Ten Essential Online Store Builders for Your E-commerce Endeavors
In the rapidly expanding world of eCommerce, Volusion stands as a popular choice for many businesses seeking an online presence. With its unique features and capabilities, Volusion attracts merchants looking for a platform that emphasises product customization and robust backend management. However, like any platform, Volusion has its pros and cons.
Pros of Volusion ----------------
Volusion offers several advantages that make it an attractive option for businesses. One of its key strengths lies in its highly customizable product options. Unlike Shopify, which limits merchants to three product options, Volusion allows for custom products with more than three options, catering to merchants who require detailed product variations.
The platform's backend is another area where it excels. Volusion provides solid backend features such as inventory management and analytics, enabling merchants to keep track of stock and performance metrics effectively.
Volusion's user-friendly design is another plus. The platform offers responsive themes for mobile and desktop, drag-and-drop website editing, and customizable layouts that do not require coding skills. This makes it accessible for businesses of all sizes.
Integration capabilities are another strong point for Volusion. The platform supports integrations with tools like accessiBe, ShipStation, and social media sales channels including Facebook, expanding sales and accessibility.
Volusion also includes built-in brand promotion features, SEO, and image management all in one place, helping optimise the online visibility of stores. The platform offers multiple payment options and charges a 1.25% transaction fee, which, while slightly above some competitors, is straightforward.
Lastly, Volusion provides email and phone support, ensuring users can get timely help. A 14-day free trial also allows merchants to test the platform without a credit card commitment.
Cons of Volusion -----------------
While Volusion has many advantages, it also has some notable drawbacks. The older version of the platform, Volusion V1, has a slow, rigid backend that is hard to customize, making even minor updates challenging for non-technical users. This can increase maintenance costs and delay updates.
Volusion V1 also struggles to integrate with key platforms like Instagram Shop and Amazon Marketplace, limiting retailers' ability to leverage popular sales channels and potentially resulting in lower conversion rates compared to competitors.
Maintaining and customizing Volusion V1 can cost $5,000 to $20,000 annually, diverting resources away from marketing or product development. Older Volusion stores also have slower load times, which can reduce conversion rates by up to 20% and cause loss of customers to faster platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce.
Lastly, while the backend is strong, Volusion doesn’t provide the most polished front-end experience compared to newer platforms, which might affect user experience.
In conclusion, Volusion is well-suited for small to medium-sized physical product sellers who value product customization and backend management but may face challenges if they require modern integrations, fast performance, and scale to enterprise levels. Its older version poses notable limitations, so merchants should ensure they are on the latest version or consider alternatives for growth-focused businesses.
- Volusion's strong points in lifestyle and finance sectors come from its highly customizable product options and robust backend management that caters to merchants, offering features like inventory management, analytics, and image management, which aid in self-development and business growth.
- On the flip side, education and self-development opportunities could be overlooked when opting for Volusion due to limitations in its older version, particularly its slow performance, limited integrations, and less polished front-end design, which may not cater to modern eCommerce trends and evolution in technology.
