In today’s world, where e-commerce is rapidly gaining momentum, entrepreneurs need to quickly and easily create virtual trading platforms. This is where Ecwid comes in – an innovative solution that provides multiple approaches to creating an online store.
Ecwid website builder provides a ready-made solution for launching online stores and opens up new horizons for online commerce. Thanks to its versatility, ease of use and scalability, it has won the trust of millions of entrepreneurs around the world.
In this review of the Ecwid platform, we will look at its main advantages, main disadvantages, functionality and use cases.
What is Ecwid?
The company was founded by an international team of professionals and currently has offices throughout the United States. The platform has attracted the attention of users around the world, with 40% of its clients located in the States and 36% in Europe. Since 2021, it has become part of the Canadian IT giant Lightspeed, which indicates its growing popularity and recognition in the industry.
Ecwid’s target audience is small and medium-sized enterprises in need of an effective IT product for conducting online commerce. Thanks to the free plan, even novice entrepreneurs with a limited budget can start selling online.
Although the basic tariff is limited to 10 items, all other functionality is preserved, which allows you to sell through web resources and social media profiles without any additional costs.
One of its distinguishing features is also its specialization in e-commerce. Unlike universal online products, the Ecwid service offers tools optimized specifically for launching and administering online stores.
Advantages of the Ecwid website builder:
Universal integration. The product allows you to integrate your project into almost any web environment. You have the option of demonstrating your product names on websites, social networks (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), marketplaces, emails and other sales channels.
Unlimited traffic. The Ecwid constructor does not set any restrictions on the number of visitors or orders. The only limitation on some tariffs is the maximum number of product items and categories for them. The unlimited package does not have these restrictions.
Bulk editing. As online business grows, updating information on the entire product range becomes a very labor-intensive task. To simplify it, we offer a solution for mass editing, which makes it possible to quickly and easily change the characteristics of many products simultaneously through a convenient tabular interface. Thanks to this option, you do not have to make manual edits to each individual card.
Multilingual technical support. Users can quickly receive professional help in Ukrainian, English and other languages. For paid plans, live technical support is available via chat and phone, and on a limited plan you will receive a response via email.
Starting plan. The service offers a basic plan, which is ideal for new entrepreneurs on a limited budget. It provides for adding up to 10 items, but at the same time you will have access to all the basic sales control tools.
Wide range of plugins. The functionality can be expanded thanks to the extensive marketplace of official add-ons, divided into several categories. You have access to extensions for connecting online payment, logistics services, advertising, analytics, etc.
Selling digital products. The service makes it possible to sell e-books, software, multimedia content and other types of virtual goods.
Promotion tools. You can use discount and bonus programs, set up special wholesale prices for B2B, and use advanced retargeting to re-reach potential customers, which will help increase conversion and increase the number of transactions.
Personal accounts. To improve interaction with customers and increase their loyalty, personal user accounts are provided inside. They help you track your purchase history, manage wishlists and saved preferences.
Open API. The IT product has an open Application Programming Interface, which provides developers with more advanced customization options. With its help, you can radically change the design, integrate an online store with third-party services, and also create specialized add-ons.
Are there any disadvantages to the Ecwid service?
Although this product has many advantages and is a powerful solution for running an online business, it is not without certain disadvantages:
Dependence on external resources. One of the main limitations of the Ecwid service is that it does not function as a completely offline online store. It is designed to add an eCommerce section to existing websites, social media pages or marketplaces. Thus, to use it, you must have a separate resource into which you will embed your product range.
Limited functionality. On the basic tariff it is possible to add only 10 items, which makes it unsuitable for running a full-fledged online business in the long term. In addition, it does not involve working with social networks, SEO tools and other important functions.
AMP technology is not supported. It is designed to speed up the loading of web pages on smartphones. Unfortunately, the service does not currently support AMP, which negatively affects the performance and loading speed of the project on mobile and tablets. Slow loading times often lead to poor behavioral performance – high bounce rates and reduced user time on the website.
Overview of the functionality of the Ecwid constructor
Next, we will give a short overview of Ecwid from the point of view of the main functionality and opportunities that the creators offer to develop your business.
Decoration and design
Ecwid provides a wide selection of templates and customization of the appearance of your marketplace to suit your brand’s corporate style and user experience requirements. Among the key advantages:
Ready themes. If you use the “Start Site”, then you will be able to choose a suitable design from an extensive collection of about 70–80 templates. Each theme is completely customizable to suit your needs: you can change colors, fonts, arrangement of elements and other points.
Adaptive design. No matter where you decide to place your project, the range will automatically adapt to the existing design. Blocks with product items will harmoniously fit into the overall style, adapting to the width of the container and color schemes. This ensures a single and consistent visual on any device, including mobile.
Professional templates. For more advanced design customization, you can purchase professional premium templates or install special add-ons. These extensions add powerful tools like a style editor (for changing fonts, buttons, shapes and other elements) and a layout editor (which allows you to move existing blocks of content within a page).
Creating your own CSS themes. Through the editor, you can make changes to individual style sheets or even completely redesign the look to suit your unique requirements. The number of CSS files created is, however, unlimited.
Control over user experience. In addition to visual appeal, inside there are tools for optimizing visitor actions. You can edit the transaction process, connect different payment gateways, manage delivery and much more, which ensures convenience and ease of purchase for the client.
Start site
This is a simple and effective way to quickly launch online trading without significant investment of time and resources. It will be useful if you do not yet have a ready-made website to which you can attach Ecwid functionality. Available here:
Quick start. All stages are simplified as much as possible thanks to the interactive assistant, which will prompt you step by step with all the necessary actions.
Visual designer. To customize the visual part, you will have more than 70 ready-made professional design templates at your disposal. Once you select a theme, you can completely personalize it to suit your needs: change the color scheme, fonts, block backgrounds, and adjust the location and layout options for each section.
Working with the catalogue. Here you can divide the existing assortment into categories and product groups, creating a convenient tree structure for the convenience of visitors.
Regional settings. During the process, you will be able to select the country in which the store will operate, the language of the interface and content, currency and other important localization parameters. This will allow you to adapt your trading platform to the specifics of the region and target audience.
Adding online payment systems. Payment by bank cards, electronic wallets and other popular methods is supported. Various delivery methods are also built in – courier services, postal items and pickup.
Visual editor
In the administrative panel you will find many options that will allow you to adapt the design and structure according to your preferences. You can choose the display format of the showcase on the main page and categories, the design of the product card, configure the visibility and positioning of articles, prices and the “Buy” button.
The structure of product items is also completely customizable. You can set the number of columns, change the sort order of displayed elements, and customize their arrangement. Additionally, you can add or hide the bottom menu, links to enter your personal account, filters and sorting, as well as other navigation and auxiliary components.
Integration with other CMS
For popular CMS (WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace and others), developers have created special modules and plugins that greatly simplify connecting to Ecwid. Simply select the CMS you are using and follow the detailed instructions for installing and configuring the corresponding module. After installation, additional options will appear in the CMS admin panel to completely customize the structure and appearance of the online store.
If your web resource was created on a less common or self-written platform, for which there are no ready-made modules, integration is also possible – then you will need to put the code in the HTML structure of your site in the place where you want to place the catalog.
Integration with social networks
After launching your online store in the administrative panel, you can select the social network you are interested in the “Sales Channels” section and follow the step-by-step instructions for synchronization.
Currently, we provide support for:
Inside, there is an option to upload products directly to Facebook Shop – a built-in storefront. When you connect synchronization, you choose which positions should be displayed.
You can add clickable links to any posts and stories on your Instagram profile thanks to the built-in Shopping Tags feature. It receives information about products from the Facebook store, so you must first set up synchronization with this platform.
It is also possible to upload product names to the TikTok For Business advertising platform to display your advertisements to the social network audience and redirect interested users to the online store.
Synchronization with marketplaces
Currently, there is support for Google Shopping, eBay and Amazon. Connecting them is as simple as possible – select the desired marketplace and follow the step-by-step instructions on the screen.
However, it is worth considering that the conditions for working with each marketplace vary significantly. For example, Google Shopping displays product items as advertisements, redirecting potential buyers to your main online store, while marketplaces like eBay and Amazon allow you to place orders directly on their sites.
In this case, the responsibilities for storing, packaging and shipping placed orders fall either on you or on the marketplace itself, depending on the terms of cooperation.
Order status notification
The service has a convenient notification system that helps keep customers informed of the current status of their purchase. This helps improve the quality of service and strengthen loyalty to your brand.
In the notification settings, you choose which events should be accompanied by sending messages. Popular options include order confirmation, notification of shipment, readiness for pickup, change of status, and provision of access to digital products after payment.
In addition, it is possible to set up notifications for site owners or administrators – messages about new arrivals of goods or about items with a critically low balance in the warehouse.
User groups
You can create your own user groups to maintain more effective relationships with customers and personalize your marketing efforts. They can be divided into segments in accordance with certain criteria – status (wholesalers, retailers, VIP clients), frequency of purchases, total turnover, and so on.
For example, you can offer special discounts or bonus programs for regular customers or dropshippers. When adding to cart, the discount for the selected group will be applied by default.
Accepting payments
Offline payment is supported through cash on delivery, settlement with the courier upon receipt or at the pick-up point. These traditional methods are preferred by most businesses.
However, the main emphasis is on synchronization with online payment systems that provide secure and convenient transactions via the Internet. Inside, there is support for a huge number of popular payment gateways and services, including Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, LiqPay, WalletOne and others.
Delivery settings
The user has the opportunity to add their own delivery methods – for example, pickup from a retail store or point of delivery, courier services, as well as any other options that fit your business model.
In addition, support for popular courier services and logistics providers is built-in. Depending on your geographic region, there are a number of ready-made templates for integrating different services. For example, for Ukraine there is a pre-installed template for synchronization with Nova Poshta.
Your own mobile application
This option will allow you to control all key aspects of your business directly from your smartphone or tablet, wherever you are. The application is developed for both Android and iOS, which ensures compatibility with a wide range of devices.
Even with the cheapest paid plan, you will get all the basic functions for working through the application: adding new items, tracking inventory, receiving prompt notifications about new orders received, promoting and informing about promotions through publishing content on social networks, as well as creating discount coupons and bonus loyalty programs.
Automatic backup
If for any reason you lose access to your website or the hosting hosting your online store, you will not lose your data. It will be enough to create a new site and synchronize it with the existing backup copy. All your information, settings and descriptions of products will be restored by default.
In addition to ensuring data safety, the cloud also guarantees that your online store will always use the latest version of software without the need to install update manually.
Reporting and analytics
In the control panel, it is possible to view the number of visitors, purchases, conversion indicator and other metrics for the selected period. If you need more detailed information, you can use the advanced statistics, which contains detailed statistics about each buyer. This helps to identify trends, analyze visitors’ behavior and improve marketing strategies.
To obtain deeper analytics and reporting, you can also integrate the online store with Google Analytics, which presents a wide range of methods for analyzing traffic and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Additionally, it is possible to establish third -party offers (for example, Monkey Data) to obtain multi -channel statistics from various sources.
EcwidPOS
Point of Sale – an integrated decision that makes it possible to accept payment through Equid at retail points of sales, immediately synchronizing the current statistics of sales with built -in CRM.
Ecwidpos function supports:
Cash transactions. You can quickly and simply conduct transactions through a POS-terminal or application thanks to variable payment methods.
Inventory management. It is available here to track residues in the warehouse and synchronization of the physical warehouse with an online store, which greatly facilitates control over the availability of products.
Sales analyst. Contains extensive statistics and analytical data – sales reports, employee performance data, etc.
Monitoring of the work of staff. The system provides an opportunity to easily manage working shifts and accounting of working time, as well as establish access permits for employees.
Marketing tools. POS functionality also contains means for maintaining loyalty programs, issuing discount coupons, automation of email newsletters and advertising campaigns.
Modules and applications
Ecwid functionality provides for an integrated application store developed by both the company itself and third -party programmers. In it, you will find both free and paid plugins covering a wide range of tasks.
The connection process is extremely simple: you just need to find the right offer in the market, press the installation button, and it will be integrated by default. The vast majority of extensions are paid, but there are also free solutions. After activation of CMS, all connected extensions are opened directly from the administrator panel in the “My applications” tab.
Opportunities for promoting the site on the Ecwid platform
The basic capabilities of the ECWID platform will be quite enough to efficiently promote a store in search engines, as well as working with an existing customer base through e-mail mailings.
SEO optimization
Since the service works on JavaScript, there was previously a problem with indexing pages in search engines associated with the dynamic generation of content and the lack of static URL addresses. However, today this problem has been successfully resolved. Now the URL project quickly fall into the index and rank in search engines.
In addition, the IT product provides wide tools for effective SEO promotion:
Automatic creation and update of Sitemap.xml. This helps search engines quickly find and index web page and online store products. The platform independently generates and regularly updates Sitemap in XML format, adding all the changes made to it.
Schema.org. This is a language of semantic marking, which contributes to a better interpretation and structuring of content. Thanks to this, search robots clearly identify the type of page, the price of the product, the current rating based on reviews and other attributes.
Static copies of dynamic pages. In order to overcome the problem of indexing a dynamic JavaScript content, characteristic of most SPA applications, Equid independently forms static copies of dynamic web pages and transfers them to search robots. This provides proper indexation of all contents.
URL. The service generates understandable and substantial links that reflect the structure of the catalog and product name, which contributes to a faster indexation and the best ranking in the search for Google.
alt descriptions of images. They help search robots to better understand the contents of the pictures and improve the availability of the website. The platform adds ALT descriptions for all images using the name of the product by default.
Automatic formation of robots.txt. This file controls what web pages should be indexed by search robots and which should be excluded. Inside, a simple interface is presented to edit this file and specify the indexing rules for certain sections.
Connecting its own domain and SSL certificate. These are important factors that affect confidence in your web resource both from visitors and search engines. The service offers makes it possible to connect your domain name and the SSL certificate to the “starting site”, however, only in paid tariffs.
E-mail of mailings
The collection of subscribers base is as simplified as possible – your customers automatically agree to receive mailings when applying for a transaction or subscription to news. The contact base is available for export to any postal services from your choice.
A powerful built -in functionality of automatic letters is also provided, which sets up and launches entire scenarios to trigger newsletters based on visitors’ actions. The system independently sends reminders of abandoned baskets, updating the price of products in the lists of the chosen one, request reviews and much more.
Overview of the tariff plans of the Platform Equid
The Equid platform offers flexible tariffs designed to meet the needs of businesses of various scales:
The ideal option for beginner entrepreneurs or for familiarization. It is possible to create an online store with an assortment of up to 10 positions on it and implement it on an unlimited number of websites. However, its functionality is limited – it is impossible to sell digital products here, gain access to the marketplace of additions and other options.
Venture ($14/month). The plan opens more tools for the growth of your business. It allows you to add up to 100 items of goods, sell via Facebook and Instagram, use a mobile application for administrator and built -in promotion tools. Also enabled technical support through chat.
Business ($29/month). It is a full-fledged proposal for EC, it increases the size of the catalog to 2500 positions, adds the option of group work on the project (up to 2 additional employees), and also provides access to emails, filters and other extensions.
unlimited ($82/month). You get an unlimited number of goods, priority support, as well as a mobile version for users and other additions. Unlimited is an ideal choice for large online stores with high performance requirements.
