Ecwid Overview – The Good and Dangerous for 2023

Ecwid is a light-weight, versatile, and intuitive ecommerce extension that makes it straightforward to handle stock throughout a number of gross sales channels in a single place. Stacked up towards its rivals, it affords a singular method to promoting merchandise on-line. And with practically 1 million prospects, there’s little doubt it’s a preferred alternative.

However is it your best option for you? Hold studying to see the way it compares to larger names like Shopify and BigCommerce, what it’s good at, and the place it falls flat.

Ecwid In comparison with the Finest Ecommerce Platforms

Ecwid is considered one of our favourite ecommerce options, however we solely suggest it for particular conditions. Try an summary of our prime picks under or learn our full greatest ecommerce platforms information to study extra.

Shopify is the perfect place to begin for those who’re critical about your on-line retailer, with every part you should construct an internet site, promote it, settle for funds, and promote on a number of channels. Join in the present day to get three days free and construct your whole website earlier than paying a penny.

Wix isn’t particularly for ecommerce, nevertheless it’s a beginner-friendly web site platform you should use to construct any sort of web site, together with an internet retailer. Begin your seven-day free trial in the present day.

If you wish to create a WordPress website with an internet retailer, Bluehost’s WooCommerce internet hosting is the way in which to go. All the things is pre-installed for you, so it’s able to exit of the field. Strive it danger free for 30 days.

We suggest Squarespace for portfolios or shops that lean closely on product imagery due to its many interesting templates for showcasing your images and movies. Strive Squarespace and get 14 days free.

If you have already got an internet site, Ecwid is the perfect light-weight answer for including ecommerce performance, no matter what platform your website lives on. When you don’t have an internet site, we suggest going with considered one of our favourite ecommerce options above.

Ecwid: The Good and the Dangerous

To kick our evaluation off, we’ll begin with an in-depth have a look at what Ecwid has going for it. Then, we’ll speak about the place it will possibly enhance and discover the completely different plans obtainable that will help you resolve which one’s best for you.

What Ecwid Is Good At

Free-forever plan: If in case you have an present web site however need to strive ecommerce with no main funding of time or cash, Ecwid’s free plan allows you to create a smooth storefront in minutes. You’ll be able to showcase as much as 5 merchandise to begin, then develop from there by shifting onto a paid plan.

Ecwid performs good with nearly any web site platform, so you possibly can embed your retailer seamlessly onto your present WordPress, Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace website, no coding required. Or, you possibly can copy-paste code from the Ecwid dashboard onto some other CMS or web site platform and lift your storefront with just some clicks.

Whereas the free plan gained’t unleash Ecwid’s full energy with subscriptions, providers, wholesale pricing, or automated tax calculations, you get user-friendly instruments to add merchandise, interact prospects, and convert guests to prospects. It’s a light-weight, frictionless method so that you can promote on-line and get a really feel for a way straightforward ecommerce may be.

Inexpensive plans: If you wish to promote on-line with out spending a fortune, Ecwid beats the pants off conventional ecommerce web site builders like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Squarespace by way of worth. In contrast to the competitors, Ecwid truly allows you to open an actual, working retailer without spending a dime. You’ll be able to add merchandise, customise the design, and even ring up gross sales with out ever needing to improve.

While you do step as much as a paid plan, Ecwid remains to be a steal. Their starter tier ($14 monthly) is lower than half the value of comparable plans from Shopify and BigCommerce, and it contains every part you should construct and broaden your on-line storefront.

As your enterprise grows, Ecwid’s pricing stays aggressive. Even their high-octane Enterprise plan is just $82.50 monthly. Evaluate that to the $300 monthly price ticket for Shopify and BigCommerce’s highest-end plans.

Omnichannel promoting: With Ecwid, your merchandise can dwell in every single place your prospects are on-line—in your web site, on social media platforms, through on-line marketplaces, and even in individual. Ecwid makes it easy to arrange a centralized catalogue of products one time, then showcase and promote them throughout mutliple platforms.

Image this. You spend a couple of hours including your product specs, photographs, and pricing into Ecwid. Then, with a couple of clicks of your mouse, your storefront is embedded in your web site. However why cease there? You’ll be able to allow the free integrations for Instagram, Fb, TikTok, WhatsApp, YouTube, eBay, and Amazon Market, with each buy synced along with your Ecwid dashboard.

Digital merchandise and subscriptions: Ecwid allows you to promote bodily items, digital downloads, subscriptions, and providers, letting you create a diversified enterprise mannequin. Think about prospects shopping for your handmade make-up, downloading a category with recommendations on how one can apply it, after which be a part of a paid membership the place they obtain a field of equipment and refills each month. Ecwid makes this all doable for as little as $14 monthly.

You’ll be able to promote digital items as much as 25 GB in dimension, ample allotment for promoting ebooks, video programs, graphic design property, or audio information. Ecwid additionally helps subscriptions for recurring providers or installment plans for high-ticket gadgets. With Ecwid as your ecommerce engine, you might have the liberty to promote what you need, the way you need.

Dropship and wholesale-ready: If you wish to dropship merchandise from different suppliers or provide wholesale pricing to bulk consumers, Ecwid has you coated. Their paid plans present seamless integration with prime dropshipping providers plus highly effective choices for managing wholesale relationships. You’ll be able to join your retailer to Printful, Spocket, Printify and extra to automate product importing, stock syncing, and transport of orders. You’ll be able to even run a number of dropshipping companies from one Ecwid account, streamlining administration of deserted cart emails, taxes, transport, and funds.

Ecwid additionally affords a user-friendly strategy to configure particular pricing for quantity consumers. Arrange a devoted wholesale catalog with password safety in your website or use buyer teams that robotically obtain bulk reductions when logged in. There are additionally choices to create coupons for wholesale consumers solely or allow volume-based worth reductions for sure merchandise.

No fee charges: With Ecwid, you retain extra of the earnings from each sale. Different ecommerce platforms cost you transaction charges or commissions on prime of what you already pay your fee processor. Shopify penalizes you for utilizing third-party fee gateways by charging an additional 0.5% to 2% payment per sale. Squarespace takes a flat 3% of each transaction on their introductory ecommerce plan. And, whereas Gumroad has no month-to-month charges, they hold a whopping 10% of all of your income.

With Ecwid, you pay a low month-to-month price and hold 100% of every transaction (apart out of your fee processor’s customary price). Think about making $10,000 in gross sales this month. On Shopify’s Primary plan, you’d pay at the least $50 in further charges for those who didn’t use their fee processor. Squarespace would take $300 proper off the highest. However with Ecwid, that $10,000 is all yours besides the standard fee processing prices. For small and midsize companies, a couple of proportion factors in further transaction charges every month can actually add up. Ecwid means that you can hold extra of your hard-earned cash and make investments it again into your enterprise.

100+ fee choices: With over 100 built-in fee gateways, Ecwid affords a wide selection of choices to simply accept funds from prospects, from Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal to bank cards, debit playing cards, cryptocurrency, and past. Let prospects with no bank card nonetheless pay in installments through Klarna or let your worldwide prospects use Afterpay or PayU. Regardless of the place your consumers are or how they prefer to pay, Ecwid has you coated.

Ecwid even supplies an in-house fee processor referred to as Lightspeed with charges as little as 2.6% + $0.30 per transaction for U.S. and Canadian sellers. However for those who desire Stripe, Sq., or some other gateway, you’re free to make use of them. Ecwid performs good with all fee choices and doesn’t penalize you with further charges. With such a variety of fee strategies supported, Ecwid makes it straightforward to provide prospects loads of choices for a quicker, frictionless checkout expertise.

Automated tax calculations: For sellers in 16 international locations, Ecwid automates gross sales tax calculations so you possibly can keep compliant with out complications. Their one-click tax integration helps customers in the US., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union, and the UK. Think about how a lot time you’ll save not having to set tax charges, file returns, and hold guidelines up to date for various areas manually.

In fact, you possibly can nonetheless configure customized tax zones and charges for specialised product sorts. Ecwid supplies the automation to deal with customary taxes but additionally the pliability to account for exemptions or particular conditions as wanted for your enterprise.

International gross sales made straightforward: With Ecwid, you possibly can showcase your merchandise to worldwide audiences and supply an incredible shopping for expertise for patrons wherever on this planet. Their platform makes it straightforward to promote globally by supporting 53 languages, a number of currencies, and the aforementioned automated tax compliance for a number of international locations.

Ecwid might not absolutely translate your product listings or website content material into completely different languages, however the platform will robotically translate every part it will possibly. You may also add customized translations to handle what Ecwid misses. Nevertheless, it’s essential to remember the fact that displaying your costs in a number of currencies requires a premium add-on that prices between $4.49 monthly.

Constructed-in stock monitoring: Stock administration may be tedious and time-consuming, however Ecwid’s built-in inventory monitoring affords a user-friendly answer. You’re capable of effortlessly replace product portions, obtain notifications when inventory runs low, and conceal or show out-of-stock gadgets with the press of a button.

Say you promote t-shirts in sizes small via extra-large. As prospects buy numerous sizes, Ecwid will robotically deduct every merchandise out of your complete inventory, saving you from counting sizes and updating totals manually. In case your provide of huge shirts begins to dwindle, Ecwid can ship you an automatic alert so you realize to reorder earlier than utterly promoting out.

There’s additionally a built-in barcode scanner within the cellular app that you should use to replace stock ranges, discover particular merchandise or orders, and even add new gadgets to your on-line retailer. With Ecwid serving to you deal with the administration of your product inventory, you’re free to give attention to attracting new prospects and enhancing your product choice.

Delivery companions: Delivery merchandise to prospects in a well timed, cost-effective method is essential for any on-line retailer. That’s why Ecwid has partnered with over 20 main carriers to supply real-time transport estimates and label printing immediately inside their platform. You’ll be able to even rise up to 50% off retail USPS costs through the use of Ecwid.

When a buyer locations an order, Ecwid will immediately calculate the precise transport value utilizing the recipient’s deal with and both the load or dimensions of every merchandise of their cart. The shopper can then select between supply choices like USPS Precedence Mail, UPS Floor, or FedEx SmartPost at checkout. As the shop proprietor, you might have full management over which carriers are provided wherein areas.

As soon as the client completes their buy, you’ll obtain a transport label with the mandatory particulars  For prime-volume shops, Ecwid additionally integrates with achievement providers to deal with logistics so you possibly can give attention to rising your enterprise.

Customized cellular app: Designing and growing your personal customized app in your net retailer may be time-consuming and costly. Fortunately, Ecwid affords a totally branded cellular app on each Android and iOS for showcasing your merchandise. The most effective half? You’ll obtain it without spending a dime for those who select an Ecwid Limitless annual plan.

For the reason that app is custom-made to match your retailer’s design and branding, your prospects get a cohesive expertise. And any updates you make to your product catalog, photographs, or stock inside Ecwid will robotically sync to the app in actual time. The one requirement is that you’ve a developer account with Google Play and the App Retailer to distribute the app. Ecwid will then create the app, checklist it underneath your developer account, and deal with all updates and upkeep. The tip result’s a totally practical cellular storefront at no further value to you.

For customers who don’t want the Limitless plan or are paying for it month-to-month, Ecwid’s branded cellular app can be obtainable as a one-time add-on of $590 to any paid plan.

Customization on increased plan tiers: Ecwid’s staff of 20 consultants can construct customized integrations, automate processes, enhance the checkout expertise, arrange tailor-made e-mail campaigns, create customized reviews and analytics, design skilled invoices, and extra for you on choose annual plans.With Ecwid dealing with the technical particulars, you’re free to give attention to methods to showcase your model and interact consumers.

Ecwid Enterprise plans embody two free customization hours to get began, whereas Ecwid Limitless plans embody 12 hours to construct options tailor-made in your wants. Merely describe what you should Ecwid’s staff, from enhancing the checkout expertise to organising focused reductions or the rest, and Ecwid will deal with it. Extra customization hours can be found for $100 every when you should transcend the free hours offered in your Ecwid plan. By talking with them about your imaginative and prescient, they’ll design an ecommerce answer to assist take your enterprise to the following stage.

What Ecwid Is Missing

All-in-one retailer builder: Ecwid’s drag-and-drop web site builder allows you to create a easy one-page retailer shortly, nevertheless it lacks the ability and capabilities of a full web site builder. Whereas the easy-to-use interface and curated fonts and pictures show you how to design an attention grabbing website in minutes, the web site builder is just too fundamental to function your solely on-line presence. There’s no running a blog performance, restricted customization, sparse styling choices, and no native advertising and marketing or search engine optimisation instruments.

This serves as a simple strategy to shortly launch a starter retailer, however you’ll quickly outgrow its restricted capabilities. To construct an impactful, conversion-optimized web site, you’ll want a extra sturdy web site builder with higher design freedom and built-in advertising and marketing options. Ecwid is way more highly effective as a strategy to arrange ecommerce performance on one other website constructing platform than it’s when utilizing its personal website builder to create your whole ecommerce website from scratch.

Key options included: Many customary ecommerce options are solely obtainable on Ecwid’s higher-priced plans or via third-party apps it’s important to pay to get entry to. Ecwid’s free plan lacks essential options like transport price calculations, order monitoring, and the power to promote on social media platforms.

Even on the entry-level Enterprise plan, performance like deserted cart restoration, product filtering, and subscriptions are unavailable until you improve to Ecwid’s Marketing strategy. On prime of that, most of the apps that present key ecommerce functionalities should not free. Checkout progress bars, a number of foreign money choices, and cart abandonment popups require separate month-to-month charges to make use of.

So, whereas Ecwid touts itself as a simple, light-weight ecommerce answer, including the options and performance you should run a full-fledged on-line retailer can find yourself costing you a bit extra than simply your month-to-month plan price.

search engine optimisation freedom: You gained’t have complete management over particulars that considerably impression your search visibility and advertising and marketing efforts in Ecwid. For instance, you possibly can’t customise your product URLs or picture alt tags. They’re generated robotically. You can also’t edit or take away structured information like pricing and availability that’s displayed in search outcomes.

Whereas this “set it and neglect it” method is actually low-maintenance for website house owners, it could not yield the perfect ecommerce search engine optimisation outcomes. The excellent news is you possibly can nonetheless optimize titles and descriptions to draw and interact your prospects. For some, the simplicity and pace to rise up and operating outweighs the downsides. For others involved with having extra management over their search engine optimisation settings and on-line presence, the shortage of flexibility might be a dealbreaker.

Native integrations: Ecwid’s integrations are at present restricted to just some hundred choices. Whereas that feels like lots, it leaves out many fashionable enterprise instruments.

For e-mail advertising and marketing, you’re caught selecting between Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and a handful of lesser-known platforms. The choices for accounting software program are QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and Xero. And Ecwid solely affords native integrations with extra area of interest CRMs like Teamleader, Capsule, and Zoho. You’re ready to hook up with another fashionable platforms, like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Fixed Contact, through Zapier however that may imply a less-reliable sync than a local integration.

The excellent news is that Ecwid supplies an API to construct customized apps, so that you might be able to create tailor-made integrations to suit your particular tech stack. Nevertheless, that requires developer assets and time that not all enterprise house owners have available.

Ecwid Merchandise and Pricing

Ecwid affords 4 completely different plans starting from free to limitless. The pricing construction total is predicated on the variety of merchandise you might have, the sorts of items you need to promote, and the channels you need to promote on.

These plans are:

• Free: for as much as 5 bodily merchandise bought via an internet retailer
• Enterprise: for as much as 100 digital or bodily merchandise via your web site or social channels
• Enterprise: for as much as 2,500 merchandise via any channel, together with subscriptions
• Limitless: for limitless merchandise, precedence assist, assist for promoting in individual, and a free cellular app

Beneath, we’ll dig deeper into the options and capabilities of every plan, together with the nuances between them and who ought to use which one.

Free Plan

As a enterprise proprietor, you want options that increase your productiveness with out hurting your backside line. Ecwid’s free ecommerce plan offers you a simple strategy to showcase and promote merchandise on-line with no upfront prices or charges.

Their light-weight toolkit supplies sufficient performance to launch a surprising on-line retailer in minutes. You’ll have entry to Ecwid’s intuitive interface, common updates, and responsive design that shows superbly throughout units. Promote your retailer on social media or embed it immediately onto your present web site for a unified expertise.

Whether or not you promote handcrafted items on the aspect or run a fledgling store that’s primed to develop, Ecwid’s free plan affords plug-and-play ecommerce. You’ll be able to create an internet retailer showcasing as much as 5 merchandise in a flash. There’s no must navigate difficult options or splashy customizations. Ecwid offers you a simple setup so you can begin making gross sales ASAP.

The Enterprise Plan

Ecwid’s Enterprise plan is an ecommerce answer for small companies trying to broaden their on-line shops. It builds upon the Free plan by providing further options for managing extra merchandise, advertising and marketing your model, streamlining operations, and promoting throughout a number of channels.

With the Enterprise plan, your enterprise can make the most of further instruments to spice up gross sales and enhance the client expertise. You’ll have every part from the Free plan, however you’ll additionally acquire entry to coupons and reductions, reward playing cards, the power to promote immediately on Instagram and Fb, fundamental stock administration, and automatic tax calculations to simplify the checkout course of.

Ecwid’s Enterprise plan is designed for established small companies trying to promote extra merchandise via an easy-to-use ecommerce answer. With a mixture of important and superior options, companies can construct a focused, interesting on-line buying expertise for his or her prospects.

The Enterprise Plan

With this plan, you possibly can showcase as much as 2,500 merchandise. You’ll have every part from the Enterprise plan, plus the power to ask workers members to assist run your rising retailer. Ecwid makes it seamless to sync your retailer with main marketplaces like Amazon and eBay on this plan, too, increasing your attain.

A bigger product catalog means extra decisions and higher experiences in your prospects. Supply product variations with completely different colours, sizes, or supplies. For these shops that additionally provide an in-person buying expertise, Ecwid’s cellular POS system allows you to settle for funds wherever that keep synced along with your on-line retailer. And also you gained’t let deserted carts slip via the cracks anymore, both, as Ecwid’s automated e-mail advertising and marketing helps you re-engage prospects that left earlier than buying and shut extra gross sales.

For corporations prioritizing the buyer expertise, Ecwid affords scheduled order pickup, wholesale pricing teams, and dimensional transport charges to maintain consumers pleased. You’ll be able to even arrange recurring subscriptions and faucet into two free hours of Ecwid-built customizations, supplying you with the liberty to tailor Ecwid’s platform to suit your model.

Limitless

With Limitless, you’ll by no means run out of room in your product variations or run into some other limitations. Listing 10 merchandise or 10,000. Give entry to your complete staff so everybody might help interact prospects and drive gross sales. The plan even features a customized cellular app without spending a dime, so your retailer is at all times open for enterprise in your prospects’ pockets.

Join your retailer with fashionable POS programs for a seamless omnichannel expertise, then use your 12 free customization hours to tailor Ecwid to your model wants. The precedence assist you get solely on Limitless means Ecwid’s consultants are at all times readily available to information you to ecommerce success.

Limitless offers you the liberty and energy to construct your greatest on-line retailer but. Showcase your full vary of merchandise, interact extra prospects, and take your enterprise into the long run. The chances are practically limitless.

Evaluating the Finest Ecommerce Platforms

There’s actually a time and place for Ecwid. If you have already got an internet site and don’t to mess with the trouble of shifting it someplace it else or if you wish to hold your retailer and firm web site separate, Ecwid is a improbable path to spinning up an ecommerce operation.

Whereas it’s considered one of our prime picks, it’s not proper for everybody. If you wish to construct a brand new, sturdy on-line retailer from scratch, you could need to try our different favourite ecommerce options:

1. Shopify – Finest ecommerce platform for many
2. Wix – Finest ecommerce platform for newcomers
3. Bluehost – Finest for automated WooCommerce retailer setup
4. Squarespace – Finest portfolio-based ecommerce builder
5. BigCommerce – Finest for multichannel gross sales
6. Shift4shop – Finest ecommerce platform for builders
7. Ecwid – Finest free buying cart extension
8. WooCommerce – Finest ecommerce plugin for WordPress
9. Straightforward Digital Downloads – Finest WordPress plugin for digital merchandise
10. Volusion – Finest ecommerce platform for giant shops
11. Magento – Finest enterprise commerce platform

See our full checklist of the greatest ecommerce platforms to study extra about our analysis course of, what to search for when selecting one, and in-depth evaluation of every.