Background Ecwid Loyalty Program

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 practical and more economical than what you’re using now? Starting a small business is all about keeping your prices low, and finding an ecommerce platform that will assist you with half the battle. Unfortunately, when you operate a small company website it frequently becomes tricky once you would like to attract on a new ecommerce platform or even just modify your website whatsoever. Read our Ecwid review to find out more about this option. Ecwid Loyalty Program

Click Here to register up to Ecwid today!

Many options Intentionally create a closed system, which can be tedious to maneuver away from once you get started. However, with a stage named Ecwid, you no longer have to be concerned about this. In fact, the entire aim of the business, which began in 2009, would be to quickly and quickly create an online store system in your present websites.

You do not have To make a whole new website. Just implement Ecwid on any stage, CMS or social network (in five minutes) and you’re all set.

That raised my Attention, because I understand the struggles that come along with trying to migrate websites, especially when it comes to ecommerce. So, I needed to gather a comprehensive review of the Ecwid system to see whether it’s worth the time.

How Many People Use Ecwid?

It is quite Remarkable what Ecwid has done since 2009, with more than 1 million retailers getting signed up. What is even more cool is that the Ecwid retailers span over 175 different countries, demonstrating that this is not only a platform for 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 trash your prior website in case you have one.

The usership Continues to grow, particularly considering Ecwid is currently PCI DSS Level 1 certified. If you’re not sure what that is, it is pretty much the gold standard for safety in the ecommerce world. You can rest easy knowing that you and your customers’ information is safe and protected.

Along with The total merchant count, over 20,000 active users are utilizing the Ecwid Shopping Cart for WordPress. The gap between that 20,000 and also the 1 million is the simple fact that 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 does this function?

Ecwid is a hosted Alternative for building an online store. Unlike competing products like Shopify, Bigcommerce and Volusion, which permit you to build a new website with e-commerce functionality, Ecwid is geared more towards people who currently have a website and simply wish to add an online store for this.

Much like other E-commerce platforms, Ecwid lets you set up’catalogs’ of products, and include photos, pricing, weight etc. . each. You are able to specify shipping prices, accept credit card payments etc — all the crucial things that you would expect to be able to perform with an e-commerce solution.

However it differs Apart from competing products such as Shopify, Volusion, Squarespace and Bigcommerce since it isn’t actually designed to allow you to create a fully-featured, standalone e-commerce site; rather, it’s intended to enable you add an online store to an present online presence.

(That said, Ecwid have Recently added some new functionality, known as’Starter Site’, which will allow you create a one-page standalone offering. We’ll chat through this in more detail later on in the review.) Ecwid Loyalty Program

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’s short for’E-commerce Widget’. You get a few lines of HTML code (the widget) to add to an existing website or social networking 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 begin a brand-new website. The main feature is that you can take your old website and immediately integrate the Ecwid system inside a few minutes.

You can also Mirror the machine on several other websites if you plan on selling elsewhere online. Manage all of these websites from 1 place instead of 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 all of these earnings are reflected on the backend of your website.

The system is Also designed to integrate nicely with social networks, so you can sell your things on Facebook if desired. One part of Ecwid that we particularly enjoy is the delivery facet. With real-time shipping integrations you always know what’s going on with your orders and where they’re being shipped to.

What other trendy Things are comprised with Ecwid?

It runs on a super quick frame

It comes with an address book for customers and customers

The system has over 43 translations for selling around the planet

You get a Lot of promotional tools like coupons, discounts, bulk pricing and much more

Produce your own customized email alerts

Utilize the automatic tax alternative (automatic taxation rates at checkout, tax reporting and submitting )

Point-of-sale performance

Thanks Into Ecwid’s point-of-sale (POS) performance, you can use your Ecwid store to market not only online but in physical places too — in stores, market stalls, at theatres and so forth.

Together with Ecwid’s POS Functionality, irrespective of if or not a customer purchases a product in shop, online, in their telephone or through Facebook, everything remains in sync – i.e., the retailer’s catalog, inventory and customer / trade info.

There’s a few ways that you can take advantage of this feature: the easiest is likely to use’Paypal Here.’ This entails downloading the Ecwid iOS program from the Apple’s App store, linking it to the Paypal Here support, then taking payments using a mobile card reader (pictured above).

You have two options when it comes to POS Hardware and Paypal Here: you can either buy a chip and swipe reader (for $24.99) or a chip and also tap reader (for $79.99). Both may be ordered direct from Ecwid.

There is a few Things worth noting about the Paypal Here integration: first, 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’ve been saying that for quite some time now). Ecwid Loyalty Program

If you are located outside That the US / UK, or need to utilize another mobile device kind, the good news is that Ecwid also functions with the Vend, Clover, NCR Silver and Square POS systems. These all ease using a larger range of hardware at a physical retail location (full-sized card readers, receipt printers, cash drawers tablet 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 need to be to the priciest’Unlimited’ plan if you want to avail of a Vend, Clover, NCR Silver or Square admin.

Reactive storefronts

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

Free plan

Unlike many similar Goods, Ecwid provides a completely free program.

Granted, it’s a fairly Standard plan, in which attributes like discount coupons and support are not accessible, and it only lets you sell up to ten products in two categories — but this could actually be adequate for some customers, and using it’s a good way to try the system out.

But, A key point to notice about the free program is the fact that it isn’t good from an SEO standpoint — you need to be on a paid program to make certain your product pages talk to hunt engines correctly (more on SEO under ).

Speech detection

Ecwid is ahead of the Pack in that its storefronts could be automatically translated into nearly 50 distinct languages — customers can see your shop in their own language, without you needing to worry about producing alternate versions of it. Ecwid provides this functionality by detecting visitors’ language automatically based on their browser preferences / IP address.

Competing products such as Shopify And Bigcommerce are nevertheless to provide this type of functionality — that they force you to rely on third party programs, the production of numerous stores or Google Translate to supply 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 Optimization (search engine optimization ) in Ecwid is a fairly straightforward affair. You are able to edit the title of your webpage and its own meta description; the relevant fields are pre-populated for you automatically, however you can tweak them to suit your search engine optimization objectives.

As 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 creates for you. This is not ideal because key words in URLs are used by some search engines to categorise content through indexing.

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

1 place where Ecwid doesn’t perform so Well on the SEO front involves AMP — accelerated mobile pages. As its name implies, AMP pages load faster on mobile devices. This motivates people to remain longer on your webpage, thus increasing’dwell time’ –something which is considered by many search engine optimization experts believe to be rewarded with Google with preferential treatment in search results. Furthermore, Google sometimes highlights AMP webpages in carousels in search results, giving AMP content an extra little boost.

Regrettably However — and unlike most rival products such as Bigcommerce or even Shopify, you can not produce AMP variations of your products using Ecwid.

Importing and exporting data

Like many competing Products Ecwid permits 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 ensures that if you feel the need to migrate your shop to a different e-commerce platform, then you shouldn’t have some major problems doing so.

Utilizing Ecwid with other platforms

Ecwid and Twitter

WordPress doesn’t Supplied any e-commerce performance out of this box, so anybody wanting to sell on the stage will require a third-party solution like Ecwid. There is an Ecwid plugin available, so adding an Ecwid store to your WordPress site is quite straightforward — you can get up and running with a few clicks.

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

Ecwid and Squarespace

Squarespace includes Increasingly good e-commerce features, but the amount of payment gateway options is very limited — you have to utilize Stripe or Paypal. (And using Stripe only functions if you’re selling goods from certain countries). Another main problem with the built-in Squarespace marketing tools is that they don’t facilitate dropshipping, and complete export of products isn’t currently possible.

Integrating Ecwid with Squarespace allows you to bypass these constraints, and adding it to some Squarespace site is very easy: 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 choice for Wix users, therefore again Ecwid can offer a good workaround. A dedicated app is provided by Ecwid to enable you integrate the product on a Wix store easily.

Apps and plugins

Ecwid provides a pretty Restricted number integrations with other apps that are well-known. Integrations do exist together with key services Mailchimp, Xero and Freshbooks; but to be fair the range of integrations may be more extensive — competing products such as Shopify provide a much broader range of apps. Notable omissions in the Ecwid store include Quickbooks and Zendesk, such as (that said, a Quickbooks integration is coming shortly ).

The Picture is better in regards to CMS plugins: these are offered for WordPress, Wix and Joomla, enabling for you to install Ecwid on one of these platforms very easily. Ecwid Loyalty Program

Interface and ease of use

Ecwid’s Interface is rather easy to use. Like many similar online shop builders, you get a vertical menu on the left that lets you access key performance, and the place on the right is used to display or edit associated products, site reports and content.

Much like any e-commerce tool, you’ll need to Spend a fair amount of time getting your head about producing catalogues and product variations, establishing shipping rates and so on…but there isn’t anything here that should represent also a lot of a learning curve.

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

If You are stuck however, you could always get in contact with Ecwid’s support team — more on this later — or, if you are on a’Business’ or’Unlimited’, you are able to take advantage of the included customization service (you get 2 hours and 12 hours personalization time from Ecwidon these plans).

Ecwid and GDPR

I’m not a Lawyer, so please be aware that the below observations shouldn’t be interpreted as legal advice, but I’m planning to do my very best to spell out a number of the key GDPR issues facing Ecwid consumers below.

With the introduction of The EU’s new GDPR laws, there are several legal steps that website owners now should take to ensure that they are adequately protecting EU clients’ and visitors’ privacy. There are serious financial penalties for not doing so (to the point where it is usually a great idea to consult a lawyer about what to do); and even when your business is not located in the EU, then you still will need to obey the regulations where any site visits from the EU are worried.

Based on my Understanding of the key GDPR principles, the main priorities for prospective Ecwid shop owners are to:

· Provide sufficient privacy and cookie notices

· Process and store information securely

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

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

There does not seem to be Anything that stops you meeting the first few requirements easily enough with Ecwid, although you will have to spend time and possibly money generating adequate notices and crafting data capture forms so they are GDPR compliant.

Where things get Complicated with Ecwid is the fourth requirement — cookie approval. To Guarantee 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 cookies are conducted (i.e., to provide’prior consent’)

· Logs their consent to run cookies Ecwid Loyalty Program

· Allows them to revoke approval at a later stage

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

Now, out of the box at Least there isn’t a means to take care of the cookie consent issue with Ecwid. Nor is there a decent program accessible from the Ecwid app shop (the only alternative on this front that I can locate, the’EU cookie banner’, doesn’t appear to provide the necessary performance — even though costing $1.99 a month to use).

It Appears to me that the only alternative available to Ecwid users is to use a specialist product like CookiePro, which will supply all the necessary performance to generate cookie consent fully GDPR compliant. Despite being a powerful product nonetheless, Cookiepro does need quite a lot of configuration and you will 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 can run a website without paying anything. This makes the installation process that much easier, because you simply have to punch in your email and make a password to proceed straight to the backend port.

The system has Wizards for every platform you want to set your shop on. If you have a WordPress site, just 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 perfect, since it walks you through every site creation and integration step with some nice photos and text. As soon as you get your shop implemented on a website or societal page it looks fairly sleek.

The design Depends somewhat on the subject you have on your website, however as you can see below, it displays 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 customers when they wish to market.

Although many Websites will be cellular friendly, it;s nice understanding that Ecwid includes a native shopping application 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 customers a chance to buy products from the mobile interface.

The closing Design item which makes sense to mention is the language instrument. Since running an online store generally requires one to reach out to people from throughout the planet, you’re bound to stumble upon a few customers who’d like to read product webpages and other content in their native language. Ecwid supports 45 languages, so if a user would like to translate from English into Spanish, that is no problem at all.

The Ecwid App Market

Having the Opportunity to install applications is a sure fire way to scaling up your ecommerce website in a fair manner. Ecwid has a location called the Ecwid App Market. It offers 65 software, helping merchants extend their shop performance easily. Ecwid Loyalty Program

Some of the programs Will help you out with reviews and rating, rewards programs, automatic advertising tools, analytics, custom design topics and much more.

SEO and Marketing

Ecwid is a Third-party remedy to your current website, so you would typically have to employ additional SEO and advertising tools to really get out the word. Nevertheless, 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 effort. It gets better with WordPress websites, since you gain access to additional search engine optimization plugins as well as also the default search engine functionality on the dashboard.

Managing Your Inventory

The Ecwid Inventory process is as straightforward as they come, since it doesn’t seem to incorporate any of the unnecessary bells and whistles you may find on other ecommerce platforms.

Each step is Clear and concise, so you can just go in there and type in a product name, price and image then save the product for afterwards. Of course you could always open the Powerful Options, but they separate these for if you are all set to start ramping up your own store.

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

Customer Care

Ecwid provides A Chat With Sales attribute that is always one of my favorite ways to converse with companies. Simply send them a question and you are able to 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 phone service, online chat support and email support, maintaining the response time short and encourage quality .

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

Payments and Safety

It’s not always 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 kind of transaction fee with any of the plans they offer, making it desirable for any shop that is hoping to keep down costs and also to improve margins.

Remember that Ecwid is not a payment processor, which means you’ve got to setup something such as PayPal or Stripe to process all the transactions that come through your site. It’s rather simple to employ these systems, because Ecwid integrates with over 40 international payment options. However, each of those processors have their own transaction fees so that you need to get ready for these.

It’s rather Clear that Ecwid takes security seriously, since the company is a PCI DSS Level 1 accredited service provider. The business also states that each transaction that includes sensitive data is transferred via a secure HTTPS channel. Ecwid Loyalty Program

What if you Would love to collect 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 performance into both an offline and online system.

Benefits and disadvantages of using Ecwid

Benefits

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

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

· The product is cheap compared to other solutions.

· It supports multi-language versions of your shop.

· The shop layouts are responsive.

· Plugins / programs are available for major platforms (like WordPress, Drupal and Wix).

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

· The’starter website’ option is a good stopgap measure for merchants who want a shop fast, but have yet to create a complete website to bring the Ecwid widget to.

· The free Ecwid plan isn’t time-limited, includes service, and is rather generous in terms of attributes.

Disadvantages

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

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

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

· There is a restricted number of apps / integrations offered in the Ecwid Program store.

· You can not alter merchandise URLs, which is slightly annoying from an search engine optimization point of view.

· You can not create AMP versions of merchandise pages using Ecwid.

· Creating Ecwid GDPR-compliant (with regard to getting cookie approval ) sounds difficult.

· The free version doesn’t let you access any of the SEO tools.

Pricing

Ecwid comes With four strategies, one of which is completely free. They market the free program like mad, and mention that a number of other platforms drag you into a free trial, even where you may eventually need to pay.

That is where Ecwid stands outside, and you’ll be able to see the other payment plans are fairly reasonably priced.

The Free program Lets you sell 10 products, while the Venture program ups that depend to 100 goods and you get things like an iPhone management app. The company program goes up to 2500 products for a wonderful price and you also get live chat service. Priority support comes along with the Unlimited program and you might also sell an unlimited amount of products.

Ecwid is one of The most economical solutions available on the marketplace. You may see that it’s actually more affordable than a lot of the other programs we’ve reviewed previously, so if you’re searching for value, this could be the perfect plugin for you.

Summary

In short, I’m Starting to think that Ecwid is among the best ways to sell online, as long as you implement the best methods to improve your sales online as well. Ecwid is a slick system, with super easy implementation steps, making it ideal for your small business crowd. Ecwid Loyalty Program

Click Here to sign up to Ecwid now!