Introduction Ecwid WordPress Plugin

Have you ever Wondered if you are using the right ecommerce platform for sale on the internet? Can you occasionally stumble upon a new service that’s more practical 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 assist you with that is half the battle. Unfortunately, when you operate a small business site it often becomes tricky when you want to bring on a new ecommerce platform or even just alter your site whatsoever. Read our Ecwid review to discover more about this solution. Ecwid WordPress Plugin

Click Here to sign up to Ecwid today!

Many solutions Intentionally create a closed system, which can be tedious to move away from as soon as you begin. But with a platform called Ecwid, you no longer have to be concerned about this. Actually, the entire goal of the business, which started in 2009, is to quickly and inexpensively create an internet store system in your present websites.

You don’t have To make a whole new site. Just apply Ecwid on any platform, CMS or social network (in five minutes) and you’re good to go.

That increased my Attention, since I understand the struggles that come along with trying to migrate websites, particularly when it comes to ecommerce. So, I wanted to gather an in-depth review of this Ecwid system to find out whether it’s worth the time.

How Many Men and Women Use Ecwid?

It’s rather Impressive what Ecwid has done since 2009, with over 1 million merchants getting signed up. What is even more cool is that the Ecwid merchants span over 175 distinct countries, demonstrating that this isn’t only a platform for people in the united states 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 site if you have one.

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

Along with The total merchant count, over 20,000 active users are utilizing the Ecwid Shopping Cart for WordPress. The difference between that 20,000 and the 1 million is the fact that you don’t require a WordPress site in order to implement Ecwid. So, the 20,000 only identifies WordPress users using the plugin.

What’s Ecwid, and how can it work?

Ecwid is a hosted Alternative for building an online store. Unlike competing products such as Shopify, Bigcommerce and Volusion, which permit you to construct a new site with e-commerce performance, Ecwid is targeted more towards people who currently have a site and just wish to add an internet store to it.

Much like other E-commerce programs, Ecwid lets you install’catalogs’ of all products, and add photographs, pricing, weight etc. for each. You are able to define shipping prices, accept credit card payments etc — all the crucial stuff that you’d expect to be able to perform using an e-commerce solution.

However it differs Significantly from competing products such as Shopify, Volusion, Squarespace and Bigcommerce since it is not really designed to allow you to create a fully-featured, standalone e-commerce website; rather, it is designed to allow you add an internet store to an existing online presence.

(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 depth later on in the review.) Ecwid WordPress Plugin

Click Here to sign up to Ecwid now!

The Product works by providing you a widget which gets placed on other sites — hence the title Ecwid: it’s short for’E-commerce Widget’. You receive a couple lines of HTML code (the widget) to add to an present website or societal media profile, and your store is displayed wherever you have added this code.

Characteristics

Ecwid makes Strides in the market by catering to companies which don’t need to start a brand-new site. The main feature is that you can choose your old site and immediately incorporate the Ecwid system inside a couple of minutes.

You can also Mirror the system onto several other websites if you anticipate selling elsewhere on the web. Manage all of these websites from 1 place rather than switching between multiple dashboards.

Another pleasant Feature is the syncing between multiple devices. Sell on-the-go with your smartphone. This usually means that you can go to a tradeshow to make a number of sales and all these earnings are reflected on the backend of your site.

The system is Also made to integrate well with social networks, and that means that you may sell your things on Facebook if desired. 1 part of Ecwid we particularly enjoy is the delivery aspect. With real time transport integrations you always know what’s happening with your requests and where they are being sent to.

What other trendy Items are included with Ecwid?

It runs on a super quick framework

It comes with an address book to get customers and customers

The machine has over 43 translations for sale round the planet

You receive lots of promotional tools such as coupons, discounts, bulk pricing and much more

Produce your personalized email alerts

Utilize the automated tax solution (automatic tax charges at checkout, tax reporting and submitting )

Point-of-sale performance

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

With Ecwid’s POS Functionality, regardless of if or not a customer purchases a product in store, online, on their phone or through Facebook, everything stays in sync – i.e., the retailer’s catalog, inventory and customer / trade information.

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

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

There is a few Things worth noting the Paypal Here integration: it’s only available to retailers in the US and UK. Second, it’s not yet available on Android apparatus. (On their website, Ecwid say it’ll be available soon — but they’ve been saying that for quite some time now). Ecwid WordPress Plugin

If you are located outside That the US / UK, or want to work with another mobile device kind, the good thing is that Ecwid also functions together with the Vend, Clover, NCR Silver and Square POS systems. These all ease using a larger range of hardware in a physical retail location (full-sized card readers, receipt printers, cash drawers pill stands etc.) and are usable in more nations.

Although you could avail Of the Paypal Here POS choice on most of paid-for programs, you’ll need to be to the priciest’Unlimited’ program 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 and cellular. In a age where smartphone internet browsing is eclipsing desktop surfing, this is important.

Free program

Unlike many similar Products, Ecwid offers a completely free plan.

Granted, it’s a fairly Standard plan, in which features such as discount coupons and support aren’t available, and it only allows you to sell up to ten products in 2 classes — but this could actually be adequate for some customers, and using it is a good way to try the system out.

But, A vital point to note about the free program is that it isn’t great from an SEO point of view — you have to be on a paid plan to ensure that your product pages talk to search engines accurately (more on SEO under ).

Language detection

Ecwid is ahead of the Pack in that its storefronts can be automatically translated into nearly 50 distinct languages — customers can view your shop in their own language, without you having to worry about producing alternate versions of this. Ecwid provides this performance by detecting visitors’ language mechanically according to their browser settings / IP address.

Competing products like Shopify And Bigcommerce are yet to supply this sort of performance — that they force you to rely on third party apps, the creation of numerous shops or Google Translate to supply different language variations of your shop, which is less than ideal. Therefore a definite triumph for Ecwid here.

Ecwid and search engine optimisation

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

As far as I can tell But you can not manually change the URL of a product — you need to make do with the one that Ecwid creates 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 title you have given to your own product – so if you include some keywords on your product title (not a bad idea anyhow ) your URL will include them also. This serves as a tool of a workaround, but I’d prefer whole control over URLs. Ecwid WordPress Plugin

One area where Ecwid doesn’t perform so Well on the SEO front involves AMP — accelerated mobile pages. As the name suggests, AMP pages load faster on cellular devices. This motivates people to stay longer on your webpage, thus increasing’dwell time’ –something that’s considered by many SEO experts consider to be rewarded by Google with preferential treatment in search results. Furthermore, Google sometimes highlights AMP webpages in carousels in search results, providing AMP articles an extra little boost.

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

Importing and exporting information

Like most competing Goods Ecwid permits you to import and export your data in CSV format.

The Export option allows you to export merchandise information, orders and clients (again, in CSV format) and means that if you feel the need to migrate your store to another e-commerce platform, then you shouldn’t have some major difficulties doing so.

Using Ecwid with other platforms

Ecwid and WordPress

WordPress does not Supplied any e-commerce functionality out of this box, so anyone wishing to market on the platform will require a third-party solution like Ecwid. There’s an Ecwid plugin available, so adding an Ecwid store to your WordPress site is very straightforward — you can get up and running with a few clicks.

You just sign up to get an Ecwid account and install the free plugin.

Ecwid and Squarespace

Squarespace comes with Increasingly excellent e-commerce attributes, but the number of payment gateway options is quite limited — you need to utilize Stripe or Paypal. (And with Stripe only functions if you are selling goods from certain countries). The other main problem with the built-in Squarespace marketing software is they don’t facilitate dropshipping, and full export of products is not currently possible.

Integrating Ecwid with Squarespace allows you to bypass these constraints, and adding it into some Squarespace website is very easy: it is 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 option for Wix users, so again Ecwid can offer a fantastic workaround. A dedicated app is provided by Ecwid to enable you integrate the product onto a Wix store easily.

Programs and plugins

Ecwid provides a fairly Restricted number integrations with other well-known apps. Integrations do exist together with services Mailchimp, Xero and Freshbooks; but to be fair the range of integrations could be extensive — competing products such as Shopify provide a much wider range of programs. Notable omissions in the Ecwid store comprise Quickbooks and Zendesk, for example (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, allowing to you set up Ecwid on these platforms quite easily. Ecwid WordPress Plugin

Interface and ease of use

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

As with any e-commerce tool, you will have to Spend a reasonable amount of time getting your head about producing catalogues and product variants, setting up shipping prices and so on…but there is nothing here that should represent too a lot of a learning curve.

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

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

Ecwid and GDPR

I am not a Attorney, so please note the below observations should not be interpreted as legal information, but I am going to do my best to spell out a number of the major GDPR issues facing Ecwid consumers below.

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

According to my Understanding of the crucial GDPR rules, the principal priorities for potential Ecwid store owners are to:

· Provide sufficient privacy and cookie cutter notices

· Process and store data securely

· Get explicit consent from people registering to mailing lists it is okay to send them e-newsletters

· Provide a means to opt in or revoke permission to use of non-essential biscuits onto a site (and to log that consent).

There does not Appear to be Anything that stops you fulfilling the first three requirements readily enough with Ecwid, though you will need to devote time and possibly money generating adequate notices and crafting information capture forms so they are GDPR compliant.

Where things get Complicated with Ecwid is your fourth requirement — cookie cutter approval. To ensure GDPR compliance, you need to display a cookie banner to your visitors which

· Allows them to choose which cookies they want to run BEFORE those cookies are run (i.e., to give’prior consent’)

· Logs their approval to run cookies Ecwid WordPress Plugin

· Allows them to revoke approval at a later point

So for Instance, If you Utilize a Facebook Ads cookie in conjunction with your Ecwid store, you will be breaking up GDPR laws unless you’ve got a banner set up which does all of the above.

Now, out of the box at Least there is not a way to deal with the cookie approval issue with Ecwid. Nor is there an adequate program accessible from the Ecwid app store (the only alternative on front I can locate, the’EU cookie banner’, doesn’t seem to supply the necessary performance — even though costing $1.99 per month to utilize ).

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

Installation and Design

I Truly enjoy The simple fact that you can run a website without paying for anything. This makes the installation process that much easier, since you just need to punch in your email and make a password to go right to the backend interface.

The machine has Wizards for every platform that you want to set your shop on. If 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, based on the place you would like to market.

The backend Design is flawless, since it walks you through every website creation and integration step with a few fine photos and text. As soon as you get your store implemented on a website or social page it looks fairly sleek.

The design Depends upon the theme you have on your site, but as you can see below, it shows photos well and appears clean and easy to navigate. I especially enjoy the Shopping Bag place, which can be outstanding and easy to locate for clients when they want to checkout.

Although many Sites will be cellular friendly, its fine knowing that Ecwid includes a native shopping program 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 go, while also giving your clients a chance to get products from the cell interface.

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

The Ecwid App Market

Having the Chance to put in applications is a sure fire way to scaling up your ecommerce website in a reasonable manner. Ecwid has a location known as the Ecwid App Market. It provides 65 software, helping merchants extend their store functionality readily. Ecwid WordPress Plugin

A Few of the apps Will give you a hand with reviews and rating, rewards programs, automatic advertising tools, analytics, customized design themes and much more.

SEO and Marketing

Ecwid is a Third party remedy to your present site, so you’d typically have to implement additional SEO and marketing tools to really get the word out. That said, Ecwid supplies quality SEO qualities to help retailers increase their visibility in Google searches.

Moreover, Google now indexes AJAX websites, so 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 and the default search engine functionality around 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 may find on other e commerce platforms.

Each step is Concise and clear, so that you may just go in there and sort in a product name, price and image then save the merchandise for later. Obviously you could always open the Powerful Options, however they separate these for when you are all set to get started ramping up your own store.

As an example of the inventory Rich direction toolset, you obtain access to items like out of stock merchandise tracking, mobile device stock management, barcode scanning and more.

Customer Support

Ecwid provides A Chat With Earnings attribute which is always one of my favourite ways to converse to companies. Simply send them a question and you are able to work on something else until they respond.

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

Overall, the Service outlets include phone service, online chat support and email support, keeping the response time brief and encourage quality .

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

Payments and Safety

It’s not necessarily Simple to locate an ecommerce platform which does not charge transaction fees, but that’s exactly what you get with Ecwid. They never control any sort of trade fee with any of those plans they provide, which makes it desirable for any store that is trying to keep costs down and also to improve margins.

Keep in mind that Ecwid is not a payment processor, which means you have to set up something such as PayPal or Stripe to process all the transactions that come through your website. It’s pretty easy to implement these systems, because Ecwid integrates with over 40 international payment options. However, each one of those processors have their own transaction fees so you have to get ready for them.

It’s quite Evident that Ecwid takes security seriously, since the provider is a PCI DSS Grade 1 certified service provider. The business also states that each trade that includes sensitive data is transferred through a secure HTTPS channel. Ecwid WordPress Plugin

What if you Would like to accumulate both online and offline payments? Maybe you’d prefer a point of sale integration?

Ecwid Integrates with with Square, Clover, Vend POS, iZettle and PayPal card readers, allowing Ecwid to turn your operation into both an offline and online system.

Benefits and cons of using Ecwid

Benefits

· Ecwid signifies a very easy way to add e-commerce to any existing website.

· Point-of-sale performance can be obtained, and there are a number of strategies to implement it.

· The item is cheap compared to other alternatives.

· It supports multi-language variations of your store.

· The shop layouts are responsive.

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

· It permits users of site building products that don’t facilitate dropshipping to begin doing this (i.e., Squarespace, Jimdo, Wix etc.. )

· The’starter site’ option is a good stopgap measure for retailers who want a shop quickly, but have yet to develop a complete site to bring the Ecwid widget to.

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

Cons

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

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

· Telephone support is only available on the more expensive programs.

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

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

· You can not create AMP versions of product pages utilizing Ecwid.

· Creating Ecwid GDPR-compliant (with respect to obtaining cookie approval ) seems hard.

· The free version doesn’t allow you to get any of the search engine optimization tools.

Pricing

Ecwid comes With four strategies, one of which is completely free. They promote the free program like crazy, and mention that a number of different platforms drag you into a free trial, even where you will eventually have to pay.

This is where Ecwid stands out, and you’ll be able to see the other payment programs are rather reasonably priced.

The Free program Allows you to sell 10 products, whereas the Venture plan ups that depend to 100 products and you get items like an iPhone direction app. The company program goes up to 2500 products for a wonderful price and you also get live chat service. Priority support comes alongside the Unlimited plan and you might also market an unlimited amount of products.

Ecwid is one of The most economical solutions on the market. You may see that it’s actually cheaper than many of the other programs we have reviewed previously, so if you’re looking for value, this might be the perfect plugin for you.

Conclusion

In short, I am Starting to believe that Ecwid is one of the greatest ways to market online, provided that you implement the best ways to improve your earnings online as well. Ecwid is a slick system, with super easy implementation measures, making it perfect for the small business audience. Ecwid WordPress Plugin

Click Here to register up to Ecwid today!