Ecwid is an ecommerce platform, a leading choice for merchants who are just setting up an online store. The service is user-friendly and offers unique, diverse solutions to help retailers’ and even suppliers’ work. Learn about the advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed by reading our rich content.
One of the main advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed is that it is perfect for small-to-medium-size business merchants. It is for both those who don’t want to create a new website just to use a widget and for those who wish to build one from scratch. Ecwid by Lightspeed is unique among other well-known ecommerce platforms with being affordable and offering revolutionary service. As the name of it shows, in the very beginning it was working only as a widget: ‘ECommerce WIDget’.
About the Company
Ecwid by Lightspeed was founded in 2009. In the beginning, it was made to help those who already had a website but wanted a solution to be able to sell online. One of the advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed at that time was that it provided a perfect tool for these merchants who wanted to add an online store to their website. The company has launched more features since that time which means further benefits for users.
The service’s HQ is located in California and Russia. They have 200k+ merchants, the platform serves 175 countries worldwide, and is available in 50 languages.
You can operate multiple online stores via Ecwid by Lightspeed—including on your website, on social media, and on mobile devices. Moreover, you have the chance to add powerful ecommerce tools to your store. The set-up and further managements are easy on this user-friendly platform, and it offers a free plan as well.
10 Greatest Advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed
Let’s see what are the main advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed! It offers tools for creating an online store and adding further tools to it, but it also helps you in marketing processes. Here below we will focus on creating a “traditional” online store. Now we will not elaborate on details regarding Google Ads, Facebook and Email marketing, or selling on Amazon, Google, eBay, Facebook, and more. If you are thinking of opening a new online store or wish to migrate your site to another ecommerce platform, our list of Ecwid by Lightspeed benefits can be helpful in the decision.
1. Easy & Fast to Start
It takes only a few clicks to start your online Ecwid by Lightspeed store. You have many solutions to choose from as for what you want your store to be based on, but you can also build a new store from scratch. The control panel is simple and straightforward, you cannot get lost. It is very clear to use especially for those who have already worked with CMS systems such as WordPress’ before. If you are a beginner in this world you still don’t have to worry, you will figure out how it works in a really short time.
Another one of the advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed is that they provide you a help wizard everywhere which makes it be a time-effective process for you to set up everything. Moreover, their support team and their informative articles and video guides are there to help.
You can get started on the platform without the need of paying anything thanks to their free trial—that can stay being forever free if you want to manage less than a dozen products. Create an account in a few clicks, and get right into the work after choosing which of Ecwid by Lightspeed’s solutions you wish to go on with.
2. Affordable Solution
One of the greatest advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed is that it is a cost-effective solution for online merchants. If you are new to the world of ecommerce, this platform is definitely worth giving a try. It has a free plan as well that offers several features that cover many of your needs. For trying the service it is really advantageous. However, you can only manage up to 10 products in this plan. The bigger your plan is, the higher the product number you are allowed to manage. The cost of each solution is quite affordable for SMBs.
These are the available Ecwid by Lightspeed plans at the beginning of 2021:
If you want to learn more about Ecwid by Lightspeed’s ecommerce plans, check out their website for further, detailed information.
3. Use Ecwid by Lightspeed on an Existing Site
Ecwid by Lightspeed offers a solution for you to turn your simple website to be an online store as well. In this case, you don’t have to build a new site or abandon your already existing one—it is one of the most famous advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed. Ecwid by Lightspeed as a solution can be added almost anywhere where you are present online. The system works like a widget, a plug-in that you can implement on any platform, social media network, and CMS. These can be for example Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, Weebly + more.
You have more options for the implementation. You can either download an extension from the platform’s AppStore you are running your website on or you can receive the lines of a code you can add to your website or social media page. Even implementing a code is simple, you need to copy-paste the lines into the right section on your website. After this, your store will appear. Ecwid by Lightspeed is also useful for those who want to manage several online sales channels. The team is also there to help you in the process.
4. Create a New Store on Ecwid by Lightspeed
If you do not have a website or any social media business presence, Ecwid by Lightspeed is a useful solution for you. You can build your own online store on the platform from scratch in five minutes with the help of simple, customizable design tools. Choose products you wish to sell, and set up your site.
Ecwid by Lightspeed offers you design themes as well, however, the number of them is limited. You need a bit of tech knowledge too for the full setup. One of the advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed is that you can build a multilingual online store as well. It is also good to know that the platform is GDPR compliant, and Ecwid by Lightspeed’s AppStore has a wide range of ecommerce applications that you can make your job easier with.
The system lets you create product catalogs, you can add and modify any product data, moreover, it lets you add a lot of variants for one product (like color, size, material), and not only three as it is on Shopify for example.
5. Outstanding Support
Ecwid by Lightspeed has email and live chat supports, moreover, in their two biggest plans they offer phone support as well for their clients. Their live chat is available 24 hours from Monday to Friday. Their customer support team is kind and helpful and they get back to you in a short period of time. Their customer support, as not all options are available for every client, is a bit limited. However, their team is very helpful and kind if you have any questions.
You can check their blog to read about the advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed and for further, useful information, moreover, you can read their Help Center, and can check their video guides too.
6. More Payment Options
One of the top advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed is that the platform supports about 50 payment providers, payment gateways globally, for example, PayPal, Stripe, Square, and WePay. You can definitely find the best payment solution for your own needs. Pick any of the options you wish to receive payments from. As there is a colorful selection of options you can choose from, you can accept payment from many customers in different parts of the world. Moreover, you can also receive offline payments with the right solution.
Ecwid by Lightspeed doesn’t charge you any transaction fees when you are making a sale. However, do not forget to check if the payment processor takes any fees after payments regarding the transactions as most of them will charge you.
7. Secure Service
Another important element of the advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed is that it offers a secure service for its clients. Their service keeps you, your data, and your customers safe and well-protected. Ecwid by Lightspeed offers SSL protection. Their checkout functionality is also highly reliable, people can feel safe regarding payments as well. Their service is PCI DSS Level 1 certified which is the highest protection in ecommerce. Moreover, Ecwid by Lightspeed says that transactions which of course include sensitive information are going through a secure HTTPS channel. They don’t collect your customers’ payment data, these are managed by the payment processors.
8. Connect Ecwid by Lightspeed to Syncee
It is also one of the greatest advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed that you can browse among many tools and apps which you can implement into your online store. There are different kinds of services. One of them is Syncee which is a key service in many cases. Its greatest benefit is that it is actually a B2B platform, and its main solution is Syncee Marketplace where you can find millions of products from suppliers from all over the world, from US/CA/EU/AU + more. You can find different kinds of products there, and the selection is growing every day.
You can’t just only pick products from Syncee Marketplace—that you can by the way do one-by-one or in bulk—, but it has you all covered. Syncee manages the product data uploads and updates automatically on a daily basis. t makes sure you won’t oversell. By default it updates the price and inventory quantity, it hides those products which are not available anymore, and it uploads the new items if you are managing a supplier’s products in bulk. You can add your own price margin and can make filters and other useful settings as well. You can now enjoy the advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed and Syncee together.
9. Point Of Sale Option
Probably you have heard of Point of Sale services before which you can also know as POS service. It is one of those advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed that targets retailers who are having brick-and-mortar/offline stores as well, besides running an online store.
You can use Ecwid by Lightspeed’s card reader which is powered by PayPal and integrates with POS brands such as Square, Vend, Clover. You need to work with third-party services. In case it is not enough for you to use only a mobile device for this, you need to buy the greatest Ecwid by Lightspeed plan to access the full range of the system’s POS hardware. When you are choosing a POS integration make sure you operate your business in a country their service
10. Mobile App for Your Online Store
One of the greatest advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed is that they make it possible for online stores to have a mobile application too. In 2021 it is a really great feature. The name of this Ecwid by Lightspeed service is ShopApp. It helps retailers make mobile connections with their customers. It is your own unique, native app that can be published on Google Play and Apple App Store.
Your app is fully synchronized with your Ecwid by Lightspeed online store. All changes (for example image, price, availability) that happens in your store will sync automatically with your mobile app.
What Are Some Further Advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed?
Of course, ten bullet points are not enough to elaborate on all of the advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed. This is why we would like to mention some further details here and advise you to visit Ecwid by Lightspeed’s official website to learn more about their service.
- Smart tax calculations, location-based taxes.
- Shipping assistance, sync with shippers, calculations.
- Buy Now button on your site.
- Free real-time shipping tracking.
- Free product search and browser option.
- Minicart.
Overall
Ecwid by Lightspeed is especially for small-to-medium size businesses. The biggest advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed are that it is both for those who already have a website and want it to have a storefront as well with the help of a widget, and for those too who want to build an e-store from scratch. The platform provides you useful tools and solutions for your ecommerce needs. If you are looking for a flexible service for a reasonable price with several great features, you should definitely give this platform a try so you can enjoy the advantages of Ecwid by Lightspeed.
