Volusion differentiates itself from other services in the crowded e-commerce field by offering many useful tools and features, including an easy-to-use website builder, rich tutorials that walk you through its many options, and tight Google search integration. However, Volusion's unusual annual revenue limits can potentially hamper your success. If your business fits within Volusion’s relatively narrow vision, the shopping platform could be just what you need. However, you should check out Shopify and Wix Stores, our Editors' Choice winners, if you want e-commerce without revenue caps.
Plans and Prices
Volusion has four tiers: Personal, Professional, Business, and Prime. The entry-level Personal costs $35 per month and is suited for single e-entrepreneurs. It lets you create one staff account, house 100 products in your store, and contact customer support via email or live chat should you have questions. Unfortunately, Volusion has annual revenue limits (or what they call Gross Merchandise Volume) across all its plans. The maximum GMV is $50K.
The Professional plan is $79 per month, which increases the number of staff accounts to five and the product limit to 5,000 products. However, you're still limited to live chat and email support. The other features include phone orders, customer ratings and reviews, abandoned cart reports, and customer relationship management. The GMV tops out at $100k.
The Business tier is a pricey $299 per month. This plan offers unlimited product inventory, 15 staff accounts, and phone support. Additional features include API access, batch order processing, and creating a customer loyalty plan. The maximum GMV is $400K.
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With the Prime plan, you get unlimited GMV, unlimited products, unlimited staff accounts, and VIP high-priority support. It unlocks lower rates on additional Volusion services, such as a client success manager, PayPal integration, and a premium checkout. The cost? You must contact Volusion's sales department to let the representatives know your projected GMV so they can make a quote based on that revenue.
Volusion’s pricing page mentions you can contact its sales team to chat about a potential custom pricing option for any tier. It’s good to know that you may not be locked into those specific annual limits, but we don't know how flexible it gets. You can also sign up for a 14-day free trial; no credit card is required. Volusion also has zero transaction fees if you use Volusion Payments Powered by Stripe, regardless of tier. Alternate payment gateways cause Volusion to charge 1.25% for Personal, 0.65% for Professional, 0.35% for Business, and custom percentages for Prime. Volusion has unlimited bandwidth across the board.
Volusion’s plans aren't too different from Shopify's, though the former's Personal tier is a bit more expensive than the latter’s Basic tier ($35 per month versus $29 per month). In addition, Shopify has no annual revenue limits and lets you enjoy unlimited inventory with each plan. Wix Stores' pricing also starts at $29 per month and has 24/7 customer support.
Building a Volusion Online Store
After creating an account, you arrive on your dashboard. Volusion does a lot of signposting to steer you toward designing your online storefront before uploading products. A colorful, easy-to-navigate online store is critical to selling your wares, so the handholding is a welcome addition.
Volusion offers 24 store templates, which is low compared with Wix Stores (it has more than 900!). The template breaks down your potential website into “blocks,” which can be moved up or down. There are many editing options within each block, too. Volusion uses an intuitive system that lets you easily know if you can edit a store element; just hover your cursor over an area and get to work if it turns green. Overall, it was a pleasurable site-editing experience that let me add images and text and make a site color profile entirely different from the template.
I would’ve liked to see more active tutorials in the site editor. Before launching the site designer, you can click the Learn More tab to receive instructions. Essentially, it's a blog post that runs you through how to build a site and includes a four-minute tutorial video. While this is appreciated, there’s no guidance while you're in the site editor.
Dashboard and Navigation
Volusion’s dashboard keeps all its options in the toolbar at the top of the screen, straying away from the common left-hand side navigation we see in many other e-commerce dashboards. There, you manage placed orders, access customer management, add products to your inventory, and view detailed business reports.
Adding products in the Advanced Info section is easy and starts with clicking the Inventory tab. You can add item images and the information your customers would like to know about a product, such as price and weight. If you get confused or need help, there is a question mark next to each field that you can click on for more info. You can also set stock for products, and related alerts for when the inventory runs low. It’s a nice feature that other services sometimes paywall behind their pricier tiers. Ecwid, for example, only lets Business and Unlimited subscribers access basic inventory tracking.
Volusion has so many options that it can be a little overwhelming. Although seasoned e-commerce pros might feel at home with SEO, discount management, and other features, newcomers may walk away scratching their heads. On the bright side, these features also have question marks next to their fields, explaining what each one does.
Volusion has a few interesting marketing features, like its Google integration. You can create pay-per-click (PPC) ads that leverage Google’s search engine results so your online shop can appear when users are browsing via certain keywords. Similarly, your store can integrate with Google Shopping, so your items can appear at the top of the search when Google users search for certain products. Volusion also has a built-in rewards program called My Rewards. It’s a points system you customize by setting a certain threshold on how much a customer can accumulate points, redeem points, and when those points expire.
Customer Service
Volusion uses a tier-based customer support model. Sadly, you can only access email and 24/7 live chat with the Personal and Professional plans. To get a person on the phone, you must subscribe to the Business and Prime tiers. Those phone lines are open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. CT, Monday through Friday.
Paywalling phone support is frustrating. Although a 24/7 chat option is good for e-shop owners who work unconventional hours, you should be able to call them at least during business hours if you’re paying a company $79 a month for a service. Shopify and Wix Stores offer 24/7 phone and chat support across all tiers.
Verdict: Solid Software for the Right Size Business
A flexible website editor, good marketing tools, and useful tutorials make Volusion a worthwhile e-commerce platform. That said, annual revenue limits constrict its appeal. Entrepreneurs looking to break into the e-commerce world should also explore our Editors' Choice winners, Shopify and Wix Stores, which offer 24/7 customer support and more room to grow.
Juan Martinez contributed to this review.
Volusion is a robust e-commerce solution with zero transaction fees, a strong site editor, and many marketing tools, held back by tier-based customer support and annual revenue limits.
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