Ecwid Review (2024): Everything You Need to Know

An In-Depth Review of Ecwid, A Versatile Ecommerce Platforms that Integrates with Any Website Builder and Enables Selling on Social Media.

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This in-depth review of the Ecwid system covers all the critical attributes you’d be interested in to see if it’s worth your time.

By the end of it all, you’ll have learned about its website integration capabilities, social media selling tools, advanced ecommerce features.

We also explore some of Ecwid's limitations and drawbacks, such as limited design options, transaction fees, and certain feature limitations.

Quick verdict:

Ecwid is not an all-round ecommerce platform and you cannot build an online store or host one on Ecwid, with the Starter Site offering only a basic storefront functionality.

However, Ecwid shines in its dependability when added to an existing website. Its integration is seamless, functioning as a plugin that transforms your site into an elegant sales front without a hefty price tag.

To sum up, Ecwid simplifies e-commerce for agile, small-scale merchants seeking versatile omnichannel commerce features.

So why should you read this review and consider Ecwid further? The answer is simple: Ecwid might be more affordable and functional than your current system. How? We’ll tell you everything about it in this review.

What is Ecwid?

ecwid review homepage

Online store builders like Wix, Shopify, and Squarespace have made it exceedingly easy to build ecommerce websites using their built-in features, editors, and customizable themes. 

But there's one significant downside to all these solutions: They create a closed system, making it almost impossible to transfer all your files or implement more extensive customizations. 

In other words, you're stuck with whatever your chosen eCommerce platform determines.

Ecwid changes this in a revolutionary way. The tool aims to help you build an affordable and functional online store using your own existing website. That way, you retain ownership of your content and edit and design your store however you see fit while benefitting from Ecwid's eCommerce functionality. 

How Many People Use Ecwid?

Ecwid was launched in 2009 and acquired by Lightspeed in 2021. The platform now has nearly one million live websites under its belt, and for a good reason. Ecwid makes website migration a breeze and provides an inexpensive way to sell online, no matter where you’re at with your business.

Ecwid Pros and Cons

Pros 👍

  • Ecwid offers a well-featured free plan to help you start selling online.
  • There's no limit to how many websites you can add Ecwid to
  • You can set up multi-lingual stores.
  • Ecwid is GDPR compliant.
  • Ecwid accommodates dropshipping with integrations like Printful and Spocket.
  • Ecwid is mobile responsive.
  • Ecwid comes with POS functionality.
  • Ecwid comes with an app store, where you'll find a range of valuable integrations.
  • You can integrate Ecwid with over 60 popular apps/tools/extensions, including WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Blogger, and even Tumblr.
  • All plans get access to email support. However, Ecwid’s paid plans unlock live chat, and phone support is available on the Business plan and upwards.

Pricing

The Ecwid platform offers four regular pricing plans. The first is completely free to use forever. However, that’s not to say that the free plan doesn’t have its limitations. For instance, serious sellers will have to upgrade to get mileage out of the platform, as the free program only allows you to sell up to five products. 

In contrast, the Venture plan unlocks 100 products and the ability to sell digital goods. The Venture plan is affordable for small businesses and has the added benefit of live chat support (more about exact pricing below).

Beyond this, the Business plan increases your product limit to 2,500. It also comes with phone support, the ability to sell subscriptions, and nifty marketing features like the abandoned cart saver. 

However, only the most expensive Unlimited plan unlocks unlimited products and phone support.

So, with that said, here’s a slightly more detailed breakdown of Ecwid’s pricing (you can save 25% by opting into annual billing):

  • Free': $0 forever. You can simultaneously sell on multiple sites (you embed or install Ecwid on your platform of choice, and you’re ready to accept orders for up to five products), build a starter site, enjoy unlimited bandwidth, and access email support.
  • Venture': $19 per month or $14.08 per month billed annually. You can sell up to 100 products, list and sell digital goods, access live chat support, access the Ecwid app market, create discount codes, make automated tax calculations, customize your checkout, and sell on Facebook and Instagram (you can’t do this on the free plan).
  • Business': $39 per month or $29.08 per month billed annually. Sell up to 2,500 products, sell on Amazon and eBay with the Codisto integration, register two staff accounts, unlock abandoned cart recovery, sell subscriptions, create multi-lingual stores, set wholesale prices, access phone support, benefit from mobile POS functionality, create product variations and product filters. You also get two hours of free customization from the Ecwid team – they can spruce up your design or add extra functionality, depending on your store's needs.
  • Unlimited': $99 per month or $82.50 per month billed annually. You can now sell unlimited products via your own branded mobile app, integrate with POSs like Clover and Square, create unlimited staff accounts, access priority support, and receive 12 hours of customization from the Ecwid team to get your store into shape.

Its pricing makes Ecwid one of the most affordable eCommerce solutions on the market, so if you’re on a budget, this might be worth checking out.

Main Features

With the basics covered, below I’ve listed some more of Ecwid’s core features:

  • Store management – SEO tools, analytics and reporting, order and inventory management, etc. 
  • Inventory management: Building on what I’ve just alluded to, Ecwid offers simple inventory management features, including product tracking, mobile device inventory management, barcode scanning, stock control management (i.e., you can see how many items you have in your inventory and make edits if needed), product duplication (allows you to copy a similar product and make changes, rather than re-entering all the details manually), and more.
  • Customer experience – Product reviews, a favorite item button, the option for customers to check out as a guest or create an account, automatic tax calculations, real-time shipping rates, automatic language translation, preorders, etc.
  • Marketing – Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Snapchat, and TikTok advertising, discount generation, Mailchimp integration, abandoned cart recovery, gift cards, etc. 
  • Ecwid Buy button – Ecwid allows you to add a buy now button, giving retailers more opportunities to sell. Adding it to your website only requires a tiny snippet of code. While the buy button appears simple, it comes with everything you need to complete a transaction, including tax support, shipping, and payment components. The Ecwid buy button also automatically adapts to the color and style of your blog or website, so it fits in naturally!
  • Shop app – The Ecwid ShopApp allows you to create a unique mobile app to connect with customers. Ecwid will automatically publish your app to the Google or Apple app store on your behalf. Learn more about this feature here. 
  • Multi-lingual – Ecwid automatically detects and translates more than 51 languages. If someone clicks on your store from another language region, they’ll be greeted by the most convenient language. So, you can easily sell to non-English speaking buyers.

As previously mentioned, like other popular eCommerce SaaS solutions, Ecwid allows you to set up your own eCommerce website from scratch using Ecwid’s starter site. It’s worth mentioning that design customization is relatively basic.

So, as your brand grows, you’ll likely be better off investing in a more comprehensive website platform. When you register your account, you get a free Ecwid subdomain, but you can also connect your own domain should you wish.

Ecwid offers something unique by catering to companies that don’t want to build an entirely new website to establish eCommerce functionality. Instead, Ecwid makes it quick and easy to integrate your existing website with Ecwid’s ecommerce system – which comprises a bunch of selling and product management tools. 

Think of Ecwid as an eCommerce widget, precisely where the platform gets its name! To get started, you need to insert a short HTML code, and the entire system embeds onto your existing website like any other widget,

You’re not restricted to just using Ecwid with your websites, either. Instead, Ecwid also empowers you to sell via your existing blogs, socials (like Facebook and Tumblr), and online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. Sales are synced systematically across your channels, and you can manage them all from one centralized dashboard. 

Speaking of management, Ecwid also comes with a host of useful eCommerce management features. For example, you can list a wide range of products and product variants, including attributes like weight, photos, pricing, and more. You can also establish product shipping rates, allow customers to pay via the 70 different payment methods (including Paypal and Stripe), and fulfill orders from your Ecwid dashboard.

Ecwid also boasts the following features:

  • One-page checkout
  • The ability to create attractive product pages and catalogs
  • Item filtering
  • Shipping service integrations, like Shipstation, ShippingEasy, and Easyship
  • Marketing automation – for example, automated emails

You can access Ecwid via your internet browser. However, Ecwid also has a store management app for Android and iOS. While the app’s capabilities don’t fully match Ecwid’s desktop version, it’s a valuable asset. For example, you can edit product attributes, upload e-goods, add product images, and more.

Ease of Use

Ecwid’s control panel has recently been redesigned (as of 2018). It’s relatively straightforward to navigate, so beginners should be able to navigate backend functions, such as orders, products, and reporting. 

There’s a side panel (to the left) where you’ll find all the essential settings – for example, your sales channels, product catalog, and design configuration. Then, to the right, you’ll see the corresponding options for said settings – for instance, what channels your products are listed on, details about the products you sell, and how content is arranged on your site, etc.

You’ll be pleased to hear that backend onboarding is super simple. Ecwid walks you through everything with photos and text for reference. So you’re basically handheld while you quickly familiarize yourself with the platform. 

In contrast, your front-end design largely depends on your existing website. Unfortunately, Ecwid doesn’t provide customizable templates. As a result, how easy designing your website’s front-end primarily comes down to your chosen website builder.

Once you’ve integrated Ecwid with an existing site, Ecwid automatically adopts your original fonts and colors and applies these style choices to your product display so that your eCommerce features are immediately on-brand without lifting a finger!

Suppose you don’t already have a website. In that case, it’s worth highlighting that Ecwid’s visual editor for its own starter site is very basic.

It essentially provides a one-page website broken into several content blocks with a few different themes to choose from.

You can only really tweak product layout and alignment. It’s possible to work around this by relying on a third-party editing app like Advanced Branding, TemplateMonster, or Store Designer by J-26. Or, if you’re familiar with coding, you can customize your Ecwid store from scratch with CSS.

Next, let’s talk a little about how the setup works:

Ecwid provides ‘wizards’ for every platform you might want to integrate Ecwid’s eCommerce functionality with. For example, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace (and half a dozen more!). Thanks to these ‘wizards,’ it only takes a few simple steps to integrate your preferred sales channels with Ecwid. 

You just go to the backend of your chosen website platform/social media network and add Ecwid as a plugin/app. Once installed, you hit activate, and you can start using Ecwid. Simple, right?

Lastly, I want to acknowledge that Ecwid’s mobile app for Android and iOS also enhances its ease of use. For example, it makes managing your store and orders on the go much more accessible.

Available Payment Gateways and Fees

It’s common for free eCommerce solutions to charge transaction fees. However, this isn’t the case with Ecwid. The free plan comes with no fees attached, nor are there any transaction fees on higher plans. This makes Ecwid an excellent solution for anyone trying to keep down the costs of their entrepreneurial endeavor.

However, it’s important to remember that Ecwid isn’t a payment processor, so transaction fees attached to whatever payment gateway you choose may apply. Ecwid spoils its users for choice, with over 70 payment gateways available (which ones you’ll have access to depends on your location).

Amongst the most noteworthy, there are:

  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • Amazon Pay
  • American Express
  • Square
  • Authorize.net
  • 2Checkout
  • Clearpay

…and many more.

Ecwid POS

Ecwid’s POS system is flexible, so you can embed universally acceptable hardware and is built to support offline selling across standard brick-and-mortar stores, plus mobile in-person sales.

Note that if you want to make the most of point-of-sale, you’ll need to invest in a suitable card reader. However, suppose you want a more complete POS system. In that case, you might also consider investing in cash drawers, receipt printers, barcode scanners, and anything else that strikes your fancy. Of course, your choice will depend on your business’s unique needs and budget. 

ecwid pos

All these sales fronts are connected and controlled from a centralized Ecwid dashboard. The whole Ecwid framework is subsequently monitored in real-time to keep all the critical variables synced at all times. Therefore, even the slightest inventory or sales information adjustment is reflected across the system as soon as it occurs.

Now, if you intend to take advantage of Ecwid’s POS feature, you might want to invest in a suitable card reader. While online card-not-present transactions are processed by payment processors, in-store transactions are largely facilitated by card processors via card readers.

That said, other hardware peripherals required to set up a typically complete POS system include cash drawers, receipt printers, barcode scanners, etc. The good thing about Ecwid’s POS is that it’s pretty flexible. So, you should be able to embed any universally acceptable point of sale hardware (here can fin some of the best POS systems available).

In the end, therefore, what you ultimately choose for your retail store depends on your specific needs and budget.

For more info about different POS systems, we’ve reviewed some of the most popular POS options here. Ecwid offers several POS integrations, including Square POS, Clover, Vend POS, iZettle, and Paypal card readers.

Sell with Ecwid on Social Media

It hasn’t always been easy for business owners to sell their products through social media.

However, Ecwid, and a few other leaders in the eCommerce landscape decided that it was time for social platforms to be more accessible to the masses. Ecwid ecommerce helps companies of all shapes and sizes list and sell products on a host of platforms, including Facebook, SnapChat Pinterest, and Instagram.

  • Facebook: To sell on Facebook, upload your product catalog from Ecwid onto your Facebook business page and show your products in your shop tab. You’ll need the Venture Business or Unlimited plan to get started. Once you have that, go to the Ecwid control panel, click All Sales channels and choose Facebook. Your products will then be available on your Facebook page as soon as you add your profile to your Ecwid account!
  • Instagram: Instagram is one of the world’s most popular social media channels, and it’s also a great way to sell items through Instagram Shoppable products. You’ll need a Business account on Instagram and a Venture or higher plan with ECWid to sell on Instagram. Once you stock your online store with the products you want to sell, you’ll need to make sure that you’re located in an approved country, then use the sell on Facebook Integration from Ecwid to bulk sync your account. Once again, all you need to do is go into the All sales channels section of your control panel and set up your Instagram account in the Sell on Instagram section. You’ll also need to authenticate your Facebook account.
  • Pinterest: Pinterest is another excellent service to use if you want to connect with customers on social media and sell products at the same time. Although Ecwid doesn’t have the same integrations that it has for Facebook and Instagram with Pinterest, you can use a tag to upgrade your selling. Within your Pinterest business account, go to the Ads > Conversions section, and click on your Create Pinterest Tag option. Copy the unique tag ID, then add your tag to your store page in Ecwid!
  • Snapchat: If you have a younger audience, or just sell to people who love filters and pictures, then Snapchat is a great choice. Ecwid has it’s own Snapchat pixel that you can use to ramp up your sales. Within your Snapchat Ads manager, go to the Manage section, then Snap pixel. Create your pixel, and copy the ID. Within your Ecwid control panel, go into Settings > General > Tracking and add your Snap pixel. This will help you to track the sales you get from Snapchat!

Sell with Ecwid on eBay and Amazon

Ecwid doesn’t just help you to improve your sales by letting you sell on social media or track the conversions you get from social channels. You can also ramp up your conversion rates by selling through marketplaces like Amazon and eBay too.

For instance, to sell on Amazon, you need to install the Codisto app from the Ecwid App Market. With the Codisto app installed in your Ecwid store, you can sync product details, pricing, and inventory in 100% real-time between your online store and Amazon.You'll need to:

You’ll need to:

  • Connect your Ecwid store to Amazon with the Codisto app.
  • List your first product. Codisto allows you to create automated listings. That means Codisto uploads product pictures, titles, prices, and variations from your Ecwid product catalog automatically. You don't have to enter all that information manually.
  • Wait till your product is bought on Amazon, a new order will appear in your Ecwid admin. You will find it in My sales → Orders.

If you want to sell on eBay, that process is simple with Etsy too. Attracting new customers at a lower cost is crucial to growing any business and selling on multiple channels can help with that. With the Ecwid ecommerce service, you can add your store to as many marketplaces, sites, and social media pages as you like, including Google Shopping!

The easiest way to add your products to eBay if you’re an Ecwid merchant is to use the Trimpo or Codisto.LINQ apps on the marketplace from Ecwid. This allows you to automatically publish new products to eBay, update your inventory and more.

Choose the app that works for you, select the products you want to list, and you’ll be ready to start delivering your products to buyers all around the world. Your app will even upload product pictures, prices, and inventory levels for you.

Importing and Exporting your Ecwid Product Data

Since you might need to import or export product data while you manage your inventory, Ecwid doesn’t leave this functionality out of its inventory management system. You can easily export and import product info in bulk via CSV.

add and edit products on ecwid

Now, the best thing about this is that Ecwid allows you to take advantage of up to 25 CSV columns. In other words, you can import multiple products along with 25 of their distinct attributes, including images, URLs, SKUs, names, variants, etc.

That said, it turns out the export function isn’t limited to your product data. You can also export your customer details as well as orders in bulk through CSV. These are the types of capabilities you need to transfer data to other ecommerce or analytics platforms.

Dropshipping with Ecwid

All things considered, Ecwid was seemingly built for more than one business approach. It’s fully capable of going beyond the standard model of direct product selling, to support dynamic ecommerce merchants.

Case in point – if acting as the middle man between shoppers and suppliers is your kind of thing, for instance, Ecwid can come in handy for dropshipping.

But, here’s the thing. You can best achieve this by integrating a dropshipping app from Ecwid’s App Store. Thankfully, there are various options for different kinds of dropshipping businesses.

The most versatile ones can effectively coordinate between numerous customers and more than 100 suppliers on a single Ecwid dropshipping store. You can easily set up products, communicate with suppliers, track fulfillment plus shipping, sync your data accordingly, and more.

The Ecwid App Market

Adding application extensions is a sure fire way to scaling up or customizing your ecommerce site in a reasonable manner. And that’s why Ecwid comes with its own App Market, which features a wide range of decent applications for merchants who’d like to expand their functionalities.

ecwid app market

Apart from typical ecommerce tools, you can get add-ons for reward schemes, customer support, accounting, analytics, shipping, product management, dropshipping and store management.

Although a handful of them can be installed for free, the best Ecwid app options come at a price. And if you’re curious about their corresponding price ranges, the pricing structure for the Ecwid App market is quite diverse. Some apps charge a one-off fee, while others come with a monthly subscription system, or in some cases, commission-based pricing.

What you choose in the end depends on your specific needs and budget.

Ecwid’s app marketplace is growing all the time, with everything from tools that help you to get on social media and build your reputation, to solutions that are great for boosting your advertising.

Options like Xero make it easy to keep track of your accounting, while LiveChat and Tidio Chat improve your relationship with customers. After all, the better your customer service is, the easier it’s going to be to keep clients coming back for more.

Other excellent app choices include Google Smart Shopping, which allows you to display your products for sale on Google Shopping. Or you can check out things like Printful for POD designs that allow you to sell your own fashion creations online.

You can even find a host of shipping apps like ShipStation and ShippingEasy to help you fulfill your orders.

SEO and Marketing

Although Ecwid is a third-party solution to your current site, it makes a decent attempt at improving your overall SEO standing. You can, for starters, define your product plus page SEO meta-descriptions. Then Ecwid even helps you further by automatically pre-populating the relevant fields.

ecwid catalog

Sadly, you don’t get advanced SEO editing capabilities by default. On the bright side, however, you would typically have to implement additional SEO and marketing tools to really get the word out.

Moreover, Google now indexes AJAX sites. So, all Ecwid stores are indexed by Google without any extra effort. It gets even better with WordPress sites, since you gain access to additional SEO plugins and the default search engine functionality on the dashboard.

Then when it comes to sales promotions, Ecwid offers abandoned cart recovery tools, along with volume discounts, discount codes, and promotional pricing. You can set up additional discounts, but that would require you to integrate relevant extensions.

Security

It seems that Ecwid takes security seriously, since the company is a PCI DSS Level 1 certified service provider. In addition to that, the company states that every transaction that includes sensitive information is transferred through a secure HTTPS channel.

That means you can rely on Ecwid to protect your customers’ confidential information. And just for clarity’s sake, Ecwid doesn’t handle, collect, or store your customers’ payment data. All the transactions processed directly by your payment processor.

The rest of the site data, on the other hand, is stored safely on Amazon Web Services secure servers. Then to reduce the chances of a disastrous breach, the entire Ecwid network is scanned and backed up on a regular basis.

Ecwid and GDPR

Going by the European Union GDPR regulations, all EU-based and Non-EU businesses are expected to strictly abide by the data laws when handling EU traffic. The principal objective here is safeguarding the privacy of EU web visitors.

👉 In short, your site should:

  • Handle and save data securely.
  • Seek opt-in consents from your web visitors before adding them to your mailing list.
  • Generate relevant cookie and privacy notifications.
  • Allow your visitors to accept or reject your cookie requests.

Well, from our analysis, you shouldn’t have any problem implementing any of these conditions. The Ecwid backend helps you comply accordingly by providing a range of relevant site tweaks.

To seek mailing list consent from your shoppers, for instance, you could simply introduce a sign-up option on your storefront checkout page. Then when you need to track your customers through cookies, just proceed to the Tracking and Analytics section within the Settings area, and enable the GDPR Cookie Consent Banner. Your visitors will subsequently be allowed to accept or decline cookies on the storefront.

Customer Support

ecwid customer support

Ecwid offers a “Chat With Sales” feature which is always one of my favorite ways to talk with companies. Simply send them a query and you can work on something else until they respond.

The company also provides a powerful support section with FAQs, a knowledge base, email capabilities, and a forum.

Overall, the support outlets include phone support, online chat support and email support, keeping the response time short and support quality high.

In my opinion, the platform has everything you could want in terms of support.

Available Payment Gateways and Fees

Come to think of it, it has never been easy to find an ecommerce platform that doesn’t charge transaction fees. But, interestingly, that’s exactly what you get with Ecwid. They never charge any sort of transaction fees on any of the plans they offer, making Ecwid a desirable ecommerce solution for any store trying to keep costs down or improve margins.

But, here’s the thing. Keep in mind that Ecwid is not a payment processor. That means you have to set up something like PayPal or Stripe to process all the transactions that come through your site.

Speaking of which, it’s pretty easy to implement any of these systems, since Ecwid integrates with over 40 international payment options. However, it’s worth noting that each of these processors has its own transaction fees schedule.

Fair enough. Now, imagine you’d like to collect both online and offline payments. Is it possible to proceed with a point of sale integration?

💡 Well, the good news is that there are plenty of decent POS card payment options. Ecwid integrates with Square POS, Clover, Vend POS, iZettle and PayPal card readers, allowing Ecwid to turn your store setup into both an online and offline system.

Integrating Ecwid With Other Platforms

Ecwid and WordPress

WordPress, as you probably know by now, is just a CMS platform. That means it doesn’t come with online selling capabilities.

But, thankfully, you can add easily transform your WordPress-based site into an online store by integrating an external application like Ecwid. Well, Ecwid itself is extremely handy because it provides a dedicated WordPress plugin for that.

Connecting Ecwid and WordPress, therefore, is a pretty straightforward process. Simply install the Ecwid plugin through your WordPress backend, activate it, and voila! You’ll be on your way to setting up a fully-functional WordPress online store.

And yes, in case you’re wondering, the plugin is completely free of charge.

👉 For more info, check out our conclusive WordPress.org review.

Ecwid and Wix

Wix is a pretty decent website builder and hosting platform. And although you can add extra ecommerce functionalities to transform your standard site into an online store, it turns out dropshipping is still a major challenge.

However, you can solve that by integrating Ecwid with your Wix site. And just like we’ve seen with WordPress, this doesn’t take much since Ecwid has a specialized app for Wix users. Simply search for it among the third-party apps on Wix, and then integrate the extension with your Wix site. It really is that simple.

How Does Ecwid Compare To Other Ecommerce Platforms?

Ecwid vs Shopify

Ecwid, for starters, is essentially an ecommerce extension that allows you to transform a regular site into an online storefront. Shopify, on the other hand, is basically a complete closed-source ecommerce platform that allows you to create an online store from scratch, and before hosting it on the platform.

In a nutshell, therefore, Shopify is considered a powerful all-round ecommerce website builder (which inludes an ecommerce hosting solution), while Ecwid targets website owners who simply want supplementary online selling features on their sites.

👉 For more info, check out our conclusive Shopify reviews.

Ecwid vs Wix

Wix is one of the most dominant website builders on the market today. You can use it to create your own website, and then proceed to host it on the platform as you possibly embed online selling extensions.

In contrast, Ecwid users have their own websites before they even consider leveraging Ecwid. And while Ecwid is a bonafide ecommerce solution, Wix is just a website builder that happens to support a wide range of ecommerce integrations.

👉 For more info, check out our conclusive Wix review.

Ecwid vs BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a lot like Shopify. It’s a fully-fledged ecommerce platform with website building and hosting features. However, it locks your website in the platform as soon as you get it up and running.

Well, Ecwid cannot match up to BigCommerce when it comes to ecommerce functionalities. And that, when you come to think of it, makes Ecwid less complicated.

All in all, Ecwid is suitable for startups and small business merchants who already own websites, while BigCommerce is built for growing businesses that are setting up online stores from scratch.

👉 For more info, check out our conclusive BigCommerce review.

How to use Ecwid with Squarespace

Business leaders can quickly and easily add Squarespace ecommerce functionality into their website by using the Ecwid Squarespace shopping cart. If you’ve already built an attractive Squarespace website, then you can add the Ecwid widget to transform that site into a fully functional ecommerce store.

By creating a free Squarespace store and combining it with Ecwid, you can create a more immersive and creative online selling experience. Ecwid also gives you the option to sync your Squarespace store with your social media pages, like Facebook and Instagram, so you have more opportunities for quick sales.

To get started, sign up with Ecwid and copy the widget codes from your dashboard page. You’ll also need to log into Squarespace too. Remember, Ecwid’s Squarespace shopping cart is designed to blend in seamlessly with the design you’ve created on Squarespace.

How to Use Ecwid with Weebly

If you want to take your Weebly website to the next level, Ecwid could be the perfect way to add a seamless shopping cart in no time. The Ecwid free shopping cart widget allows you to simply add a snippet of code into your Weebly shop and start delivering excellent checkout experiences in no time.

Like with many Ecwid integrations, the company has made it incredibly simple to combine your Weebly and Ecwid experience.

After you’ve created your Ecwid account, you can easily add the ecommerce widget from the Ecwid environment to Weebly by copying and pasting some quick code. Ecwid even allows you to customize the appearance and functionality of your online store experience.

Ecwid does all of the heavy lifting for you, by ensuring that your pages will be ready to display optimally on mobile devices and web browsers by default.

Ecwid also provides your Weebly store with things like a fast AJAX interface, drag and drop functionality, and a range of flexible shipping and payment solutions to delight your customers. You can also expect automatic updates whenever new functionality or patches roll out.

How to Use Ecwid with Drupal

Ecwid is one of the most versatile shopping cart solutions on the market today. You can begin online selling in no time, regardless of where you built your original website. For instance, if you already have a website on Drupal, then you can use the Ecwid selling widget to integrate checkout functionality immediately with your Drupal website.

All you need to do is create a free account with Ecwid and add either the buy now button or widget functionality from the Ecwid brand to your Drupal store with a line of code. You can rest assured that your buy now button will blend into the rest of your website’s design, and it will be optimized for mobile buying too.

At the same time, when you combine your Drupal and Ecwid services, you get the opportunity to expand your sales opportunities into different areas too. For instance, you can take your widget or button with you onto forums, social media, and blog pages too.

How to Use Ecwid with Joomla?

If you’re using Joomla as your website building platform, then you can easily add an ecommerce store into the mix with some help from Ecwid.

To add your Ecwid store to a hosted version of Joomla, all you need to do is paste your store code from your Ecwid account into the Joomla site page that you want to sell from. The store code can sometimes be corrupted by the built-in editors, however, so make sure you disable that first.

To disable the default editor, go into System> Global configuration > Default editor, and set it to “None”. Once that’s done, go back into your Ecwid account, and click on All Sales Channels > Custom website. You can copy your code to clipboard and go back to your content within your Joomla website to paste your store widget.

You can also add shopping bags, category menus, and even search bars to your Joomla website with Ecwid if you don’t mind using a little more code. Just go to the Store Extensions section under All Sales Channels in your Ecwid account.

Ecwid Negative User Reviews

Ecwid is one of those platforms that continue to attract way more positive reviews than negative remarks. But, let’s face it. Although they are few, there are some pretty genuine negative reviews about Ecwid.

What Are Others Saying About Ecwid?

Overall, Ecwid enjoys solid scores on customer review forums across the web. Most of its users are satisfied that for a considerably affordable rate, they get to upgrade their websites by transforming them into online stores. Then to top it off, the Ecwid grants them omnichannel sales capabilities across various online and offline channels.

A good number of the complaints, for example, are on Ecwid’s customer support. Don’t get me wrong though. Users are satisfied with the level of support offered. The only problem is the number of options available to Free Plan users. It seems you can only get specialized live chat and phone support after upgrading to one of the paid plans.

And that brings us to another frequently recurring complain. That the Free Plan offers very limited features. Now, this is a double-edged sword if you ask me. Because free stuff always comes with a caveat.

FAQ

Is Ecwid safe?

Ecwid keeps you and your data completely safe. The company is dedicated to ensuring that information is properly protected with all the right regulations. The company has earned incredible reviews over the years for it’s reliable checkout functionality

Which is better: Shopify or Ecwid?

That depends on what you need. While Shopify has more features and eCommerce tools to offer, Ecwid is more flexible if you want to add a shopping cart into another pre-existing site. Shopify gives you the all-in-one experience, whereas Ecwid is basically an add-on for a website you already have

How much does Ecwid cost?

There are multiple pricing options for Ecwid, starting with the free package, then continuing to Venture for $15 per month, Business for $35 per month, and the Unlimited package for a $99 per month subscription.

What does Ecwid mean?

Ecwid stands for “Ecommerce Widget”. The tool allows you to add checkout and store functionality to an existing website, and the name stands for that.

Can you dropship with Ecwid?

Ecwid is adding new apps and integrations to its marketplace all the time, including tools like Printful for dropshipping. Because of these integrations, it’s becoming a lot easier for people to import products from a dropship supplier straight to their store.

Does Oberlo work with Ecwid?

Oberlo is an app for dropshipping that works exclusively with Shopify. Ecwid has it’s own apps for dropshipping functionality.

Does Ecwid work with Shopify?

Ecwid and Shopify are competing store options. Shopify is designed to give you everything you need to build a store from scratch, while Ecwid adds ecommerce functionality to an existing store.

Ecwid Reviews: Conclusion

Evidently, Ecwid is not an all-round ecommerce platform and you cannot build an online store or host one on Ecwid. Even the Starter Site option is a very limited version of a storefront.

But, Ecwid is extremely reliable if you already have a website. And it’s pretty straightforward. Simply integrate it as a plugin, and you’ll end up with a pretty sleek storefront at a very reasonable price.

In a nutshell, Ecwid is ecommerce made easy for small dynamic merchants who need flexible omnichannel commerce capabilities.

Share your thoughts in the comments section below if you have any questions about this Ecwid review. Have you ever used Ecwid? Do you plan on checking it out after reading this?

Rosie Greaves

Rosie Greaves is a professional content strategist who specializes in all things digital marketing, B2B, and lifestyle. She has over three years of experience crafting high-quality content. Check out her website Blog with Rosie for more information.

Comments 13 Responses

  1. José T. says:

    Thanks to this article, I migrated from Shopify to Ecwid 3 years ago and I am very happy with it.

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      👍👍👍

  2. Thiago Santos says:

    Obrigados!!!

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      You’re welcome Tiago!

  3. sunil says:

    very nice information

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Thanks Sunil!

  4. Fabio says:

    Salve, per poter utilizzare i vostri servizi bisogna essere necessariamente titolari di partita IVA oppure è possibile vendere anche come privati? Grazie

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Hello Fabio, it’s best to check with a legal consultant in you country.

  5. Snipes says:

    Does not currently seem that inventory management and payment options OTHER than Paypal are included with the free version. I think I just wasted a couple hours getting this all set up. 🙁

    1. Darren says:

      In 2017 all payment solutions are covered by the free plan, except Stripe and their own credit card processor.

      The only flaw is IMO that ecwid does not have multicurrency support – if you want to offer more than one currency you need an account for each currency. IMO the free account is already giving you 95% of what you need for e-commerce. The only potentially important things NOT in the free version are the ability to offer discount coupons / bulk pricing and automated tax calculations.

      The cheapest paid-for version is a great value for money IMO – the annual 12.50 should be covered easily by the returns a smooth running webshop does offer you.

      Actually, if you can’;t afford $ 12.50 you might ask yourself if ecommerce is really your thing….

  6. Andrew Yan says:

    Catalin, thank you very much for this fantastic review. I came across this review after I’ve downloaded the Ecwid plugin, which I plan to use for my online store. My excitement level has just burst through the roof after reading your review. Looking forward to more of your articles. Keep up the great work you’re doing, Catalin.

  7. Frank Mardian says:

    Ecwid is only useful if you don’t require seo ranking. As a shopping basket it works well but because it uses ajax it does not get crawled properly. They have a wordpress plugin that is supposed to take care of the seo aspect but really it hardly works. I’ve been in their priority support for weeks with no answers. I would suggest sticking to a shopping basket that is not ajax based because trying to index the ecwid shopping basket on google is for the pits.

    1. Vlad says:

      I suppose by this time your problem is solved since Google indexes by default Ajax.
      I have a wordpress websites integrated with Ecwid. I must admit the SEO before was kind of weak, but now seems to get a better turn. I will switch to their Venture 15euro plan as it has more features for SEO.

      “Moreover, Google now indexes AJAX sites, so all Ecwid stores are indexed by Google with no extra effort. It gets even better with WordPress sites, since you gain access to additional SEO plugins and the default search engine functionality on the dashboard.”

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