Volusion Review
Note: We receive a commission for purchases made through the links on this site. Our sponsors, however, do not influence our editorial content in any way.
- The Good
- No transaction fees
- User-friendly
- Inventory management
- The Bad
- Limits on number of products
- Bandwidth overage fees
- No SSL certificate
- Limited features
Volusion offers most of the features merchants needs to effectively manage online stores. It offers a 14-day trial with no credit card required so you can test it without risk. Volusion’s main negative point is a lack of bells and whistles that other software offers.
- Prices and Packages
- Mini
- $15/month
- Plus
- $35/month
- Pro
- $75/month
- Premium
- $135/month
Volusion offers a 14-day free trial, with the option to continue with monthly billing. There are no transaction fees with any of Volusion’s price packages. With all price levels, there is an assigned bandwidth limit and charges for overages go as high as $7 per GB. The number of products you can list is also limited on all the plans except Premium package. With the Premium, you also get a dedicated account manager. There are no fees for setup or cancellation, and there’s no contract when you sign up, but if you go with a full-year commitment to the platform, you will receive a 10 percent discount.
- Storage
- Unlimited with each price tier
- Bandwidth limited
- Number of products limited
The good news is that there’s no limit on the amount of storage you can use, regardless of the price plan you choose. With the other plans, there are limits on just about everything unless you sign up for the Premium plan. The Mini level limits products to 100 in number and bandwidth to 1GB. A Plus plan lets you display 1,000 products and ups the bandwidth to 3GB. The Pro plan is more generous, with 10,000 products allowed and 10GB of bandwidth available before overage fees begin. With the Premium, you get unlimited storage and products, but bandwidth tops out at 35GB.
- Tools
- Built-in template editor
- WYSIWYG Easy Editor
- App store for add-ons
- Volusion Merchant Services payment gateway
Volusion offers a newly upgraded selection of fully mobile responsive themes. Thirteen of these themes come free of charge. There are premium themes available for purchase at $180. The built-in template editor lets you edit both the HTML and CSS stylesheets within the admin. Customization is a bit more difficult if you are less tech-savvy. The WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Easy Editor is somewhat limited in its capabilities. You can only update some of the buttons, colors, fonts, images and content.
- Shopping Features
- One-page checkout
- Allows social media sharing
- Daily deals, coupon codes, gift cards
- Fully mobile themes
Volusion comes with most of the features you’d expect to see in a popular shopping cart, including fully mobile themes. One-page checkout makes it easier for your customers and gives you a higher conversion rate. Customers can enjoy sharing with friends on social media and promote your brand at the same time. In the admin dashboard, you can create special features like daily deals, gift cards and coupon codes. When abandoned carts show up, you’ll receive a report on it so you can then send email reminders urging them to complete their transactions.
- Support
- Phone, email, live chat and social media
All the plans offered by Volusion — except Mini — include 24/7 personal support. You can reach customer support via online live chat, with links provided in the footer of most Volusion.com pages. Customer support is available via phone at 1-800-646-3517. If your issue or question isn’t urgent, you can get support via email, but it takes a bit longer. With the Pro and Premium plans, you’re considered eligible for “priority support,” which gains you faster response times. You can also contact Volusion via Facebook and Twitter.
Volusion: User Reviews
Volusion: Comments
One point that Volusion receives positive feedback on is that it has most of the features a business owner needs built into the dashboard. You don’t have to purchase costly add-ons in an app store. There is a built-in SEO feature that is fairly easy to understand. The intuitive nature of the software makes integration with Amazon and eBay possible.
The abandoned and live cart features let store owners gain an overview of which customers are completing orders, as well as which customers abandon carts. Unlike many of its competitors, Volusion doesn’t automatically send reminder emails to customers who abandon carts. You receive the report on it, but you must email the customer manually. This can become time-consuming when you have a large volume of customers.
Monitoring your store while you’re on the go is easy with Volusion’s native iOS, and an Android app that lets you check inventory levels and incoming orders.
How Does Volusion Work?
Volusion offers some free themes that are responsive, modern and cross-platform compatible. You get access to the basic editor for managing your content, but you can also access an HTML and CSS editor. This gives you total control of the look of your website’s visuals. What you don’t have is the ability to edit the actual functionality of your site’s cart.
Volusion gives you access to more than 50 payment gateways as part of its integrated payment platform. No matter where your customers are, they should be able to purchase what they want from you.
Volusion’s approach to SEO is straightforward. You maintain control over your on-page content, including your title and metadata, as well as any customized permalinks. If you’re uncomfortable managing search optimization, Volusion offers SEO services as a purchase in the monthly packages. Doing this gives Volusion’s team the ability to handle the optimization and reporting from your website to you.
What Makes Volusion Stand Out?
Volusion is a good way to create an online store that can get your products seen and sold. The different levels of service and additional features available make Volusion easy to use. An e-commerce storefront with Volusion comes with payment card industry (PCI) certified security measures. Volusion puts itself through a rigorous, independent audit each year to make certain its infrastructure is solid.
Volusion offers a built-in blog tool, or you can integrate WordPress if you prefer. Volusion does not make your site live where customers can see it until you let them know you’re ready for its publication. The shopping cart function works equally well from the desktop or from mobile devices. You can choose to check out as a guest, and Paypal is a payment option.
Common Reviews of Volusion
Volusion seems to be an all-or-nothing software service. Those who love it, truly love it and rate it as one of the best online store builders available. Those who hate it, hate it completely, going so far as listing the only positive attribute as “it mostly works.”
Many brag about Volusion’s streamlined editing platform and that it offers one of the best checkout systems available. There is ample praise for the 24/7 support from those who have it included in their pricing package. Charging overage fees for exceeding bandwidth is a frequently mentioned negative point.
There are many who don’t like that there is an extra charge for encryption services and customized email accounts. There is a built-in point of sale system available, but you must enroll in the Plus plan or higher up the tier. This is a negative mentioned in many customer comments.
Is Volusion for Me?
If you don’t mind paying extra for back-office features that may be available at no cost with other services, then Volusion may be a good option for you. Volusion’s platform is one of the easiest to use for building a website from scratch. It has most of the basic features and is a solid option worth looking at for e-commerce software packages.
The recent upgrades that Volusion included have improved the appearance of its themes and the functionality of its cart. It is worth a look, and since there is a free 14-day trial offered, you really have nothing to lose by giving it a try. That’s really the only way to determine whether it’s the right platform for your online business.
No comments yet.