Ecwid update web and Facebook apps to give owners greater customisation and control of online stores

Feb. 8, 2012 - PRLog -- London, UK – 08 February 2012 - Ecwid Inc., producer of the world’s first platform-neutral, drop-in store builder widget, has announced a series of updates to its web and Facebook applications.  Ecwid 10.2 can be easily embedded into any website, blog or social network page meaning that website owners can quickly and simply set up an online store in minutes.  In addition, Ecwid’s new Facebook application enables companies and individuals to tap into the growing f-commerce market by turning their Facebook pages into fully transactional sites.

“Ecwid 10.2 makes it as easy as possible for website owners, of varying level levels of technical expertise, to start monetising their sites,” said Ruslan Fazlyev, founder and CEO of Ecwid.  “Traditionally, users would be required to build and maintain a separate e-commerce site; pay for a hosted e-commerce solution; or add additional code to add individual 'Buy Now' buttons to their site, all of which can be a time consuming and costly exercise.  Ecwid 10.2 not only makes it easy to set up an online store, but it also now offers store owners greater levels of customisation than ever before.”

Ecwid is the first and only store builder created entirely in AJAX. This means website owners can be confident that buyers are able to use the shopping cart regardless of device or browser type and without the need to install a Flash plug-in.  Ecwid 10.2 is available in 40 languages and integrates seamlessly with major CMS and site builder platforms such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Parallels Web Presence Builder and now also any site created using Microsoft Office 365, providing them with e-commerce functionality. Ecwid 10.2 can be integrated into all blog formats and major social networks including Facebook, Ning or any other OpenSocial-enabled network.   Furthermore, Atandra’s “T-Hub” app now supports Ecwid meaning that it can be integrated with QuickBooks accounting software.

Key features of Ecwid 10.2 include:

•Customer comments on checkout – website owners can now ask customers for additional information during checkout, so they can add it to their order (for example, a gift note, preferred delivery time or specific delivery instructions)

•Tracking and affiliate code integration – website owners can now easily add conversion/affiliate tracking codes to their conversion page.  This means that they can use their Ecwid store seamlessly with their preferred affiliate system to further boost website traffic and sales

•Unfinished sales – the ability to view any unfinished sales (e.g. orders which were started by customers but were not actually placed).  This allows website owners to delve deeper into order histories to address potential ordering problems and help convert abandoned orders into sales

•Ask customers to select product options – this enables customers to select product options (e.g. colour or size) irrespective of how they add products to the shopping cart. This provides customers with the necessary options to avoid possible incorrect purchases

•Greater visibility over pending PayPal orders – website owners are now presented with reason why specific orders may be “queued” and pending completion

Ecwid 10.2 accepts payments from all major payment systems such as PayPal, Google Checkout and Authorize.net, and is free to websites with fewer than 100 products.  For larger websites with stores with more than 100 products, there are monthly plans that start from $17 offering enhanced levels of functionality and support.

Ecwid has also recently upgraded its Facebook application (http://apps.facebook.com/ecwid-shop/welcome/) to enable users to create fully-featured Ecwid store on their personal or company Facebook pages.  The new application is easy to install and, through a central dashboard, displays all the pages where Ecwid is installed, meaning that users can open and manage their pages all in one place.  This is ideal for people who have many Facebook pages to manage.

In addition to replicating the store look and feel of Ecwid 10.2, the updated Facebook application allows users to easily create custom tabs to show promotions, company information and welcome messages without the need for extra coding or hosting. Furthermore, tight integration with Facebook's API means that the application includes 'Fan Gate' functionality allowing website owners to offer different content to users dependent on whether they 'like' a page or not.  For example, non-fans can see a message offering a promotion which then changes to a coupon code when they like that particular page.  All of this will can help increase the number of fans your page has and boost potential sales.

“Social commerce is estimated to reach $50 billion by 2020[1] with sites such as Facebook expected to drive this growth.  Last year, we saw a ten-fold increase in the number of customers placing Ecwid orders using Facebook. On average these stores saw a 40% increase in Facebook sales. Our new application aims to make it as easy as possible for businesses and individuals to set up a store within Facebook and help them to start making direct revenue from their social networking activities,” added Ruslan Fazlyev.

About Ecwid (www.ecwid.com)

Ecwid offers a new approach to building an online store: a free, SaaS-based widget, compatible with any existing site and payment system, designed to be trouble-free and lightning-fast. Founded in 2009 by Ruslan R. Fazlyev, Ecwid won The Business Project 2010 startup contest sponsored by Google and Forbes Russia. Fazlyev’s first startup, X-Cart, was founded in 2000, producing the world’s first PHP store builder software. With no funding, X-Cart grew from a team of three students to 120 employees. Ruslan has left X-Cart to commit his time fully to Ecwid.