5 Things To Know About Ecwid E-commerce Plus How SMBs Can Sell Online

With the new seamless integration with Ecwid, you have the added power of adding Ecwid E-commerce to your Mono Website! We’re showing off what new e-commerce features you have access to plus a few ways to help your SMB clients reach for the stars and become online selling machines.

First of all, you need to know that with Mono and Ecwid, you have access to a fully built out e-commerce solution. Using Mono to craft websites for small businesses, paired with Ecwid as the gateway to selling online. What more could you possibly need? 

How about some other really cool features that will help clients launch their business and actually start selling online? And you get the credit for being the e-commerce expert! What are we waiting for?

1. Ease of Use

Not all e-commerce platforms are created equal. Many can be clunky or coding heavy, not ideal for your clients. And with Ecwid, we guarantee it’s easy to use for you and clients. Don’t take our word for it, rated by G2 crowd as the easiest to use and fastest implementation. Ecwid reviewers have this to say:

“I've used several different sales interfaces before and Ecwid is incredibly easy to use. There was a very small learning curve. Something I really like is the integration of the iPhone app & website. It makes it really easy to change quantities whenever, wherever. From linking the shop to my website for sales to tagging product images on Facebook for marketing, this is definitely a program I'd recommend.” - G2 User Review

And with no developer required or coding experience needed, out of the box you have an e-commerce solution easy to manage. How you might ask? Because Ecwid is already embedded into the Mono platform, managing clients’ stores is simple! And rest assured knowing your clients can manage their store with the same ease.

2. Sell Everywhere

It’s not enough anymore to sell in one place. If you expect your brand and business to grow, you need to be in as many places at once! Sound impossible? With Ecwid, you get access to all the leading marketplaces and social media platforms.

A business with an omnichannel strategy has a 91% higher year-over-year customer retention than businesses without. And it can be overwhelming to know which platform or marketplace to invest in, but the fact of the matter is that simply not investing in any, will leave small businesses with no opportunity for growth. 

Facebook

When it comes to social media, online stores that have a social media presence see 32% more sales on average than stores that don’t. With over 90 million small businesses on Facebook,   check out this convincing stats:

• Facebook ad impressions increased 37% in 2019, with average ad prices decreasing 4%
• Facebook accounts for 80.4% of US social referral shares to e-commerce sites. 

Don’t miss the opportunity to use Facebook to extend the reach of your SMB client’s business. Within the Mono Dashboard, you can synchronize a store to a Facebook business page and more. And you have access to automatically export products to Facebook and create a mobile friendly store on Facebook business page.

Instagram 

It’s all about meeting shoppers where they are, approximately 81% of users use Instagram to help research products or services and 200 million users visit at least one business profile daily. 

Instead of leading a shopper through a long winded sales funnel, they can complete their buying journey, from discovery to checkout, without ever leaving the Instagram app. The shoppable posts come right up in their Instagram feed. Using the tagging feature, clients can directly link to products in the post.

Selling on Facebook and Instagram are both available when you sell Ecwid via Mono. It should be noted, both platforms have strict guidelines and application processes., so check out what your SMB clients need to do before getting started.  

Google Shopping 

Give your clients the ability to fully automate Google Shopping ads, making it easier to setup and optimize product campaigns. Across US online retail, Google Shopping ads make up 76.4% of retail search ad spend and win 85.3% of all clicks. 

In addition, clients have access to Google Shopping Feeds which help generate a XML product feed for Google Shopping. This gives the small business more control on Google Shopping ads. If you would like to manage this service yourself, don’t worry - the Mono Team can ensure this is not made available to your small business clients. 

Amazon 

If your clients are looking for more growth opportunities, selling on Amazon could be just what they need. With Ecwid, small businesses have access to a streamlined integration. They can list products on Amazon and sync orders and inventory all within their store. Clients need convincing? Here are few reasons why: 

• Nearly 60% of shoppers start their search on Amazon
• Over half of Amazon orders come from third party sellers
• Over $2 billion of sales from independent small businesses on Prime Day 2019

*Native Amazon integration available in the US only. Available via third-party app in other regions. Access to this feature is only available on Professional and Unlimited. 

Pinterest & Snapchat 

Both of these platforms allow clients to stay in front of shoppers with the help of retargeting ads. With the Pinterest tag and Snapchat Pixel, you can track the behaviour of users who come to the store after viewing promoted pins or a Snapchat ad. Let’s look at the ROI clients can expect to see, Pinterest ads have a 2x higher return vs social ads. And if that wasn’t enough, their return is 1.3x higher compared to traditional search ads.

3. Automate E-commerce Email Marketing 

With email marketing, automation is key! And gives you and SMB clients back the time you need. Plus it’s a quick way to make sales. This feature allows you to send automated messages based on customer actions. 

Once a shopper completes a certain action, a marketing email is automatically sent to keep them moving through the sales funnel. Here are some of the benefits of automated marketing emails:

• Increased sales. Unlike manual emails, automated trigger emails are tailored to a variety of customer segments, so this tool is very scalable. Unlike regular mass mailing, automated emails are sent at the right moment for each customer, delivering higher open rates and generating more conversions.
• Reduced effort. You probably get what the word automated is indicating. Once enabled, automated emails are sent out automatically, meaning no action is required from the store owner directly.

Marketing automation is a hot trend: 67% of marketing leaders currently use a marketing automation platform and 82% of marketers point out a positive return on investment from marketing automation — including automated emails. And now you too can benefit from this technology with Ecwid. Let’s move onto another automated email feature! 

4. Recover Sales with Abandoned Cart

Did you know over 69% of online carts are abandoned? And enabling cart recovery emails is one-way clients can automate sales. Each time a potential shopper provides their contact information but leaves the checkout process without making a purchase, they abandon their cart. 

Now you can track and recover abandoned carts with Ecwid! This feature is available for all stores on the Professional subscription and higher. Check this out, abandoned cart emails also have high conversion rates:

• 40% open rate
• 21% click-through rate 
• And 50% purchase conversion! 

Other e-commerce platforms like Shopify, require stores to manually push abandoned cart recovery. Not Ecwid! It takes a few minutes to set up, select your design and copy and start making sales. It’s as simple as this - automatic abandoned cart recovery emails make it easy to remind shoppers about items they left behind, offer a discount, and recover sales.

5. Manage Your Store From Anywhere

Not only can small businesses sell everywhere with Ecwid, they can also manage their store from anywhere! Available on all subscriptions, small businesses can manage their store completely from their phone with an easy-to-use app for iOS and Android (don’t worry, it’s non-branded!). Here’s a quick overview of everything the app allows: 

• Set up an entire store: configure your store from adding a name to editing the website content and design.
• Add products: take a product photo with your phone and upload it to your store in a few seconds.
• Manage products: edit titles and SKUs; update pricing; add or edit options and variations; edit shipping methods; change stock level, weight or availability; add SEO descriptions; add files for digital goods.
• Create orders: create orders yourself right from the app. It works fine for those who sell offline – for example, at a trade show, so the inventory is always up to date.
• Process orders: change order statuses and assign tracking numbers. You can also view and edit sales information: purchased items, specific product options selected, shipping address and contact details.
• Create discount coupons: attract customers with discounts and free shipping coupons.
• Get push notifications: receive instant notification of new orders on your smartphone screen.

Conclusion 

With Mono and Ecwid, you gain a fully functional e-commerce website tool ready to help your small business clients sell online. If you’re ready to become an e-commerce expert for clients - here is a checklist to help you get ready! 

This guest blog post was contributed by the Ecwid team. For more on Mono’s integration with Ecwid E-commerce, see our dedicated blog post and find out how to request a demo!