Weebly Review (2024): eCommerce Solutions Review
One of the most popular providers on the market for website building software and integrated e-commerce is Weebly. This package is now used by more than 20 million websites around the world and has become so well known that it could be considered the market standard and is approaching ubiquity. The developers behind Weebly have now won a raft of industry awards for their work, including the prestigious Editor’s Choice award in 2014 from PC magazine, and they have been featured in a range of leading publications.
The key benefits of Weebly
The critical success factor of Weebly is that it offers powerful capabilities in a simple, intuitive interface. The interface and the platform itself are both extremely powerful, fast and simple to use, even for non-developers. Actions simply use basic drag-and-drop functions from a centralized control panel. User actions, including the creation of product categories and adding products, is easy and quick to do and highly reliable.
Key features
Mobile Access
The proportion of internet users who prefer to access websites from mobile devices is constantly growing, with most users now using smartphones to access the digital content they need. Weebly has been designed with this in mind, and it will automatically optimize your website for mobile browsing. This also means that your customers can access your digital assets and carry out actions while they are on the go.
Free and secure hosting in the cloud
Users benefit from a free hosting solution when they design and build their site using Weebly. This is delivered via the cloud so that your website is then served and hosted across the total Weebly infrastructure. The benefits of this are impressive. Weebly’s hosting solution is responsible for powering several million websites across a powerful suite of servers, so there are no adverse effects on your website when traffic spikes occur.
Safety
Site security is obviously of prime importance to website owners, and it is good to know that Weebly’s hosting solution provides instant high-quality safety, according to best practice guidelines. After all, there is a reason that Weebly is currently hosting more than 12 million websites! In addition to being respected within their field, they have invested heavily in cutting-edge hardware to ensure that all online data is kept secure, and this is further heightened by the architecture within the secure cloud. Physically, your website is stored on a number of standalone servers. This offers an extra layer of protection against hackers, making it extremely difficult for anyone to access the information that they would need in order to obtain secure data.
The integration with Google Checkout or PayPal is also important because it means that your site’s ecommerce function is delivered according to their extremely strict safety and security standards. The mere fact that you will be displaying your chosen payment processor’s logo on your site will give your customers confidence and reassurance about ordering from you. No transactions will occur within your website, and no data – including financial information – will be stored within your website. Every transaction and data capture will be fully compliant to PCI standards, which are the requirements for the credit card industry. Data encryption is delivered via 128-bit SSL security so that your data is always encoded when it travels online.
All the templates you need
The template availability is also excellent, allowing web builders to begin crafting their e-commerce enabled site with a templated solution and avoid the time and cost needed for a complete “from scratch” design. There are more than 100 available templates, all of which are professionally designed and ideal for a variety of website types and industries. Each template offers full customization and flexibility and can be edited in either CSS or HTML for those who prefer to code. However, even web builders without coding skills can create a great site by making use of the excellent drag-and-drop edit function, which offers all of the flexibility and functionality that back-end code updates can. It is even possible to use this function to create a new template or theme from scratch, and just a few simple mouse clicks can allow you to create audio and video files, images, forms and more.
Payment integration
One of the real selling points of Weebly is that it offers a seamless integration experience with your chosen payment provider, whether it’s Google Checkout or PayPal. Once you have decided, you can be up and running with your e-commerce solution almost immediately. Simply add in your chosen products or services, select the appropriate prices, and you are ready to start selling!
Excellent value
Weebly does represent incredible value, and there is even a trial version so that you can experience the system without paying for a short period of time. Naturally, this just gives you access to a limited version of the site with basic hosting, but it is enough for many customers’ initial needs. Once you are ready to take things further, it is possible to upgrade to one of the chargeable plans.
There are no hidden or extra fees to worry about with Weebly, and this also means that you can create your own e-commerce-enabled site with the system without any cost at all. There are no processing fees or other hidden extras, although you will need to factor in the processing payment charges that Google and PayPal levy as part of their own service offering.
The range of plans offered by Weebly are designed to suit a variety of needs and provide something for everyone. Every plan includes each of the software’s features and enables you to sell an unlimited volume of products. The primary variation in packages relates to the storage space being offered, with more expensive plans naturally offering greater storage space.
Customer service and support
Weebly offers a good customer support and service package with a comprehensive FAQ section. You can also contact a customer service representative directly by completing the web contact form online. Members of the team are helpful, friendly and highly trained in their field, so you can look forward to a rapid reply and resolution. Look out for the live training sessions, which offer a wealth of insight and are split into learner topics.
