Ecwid is a relatively obscure eCommerce site creation platform, but despite the lack of notoriety, it can be used to make some really great-looking online stores.
The site-building features this platform provides are easy to use and fit both small and medium-sized businesses.
You won’t be able to make anything too complex, but you’ll have all of the tools that you need to make a secure online store where you can display and sell your products.
There are several plans that you can pick from, and all of them have incredibly useful features. However, most of these features are for starting and maintaining an eCommerce store. Therefore, large companies that are looking to further grow their business might be disappointed by the limited amount of expansion tools that are on offer.
Features
As with any good eCommerce store creation platform, Ecwid comes with many useful tools that you can take advantage of for page building and product marketing, as well as many great widgets and add-ons that you can use on your site.
Platform
Ecwid gives you the option to either sell your items entirely online or attach your site to a physical store where your customers can go and check out your wares in person.
You can use more than 70 online payment systems for your transactions, as well as several popular POS systems like Lightspeed, Vend by Lightspeed, Square, and Clover. These payment options will allow you to easily organize your sales, regardless if they’re made online or in-store.
Ecwid allows you to create your own custom online store and sell your items on several other sites as well, like Amazon and eBay, as well as link your products to social media sites, like Facebook, Youtube, TikTok, and so on.
Best of all, you can control all of these accounts from a single app on your phone. You can also create several accounts that have complete control over the site, although that will depend on your payment plan.
Marketing
One of the best features that Ecwid comes with is the Google and Facebook advertising tools. You can easily create ads for your products, and Ecwid will make sure that they’re seen by as many people as possible.
You can choose the contents of the ads and the audience they’re targeted towards. Once you’ve selected the best items that you think might perform well, you simply submit your ad and it’ll automatically appear on both Google and Facebook.
There’s also the option to advertise on other popular platforms, like TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest. You can either automatically generate each ad, or tailor them specifically for your target demographic on each platform.
Additionally, you also have an email system that your site visitors can sign up for. This will help you maintain a loyal customer base by sending all of them info on any special sales that might be going on at the moment, or new items that you might have in stock.
Best of all, you can organize all of this through the phone app, so you can create and publish both the ads and the emails regardless of where you are.
Mobile App
The app allows you to use the drag-and-drop function that the platform provides on both your phone and your tablet. This will easily allow you to organize your icons or restructure the layout of your page in any manner that you deem to be the most appealing.
You can also view all of the relevant daily data. This includes the number of visitors, any orders that were placed, shipping order forms, and so on.
A very convenient feature of the app is that you can set certain notifications to be sent to your phone automatically. For example, this will immediately let you know if an employee has accomplished a certain task that was set to them, or if a certain order has been shipped out, and so on.
Additionally, you can also leave messages and tasks for your employees wherever you are. The message and the immediate notification features allow you to stay on top of things and know the complete ins and outs of your business regardless if you’re behind your desk or out of the office.
Shipping
Online stores that sell physical goods live and die by the efficiency of their product delivery system. You’re not likely to get many repeat customers if it takes you several days before you can even organize your orders and send them out.
Ecwid provides you with the ability to print your own labels, which allows you to skip a step in the shipping process. Instead of sending your package info to UPS and waiting for a label, you can simply print out all of the relevant details yourself, lap the label on the package, and send it out for immediate delivery.
You also have access to bulk delivery discounts. These special labels will allow you to send out several packages in one shipment, saving your customers a bit of cash on certain deliveries.
Additionally, retail products can also take advantage of 50% off discounts that USPS offers exclusively for Ecwid merchants.
Products
Placing and organizing all of your products is incredibly easy and all of it is done through a simple drag-and-drop function on the platform. You can also adjust and crop product images as needed, and give all of the items brief descriptions.
You also get features like an automated tax calculator that does the math for you for each product sold, as well as an abandoned cart saver that memorizes all of the items that a customer has selected and saves them for when they log back onto the site.
Additionally, all of your product data and your customers’ card information are protected via secure HTTP protocols. Ecwid is a PCI DSS-validated level 1 service provider, which simply means that it’s pretty difficult to get through the site security.
Prices/Fees
Ecwid has 4 plans that you can choose from. They all have their own perks, but the more expensive ones will obviously be better for moderately sized or larger stores.
Free
As the name suggests, this plan doesn’t cost anything, and it’ll allow you to create a basic product page for your online store.
You get access to site-building tools, a customer support representative that you can reach through email, and advertising and transaction management tools.
Venture
The second plan on the list will cost you $14.08 a month if you get the annual deal, or $19 if you don’t have a deal and pay on a monthly basis.
You’ll be able to list up to 100 physical products or e-goods on your site and sell them on both Instagram and Facebook.
Live chat support will be available if you have any issues that you can’t solve, and you’ll also get access to the app market.
Other features that come with this plan include an automated tax calculation feature for your products, a customizable checkout for your site, and coupon tags that you can add to your images.
Additionally, you also get an app that will allow you to manage your store from your phone or tablet.
Business
For $39 a month ($29.08 if you get an annual subscription), you can add up to 2,500 products to your store page, which is why this plan is a much better option for stores that have larger inventories.
In addition to Facebook and Instagram, you can also sell your products on both Amazon and eBay. Aside from physical and electronic goods, you can also sell subscriptions and offer wholesale prices on everything in your store.
You also get several language options that you can choose from, and you can contact a support representative directly via phone for site support.
Lastly, you also have the ability to add two staff accounts and give them to anyone that you want to have access to site modification options.
Unlimited
If you go for the last plan, you’ll need to pay $99 a month, or $82.50 a month if you get the annual deal. For this price, you’ll get all of the perks that we’ve mentioned up until now, with a few additions.
You now have access to unlimited staff accounts, you can add an unlimited number of items to your store, and you have the option for POS integration that will allow you to sell your wares in person.
You’ll also get priority support for any issues that you might have, and you’ll be able to sell items through a branded mobile app.
Payment Gateways
Ecwid doesn’t have a specialized gateway, but it’s compatible with the most popular payment gateways, which include Stripe, Square, Paypal, Clover, and more than 70 other online payment systems.
All of these payment options are incredibly easy to add to your site and you simply need to download them and place them in your layout.
Your customers will automatically be taken to the respective payment site where they simply need to add their card or e-wallet information and the payment will automatically be calculated after which the transaction will take place.
Lightspeed Payments
While 3rd party payment gateways are by no means slow or difficult to use, they still take your customer to a different site so they can put in all of their card details. Lightspeed payments allows you to keep your customers on your site and make all of the payments on a single page.
The gateway can be added to your site with a simple click of a button, and it allows you to manage the reporting, refunding, and payouts through Ecwid. You can also offer your customers memberships that provide them with discounts for their favourite products.
The service can be used in tandem with popular payment options, like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and you’ll only be charged 2.9% and 30 cents per transaction.
Company Background
Ruslan Fazlyev, the founder and CEO of Ecwid, actually founded another company called X-Cart back in 2000, which is considered to be the world’s first PHP e-commerce platform.
Ruslan later went on to create Ecwid in 2009 with the goal of giving small up-and-coming businesses an easy way to create great-looking pages for their stores. The site has been running ever since then and has helped thousands of small businesses make their own online stores.
User Reviews
Ecwid gets 4.6 out of 5 stars from Forbes, and the free plan is pointed out as one of the better perks of the service.
PC Mag scores the platform at 3 out of 5 stars and says that it offers a limited number of themes and third-party integrations.
Tech Radar is right in the middle with a score of 4 out of 5 stars and a negative opinion about the limited capability of the web builder.
User Reviews
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