squarespace comes with Increasingly excellent e-commerce features, but the amount of payment gateway options is very limited — you need to use Stripe or Paypal. (And with Stripe only functions if you’re selling products from particular countries). Another main problem with the built-in Squarespace marketing software is they don’t facilitate dropshipping, and full export of products is not currently possible.
Integrating Ecwid with Squarespace allows you to bypass these limitations, and adding it into some Squarespace site is quite easy: it is a simple matter of adding a code block into a webpage and pasting some HTML to it.
Ecwid and Wix
As With Squarespace, there is currently no dropshipping choice for Wix users, therefore again Ecwid can provide a fantastic workaround. A dedicated program is offered by Ecwid to enable you incorporate the product onto a Wix shop easily.
Programs and plugins
Ecwid provides a fairly Restricted number integrations with other apps that are well-known. Integrations do exist with services Mailchimp, Xero and Freshbooks; but to be honest the range of integrations could be extensive — competing products like Shopify provide a much wider assortment of apps. Notable omissions in the Ecwid store comprise Quickbooks and Zendesk, for example (that said, a Quickbooks integration is coming shortly ).
The Image is better when it comes to CMS plugins: these are available for WordPress, Wix and Joomla, allowing for you to set up Ecwid on one of these platforms very easily. Cancel Ecwid Account
Interface and ease of use
Ecwid’s Interface is rather easy to use. Like many similar online store builders, you receive a vertical menu on the left that allows you to access key functionality, and the area on the right can be used to display or edit associated products, website content and reports.
As with any e-commerce tool, you will have to Spend a reasonable amount of time getting your head about producing catalogues and product variations, establishing transport prices etc…but there isn’t anything that should represent too a lot of a learning curve.
Matters are helped by an ‘onboarding checklist’ that is supplied to you once you log in for the first time.
If You’re stuck however, you can always get in contact with Ecwid’s support staff — more on this later — or, even if you’re on a’Business’ or’Unlimited’, you are able to take advantage of this included customization service (you get two hours and 12 hours customization time from Ecwidon these plans).
Ecwid and GDPR
I am not a Lawyer, so please be aware that the below observations shouldn’t be interpreted as legal information, but I am planning to do my very best to spell out some of the major GDPR problems facing Ecwid consumers below.
With the introduction of That the EU’s new GDPR legislation, there are many legal steps that site owners now should take to ensure they are adequately protecting EU customers’ and visitors’ privacy. There are severe financial penalties for doing so (to the point where it’s usually a great idea to speak with an attorney about what to do); and even when your business isn’t located in the EU, then you still need to obey the regulations where any website visits from the EU are worried.
According to my Understanding of the crucial GDPR principles, the main priorities for prospective Ecwid store owners are to:
· Provide adequate privacy and cookie cutter notices
· Process and store data safely
· Get explicit permission from people signing up to mailing lists that it is okay to send them e-newsletters
· Provide a way to opt in or revoke permission to use of non-essential biscuits on a site (and to log that consent).
There does not seem to be Whatever stops you fulfilling the first few requirements easily enough with Ecwid, although you will need to devote time and possibly money creating adequate notices and crafting information capture forms so that they are GDPR compliant.
Where things get Complicated with Ecwid is your fourth requirement — cookie approval. To ensure GDPR compliance, You Have to display a cookie cutter banner to your customers which
· Allows them to choose which cookies they would like to conduct BEFORE those biscuits are conducted (i.e., to give’prior consent’)
· Logs their consent to run biscuits Cancel Ecwid Account
· Enables them to revoke consent at a later stage
So for Instance, If you Use a Facebook Ads cookie in conjunction with your Ecwid shop, you’ll be breaking GDPR legislation unless you’ve got a banner set up which does all the above.
Now, out of the box at There isn’t a means to take care of the cookie approval issue with Ecwid. Nor is there a decent app accessible from the Ecwid app store (the only alternative on this front that I can locate, the’EU cookie banner’, does not appear to supply the essential performance — despite costing $1.99 a month to utilize ).
It Appears to me that the only alternative available to Ecwid users is to use a professional product like CookiePro, which will provide all the essential performance to generate cookie approval fully GDPR compliant. Despite being a powerful product however, Cookiepro does need quite a great deal of configuration and you’ll want to set quite a lot of time apart to set it up.
Setup and Layout
I really like The simple fact that you’re able to run a website without paying anything. This makes the installation process that much simpler, since you just have to punch in your email and create a password to proceed right to the backend port.
The system has Wizards for every platform you would like to place your store on. In case you’ve got a WordPress site, simply walk through three steps to get up and running. You can even click on options like Facebook and Joomla, based on where you would like to market.
The backend Design is flawless, because it walks you through each website creation and integration measure with a few nice photos and text. Once you obtain your shop implemented on a site or social page it appears fairly slick.
The layout Depends upon the subject you’ve got on your site, but as you can see below, it shows photos well and appears clean and easy to navigate. I especially enjoy the Shopping Bag area, which is prominent and easy to find for customers when they want to market.
Though many Sites are going to be mobile friendly, it;s nice understanding that Ecwid involves a native shopping program for both iOS and Android. Merchants now get a native shopping program for iOS and Android.
This means you Can mange your shop and sell on the move, while also providing your customers an opportunity to get products from the mobile interface.
The final Design thing which makes sense to mention is the vocabulary instrument. Since conducting an online store generally requires you to reach out to people from all over the world, you are bound to stumble upon a few customers who’d like to read product pages and other content in their native tongue. Ecwid supports 45 languages, so when a user wants to translate from English to Spanish, that is not a problem at all.
The Ecwid App Market
Possessing the Opportunity to put in software is a sure fire way to scaling up your ecommerce website in a reasonable way. Ecwid has a location known as the Ecwid App Market. It offers 65 applications, helping retailers extend their store functionality easily. Cancel Ecwid Account
Some of the apps Can help you out with reviews and rating, rewards programs, automated ad tools, analytics, customized design themes and more.
SEO and Marketing
Ecwid is a Third party remedy to your present site, so you’d normally need to employ additional SEO and advertising tools to really get out the word. That said, Ecwid supplies quality SEO features to help merchants increase their visibility in Google searches.
Moreover, Google now indexes AJAX sites, so all Ecwid shops are indexed by Google without any excess work. It gets better with WordPress sites, since you acquire access to additional SEO plugins as well as the default search engine functionality on the dashboard.
Managing Your Inventory
The Ecwid Inventory system is as simple as they come, since it doesn’t seem to include any of the unnecessary bells and whistles you may find on other e commerce platforms.
Each measure is Clear and concise, so that you may just go in there and sort in a product name, price and picture then save the product for later. Of course you could always open up the More Powerful Options, however they different these for when you are ready to start ramping up your own store.
As an example of the stock Rich direction toolset, you gain access to items like from stock merchandise monitoring, mobile device inventory management, barcode scanning and much more.
Customer Care
Ecwid offers A Chat With Sales attribute that is one of my favourite ways to talk to companies. Only send them a question and you can work on something else until they respond.
The company also Provides a potent support department with FAQs, a knowledge base, email capabilities and a forum.
Overall, the Service outlets include telephone service, online chat support and email support, keeping the response time brief and encourage quality high.
In my eyes, the Platform has everything you could want in terms of support.
Payments and Security
It is not necessarily Easy to locate an ecommerce platform that does not charge fees, but that is just what you get with Ecwid. They never control any sort of trade fee with any of those programs they provide, making it desirable for any shop that’s hoping to keep costs down and to improve margins.
Keep in mind that Ecwid isn’t a payment processor, so you’ve got to setup something like PayPal or Stripe to process all of the trades that come through your site. It’s pretty easy to implement one of these systems, because Ecwid incorporates with over 40 international payment choices. However, each one of those processors have their own transaction fees so that you have to prepare for these.
It’s quite Evident that Ecwid takes safety seriously, since the company is a PCI DSS Grade 1 certified service provider. The company also claims that every trade that includes sensitive data is transferred via a secure HTTPS channel. Cancel Ecwid Account
What if you Would love to accumulate both offline and online payments? Maybe you’d prefer a point of sale integration?
Ecwid Integrates together with Square, Clover, Vend POS, iZettle and PayPal card readers, allowing Ecwid to turn your operation into both an online and offline system.
Benefits and cons of using Ecwid
Benefits
· Ecwid signifies a really easy way to add e-commerce to any existing website.
· Point-of-sale functionality is available, and there are quite a few strategies to apply it.
· The product is cheap compared to other solutions.
· It supports multi-language variations of your store.
· The store designs are responsive.
· Plugins / apps are available for major platforms (such as WordPress, Drupal and Wix).
· It permits users of site building products which don’t facilitate dropshipping to begin doing this (i.e., Squarespace, Jimdo, Wix etc.. )
· The’starter website’ option is a fantastic stopgap measure for merchants who need a shop fast, but have yet to create a complete site in order to bring the Ecwid widget to.
· The free Ecwid program is not time-limited, includes service, and is fairly generous in terms of features.
Disadvantages
· The Paypal Here POS system is limited to the US and UK.
· The Paypal Here POS process is limited to iOS users.
· Phone support is only available on the more expensive programs.
· There is a restricted number of programs / integrations offered from the Ecwid Program shop.
· You can not change merchandise URLs, which is slightly annoying from an SEO perspective.
· You can’t create AMP variations of product pages using Ecwid.
· Making Ecwid GDPR-compliant (with regard to obtaining cookie consent) sounds hard.
· The free version will not allow you to access any of the SEO tools.
Pricing
Ecwid comes With four strategies, among which is totally free. They promote the free program like crazy, and mention that many different platforms drag you in free trial, even where you may finally have to pay.
This is where Ecwid stands out, and you’ll be able to see the other payment plans are rather affordable.
The Free plan Allows you to sell 10 products, whereas the Venture program ups that depend to 100 products and you get things like an iPhone management program. The company plan goes up to 2500 products for a superb price and you get live chat support. Priority support comes along with the Unlimited program and you might also market an unlimited amount of merchandise.
Ecwid is one of The cheapest solutions on the market. You can see that it’s actually more affordable than many of the other platforms we’ve reviewed previously, so if you’re searching for value, this might be the right plugin for you.
Summary
In short, I am Starting to think that Ecwid is among the greatest ways to market online, as long as you employ the best methods to enhance your sales online as well. Ecwid is a sleek system, with superb easy implementation steps, making it ideal for your small business audience. Cancel Ecwid Account
Click Here to sign up to Ecwid today!