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Have you ever Wondered if you are using the ideal 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 now? Starting a small business is all about keeping your costs low, and locating an ecommerce platform to assist you with half the battle. Unfortunately, when you operate a small business website it often becomes tricky when you want to attract on a new ecommerce platform or even just alter your website whatsoever. Read our Ecwid review to discover more about this option. WordPress Cart Plugin Free
Click Here to register up to Ecwid now!
Many solutions Purposefully make a closed system, which can be tedious to maneuver away from once you begin. But with a platform called Ecwid, you no longer need to be concerned about this. Actually, the whole goal of the company, which started in 2009, is to quickly and inexpensively make an online store system in your present websites.
You don’t have To create a whole new website. Just implement Ecwid on any stage, CMS or social network (in five minutes) and you are all set.
That raised my Attention, since I understand the struggles that come along with attempting to migrate sites, especially in regards to ecommerce. So, I wanted to put together an in-depth review of this Ecwid system to see if it’s worth the time.
How Many People Use Ecwid?
It is quite Impressive 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 different countries, showing that this isn’t just a platform for people in the united states or Europe. Even businesses in developing nations have a opportunity to find an internet store going, and you do not have to trash your previous website if you have one.
The usership Continues to grow, especially considering Ecwid is currently PCI DSS Level 1 certified. If you are not sure what this is, it’s 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 protected.
In addition to The overall 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 need a WordPress site to implement Ecwid. So, the 20,000 simply refers to WordPress users with the plugin.
What’s Ecwid, and how can this work?
Ecwid is a hosted Alternative for building an internet store. Unlike competing products such as Shopify, Bigcommerce and Volusion, which allow you to build a new site with e-commerce performance, Ecwid is targeted more towards people who already have a site and simply want to add an internet store to it.
Much like other E-commerce platforms, Ecwid allows you to install’catalogs’ of goods, and include photographs, pricing, weight etc. . each. You are able to define shipping prices, accept credit card payments and so on — all the key stuff that you would expect to be able to perform with an e-commerce solution.
However it differs Significantly from competing products such as Shopify, Volusion, Squarespace and Bigcommerce since it isn’t really designed to let you produce a fully-featured, standalone e-commerce website; instead, it is designed to enable you add an internet store to an existing online presence.
(That said, Ecwid have Recently added some new functionality, called’Starter Site’, which does let you create a one-page standalone offering. We are going to chat through this in more detail later on in the inspection.) WordPress Cart Plugin Free
Click Here to register up to Ecwid now!
The Product works by providing you a widget which gets put on other websites — hence the name Ecwid: it’s short for’E-commerce Widget’. You receive a few lines of HTML code (the widget) to add to an existing website or societal networking profile, and your shop is displayed wherever you have inserted this code.
Characteristics
Ecwid makes Strides in the market by catering to companies which don’t need to begin a brand-new website. The main attribute is that you can take your old website and quickly integrate the Ecwid system within a few minutes.
You can also Mirror the system on various other sites if you anticipate selling elsewhere online. Handle all of these sites from one location instead of switching between multiple dashboards.
Another pleasant Attribute is 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 each one of these sales are reflected on the back part of your website.
The system is Also designed to integrate nicely with social networks, and that means that you can sell your items on Facebook if desired. One part of Ecwid that we particularly enjoy is the delivery facet. With real-time transport integrations you constantly know what is going on with your requests and where they are being shipped to.
What other cool Items are included with Ecwid?
It runs on a super fast frame
It comes with an address book for customers and customers
The system has over 43 translations for selling around the planet
You receive a Lot of promotional instruments like vouchers, discounts, bulk pricing and more
Produce your own customized email notifications
Utilize the automatic tax solution (automatic taxation charges at checkout, tax reporting and submitting )
Point-of-sale performance
Thank you Into Ecwid’s point-of-sale (POS) functionality, you may use your Ecwid store to sell not only online but in bodily locations too — in stores, market stalls, in concerts and so forth.
With Ecwid’s POS Performance, irrespective of if a customer purchases a product in shop, online, on their phone or via Facebook, everything stays in sync – i.e., the retailer’s catalogue, inventory and customer / transaction information.
There’s a couple of methods 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 store, connecting it to the Paypal Here service, then taking payments utilizing a mobile card reader (pictured above).
You’ve got 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 tap reader (for $79.99). Both may be ordered straight from Ecwid.
There’s a few Things worth noting the Paypal Here integration: it’s only available to retailers in america and UK. Secondly, it is not yet available on Android apparatus. (On their website, Ecwid say it will be available soon — but they’ve been saying that for quite a while now). WordPress Cart Plugin Free
If you’re located outside That the US / UK, or want to utilize another mobile device type, the fantastic news is that Ecwid also works with all 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 countries.
Although you could avail Of the Paypal Here POS choice on most of paid-for programs, you’ll want to be on the priciest’Unlimited’ program 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 properly across apparatus — desktop, tablet and cellular. In a age where smartphone web browsing is eclipsing desktop browsing, this is important.
Free program
Unlike many similar Products, Ecwid offers a totally free program.
Granted, it is a fairly Basic plan, where attributes such as discount vouchers and support are not accessible, and it merely allows you to sell up to 10 products in two classes — but this may really be sufficient for some users, and using it is a good way to try out the system.
However, A vital point to note about the free program is the fact that it is not great from an SEO standpoint — you have to be on a paid program to ensure your product pages talk to search engines accurately (more on SEO below).
Speech detection
Ecwid is forward of the Pack because its storefronts can be mechanically translated into nearly 50 distinct languages — clients can view your shop in their own language, without you needing to worry about creating alternate versions of this. Ecwid provides this functionality by detecting visitors’ language mechanically based on their browser settings / IP address.
Competing products such as Shopify And Bigcommerce are nevertheless to provide this sort of functionality — they force you to rely on third party apps, the creation of numerous shops or Google Translate to provide different language variations of your store, which is less than perfect. So a definite triumph for Ecwid here.
Ecwid and search engine optimisation
Search engine Optimization (search engine optimization ) in Ecwid is a pretty straightforward affair. You can edit the title of your webpage 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.
So Far as I can 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 perfect because key words in URLs are used by some search engines to categorise content during indexing.
However, The URLs which are automatically generated by Ecwid comprise the title you have given to your product – so if you include some keywords in your product title (not a bad idea anyway) that your URL will comprise them too. This functions as something of a workaround, but I’d prefer full control over URLs. WordPress Cart Plugin Free
One place where Ecwid doesn’t perform so Well on the search engine optimization front involves AMP — accelerated cellular pages. As its name suggests, AMP pages load faster on cellular devices. This motivates people to remain longer on your webpage, thus increasing’live time’ –something that’s considered by many SEO experts consider to be rewarded with Google with preferential treatment in search results. Additionally, Google sometimes highlights AMP webpages in carousels in search results, giving AMP content an extra little boost.
Unfortunately However — and unlike most rival products like Bigcommerce or even Shopify, you can not produce 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 merchandise information, orders and customers (again, in CSV format) and ensures that if you feel the need to migrate your shop to another e-commerce platform, you shouldn’t have any major difficulties doing so.
Using Ecwid with other programs
Ecwid and WordPress
WordPress doesn’t Provided any e-commerce performance from this box, so anybody wanting to market on the platform will need a third-party alternative like Ecwid. There is an Ecwid plugin accessible, therefore adding an Ecwid shop to your WordPress site is very simple — you can get up and running with a couple clicks.
You simply sign up for an Ecwid accounts and install the free plugin.
Ecwid and Squarespace
Squarespace includes Increasingly good e-commerce attributes, but the number of payment gateway options is quite limited — you have to utilize Stripe or Paypal. (And using Stripe only works if you are selling goods from certain countries). The other principal problem 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 allows you to bypass these constraints, and adding it to some Squarespace website is quite easy: 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’s currently no dropshipping option for Wix users, therefore again Ecwid can offer a fantastic workaround. A committed program is provided by Ecwid to enable you incorporate the product on a Wix store easily.
Programs and plugins
Ecwid provides a fairly Limited number integrations with other apps that are well-known. Integrations do exist with services Mailchimp, Xero and Freshbooks; but to be honest the assortment of integrations may be more extensive — competing products like Shopify provide a much broader range of apps. Notable omissions from the Ecwid store comprise Quickbooks and Zendesk, such as (that said, a Quickbooks integration is coming soon).
The Image is better in regards to CMS plugins: these are available for WordPress, Wix and Joomla, allowing to you set up Ecwid on these platforms quite easily. WordPress Cart Plugin Free
Interface and ease of use
Ecwid’s Interface is rather easy to use. Like most similar online shop builders, you get a vertical menu on the left which lets you access key performance, and the place on the right is used to edit or display related products, site content and reports.
Much like any e-commerce tool, you’ll need to Spend a fair amount of time getting your head around creating catalogues and product variants, establishing shipping prices etc…but there is nothing here that should represent also much of a learning curve.
Things are helped by an ‘onboarding checklist’ that is provided to you when you log in for the first time.
If You are stuck however, you could always get in contact with Ecwid’s support team — more on that later — or, even if you are on a’Business’ or’Unlimited’, you can make the most of this included customization support (you get 2 hours and 12 hours personalization period from Ecwidon these programs ).
Ecwid and GDPR
I am not a Attorney, so please note the below observations should not be interpreted as legal advice, but I’m planning to do my best to spell out a number of the major GDPR problems facing Ecwid consumers under.
With the introduction of That the EU’s new GDPR legislation, there are many legal steps that site owners now should take to ensure they are adequately protecting EU customers’ and visitors’ privacy. There are severe financial penalties for not doing so (to the point where it’s usually a good idea to consult a lawyer about what to do); and even when your company isn’t based in the EU, you still need to comply with the regulations where any site visits from the EU are worried.
According to my Understanding of the key GDPR rules, the principal priorities for potential Ecwid store owners are to:
· Provide adequate privacy and cookie cutter notices
· Process and store data safely
· Get explicit consent from those signing up to mailing lists that it is fine to send them e-newsletters
· Provide a means to opt in or revoke permission to use of non-essential cookies on 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 need to spend time and possibly money creating adequate notices and crafting information capture forms so that they are GDPR compliant.
Where things get Complex with Ecwid is your fourth requirement — cookie cutter approval. To ensure GDPR compliance, you need to exhibit a cookie banner to your visitors which
· Allows them to choose which cookies they would like to run BEFORE those biscuits are conducted (i.e., to provide’prior permission’)
· Logs their consent to conduct biscuits WordPress Cart Plugin Free
· Allows them to revoke consent at a later stage
So for Instance, If you Utilize a Facebook Advertising cookie in conjunction with your Ecwid shop, you’ll be breaking GDPR legislation unless you’ve got a banner set up which does all of the above.
Nowout of the box at Least there is not a way to deal with the cookie approval issue with Ecwid. Nor is there an adequate app accessible from the Ecwid app shop (the only option on this front that I can locate, the’EU cookie banner’, doesn’t appear to provide the necessary functionality — despite costing $1.99 a month to use).
It Appears to me that the only alternative available to Ecwid consumers would be to use a specialist product such as CookiePro, which will provide all the essential performance to make cookie consent fully GDPR compliant. Despite being a powerful product however, Cookiepro does need quite a lot of configuration and you’ll want to set quite a lot of time apart to set it up.
Setup and Layout
I really enjoy The simple fact that you can run a website without paying for anything. This makes the setup process that much simpler, because you just have to punch in your email and make a password to proceed straight to the backend port.
The machine has Wizards for every platform that you would like to set your shop on. If you have a WordPress site, just walk through three steps to get up and running. You could even click on options like Facebook and Joomla, based on where you want to market.
The backend Design is flawless, since it walks you through every site creation and integration measure with a few nice text and photos. Once you obtain your shop implemented on a website or societal page it appears fairly slick.
The design Depends upon the subject you have on your site, but as you can see below, it displays photos well and looks clean and easy to navigate. I especially enjoy the Shopping Bag place, which can be outstanding and easy to find for customers when they want to market.
Although many Sites are going to be cellular friendly, it;s fine knowing 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 get products from the cell interface.
The closing Design thing that makes sense to mention is your vocabulary tool. Since running an online store generally requires you to attain out to people from all over the planet, you’re bound to stumble upon some customers who would like to read product pages and other content in their native language. Ecwid supports 45 languages, so when a user wants to translate from English into Spanish, that is not a problem in any respect.
The Ecwid Program Economy
Possessing the Opportunity to install applications is a sure fire way to scaling up your ecommerce website in a fair way. Ecwid has a place known as the Ecwid App Market. It offers 65 applications, helping retailers extend their store performance easily. WordPress Cart Plugin Free
Some of the apps Will help you out with reviews and rating, rewards programs, automated advertising tools, analytics, custom layout themes and much more.
SEO and Marketing
Ecwid is a Third-party solution to your present website, so you would typically have to implement additional SEO and marketing tools to really get the word out. Nevertheless, Ecwid provides quality SEO features to help merchants increase their visibility in Google searches.
Moreover, Google now indexes AJAX sites, so all Ecwid stores are indexed by Google without any extra effort. It gets even better with WordPress websites, as you gain access to additional search engine optimization plugins and the default search engine performance on the dashboard.
Managing Your Inventory
The Ecwid Inventory system is as straightforward as they come, because it doesn’t appear to include any of the unnecessary bells and whistles you may find on other e commerce platforms.
Each measure is Concise and clear, so that you may just go in there and type in a product name, price and picture then save the product for later. Of course you could always open up the Powerful Options, however they separate these for if you’re ready to start ramping up your own store.
As an example of the stock Rich direction toolset, you obtain access to items like from stock merchandise monitoring, mobile device stock management, barcode scanning and more.
Customer Support
Ecwid offers A Chat With Earnings attribute 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 Business also Provides a potent support section with FAQs, a knowledge base, email capabilities and a forum.
Overall, the Support outlets include phone service, online chat service and email support, maintaining the response time brief and support quality high.
In my eyes, the Platform has everything you could want in terms of support.
Payments and Security
It is not always Easy to locate an ecommerce platform that does not charge fees, but that’s exactly what you get with Ecwid. They never charge any kind of trade fee with any of those programs they offer, making it desirable for any store that is trying to keep down costs and to improve margins.
Keep in mind that Ecwid is not a payment processor, which means you have to setup something such as PayPal or Stripe to process all the trades that come through your site. It is pretty easy to implement one of these systems, because Ecwid integrates with over 40 global payment choices. However, each of those processors have their particular trade fees so you have to get ready for these.
It is quite Clear that Ecwid takes safety seriously, since the company is a PCI DSS Grade 1 certified service provider. The business also claims that every transaction that includes sensitive data is transferred through a secure HTTPS channel. WordPress Cart Plugin Free
What if you Would like to accumulate both online and offline payments? Perhaps you’d prefer a point of sale integration?
Ecwid Integrates with 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 very easy way to add e-commerce to some existing website.
· Point-of-sale functionality is available, and there are quite a few strategies to implement it.
· The product is cheap compared to other solutions.
· It supports multi-language versions of your store.
· The shop layouts are responsive.
· Plugins / programs are available for major platforms (such as WordPress, Drupal and Wix).
· It permits users of site building products which don’t facilitate dropshipping to start doing so (i.e., Squarespace, Jimdo, Wix etc.. )
· The’starter site’ option is a good stopgap measure for retailers who need a shop fast, but have yet to create a full site to add the Ecwid widget to.
· The free Ecwid program is not 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.
· Telephone support is only available on the more expensive plans.
· There’s a limited number of apps / integrations available from the Ecwid Program store.
· You can’t change product URLs, which is slightly annoying in the SEO perspective.
· You can not create AMP variations of product pages using Ecwid.
· Creating Ecwid GDPR-compliant (with respect to getting cookie consent) seems hard.
· The free version doesn’t allow you to access any of the SEO tools.
Pricing
Ecwid comes With four strategies, among which is completely free. They market the free program like crazy, and mention that many different platforms drag you into a free trial, where you will eventually need to pay.
That is where Ecwid stands out, and you can see the other payment plans are fairly affordable.
The Free program Lets you sell 10 products, while the Venture program ups that count to 100 products and you get things like an iPhone management program. The company program goes up to 2500 products for a superb price and you also get live chat service. Priority support comes along with the Unlimited plan and you can also market an unlimited amount of merchandise.
Ecwid is one of The cheapest solutions available on the marketplace. You can see that it is actually more affordable than a lot of the other platforms we’ve reviewed previously, so if you’re looking for value, this could be the perfect plugin for you.
Conclusion
In short, I am Beginning to think that Ecwid is one of the greatest ways to sell online, as long as you employ the best ways to improve your sales online too. Ecwid is a slick system, with superb easy implementation measures, which makes it perfect for your small business audience. WordPress Cart Plugin Free
Click Here to sign up to Ecwid now!