Background Change Robots.Txt In Ecwid

Have you ever Wondered if you’re using the ideal ecommerce platform for selling online? Do you sometimes stumble upon a new service that’s more functional and more economical than what you’re using today? Starting a small business is all about keeping your prices low, and finding an ecommerce platform to assist you with half the battle. Unfortunately, when you operate a small company site it often becomes tricky when you would like to attract on a brand new ecommerce platform or perhaps just modify your website at all. Read our Ecwid review to find out more about this option. Change Robots.Txt In Ecwid

Click Here to register up to Ecwid now!

Many options Intentionally create a closed system, which can be tedious to move away from once you begin. However, with a stage named Ecwid, you no longer have to worry about it. In fact, the entire aim of the business, which began in 2009, would be to quickly and quickly make an online store system in your existing websites.

You do not have To make a whole new site. Just implement Ecwid on any stage, CMS or social network (in five minutes) and you are good to go.

That increased my Attention, because I know the struggles that come along with attempting to migrate sites, particularly when it comes to ecommerce. So, I needed to gather an in-depth review of the Ecwid system to find out if it is worth the time.

How Many People Use Ecwid?

It is quite Impressive what Ecwid has achieved 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, showing that this is not just a platform for people in the US or Europe. Even businesses in developing nations have a chance to find an internet store going, and you do not even have to squander your prior site in case you have one.

The usership Continues to grow, especially considering Ecwid is currently PCI DSS Level 1 accredited. If you’re not sure what this is, it’s pretty much the gold standard for safety in the ecommerce world. You can rest easy knowing 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 difference between that 20,000 along with also 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 with the plugin.

What’s Ecwid, and how can it work?

Ecwid is a hosted Solution for building an internet shop. Unlike competing products such as Shopify, Bigcommerce and Volusion, which permit you to build a new website with e-commerce functionality, Ecwid is targeted more towards people who already have a website and simply want to add an internet store to it.

Much like other E-commerce platforms, Ecwid lets you install’catalogs’ of all goods, and add photographs, pricing, weight etc. for each. You can define shipping rates, accept credit card payments and so on — all the key things that you would expect to be able to perform using an e-commerce solution.

However it differs Significantly 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 site; instead, it’s intended to allow you add an internet store to an present online presence.

(That said, Ecwid have Recently added some new functionality, called’Starter Website’, that will let you produce a one-page standalone offering. We’ll talk via this in more detail later on in the inspection.) Change Robots.Txt In Ecwid

Click Here to sign up to Ecwid now!

The Product operates by providing you a widget that gets placed on other websites — hence the name Ecwid: it is short for’E-commerce Widget’. You get a couple lines of HTML code (the widget) to add to an existing site or social networking profile, and your store is displayed wherever you’ve 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 primary attribute is that you can take your old website and quickly incorporate the Ecwid system within a few minutes.

You can also Mirror the machine on various different sites if you anticipate selling elsewhere online. Handle all of these sites from 1 location instead of switching between multiple dashboards.

Another nice Attribute is the syncing between multiple devices. Sell on-the-go with your smartphone. This usually means that you can visit a tradeshow to make a few sales and each one of these sales are represented on the backend of your website.

The system is Also designed to integrate well with social networks, and that means you may sell your things on Facebook if desired. One part of Ecwid we especially enjoy is the shipping facet. With real time shipping integrations you always know what’s happening with your requests and at which they’re being shipped to.

What other cool Things are comprised with Ecwid?

It runs on a super quick frame

It comes with an address book for customers and clients

The system has over 43 translations for selling round the world

You receive a Lot of promotional tools like vouchers, discounts, bulk pricing and more

Produce your personalized email alerts

Use the automated tax solution (automatic tax charges at checkout, tax reporting and filing)

Point-of-sale functionality

Thank you Into Ecwid’s point-of-sale (POS) functionality, you can use your Ecwid shop to sell not only online but in bodily places too — in stores, market stalls, at theatres and so forth.

With Ecwid’s POS Performance, regardless of if a customer buys a product in store, online, in their phone or through Facebook, everything stays in sync – i.e., the retailer’s catalog, inventory and customer / transaction info.

There is a couple of ways that you can take advantage of this attribute: the simplest is probably to use’Paypal Here.’ This involves downloading the Ecwid iOS app from the Apple’s App store, linking it to the Paypal Here service, and then taking payments utilizing a mobile card reader (pictured above).

You’ve got two choices when it comes to POS Hardware and Paypal Here: you can either buy a chip and swipe reader (for $24.99) or a processor and tap reader (for $79.99). Both can be ordered straight from Ecwid.

There’s a couple of Things worth noting about the Paypal Here integration: first, it’s only available to retailers in america and UK. Secondly, it’s not yet available on Android apparatus. (On their website, Ecwid say it will be available shortly — but they have been saying that for quite a while now). Change Robots.Txt In Ecwid

If you’re based outside The US / UK, or want to utilize another mobile device type, the good news is that Ecwid also works with the Vend, Clover, NCR Silver and Square POS systems. These all ease using a larger selection 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 this Paypal Here POS choice on all paid-for plans, you will want to be to the priciest’Unlimited’ plan if you would like to avail of a Vend, Clover, NCR Silver or Square integration.

Responsive storefronts

Ecwid Storefronts are responsive, meaning they will display properly across devices — desktopcomputer, tablet computers and cellular. In a age where smartphone web browsing is eclipsing desktop surfing, this is vital.

Free plan

Unlike many similar Products, Ecwid provides a totally free plan.

Granted, it’s a pretty Basic plan, in which features like discount coupons and service are not available, and it only lets you sell up to ten products in 2 categories — but this may really be sufficient for some users, and using it is a good way to try out the system.

But, A key point to note about the free program is that it isn’t great from an SEO standpoint — you have to be on a paid plan to ensure that your product pages speak to search engines correctly (more on SEO below).

Language detection

Ecwid is ahead of the Pack in that its storefronts can be automatically translated into nearly 50 distinct languages — clients can view your store in their own language, without you having to worry about creating alternate versions of this. Ecwid provides this functionality by detecting visitors’ language mechanically based on their browser preferences / IP address.

Competing products such as Shopify And Bigcommerce are nevertheless to supply this sort of functionality — that they force you to rely on third party programs, the production of numerous shops or Google Translate to provide different language versions of your store, which is less than perfect. So a definite triumph for Ecwid here.

Ecwid and search engine optimization

Search engine Optimization (search engine optimization ) in Ecwid is a fairly straightforward affair. You can edit the name of your webpage and its meta description; the relevant fields are pre-populated for you automatically, however you can tweak them to match your SEO objectives.

So Far as I could tell However, you can’t manually change the URL of a product — you have to make do with the one that Ecwid generates for you. This is not ideal because keywords in URLs are used by some search engines to categorise content through indexing.

But, The URLs that are automatically generated by Ecwid comprise the title you have given to your own product – so in the event that you include some keywords on your product title (maybe not a bad idea anyway) that your URL will comprise them also. This serves as something of a workaround, but I would prefer full control over URLs. Change Robots.Txt In Ecwid

One place where Ecwid doesn’t perform quite so Well on the SEO front involves AMP — accelerated mobile pages. As its name suggests, AMP pages load quicker on cellular devices. This encourages people to stay longer on your webpage, thus increasing’live time’ –something that’s believed by many SEO experts believe to be rewarded with Google with preferential treatment in search results. Additionally, Google occasionally highlights AMP pages in carousels in search results, giving AMP content an extra little boost.

Unfortunately However — and unlike most rival products such as Bigcommerce or even Shopify, you can’t create AMP variations of your goods using Ecwid.

Importing and exporting information

Like many competing Products Ecwid permits you to import and export your data in CSV format.

The Export option allows you to export product data, orders and clients (in CSV format) and means that if you feel the need to migrate your store to a different e-commerce platform, then you should not have some significant difficulties doing so.

Utilizing Ecwid with other programs

Ecwid and WordPress

WordPress does not Provided any e-commerce performance from the box, so anybody wanting to sell on the stage will need a third-party alternative like Ecwid. There is an Ecwid plugin available, therefore adding an Ecwid shop to your WordPress site is quite simple — you can get up and running with a couple clicks.

You simply sign up to get an Ecwid accounts and then install the free plugin.

Ecwid and Squarespace

Squarespace comes with Increasingly good e-commerce attributes, but the amount of payment gateway options is quite limited — you need to utilize Stripe or Paypal. (And using Stripe only functions if you’re selling products from particular countries). The other principal issue with the built-in Squarespace marketing software is they don’t facilitate dropshipping, and full export of merchandise isn’t currently possible.

Integrating Ecwid with Squarespace permits you to bypass these constraints, and adding it into some Squarespace site is very simple: it’s a simple matter of adding a code block to a page and pasting some HTML to it.

Ecwid and Wix

As With Squarespace, there is currently no dropshipping choice for Wix users, so again Ecwid can provide a good workaround. A dedicated program is provided by Ecwid to enable you incorporate the product onto a Wix shop easily.

Apps and plugins

Ecwid provides a pretty Limited number integrations with other apps that are well-known. Integrations do exist together with services Mailchimp, Xero and Freshbooks; but to be honest the assortment of integrations may be extensive — competing goods like Shopify offer a much wider range of programs. Notable omissions in the Ecwid store comprise Quickbooks and Zendesk, such as (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 install Ecwid on these platforms quite easily. Change Robots.Txt In Ecwid

Interface and ease of use

Ecwid’s Interface is rather user friendly. Like many similar online shop builders, you receive a vertical menu on the left which lets you access key performance, and the place on the right can be used to display or edit associated products, site reports and content.

Much like any e-commerce tool, you will have to Spend a reasonable amount of time getting your head about creating catalogues and product variations, setting up shipping rates etc…but there isn’t anything that should represent also much of a learning curve.

Things are helped by an ‘onboarding checklist’ that’s supplied to you when you log in for the first time.

If You’re stuck nonetheless, you can always get in contact with Ecwid’s support team — more on that later — or, even if you are on a’Business’ or’Unlimited’, you are able to make the most of the included customization service (you get two hours and 12 hours customization period from Ecwidon these plans).

Ecwid and GDPR

I’m not a Attorney, so please note the below observations should not be interpreted as legal advice, but I am planning to do my very best to spell out some of the major GDPR issues facing Ecwid users below.

With the introduction of That the EU’s new GDPR legislation, there are many legal measures that site owners now need to take to ensure they are adequately protecting EU clients’ and visitors’ privacy. There are severe financial penalties for doing this (to the point where it is typically a good idea to speak with a lawyer about what to do); and even when your company is not based in the EU, then you still need to obey the regulations where any website visits in the EU are concerned.

Based on my Understanding of the key GDPR principles, the principal priorities for potential Ecwid store owners would be to:

· Provide adequate privacy and cookie cutter notices

· Process and store data securely

· Get explicit permission from those signing up to mailing lists that it is fine to send them e-newsletters

· Provide a way to opt in or revoke consent to use of non-essential cookies onto a site (and to log that approval ).

There does not Appear to be Whatever stops you fulfilling the first three requirements easily enough with Ecwid, though you will need to spend time and potentially money generating adequate notices and crafting data capture forms so that they are GDPR compliant.

Where things get Complicated with Ecwid is your fourth requirement — cookie cutter consent. To Guarantee GDPR compliance, You Have to exhibit a cookie cutter banner to your visitors which

· Allows them to select which cookies they would like to conduct BEFORE those biscuits are run (i.e., to provide’prior permission’)

· Logs their approval to run biscuits Change Robots.Txt In Ecwid

· Allows them to revoke consent at a later stage

So for example, if you Utilize a Facebook Ads cookie in combination with your Ecwid shop, you will be breaking GDPR laws unless you’ve got a banner set up which does all the above.

Now, out of the box at Least there isn’t a means to deal with the cookie approval issue with Ecwid. Nor is there a decent app available from the Ecwid app store (the only alternative on this front I can find, the’EU cookie banner’, does not seem to provide the necessary performance — even though costing $1.99 a month to utilize ).

It Seems to me that the only alternative available to Ecwid users would be to use a specialist product such as CookiePro, which will provide all the essential performance to make cookie approval fully GDPR compliant. Despite being a strong product however, Cookiepro does require quite a lot of configuration and you’ll need to put quite a lot of time apart to set this up.

Installation and Layout

I Truly like The simple fact which you can run a web site without paying anything. This makes the setup process that much simpler, because you just have to punch in your email and create a password to go right to the backend interface.

The machine has Wizards for every platform that you want to set your store on. If you have a WordPress site, just walk through three steps to get up and running. You could even click on choices like Facebook and Joomla, based on the place you would like to sell.

The backend Design is flawless, because it walks you through every site creation and integration measure with a few fine photos and text. As soon as you get your shop implemented on a website or social page it looks fairly slick.

The design Depends somewhat on the theme you have on your site, however as you can see below, it shows photos well and appears clean and easy to navigate. I particularly enjoy the Shopping Bag area, which can be prominent and easy to find for clients when they want to market.

Although many Websites will be mobile friendly, it;s nice knowing 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 market on the move, while also providing your clients an opportunity to get products from the mobile interface.

The closing Design item which makes sense to mention is your language tool. Since running an online store generally requires one to attain out to people from throughout the world, you are bound to stumble upon some customers who’d like to read product pages and other content in their native tongue. Ecwid supports 45 languages, so if a user wants to translate from English into Spanish, that’s not a problem in any respect.

The Ecwid App Market

Possessing the Chance to install software is a sure fire way to scaling up your ecommerce site in a fair manner. Ecwid includes a place called the Ecwid App Market. It provides 65 applications, helping retailers extend their store functionality readily. Change Robots.Txt In Ecwid

Some of the programs Will give you a hand with rating and reviews, rewards programs, automated advertising tools, analytics, custom design topics and much more.

SEO and Marketing

Ecwid is a Third-party solution to your current 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, therefore all Ecwid stores are indexed by Google without any extra work. It gets better with WordPress sites, since you gain access to additional search engine optimization plugins as well as also the default search engine functionality around the dashboard.

Managing Your Inventory

The Ecwid Inventory process is as simple as they come, because it doesn’t seem to incorporate any of the unnecessary bells and whistles you might find on other e commerce platforms.

Each measure is Clear and concise, so that you may just go in there and type in a product name, price and picture then save the merchandise for later. Of course you could always open the Powerful Options, however they different these for if you are ready to get started ramping up your own store.

As an example of the stock Rich management toolset, you obtain access to things like from stock product monitoring, mobile device stock management, barcode scanning and much more.

Customer Care

Ecwid provides A Chat With Earnings feature which is one of my favorite ways to talk with companies. Simply send them a query and you can work on something else until they respond.

The company also Provides a powerful support department with FAQs, a knowledge base, email capabilities and a forum.

Overall, the Support outlets include telephone support, online chat support and email support, keeping the response time brief and support quality .

In my mind, the Platform has everything you could want concerning support.

Payments and Security

It’s not necessarily Easy to locate an ecommerce platform that does not charge transaction fees, but that is just what you get with Ecwid. They never charge any sort of trade fee with any of the programs they offer, making it desirable for any store that is trying to keep down costs and also to improve margins.

Keep in mind that Ecwid is not a payment processor, so you’ve got to set up something like PayPal or Stripe to process all of the transactions that come through your website. It is pretty easy to employ these systems, since Ecwid integrates with over 40 global payment choices. However, each one of these processors have their particular transaction fees so that you need to get ready for them.

It’s quite Evident that Ecwid takes security seriously, because the provider is a PCI DSS Level 1 certified service provider. The company also claims that each trade that includes sensitive information is transferred via a secure HTTPS channel. Change Robots.Txt In Ecwid

Imagine if you Would like to accumulate both offline and online payments? Perhaps 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 offline and online system.

Advantages and disadvantages of using Ecwid

Advantages

· Ecwid represents a really easy way to add e-commerce to any existing website.

· Point-of-sale functionality is available, and there are a number of ways to apply it.

· The product is cheap compared to other alternatives.

· 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 allows users of site building products which don’t facilitate dropshipping to begin doing so (i.e., Squarespace, Jimdo, Wix etc.)

· The’starter website’ option is a fantastic stopgap measure for retailers who need a shop quickly, but have yet to develop a complete website to add the Ecwid widget to.

· The free Ecwid plan is not time-limited, includes support, and is fairly generous concerning features.

Cons

· The Paypal This POS system is Limited to the US and UK.

· The Paypal This POS system is limited to iOS users.

· Phone support is only available on the more expensive plans.

· There’s a limited number of programs / integrations available from the Ecwid App shop.

· You can not change product URLs, which can be slightly annoying in the search engine optimization point of view.

· You can’t create AMP variations of merchandise pages utilizing Ecwid.

· Making Ecwid GDPR-compliant (with regard to getting cookie consent) sounds difficult.

· The free version will not allow you to access any of the search engine optimization tools.

Pricing

Ecwid comes With four plans, one of which is completely free. They promote the free plan like mad, and mention that a number of different platforms drag you in free trial, even where you will finally have to pay.

That is where Ecwid stands out, and you can see that the other payment programs are rather reasonably priced.

The Free program Lets you sell 10 products, while the Venture plan ups that count to 100 goods and you get items like an iPhone management app. The company program goes up to 2500 products for a wonderful price and you get live chat support. Priority support comes alongside the Unlimited program and you can also sell an unlimited number of products.

Ecwid is one of The cheapest solutions available on the market. You can see that it’s actually cheaper than many of the other programs we’ve reviewed in the past, so if you’re looking for value, this might be the right plugin for you.

Wrap-up

In short, I am Starting to believe that Ecwid is one of the best ways to market online, provided that you implement the best methods to enhance your sales online as well. Ecwid is a sleek system, with superb simple implementation measures, which makes it perfect for the small business audience. Change Robots.Txt In Ecwid

Click Here to register up to Ecwid now!