Volusion Makes E-Commerce Easy

Yup, we’ve got ourselves another ReviewMe request. John’s off eating some live lobster again, so I’m back to give my thoughts, this time on a company called Volusion.

Whereas sites like John Chow dot Com are content-driven, there are countless others out there that have taken the e-commerce route, selling tangible (and intangible) products to their valued customers. I’m sure many of you have purchased something online at some point.

Thing is, most people getting into that kind of business are focused on offering great products and don’t really want to spend their time figuring out how to design a website, how to setup an online shopping cart, and how to deal with that SSL security stuff. That’s where Volusion steps in. Volusion is a complete on-demand e-commerce solution. They do the hosting, they do the designing, they can even do the search engine optimization for you. And because it’s completely online, there are no downloads to concern yourself with.

Site Design

Considering that one of Volusion’s vital products is web design, it should come as little surprise that their site is incredibly easy to navigate. The sidebar on the left gives you quick access to their free 14-day trial, free live chat, and a write-up on their one-page checkout, the last of which they say is the “fastest checkout on the web.” On the top, you’ll find a series of tabs so that you can access the one that best fits your needs. The blog offers helpful pointers to grow your business too.

There’s tons of content here with ample explanations and descriptions of each of Volusion’s various products. And if you’re still unsure about anything in particular, they have 24/7 live chat so that you can get in contact with a customer service rep and ask away. This same feature can very easily be integrated into your own Volusion-powered e-commerce site.

No HTML knowledge? No problem

Not everyone is a techie. In fact, most people aren’t, and that could be what is deterring them from expanding their brick-and-mortar business into the realm of the World Wide Web. Volusion aims to change that. When you sign up with them, all you do is pick a free template (or purchase a custom one that’ll be ready in “less than 5-7 business days”), load up your inventory, and your store is live. Almost instantly.

From the administrative dashboard, you can have an “at-a-glance” peek at your online store, from a list of your currently top selling products and categories to which orders need to be sent out, customer requests, and so forth. Using the admin login, additional accounts can be set up for your employees, customizing their access as you see fit. They can then arrange their dashboard however they like so that they can get their part of the job done. It all seems so easy, so seamless. Maybe even a caveman can do it.

Pricing

Ah, here’s the bit that most people would be interested in. They’ve got pricing structures set up for their web design, security, and search engine optimization, but the core product is the setting up and hosting of that online store. It seems that how much they charge varies largely with how many items you want to have in your store. The Steel package gives you 20 items whereas the Platinum package is unlimited. Bigger plans also offer greater bandwidth and more free Google Adwords credit, an added bonus.

One Stop Shopping

It all fits together. You want to build an online store so that you can sell your wares not only to local customers, but also clear across the nation and maybe even the world. You want your potential clients to have as clean and easy a time buying your stuff as possible, but you don’t know the first thing about e-commerce or you can’t be bothered to do the coding yourself. Volusion truly is a one-stop shop for getting your online store going, and while it may sound somewhat expensive from a lowly blogger’s point of view, it’s still certainly cheaper than having to pay the rent and expenses associated with a physical store.