When it comes to e-commerce, Shopify is the most used platform. But this isn’t the only place where you can do business online. Ecwid, an online e-commerce platform where you can also set up your online shop and sell, is a strong competitor. Ecwid is going against the grain because it is one of the few platforms where you can set up a store for free.
Before we do our Ecwid review, you’re probably one of those online sellers who wishes there was a new platform that was cheaper, more flexible, and easier to use. If you’re one of them, you’re lucky! Ecwid is a new kind of platform that goes against what we have all been used to.
In the end, you’ll know enough about this platform to decide if you need to choose it or move your store to it if you already have one.
What’s Ecwid?
Ecwid is an online e-commerce platform that lets you build a store, upload your products, and charge your customers for their purchases. It has been around since 1999, so it is not a new business. The goal of the company is to help online sellers set up cheap, easy-to-use stores.
With Ecwid, you can change everything about your online store. You can’t do this on many online platforms. With Ecwid, you can put the program on any platform and be ready to sell right away. It works with platforms for CMS and social networks.
Here’s what I mean:
- You have a WordPress blog already.
- You make the decision to build a store.
- In most cases, you need to build a new site.
- With Ecwid, you just add the app to your WordPress blog, and it turns into an online store.
It is so easy to use that you don’t even need to know how to program computers. With just a few clicks of your mouse, you can add Ecwid to your current platform.
How Much Does Ecwid Cost? (Pricing)
It’s free to use Ecwid. It will always be free, but you won’t be able to use all of the services. Even so, you can use a free account to build a fully functional online store.
If you no longer want the free account, just click the “Upgrade” button at the top right of your dashboard to see the different price points.
Here are Ecwid’s three paid plans:
- Venture: This costs $15 per month, and you can make discount coupons, use the CSV export function, and have your taxes calculated automatically. You can only put 100 items in your store with Venture.
- Business: This plan costs $35 per month and gives you everything the Venture plan does, plus the ability to set wholesale prices, use other marketplaces or sales channels, and upload up to 2,500 products.
- Unlimited: For $99 per month, you can make a mobile store app, connect Square as a point-of-sale system, and get priority support. With this plan, you can upload as many products as you want.
No matter which plan you choose, even the free one, you won’t have to pay a transaction fee for each sale you make with Ecwid. You can also connect your Ecwid store to Facebook Shop and Instagram Store with all plans except the free one.
Is Ecwid a platform that people use?
Since 2009, more than 2 billion stores have used Ecwid. The company works with more than 175 countries, which means that you can open an online store no matter where you are.
As time went on, the people in charge of Ecwid made sure that they could get more people to sign up. Even if you don’t already have a website, you can sign up for an account and then start from scratch to make an online store.
Ecwid is certified for PCI DSS Level 1 as of today. This may sound like a lot of technical jargon, but this certificate is the gold standard for online business security. Banks and other financial institutions need a different kind of certification, but Ecwid is not a bank, so it does not need that.
What does Ecwid have to offer?
Ecwid gives the seller a lot of features to use. We’ll look at the most important ones, but you should know that the free plan doesn’t include all of these features.
Sales Channels
You can sell on Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Mobile Google Shopping, Vend, eBay, and Amazon when you use Ecwid. To do this, you need to upgrade to a paid plan called “Venture.”
Just click on All Sales Channels to get to your sales channels, and you can start adding your Ecwid store to the options you have. Just remember that you need an account on these third-party marketplaces before you can connect your Ecwid store to them.
Marketing
With Ecwid, you can use Google and Facebook, which are two of the best marketing platforms. Aside from these two things, Ecwid will help you make sure that people know about your store and your products.
You can use the following ways to market with Ecwid:
- Google ads
- Ads on Facebook
- Recovering an abandoned cart
- Coupons for discounts
- Re-marketing to people who have been to the site before
- Electronic newsletters
- Analytics from Google
The free account can’t be used with all of these apps. But you don’t even have to be an expert if you decide to upgrade so you can use these apps. Just click “Get Started,” and Ecwid will walk you through the steps.
Reports
Ecwid works with a number of companies that are experts in reporting and data analysis. If you click on Reports on the left side of your panel, you can download a reporting tool and add it to your Ecwid account.
Once the installation is done, you can choose from apps like Google Analytics, Squiz, and more. With powerful free tools like these, you can see how well your store is doing, where your traffic is coming from, what products are selling the most, and more.
With this information, you can make decisions for your business that will help your store do better.
Shipping and Pick-up
You can sell locally or to people all over the world. Ecwid knows this, so it has a feature that lets you choose between shipping and pick-up.
With the shipping option, you can add new shipping methods, prices, and even in-store pick-ups, where your customer can pick up the item they bought from your home or store.
You can also choose where your package will come from. This is important because this is how the shipping cost from you to the shipping address of your customer will be calculated.
You can also use the handling fee feature, but you can only do so if you have a paid plan. The handling fee is what you charge for the time and effort it takes to pack the item and bring it to the shipping courier. This is a separate cost from the price of the item and the cost of shipping.
Design
Most other online store platforms don’t have this feature. Most of the time, you can’t change how big your photos are. With Ecwid, you can do this. To change the settings, all you have to do is go to the Design page.
You can change the ratio of the image, and you can make your photos square, portrait, or landscape. You can also make the background of your images darker so that the products stand out.
You can also choose to align the content to the left or right with this design tool. You can remove things from the product page that you don’t want to show. For instance, you might not want to show how much your product costs. On this control panel, you can choose whether to show this or not.
Apps
You can choose from a huge number of apps with Ecwid. If you don’t know where to start, just pick a category from the list on the left. If you want, you can also use the search box to look for apps you already know about.
Not every app is free. Some of them cost money, and some are free for a short time. After the trial period, you’ll have to pay a monthly subscription fee, which will be charged to your credit card.
Payment Center
Ecwid has 40 different ways to pay. A payment gateway is a company that charges your customer’s credit card and sends you the money. Ecwid doesn’t charge you this money, so you’ll have to pay fees to these other companies.
With Ecwid, you can charge customers by hand if you want to. If you’ve ever paid with a credit card at a mall, you may have seen the cashier swipe your card on a machine.
With Ecwid, you can do the same thing, so you can charge your customers no matter where you are. To do this, you can either use the Ecwid POS system or add POS systems from other apps. After installation, you can charge money on your mobile device, and the POS system will pay you.
If you want this feature, you have to buy a card reader, which is a separate piece of hardware you can take with you to read the customer’s card and let Ecwid handle the transaction.
How simple is it to use Ecwid?
Yes, it’s easy to use Ecwid. To get started, just click the button that says “Get Started for Free.” This will take you to a page where you need to give your name, email address, and other information. As soon as you confirm your email, you can go to your dashboard, which is shown below.
From here, all you have to do is click the buttons, starting with Create account, which you’ve already done. After this, the rest is easy because you just need to follow simple directions. The steps you need to take are also on the dashboard. On the left side of the control panel, you can look at other parts of the site.
How does the management of the stock work?
If you just made an account, click on “Add Products” to add things to your store. But if you already have products, you can use the Catalog link on your control panel to get to this feature.
If you click on “Catalog,” you can see all of the products you’ve already uploaded.
When you click on “Add Product,” the steps are pretty clear. You can add photos, choose which one will be the main one, give each one a title, a description, a price, and a shipping and tax cost.
Here’s what you should know about this part of the control panel:
- General: Name, price, and photos can be added.
- Attributes: Give your product a name.
- Options: Add different sizes and colors of the product.
- Files: This is where you upload files if you’re selling digital goods.
- Taxes and shipping: If shipping is needed, turn it on, set the shipping price, add the package’s weight, and set up the taxes you’ll charge.
- SEO: This feature will help your search rankings; it’s an SEO guide.
- Related Products: Pick products from your site that your store will show if a customer is looking at this item.
How to bring items into your Ecwid store
If you already have a store on Shopify or another platform, you can add the products from that store to your Ecwid shop. You can also use a CSV file to send products from Ecwid to another shop.
Once you choose to make a CSV file, the system will let you add up to 25 columns. This means that you can import products from other sites with up to 25 different attributes, such as images, product descriptions, prices, and many more.
To do this, click the Import Products button, which is next to the Add Products button. The button that says “Import Products” is white.
Next, decide how you want the goods to be brought into the country. If you are using a CSV file, make sure that the columns in the CSV file have the same names as the columns in your Ecwid control panel that have checkboxes.
Once you’re sure, click on Browse and then upload that CSV file. All of these items will now show up automatically on your Ecwid online store.
As you can see, there is no direct way to move products from Shopify or another platform to Ecwid. First, you have to get your CSV file from Shopify or another platform and then upload it to Ecwid.
Can Dropshipping be done with Ecwid?
Yes, you can use this platform for dropshipping. This platform’s flexibility is one of its best features. You can use it for your dropshipping business, to sell digital goods, and to sell products from your own inventory.
The best thing you can do to make dropshipping easy is to look in the Ecwid app market for an app. It’s much easier than manually copying and pasting pictures and descriptions from another website.
For dropshipping with Ecwid to work, you should look for apps that:
- Let you add products from the merchant’s site right away to Ecwid
- Change the price of your product automatically in Ecwid if the merchant changes it.
- Let you place the order from the Ecwid platform or the app instead of having to go to the merchant’s website.
There are apps here that let you add products from not just one but hundreds of different sellers. This is a great choice if you run a large store or dropship products that need a lot of stock, like women’s clothing.
Does Ecwid help with marketing and SEO?
Yes, it does. You can use SEO for every product you upload, as was already said. But you can only use this feature if you pay more for your account. If you are on the free plan, you can’t use it.
The first step in your SEO and marketing plan is to fix the name and description of your product. You can change this and see how your product will show up in search results at the same time. Ecwid will fill in these fields for you, but you can change them if you want to.
This is a part of Ecwid that could be better. It doesn’t tell you how to really do SEO. If you really care about SEO, you may need to use other SEO apps. The good news is that you know Google will index your page if you use Ecwid.
Now, all you have to do is make sure you use the right key words and product descriptions so that when someone searches online, your page comes up near the top of the results.
Is it safe for me and my customers to use Ecwid?
Yes, PCI DSS Level 1 is a certificate that Ecwid has. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is what this means. This is the worldwide standard that online businesses work hard to reach. When you get this certificate, it just means that your system has been tested carefully and found to be safe.
Ecwid isn’t the company that charges your credit card or the credit cards of your customers. Your banking systems take care of this. This means that even if Ecwid was hacked, your financial information is not there.
Is Ecwid compatible with apps?
Ecwid has an app market where you can find all kinds of programs that will help you make your website better. You can also use apps to help you run your business better. Click Apps at the bottom left of your control panel to get to these apps.
From this page, you can look at hundreds of apps that you can use on your store. Since there are too many to look at all at once, you can use the search function to find the one you want. Use the box in the top left corner that says “Search apps,” and then type the name of the app you want.
You can also click on the left-hand categories. For instance, you can click on Dropshipping to only see apps that have to do with dropshipping.
Not all of these apps are free. Some of them will cost about $29. Even though some apps are free, you shouldn’t be surprised that you have to pay to get the full service from others. These apps are not made by Ecwid, but by app developers who are not affiliated with Ecwid.
Does GDPR work with Ecwid?
GDPR is a new law that all European Union countries have to follow. It went into effect in 2018, and every business in the EU has to follow it. Even people who aren’t in the EU but sell online to people in the EU are expected to follow the rules.
Ecwid is in line with the GDPR law in every way. GDPR says, in essence, that:
- All information should be secure.
- Email marketing and subscriptions must be chosen by the customer.
- Every person who runs a website must tell people about its cookie and privacy policies.
Ecwid takes care of all of these things, so if you use this platform, you won’t break the law.
What kind of customer service should I expect?
As an Ecwid customer, you can use chat, email, or the phone to get help. The site also has a knowledge base where you can find everything you need to know to run your online store. You can read the tutorials, and unless your problem is really technical, you might not need to talk to a representative anymore.
Can I make my customers pay for what they buy?
With Ecwid, you can accept payments through a number of different payment gateways. PayPal and Stripe are two examples of these. Remember that Ecwid doesn’t charge you anything if you get paid. But you will have to pay your payment processor.
Click on Payment on the left side of your control panel to add a payment gateway. When you do that, a page like this should come up:
Pick the one that fits you. Ecwid has 40 ways to pay, but you may not be able to use all of them. You can only use what your country allows.
Ecwid also lets you pay by hand. You only have to turn this on in the payment dashboard. You can connect the Ecwid platform to offline POS systems like Square, PayPal card readers, Vend, Clover, and many more.
To add a manual payment method, go to the Payment page and click on the button that says “Add Manual Payment Method.” Then, just follow the step-by-step instructions.
Pros and Cons of Ecwid
Ecwid has been around for more than ten years, but there is still room for it to grow. There are a lot of great things about the platform, but the company could also do better.
Pros
- Has a free plan that includes a fully working online store
- Can bring in and send out goods c
- Has a market for apps
- has 40 ways to accept payments
- Low cost for plans with more features
- In line with GDPR
- Simple to use
Cons
- The free plan doesn’t let you make changes to SEO.
- Members who pay for a premium plan are the only ones who can get phone help.
Even though Ecwid is a popular choice for online sellers, some people still don’t like how things work on the platform. Most people say that the support isn’t very good because people on the free plan don’t get as much help as those who pay.
If you are on the free plan, the only way to get help is through chat or email. In general, this should work out fine. If you have a free website but still want good customer service, you are asking too much of the company.
Overall, there are a lot of good things said about Ecwid, especially by sensible people who know that anything free has its limits. Those who pay for their plans don’t have much to complain about.
Review Concluding
Ecwid is a platform for software as a service that helps three types of sellers: those who are just starting out, those who are experts, and those who already have an online store. Since building a website on the platform is free, anyone should give it a try. If you like it, you can move up to a better plan if you want to. You have nothing to lose if you don’t like how it works.
