Introduction Cart Widget
Have you ever Wondered if you are using the ideal ecommerce platform for sale online? Can you sometimes stumble upon a new service that’s more functional and cheaper than what you’re using today? Starting a small business is all about keeping your prices low, and finding an ecommerce platform that will help you with half the battle. Unfortunately, when you operate a small company site it often becomes tricky when you want to bring on a brand new ecommerce platform or even just modify your website whatsoever. Read our Ecwid review to discover more about this option. Cart Widget
Click Here to sign up to Ecwid now!
Many options Intentionally create a closed system, which is tedious to move away from once you begin. However, with a platform called Ecwid, you no longer need to be concerned about it. Actually, the whole goal of the company, which began in 2009, would be to quickly and inexpensively create an internet store system in your existing websites.
You do not have To make a whole new website. Just implement Ecwid on any platform, CMS or social network (in five minutes) and you’re all set.
This increased my Attention, since I know the struggles that come along with trying to migrate websites, particularly when it comes to ecommerce. So, I needed to gather an in-depth review of this Ecwid system to see whether it’s worth the time.
How Many Men and Women Use Ecwid?
It is quite Remarkable what Ecwid has achieved since 2009, with over 1 million merchants getting signed up. What is even more cool is that the Ecwid merchants span over 175 different countries, showing that this isn’t just a platform for most people in the US or Europe. Even companies in developing countries have a opportunity to get an internet store going, and you don’t have to squander your previous website in case you have one.
The usership Continues to grow, especially considering Ecwid is now PCI DSS Level 1 accredited. If you’re not certain what that is, it’s pretty much the gold standard for security in the ecommerce world. You can rest easy knowing you and your clients’ data is safe and secure.
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 the 1 million is the simple fact you don’t need a WordPress site in order to implement Ecwid. So, the 20,000 simply identifies WordPress users using the plugin.
What’s Ecwid, and how can this work?
Ecwid is a hosted Alternative for building an internet store. Unlike competing products like Shopify, Bigcommerce and Volusion, which allow you to build a new website with e-commerce performance, Ecwid is geared more towards people who already have a site and simply want to add an online store to it.
Much like other E-commerce platforms, Ecwid allows you to set up’catalogs’ of goods, and include photos, pricing, weight etc. . each. You are able to specify shipping prices, accept credit card payments and so on — all the crucial stuff 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 isn’t really designed to let you produce a fully-featured, standalone e-commerce website; instead, it’s designed to enable you add an internet store to an present online presence.
(That said, Ecwid have Recently added some new functionality, called’Starter Website’, which does let you produce a one-page standalone offering. We’ll talk via this in more detail later on in the review.) Cart Widget
Click Here to register up to Ecwid now!
The Product operates by providing you a widget which gets put on other websites — hence the title Ecwid: it is short for’E-commerce Widget’. You receive a few lines of HTML code (the widget) to add into an existing site or social media profile, and your store is displayed wherever you have inserted this code.
Features
Ecwid makes Strides in the market by catering to companies that don’t need to begin a brand-new website. The main feature is that you can take your old website and quickly integrate the Ecwid system inside a few minutes.
You can also Mirror the machine on various other websites if you plan on selling elsewhere on the web. Manage all these sites from 1 location rather than switching between multiple dashboards.
Another pleasant Attribute is the syncing between multiple devices. Sell on-the-go with your smartphone. This means you could visit a tradeshow to make a few sales and each one these sales are represented onto the backend of your website.
The system is Also designed to integrate nicely with social networks, and that means that you may sell your things on Facebook if desired. 1 part of Ecwid that we especially enjoy is the delivery aspect. With real time transport integrations you constantly know what’s happening with your requests and where they are being sent to.
What other cool Items are included with Ecwid?
It runs on a super quick framework
It comes with an address book for customers and customers
The machine has over 43 translations for sale around the world
You receive lots of promotional instruments such as vouchers, discounts, bulk pricing and much more
Create your personalized email alerts
Use the automatic tax solution (automatic tax charges at checkout, tax reporting and filing)
Point-of-sale performance
Thank you Into Ecwid’s point-of-sale (POS) functionality, you can use your Ecwid shop to market not only online but in bodily places too — in stores, market stalls, in theatres and so forth.
Together with Ecwid’s POS Performance, irrespective of if a customer purchases a product in shop, online, in their telephone or through Facebook, everything remains in sync – i.e., the merchant’s catalogue, inventory and client / transaction info.
There is a couple of ways you can take advantage of this feature: the simplest is likely to use’Paypal Here.’ This entails downloading the Ecwid iOS app from the Apple’s App store, linking it to the Paypal Here support, then taking payments utilizing a mobile card reader (pictured above).
You have two choices when it comes to POS Hardware and Paypal Here: you can either buy a processor and swipe reader (for $24.99) or a chip and tap reader (for $79.99). Both can be ordered direct from Ecwid.
There is a few Things worth noting about the Paypal Here integration: it’s only available to merchants in america and UK. Secondly, it’s not yet available on Android apparatus. (On their site, Ecwid state it will be available shortly — but they have been saying that for quite some time now). Cart Widget
If you’re based outside The US / UK, or need to work with another mobile device kind, the good news is that Ecwid also functions with all the Vend, Clover, NCR Silver and Square POS systems. These all facilitate utilizing a wider selection of hardware in a physical retail location (full-sized card readers, receipt printers, cash drawers pill racks etc.) and are usable in more countries.
Although you could avail Of the Paypal Here POS option on most of paid-for plans, you’ll want to be to the most expensive’Unlimited’ plan if you want to avail of a Vend, Clover, NCR Silver or Square admin.
Responsive storefronts
Ecwid Storefronts are responsive, meaning they will display properly across devices — desktopcomputer, tablet and mobile. In a age where smartphone web surfing is eclipsing desktop browsing, this is vital.
Free plan
Unlike many similar Goods, Ecwid provides a totally free plan.
Granted, it is a fairly Standard plan, in which attributes like discount coupons and service aren’t accessible, and it merely allows you to sell up to ten products in 2 classes — but this could really be adequate for some users, and using it is a good way to try the system out.
However, A key point to notice about the free program is the fact that it is not great from an search engine optimization standpoint — you need to be on a paid plan to make certain that your product pages speak to hunt engines correctly (more on SEO below).
Language detection
Ecwid is forward of the Pack because its storefronts could be automatically translated into nearly 50 distinct languages — customers can view your shop in their own language, without you needing to worry about creating alternate versions of this. Ecwid provides this performance by discovering visitors’ language mechanically based on their browser preferences / IP address.
Competing products such as Shopify And Bigcommerce are nevertheless to supply this type of performance — they force you to rely on third party apps, the creation of numerous shops or Google Translate to supply different language versions of your store, which is less than ideal. Therefore a definite win for Ecwid here.
Ecwid and search engine optimisation
Search engine Optimization (SEO) in Ecwid is a pretty straightforward affair. You can 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 suit your SEO objectives.
So Far as I can tell But you can’t manually change the URL of a product — you need to make do with the one that Ecwid generates for you. This is not ideal because key words in URLs are used by some search engines to categorise content during indexing.
But, The URLs which are automatically generated by Ecwid comprise the name you have given to your own product – so in the event that you include some keywords on your product name (maybe not a bad idea anyway) that your URL will include them too. This functions as something of a workaround, but I’d prefer whole control over URLs. Cart Widget
One area where Ecwid doesn’t perform so Well on the SEO front entails AMP — accelerated mobile pages. As the name implies, AMP pages load faster on mobile devices. This encourages people to stay longer on your page, thus increasing’live time’ –something that’s believed by many search engine optimization experts consider to be rewarded with Google with preferential treatment in search results. Furthermore, Google occasionally highlights AMP webpages in carousels in search results, giving AMP content an extra little boost.
Unfortunately However — and unlike most competing products like Bigcommerce or even Shopify, you can not create AMP versions of your goods 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 clients (in CSV format) and means that if you ever feel the need to migrate your shop to a different e-commerce platform, you should not have any major problems doing so.
Using Ecwid with other programs
Ecwid and WordPress
WordPress doesn’t Provided any e-commerce performance out of this box, so anyone wishing to sell on the platform will require a third-party solution like Ecwid. There’s an Ecwid plugin accessible, therefore adding an Ecwid shop to your WordPress site is quite simple — you can get up and running with a couple clicks.
You just sign up to get an Ecwid accounts and install the free plugin.
Ecwid and Squarespace
Squarespace comes with Increasingly excellent e-commerce attributes, but the amount of payment gateway options is very limited — you need to utilize Stripe or Paypal. (And with Stripe only functions if you’re selling goods from particular countries). The other principal issue with the built-in Squarespace selling tools is that they don’t facilitate dropshipping, and full export of merchandise isn’t currently possible.
Integrating Ecwid with Squarespace allows you to bypass these constraints, and adding it to a Squarespace site is quite easy: it is a simple matter of including a code block into a page and pasting some HTML into it.
Ecwid and Wix
As With Squarespace, there’s currently no dropshipping choice for Wix users, so again Ecwid can offer a fantastic workaround. A dedicated app is offered by Ecwid to allow you integrate the product onto a Wix shop easily.
Apps and plugins
Ecwid provides a fairly Limited number integrations with other apps that are well-known. Integrations do exist together with key services Mailchimp, Xero and Freshbooks; but to be honest the assortment of integrations could be extensive — competing products such as Shopify offer a much wider assortment of apps. Notable omissions from the Ecwid store comprise Quickbooks and Zendesk, such as (that said, a Quickbooks integration is coming soon).
The Picture is better when it comes to CMS plugins: All these are offered for WordPress, Wix and Joomla, allowing for you to set up Ecwid on one of these platforms quite easily. Cart Widget
Interface and ease of use
Ecwid’s Interface is pretty easy to use. Like most similar online shop builders, you get a vertical menu on the left which lets you access key functionality, and the area on the right is used to display or edit associated products, website content and reports.
Much like any e-commerce tool, you’ll need to Spend a fair amount of time getting your head about creating catalogues and product variants, establishing transport prices and so on…but there is nothing here that should represent too a lot of a learning curve.
Things are aided by an ‘onboarding checklist’ that’s provided to you when you log in for the first time.
If You are stuck nonetheless, you could always get in touch 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 the included customization service (you get two hours and 12 hours personalization time from Ecwidon these programs ).
Ecwid and GDPR
I am not a Attorney, so please note that the below observations shouldn’t be interpreted as legal information, but I’m going to do my very best to spell out a number of the key GDPR problems facing Ecwid consumers under.
With the introduction of That the EU’s new GDPR legislation, there are several legal steps that site owners now should take to ensure that they are adequately protecting EU clients’ and visitors’ privacy. There are severe financial penalties for doing so (to the point where it’s typically a good idea to consult a lawyer on what to do); and even when your company is not based in the EU, you still will need to obey the regulations where any site visits in the EU are concerned.
Based on my Understanding of the crucial GDPR rules, the main priorities for potential Ecwid store owners are to:
· Provide sufficient privacy and cookie cutter notices
· Process and store data safely
· Get explicit consent from those signing up to mailing lists it is okay to send them e-newsletters
· Provide a way to opt in or revoke consent to use of non-essential cookies on a site (and to log that approval ).
There doesn’t Appear to be Whatever stops you meeting the first three requirements easily enough with Ecwid, although you will have to spend time and potentially 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 cutter consent. To ensure GDPR compliance, You Have to display a cookie banner to your customers which
· Allows them to choose which cookies they want to conduct BEFORE those cookies are conducted (i.e., to provide’prior consent’)
· Logs their consent to run cookies Cart Widget
· Enables them to revoke approval at a later stage
So for example, if you Use a Facebook Advertising cookie in combination with your Ecwid store, you’ll be breaking up GDPR laws unless you’ve got a banner in place which does all of the above.
Nowout of the box at Least there is not a means to deal with the cookie consent issue with Ecwid. Nor is there an adequate app accessible from the Ecwid app store (the only alternative on front I can find, the’EU cookie banner’, does not appear to provide the essential functionality — despite costing $1.99 per month to use).
It Seems to me that the only alternative available to Ecwid consumers would be to use a professional product such as CookiePro, which does provide all the necessary performance to make cookie approval fully GDPR compliant. Despite being a strong product however, Cookiepro does need quite a lot of configuration and you’ll want to put quite a great deal of time aside to set it up.
Setup and Layout
I Truly enjoy The simple fact which you’re able to run a web site without paying for anything. This makes the installation process that much easier, because you simply need to punch in your email and create a password to proceed right to the backend interface.
The machine has Wizards for every platform that you want 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 also click on choices like Facebook and Joomla, depending on where you would like to market.
The backend Design is flawless, because it walks you through every site creation and integration measure with some fine photos and text. As soon as you obtain your store implemented on a website or societal page it appears fairly slick.
The design Depends upon the theme you have on your website, but as you can see below, it displays photos well and looks clean and easy to navigate. I particularly enjoy the Shopping Bag place, which is outstanding and easy to locate for customers when they wish to checkout.
Although many Sites will be cellular friendly, its nice knowing that Ecwid includes a native shopping application for both iOS and Android. Merchants now get a native shopping application for iOS and Android.
This means you Can mange your shop and sell on the go, while also giving your customers an opportunity to get products from the mobile interface.
The final Design thing that makes sense to mention is the language tool. Since conducting an internet store generally requires you to attain out to individuals from throughout the world, you are bound to stumble upon a few customers who would 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 into Spanish, that’s no problem at all.
The Ecwid App Market
Having the Opportunity to put in applications is a sure fire way to scaling your ecommerce site in a fair manner. Ecwid includes a place known as the Ecwid App Market. It provides 65 applications, helping retailers extend their shop functionality readily. Cart Widget
A Few of the apps Will give you a hand with reviews and rating, rewards programs, automated advertising tools, analytics, customized layout themes and more.
SEO and Marketing
Ecwid is a Third-party remedy to your current site, so you’d typically have to employ additional SEO and advertising tools to truly get the word out. Nevertheless, Ecwid supplies quality SEO features to help retailers increase their visibility in Google searches.
Moreover, Google now indexes AJAX sites, so all Ecwid shops are indexed by Google without any extra effort. It gets better with WordPress sites, as you acquire access to additional search engine optimization plugins and also the default search engine functionality on the dashboard.
Managing Your Inventory
The Ecwid Inventory process is as simple as they come, because it doesn’t appear to include any of those unnecessary bells and whistles you might find on other ecommerce platforms.
Each measure is Clear and concise, so you can just go in there and type in a product name, price and picture then save the product for afterwards. Of course you could always open the Powerful Options, however they separate these for if you’re ready to start ramping up your store.
As an example of the stock Rich direction toolset, you gain access to things like from stock product tracking, mobile device stock management, barcode scanning and more.
Customer Care
Ecwid offers A Chat With Earnings feature that is always one of my favourite ways to converse to companies. Only send them a query and you can work on something else until they respond.
The company also Provides a powerful support section with FAQs, a knowledge base, email capabilities and a forum.
Overall, the Support outlets include telephone support, online chat support and email support, maintaining the response time brief and support quality high.
In my mind, the Platform has everything you might want in terms of support.
Payments and Safety
It is not always Easy to locate an ecommerce platform which does not charge fees, but that’s exactly what you get with Ecwid. They never charge any kind of trade fee with any of those plans they offer, making it desirable for any shop that’s hoping to keep down costs and also to improve margins.
Remember that Ecwid isn’t a payment processor, which means you’ve got to setup something such as PayPal or Stripe to process all of the transactions that come through your site. It is pretty easy to implement one of these systems, since Ecwid incorporates with over 40 global payment options. However, each one of those processors have their particular trade fees so that you need to prepare for them.
It’s rather Clear that Ecwid takes safety seriously, since the provider is a PCI DSS Level 1 certified supplier. The company also states that each trade that includes sensitive data is transferred through a secure HTTPS channel. Cart Widget
Imagine if you Would like to collect both online and offline payments? Maybe you’d prefer a point of sale integration?
Ecwid Integrates together with Square, Clover, Vend POS, iZettle and PayPal card readers, enabling Ecwid to turn your performance into both an online and offline system.
Benefits and disadvantages of using Ecwid
Benefits
· Ecwid represents a very simple way to add e-commerce to some present website.
· Point-of-sale functionality can be obtained, and there are quite a few strategies to implement it.
· The item is cheap by comparison to other solutions.
· It supports multi-language variations of your store.
· The store layouts are responsive.
· Plugins / programs are available for major platforms (such as WordPress, Drupal and Wix).
· It permits users of site building products that don’t facilitate dropshipping to start doing so (i.e., Squarespace, Jimdo, Wix etc.. )
· The’starter site’ option is a good stopgap measure for merchants who need a shop quickly, but have yet to create a full website to add the Ecwid widget to.
· The free Ecwid plan is not time-limited, includes support, and is fairly generous concerning attributes.
Cons
· The Paypal Here POS system is Limited to the US and UK.
· The Paypal Here POS system is limited to iOS users.
· Phone support is only available on the more expensive plans.
· There’s a restricted number of programs / integrations available from the Ecwid App store.
· You can’t change merchandise URLs, which can be slightly annoying in the SEO perspective.
· You can’t create AMP variations of merchandise pages utilizing Ecwid.
· Creating Ecwid GDPR-compliant (with regard to getting cookie approval ) sounds hard.
· The free version doesn’t let you get any of the SEO tools.
Pricing
Ecwid comes With four strategies, among which is totally free. They market the free program like crazy, and mention that a number of other platforms drag you in free trial, where you will eventually have to pay.
That is where Ecwid stands outside, and you can see the other payment plans are fairly reasonably priced.
The Free program Lets you sell 10 products, whereas the Venture plan ups that count to 100 products and you get things like an iPhone management app. The company plan goes up to 2500 merchandise for a superb price and you also get live chat service. Priority support comes along with the Unlimited plan and you can also market an unlimited amount of products.
Ecwid is one of The cheapest solutions available on the market. You may see that it’s actually cheaper than many of the other programs we’ve reviewed previously, so if you’re searching for value, this might be the right plugin for you.
Wrap-up
In short, I’m Starting to believe that Ecwid is among the greatest ways to sell online, provided that you implement the best methods to enhance your earnings online too. Ecwid is a sleek system, with super simple implementation steps, making it ideal for the small business crowd. Cart Widget
Click Here to sign up to Ecwid today!