Making a decision about what platform you’re going to run your store on is a major choice in the process. In this Volusion review we will go in-depth into each feature of the company to help you make a decision about if the Volusion shopping cart platform is right for you. We will discuss the pros and cons of everything you should know about from the platform itself and the design to marketing, SEO, payment gateways, and more. So check out the full details below to help you make your buying decision.
The Platform:
The platform of Volusion overall looks to be one of the most modern and up with the latest technologies of ecommerce websites. They offer all types of features that are found in most major online stores including product comparison, zoom tools, wish lists, ability to do daily deals, have product reviews, and more. The product scores high in every aspect on the entire platform side as they have just about any feature you could think of and don’t force you to use any of them if it doesn’t fit your branding, product management, or marketing needs.
Design and Templates:
Volusion happens to be one of the strong ecommerce solutions in the department of design. They offer all types of options to customize your site but most importantly they have over 120 high-quality templates available to use for free with purchase. This means that you won’t have to fork out a couple thousand to get a website that fits your needs. The templates all look modern and up-to-date in every aspect.
Marketing and SEO:
Your of course going to want to market your online store and need the tools to do it. Volusion offers a few different features that are industry standard with most ecommerce solutions but also has a few cool features which retailers should be able to take advantage of. On the search engine side they have their websites optimized for the search engines to be able to gain more traffic from the likes of Google and Bing. They also have a full SEO toolbox included which has unspecified tools to help you in your SEO efforts. Other marketing features that are interesting include the ability to make your own daily deals just like Groupon, the option to distribute coupon codes, ability to sell products directly on Facebook, integrated email newsletters, social buttons to gain social network traffic, and more. Overall Volusion scores high in this section due to having all of the basics covered and offering things like daily deals which depending on your industry can gain you some extra sales and traffic. The option to sell on Facebook is available in other solutions but is still important to have as many stores have seen success at doing this.
Web Hosting:
The product is a hosted solution meaning they will handle all of the web hosting for you which is a major plus for most store owners. Their servers are PCI certified with a 99% uptime guarantee. Another major plus on the web hosting side of thing is that they have a CDN (content delivery network) which helps your page load faster which can lead to increased conversions and a better overall experience in most cases for customers. The only downside to their web hosting is that you have to purchase your own SSL certificate if you want to take credit cards directly as it’s not included with your purchase.
Mobile:
Each store has a mobile version that is built-in from the start. Once your store is up your customers will be able to access your products as well as make purchases right from their smart phones. The mobile versions don’t seem to be flashy at all but it’s an almost must-have feature today. Many trends in shopping show that customers are buying more and more from their phones. I would think this will continue to become the norm and you are going to need a solution where you can sell to your customers while their on their iPhone or Android device.
Checkout and Payment Options:
This section is one of the most important overall. Lets face it, you are going to be running a small online store compared to massive names like Amazon so you want to make sure your customers feel secure giving out their financial information. Having a checkout that doesn’t run smooth can make your customers go elsewhere and not having major payment options or having a checkout that looks shady will have customers running for the hills. Luckily Volusion does one of the better jobs on the checkout and payment options side of things as they have the popular “one page checkout” which lets you put in your billing and shipping address as well as payment information on one page. Another major selling point for some is that Volusion offers the ability to go directly through their own gateway and payment solution where you can accept major credit cards as well as options like Google Checkout and Paypal without having to use a third-party.