In recent years there has been a rise in easy-to-use solutions for everything web. Not all have proven to be great, but a select few have shown themselves to be better than the rest. With every business large and small looking for an opportunity to increase sales, let’s take a look at one relatively new tool for e-commerce (buying and selling over the Internet) that provides a truly easy-to-implement solution for small businesses wanting to break into online sales.
Ecwid is a free-to-use e-commerce platform that provides an end-to-end online shopping management tool. There are no set-up fees or transaction fees. It is both stable and fast, and it has a great support forum if you run into problems or simply have a questions about the platform.
There is a paid version — it’s a whopping $17 a month and provides a few enhanced features and options, such as running coupons and an affiliate program. This version is also noticeably faster in load time.
Ecwid works with your existing website or can be added as a plugin to a WordPress-based website. The intent of Ecwid is to be extremely easy to set up, so virtually no html experience is needed — you simply paste a few lines of code into your website’s source code and you’re done. All the functionality, security and processing is managed on Ecwid’s servers.
You can customize the look of your store and products so they are consistent with your website’s design. This is all managed through your account’s admin control panel on ecwid.com. By implementing your own CSS, you can make the Ecwid platform display as a fully integrated part of your website.
For the store administrator, Ecwid provides a very robust list of features. They include:
- Inventory tracking
- Product options
- Configurable shipping/tax zone and rates
- Real-time shipping quotes and shipment tracking
- Customizable transactional emails
- Several payment gateway options
- Social media integration (i.e. run your store on your business Facebook page)
- Free updates for life
Here’s a downside to Ecwid — users’ product data, descriptions, customer reviews, etc. are stored on Ecwid’s servers. That hurts your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and means your site won’t be as appealing to search engines. Of course, if your company sees a lot of traffic each day and processes many orders, you will want to look at a full-fledged, hosted e-commerce solution.
If you’ve been considering taking your business to the e-commerce world, Ecwid may be a no-cost, easy way to get your feet wet, and client reviews are very positive. Feel free to contact us at Insight if you’d like to learn more!
Tags: consumers, customer service, ecommerce, SEO
