Introduction Ecwid Company
Have you ever Wondered if you are using the ideal ecommerce platform for sale online? Can you occasionally stumble upon a new service that’s more practical and more economical than what you’re using today? 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 business site it frequently becomes tricky when you would like to bring on a new ecommerce platform or perhaps just alter your website at all. Read our Ecwid review to discover more about this option. Ecwid Company
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Many solutions Purposefully create a closed system, which is tedious to move away from as soon as you get started. But with a platform called Ecwid, you do not have to worry about it. In fact, the entire goal of the company, which began in 2009, would be to quickly and inexpensively create an internet store system on your present websites.
You don’t have To make a completely different site. Just apply Ecwid on any platform, CMS or social networking (in five minutes) and you’re good to go.
That raised my Attention, because I understand the struggles that come along with attempting to migrate websites, especially in regards to ecommerce. So, I needed to put together an in-depth review of this Ecwid system to find out if it’s worth the time.
How Many Men and Women Use Ecwid?
It is quite Remarkable what Ecwid has achieved since 2009, with more than 1 million retailers getting signed up. What is even more cool is that the Ecwid retailers span over 175 distinct countries, demonstrating 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 heading, and you don’t even have to squander your prior website in case you have one.
The usership Continues to grow, especially considering Ecwid is currently PCI DSS Level 1 accredited. If you are not certain what this is, it is pretty much the gold standard for safety 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 difference between that 20,000 along with the 1 million is the fact you don’t require a WordPress site to implement Ecwid. So, the 20,000 simply identifies WordPress users using the plugin.
What is Ecwid, and how does it work?
Ecwid is a hosted Solution for building an online store. Unlike competing products like Shopify, Bigcommerce and Volusion, which permit you to construct a fresh website with e-commerce performance, Ecwid is targeted more towards people who currently have a website and simply wish to add an online store to it.
Much like other E-commerce platforms, Ecwid allows you to set up’catalogs’ of all goods, and include photographs, pricing, weight etc. . each. You are able to specify shipping rates, accept credit card payments etc — all the key stuff that you’d expect to be able to perform with an e-commerce alternative.
However it differs Apart from competing products such as Shopify, Volusion, Squarespace and Bigcommerce in that it isn’t really designed to let you create a fully-featured, standalone e-commerce site; instead, it is designed to enable you add an online store to an existing online existence.
(That said, Ecwid have Recently added some new functionality, known as’Starter Website’, that does allow you create a one-page standalone offering. We are going to talk via this in more detail later on in the review.) Ecwid Company
Click Here to sign up to Ecwid today!
The Product works by providing you a widget which gets placed on other websites — hence the title Ecwid: it is short for’E-commerce Widget’. You receive a couple lines of HTML code (the widget) to add to an present site or societal networking profile, and your shop is displayed wherever you have added this code.
Features
Ecwid makes Strides in the market by catering to businesses which don’t want to begin a brand new website. The primary feature is that you can take your old website and immediately integrate the Ecwid system within a few minutes.
You can also Mirror the machine on various different websites if you anticipate selling elsewhere on the web. Handle all these websites from 1 place instead of switching between multiple dashboards.
Another nice Feature is that the syncing between multiple devices. Sell on-the-go with your smartphone. This usually means you could go to a tradeshow to make a few sales and all of these sales are represented on the backend of your site.
The system is Also made to integrate well with social networks, so that you may sell your items on Facebook if needed. One part of Ecwid we especially enjoy is the delivery aspect. With real time shipping integrations you always know what is going on with your orders and at which they are being shipped to.
What other cool Things are included with Ecwid?
It runs on a super quick frame
It comes with an address book to get customers and customers
The system has over 43 translations for sale around the world
You get lots of promotional instruments like coupons, discounts, and bulk pricing and more
Create your own customized email notifications
Use the automated tax alternative (automatic taxation charges at checkout, tax reporting and submitting )
Point-of-sale functionality
Thanks To Ecwid’s point-of-sale (POS) performance, you can use your Ecwid store to sell not only online but in bodily places too — in shops, market stalls, in concerts and so forth.
Together with Ecwid’s POS Performance, regardless of whether or not a customer purchases a product in store, online, in their telephone or through Facebook, everything stays in sync – i.e., the retailer’s catalog, inventory and customer / trade information.
There is a few ways that you can use this attribute: the simplest is probably to use’Paypal Here.’ This involves downloading the Ecwid iOS program from the Apple’s App shop, linking it to the Paypal Here service, and then taking payments using a cell card reader (pictured above).
You have two choices when it comes to POS Hardware and Paypal This: you can buy a chip and swipe reader (for $24.99) or a chip and also tap reader (for $79.99). Both can be arranged direct from Ecwid.
There is a few Things worth noting the Paypal Here integration: first, it’s only available to merchants in the US and UK. Secondly, it is not yet available on Android apparatus. (On their website, Ecwid say it’ll be available shortly — but they have been saying that for quite some time now). Ecwid Company
If you’re located outside The US / UK, or need to utilize another mobile device kind, the fantastic thing is that Ecwid also works with the Vend, Clover, NCR Silver and Square POS systems. These all facilitate utilizing a wider selection of hardware at 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 all paid-for plans, you will need to be on 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 that they will display correctly across devices — desktop, tablet computers and cellular. In a age where smartphone web browsing is eclipsing desktop browsing, this is vital.
Free plan
Unlike many similar Products, Ecwid provides a completely free program.
Granted, it is a fairly Basic plan, where features such as discount vouchers and support are not accessible, and it only allows you to sell up to 10 products in 2 classes — but this could actually be sufficient for some users, and using it is a good way to try out the system.
However, A key point to note about the free program is that it is not good from an search engine optimization point of view — you need to be on a paid plan to make certain that your product pages speak to search engines accurately (more on SEO under ).
Speech detection
Ecwid is ahead of the Pack because its storefronts can be automatically translated into nearly 50 distinct languages — clients can view your shop in their own language, without you needing to worry about producing alternate versions of this. Ecwid provides this functionality by detecting visitors’ language mechanically according to their browser preferences / IP address.
Competing products such as Shopify And Bigcommerce are nevertheless to supply this type of performance — that they force you to rely on third party apps, the production of multiple shops or Google Translate to supply different language variations of your shop, which can be less than ideal. So a definite triumph for Ecwid here.
Ecwid and search engine optimization
Search engine Optimization (SEO) in Ecwid is a pretty straightforward affair. You are able to edit the name of your page and its meta description; the applicable fields are pre-populated for you automatically, however you can tweak them to match your SEO objectives.
So Far as I could tell But you can not manually change the URL of a product — you have to make do with the one which Ecwid generates for you. This is not ideal because keywords in URLs are used by some search engines to categorise content during indexing.
But, The URLs that are automatically generated by Ecwid include the name you have given to your product – so if you include some keywords in your product title (not a bad idea anyway) your URL will include them too. This functions as something of a workaround, but I’d prefer full control over URLs. Ecwid Company
One place where Ecwid doesn’t perform so Well on the SEO front involves AMP — accelerated cellular pages. As its name implies, AMP pages load quicker on cellular devices. This motivates people to stay longer on your page, thus increasing’dwell time’ –something which is believed by many SEO experts believe to be rewarded with Google with preferential treatment in search results. Additionally, Google occasionally highlights AMP webpages in carousels in search results, providing AMP content an extra little boost.
Unfortunately However — and unlike most competing products like Bigcommerce or even Shopify, you can’t produce AMP versions of your goods using Ecwid.
Importing and exporting information
Like many competing Goods Ecwid allows you to import and export your data in CSV format.
The Export option permits you to export merchandise information, orders and clients (in CSV format) and ensures that should you ever feel the need to migrate your shop to another e-commerce platform, you should not have some significant difficulties doing so.
Using Ecwid with other programs
Ecwid and WordPress
WordPress doesn’t Provided any e-commerce functionality 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 accessible, therefore adding an Ecwid shop to your WordPress site is very straightforward — you can get up and running with a couple clicks.
You simply sign up to get an Ecwid accounts and 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 utilize Stripe or Paypal. (And using Stripe only functions if you are selling goods from particular countries). Another principal issue with the built-in Squarespace selling software is that they don’t facilitate dropshipping, and complete export of products isn’t currently possible.
Integrating Ecwid with Squarespace permits you to bypass these constraints, and adding it to a Squarespace site is quite simple: it’s a simple matter of including a code block to a webpage and pasting some HTML to it.
Ecwid and Wix
As With Squarespace, there is currently no dropshipping option for Wix users, so again Ecwid can offer a fantastic workaround. A dedicated program is provided by Ecwid to enable you integrate the item onto a Wix store easily.
Programs and plugins
Ecwid provides a fairly Restricted number integrations with other apps that are well-known. Integrations do exist together with services Mailchimp, Xero and Freshbooks; but to be honest the range of integrations may be more extensive — competing goods like Shopify provide a much wider range of apps. Notable omissions from the Ecwid store comprise Quickbooks and Zendesk, such as (that said, a Quickbooks integration is coming shortly ).
The Picture is better when it comes to CMS plugins: these are offered for WordPress, Wix and Joomla, enabling to you install Ecwid on one of these platforms quite easily. Ecwid Company
Interface and ease of use
Ecwid’s Interface is pretty easy to use. Like most similar online store builders, you get a vertical menu on the left that lets you access key functionality, and the place on the right can be used to display or edit associated products, website content and reports.
Much like any e-commerce tool, you will have to Spend a fair amount of time getting your head around creating catalogues and product variants, establishing transport rates etc…but there is nothing that should represent too much of a learning curve.
Matters are aided by an ‘onboarding checklist’ that’s supplied 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 team — more on that later — or, if you are on a’Business’ or’Unlimited’, you can take advantage of the included customization service (you get two hours and 12 hours personalization period from Ecwidon these plans).
Ecwid and GDPR
I’m not a Attorney, so please be aware that the below observations shouldn’t be interpreted as legal advice, but I’m going to do my very best to spell out some of the key GDPR problems facing Ecwid consumers below.
With the introduction of The EU’s new GDPR legislation, there are several legal steps that site owners now need to take to ensure that they are adequately protecting EU customers’ and visitors’ privacy. There are severe financial penalties for not doing so (to the point where it’s typically a great idea to consult an attorney about what to do); and even when your business isn’t based in the EU, then you still need to comply with the regulations where any website visits from the EU are worried.
Based on my Understanding of the key GDPR principles, the main priorities for prospective Ecwid store owners are to:
· Provide sufficient privacy and cookie 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 also to log that approval ).
There does not Appear to be Whatever stops you meeting the first few requirements readily enough with Ecwid, though you will have to devote time and potentially money creating adequate notices and crafting data capture forms so that they are GDPR compliant.
Where things get Complex with Ecwid is your fourth requirement — cookie cutter consent. To Guarantee 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 biscuits are conducted (i.e., to give’prior consent’)
· Logs their approval to run biscuits Ecwid Company
· Allows them to revoke approval at a later point
So for Instance, If you Use a Facebook Ads cookie in combination with your Ecwid shop, you’ll be breaking up GDPR legislation unless you have a banner in place which does all the above.
Now, out of the box at Least there isn’t a way to take care of the cookie consent issue with Ecwid. Nor is there an adequate program accessible from the Ecwid app store (the only option on this front I can find, the’EU cookie banner’, does not seem to supply the necessary performance — even though costing $1.99 per month to utilize ).
It Appears to me that the only option available to Ecwid consumers is to use a specialist product like CookiePro, which does supply all the necessary performance to make 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 put quite a great deal of time aside to set this up.
Setup and Layout
I Truly enjoy The fact which you can run a web site without paying anything. This makes the installation process that much easier, since you just have to punch in your email and make a password to go right to the backend port.
The system has Wizards for each platform that you want to place your shop on. If you’ve got a WordPress site, just walk through three steps to get up and running. You can even click on options like Facebook and Joomla, based on the place you would like to market.
The backend Design is flawless, since it walks you through every website creation and integration measure with a few fine photos and text. Once you get your store implemented on a site or social page it looks fairly sleek.
The layout Depends somewhat on the subject you have on your site, but as you can see below, it shows photos well and appears clean and simple to navigate. I especially enjoy the Shopping Bag place, which can be prominent and easy to find for customers when they want to market.
Though many Websites will be cellular friendly, it;s fine knowing that Ecwid includes a native shopping application for both iOS and Android. Merchants now receive a native shopping program for iOS and Android.
This means you Can mange your shop and sell on the move, while also giving your customers a chance to buy products from the mobile interface.
The final Design thing that makes sense to mention is your language instrument. Since conducting an internet store generally requires you to reach out to people from all over the planet, you’re bound to stumble upon a few clients 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 to Spanish, that’s no problem in any respect.
The Ecwid Program Economy
Possessing the Opportunity to put in software is a sure fire way to scaling up your ecommerce site in a reasonable way. Ecwid has a location called the Ecwid App Market. It offers 65 applications, helping merchants extend their store performance readily. Ecwid Company
Some of the apps Can help you out with reviews and rating, rewards programs, automated ad tools, analytics, customized layout themes and more.
SEO and Marketing
Ecwid is a Third party solution to your present site, so you would typically have to implement additional SEO and marketing tools to really get the word out. That said, Ecwid provides quality SEO qualities to help retailers increase their visibility in Google searches.
Moreover, Google now indexes AJAX sites, therefore all Ecwid stores are indexed by Google without any extra effort. It gets better with WordPress sites, since you gain access to additional search engine optimization plugins as well as the default search engine performance on the dashboard.
Managing Your Inventory
The Ecwid Inventory system is as simple as they come, because it doesn’t appear to incorporate any of those unnecessary bells and whistles you might find on other ecommerce platforms.
Each step is Clear and concise, so you may just go in there and sort in a product name, price and image then save the merchandise for afterwards. Of course you can always open up the Powerful Options, however they separate these for if you are all set to get started ramping up your store.
As an example of the stock Rich direction toolset, you obtain access to items like from stock product tracking, mobile device stock management, barcode scanning and much more.
Customer Support
Ecwid provides A Chat With Earnings feature which 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 Support outlets include phone support, online chat support and email support, maintaining the response time brief and support quality .
In my mind, the Platform has everything you might want in terms of support.
Payments and Safety
It is not always Simple to find an ecommerce platform that does not charge fees, but that’s exactly what you get with Ecwid. They never charge any sort of transaction fee with any of the plans they provide, making it desirable for any store that’s hoping to keep costs down and also to improve margins.
Keep in mind that Ecwid isn’t a payment processor, so you have to set up something such as PayPal or Stripe to process all the transactions that come through your site. It is pretty easy to employ these systems, since Ecwid integrates with over 40 international payment options. However, each one of those processors have their own trade fees so that you need to get ready for them.
It is quite Clear that Ecwid takes security seriously, because the company is a PCI DSS Grade 1 accredited supplier. The company also claims that each trade that includes sensitive information is transferred via a secure HTTPS channel. Ecwid Company
What 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 operation into both an online and offline system.
Advantages and cons of using Ecwid
Advantages
· Ecwid signifies a very simple way to add e-commerce to any present website.
· Point-of-sale functionality can be obtained, and there are a number of ways to apply it.
· The product is cheap compared to other solutions.
· It supports multi-language versions of your store.
· The store layouts are responsive.
· Plugins / apps are available for major platforms (such as WordPress, Drupal and Wix).
· It allows users of website building products that don’t facilitate dropshipping to begin doing so (i.e., Squarespace, Jimdo, Wix etc.)
· The’starter website’ option is a fantastic stopgap measure for merchants who want a store fast, but have yet to develop a complete website to add the Ecwid widget to.
· The free Ecwid program isn’t time-limited, includes support, and is rather generous concerning attributes.
Disadvantages
· The Paypal This POS system is limited to the US and UK.
· The Paypal Here POS system is limited to iOS users.
· Telephone support is only available on the more expensive programs.
· There’s a limited number of apps / integrations offered in the Ecwid Program store.
· You can not alter merchandise URLs, which can be slightly annoying in the search engine optimization perspective.
· You can not create AMP versions of product pages utilizing Ecwid.
· Making Ecwid GDPR-compliant (with respect to obtaining cookie approval ) sounds difficult.
· The free version will not let you get any of the search engine optimization tools.
Pricing
Ecwid comes With four plans, one of which is completely free. They market the free plan like mad, and mention that many 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 the other payment programs are rather affordable.
The Free program Allows you to sell 10 products, whereas the Venture program ups that count to 100 products and you get things like an iPhone direction app. The company plan goes up to 2500 products for a wonderful price and you get live chat service. Priority support comes alongside the Unlimited plan and you might also market an unlimited number of products.
Ecwid is one of The cheapest solutions available on the marketplace. You may see that it is actually cheaper than a lot of the other platforms we have reviewed in the past, so if you’re searching for value, this could be the right plugin for you.
Conclusion
In short, I’m Beginning to think that Ecwid is among the greatest ways to sell online, provided that you implement the best methods to enhance your sales online as well. Ecwid is a sleek system, with super easy implementation measures, making it ideal for the small business crowd. Ecwid Company
Click Here to sign up to Ecwid now!