Volusion Reviews: Is it Good Enough for Your Store?

Volusion constitutes one of the oldest players in the realm of e-commerce platforms. The platform is dedicated to offering the most helpful guides, tips, and tricks for e-commerce sites. Volusion’s store owners have earned an impressive amount of $28 billion in sales, keeping them ahead of their competition. The platform has powered more than 30,000 online stores.

So how has Volusion had such sustainable power in the increasingly developing e-commerce platform market?

In this Volusion review, we’ll break down Volusion’s online store system and explore its features and functionalities. You will determine whether Volusion is the right choice for your business or not.

Table of contents

• Volusion Overview
• Volusion’s Main Features
  • Ease of Use
  • Web Design
  • Integration & Add-ons
  • Technical Support & Customer Service
  • POS System
• Volusion Pricing
  • Personal Plan
  • Professional Plan
  • Business Plan
  • Prime Plan
• Additional Volusion costs
  • Credit card processing fees
  • SSL Certificates
  • Apps
  • Fraud Protection
• Volusion FAQs
• Final Thoughts

Volusion Overview

In the late 1990s, a website designer - Kevin Sproles discovered a trend in his customers’ requests. They need shopping cart software they could use to sell online with ease. Therefore, Sproles launched Volusion, which is an all-in-one shopping cart solution. Since 1999, Volusion has developed to employ over 200 people and now supports more than 30,000 merchants.

Volusion is an incredible cloud-based e-commerce software that allows online sellers to create an online store, add products and payment methods, and start selling on their site.

In the past, Volusion provided two different versions of its software: V1 and V2. While V1 still works, Volusion has shifted its focus towards V2 (known as VOLT). VOLT is a brand new operating system with some UX improvements compared to V1.

VOLT offers a large amount of useful data, analytics tools, and payment options. In an effort to catch up with e-commerce leaders like Shopify, Volusion has specialized in combining business features and site-creation tools by beginning the user journey in the storefront editor.

The platform is easy to use and set up. You will have a working store after signing up, and you just need to change the settings, add your products, and adjust your design. Volusion also provides a customer service phone number for you to reach out and get some support from its experts. They will walk you through the whole process and recommend solutions that most suit your business.

On the other side, Volusion can process a vast number of products and cater to a merchant that prefers advanced features. All this makes Volusion an ideal choice for an e-commerce platform that can power your business in the long run.

Volusion’s Main Features

Ease of Use

Volusion used to have several “get started” instructions for beginners. However, now you can get lively support videos in the dashboard and detailed guides for growing your website. Volusion has released a useful video series that instructs users on how to set up their new online stores.

If you are the one who loves tracking the status of your website, you should go for Volusion. The platform provides some reports on the dashboard so that you can check whether sales are going well or notice any problems (if any).

Now we’ll give you a detailed explanation of how easy-to-use Volusion is.

• Dashboard: The admin panel is well-organized, with categories collected in a toolbar to the left side. When you first sign up, the homepage shows the necessary steps to set up your store. When you’ve launched your website, this page brings you a more general overview of your shop.
• Products: Its bulk import tool utilizes CSV files to allow adding a number of products to your store at once. You can list physical items that have many various (different colors, sizes, or styles) and price them separately. However, Volusion is not a good choice for store owners selling digital items. It does not provide a clear way to deliver downloadable content to customers, so you have to handle each order manually.
• SEO tools: Users can create custom URLs, meta descriptions, tags, etc.
• Marketing: Volusion enables you to generate and promote discount codes. Users can leverage CRM tools to check their clients’ purchase history and contact details. It’s also impossible to recommend relevant items to previous customers to motivate additional purchases.
• Multichannel Selling: The platform supports using integration with Pinterest to sell products with Product Pins.
• Checkout: Volusion offers features for automatic tax calculation. You can also change your shipping settings to provide free shipping or charge shipping rates based on weight or price. If you want to determine shipping rates from carriers in real-time, you’ll need to integrate with Shippo.
• Inventory Management: Tracking inventory for all your products and various helps you ensure you never sell an item that is not available.
• Dropshipping features: Users can leverage Volusion’s fully-integrated fulfillment services app to deliver products directly from suppliers.
• Reports & Analytics: Store owners can use built-in analytics tools to view traffic metrics, abandoned cart rates, site visits, trending items, and store sales. They also can access reports by using its Facebook Pixel app or Google Analytics integration.

Web Design

When it comes to web design, we search for three things: stunning design templates, easy-to-use theme editors, and customization.

Volusion comes with 14 free themes which are correctly compatible with mobile devices. Additionally, there are more than 34 paid themes costing $180 each.

The platform enables you to make adjustments to your design in several ways. Web developers can build and customize content blocks using CSS. In the meantime, those without coding capabilities can avail of Volusion’s editor to add content blocks (blocks of text, headers, footers, or images) to your store.

Remarkably, with Volusion, you can flexibly change templates any time you want. That means you can mix up your online shop’s appearance without caring about repopulating your content.

Integration & Add-ons

Integrations are connections to extensions and other 3rd-party software that give access to more features. Volusion currently has 21 applications, except payment processors.

The good news is one of these applications is Zapier. Integration with Zapier supports you in integrating various solutions beyond the 21 applications. Besides, there’s an API available if you want to get your developers to create a new connection.

Technical Support & Customer Service

Volusion provides 24/7 customer support to customers on all of its plans.

• Phone: Users can arrange a phone call (up to 45 minutes long) from the admin panel.
• Live chat: Volusion supports live chat on its website or in the user’s admin panel.
• Help Center: There are two help centers: one for Volusion V1 and the other for Volusion V2, making it difficult to look for a specific question. You should ensure you check the version number at the top of the help center before searching for answers to your queries.
• Quick Wins: These support services are priced around $100-400, providing expert help in ads, SEO, design, etc.
• Videos: If examples help you learn more effectively, you can look for tutorial videos across the admin panel during the setup process. Plus, the platform produces a large selection of videos and webinars on Youtube.
• Training: Users on the higher-tier pricing plans can have chances to receive priority support and training with an enthusiastic success team and a traffic generation consultant. Moreover, the Prime plan also offers access to Volusion’s Slack account, where users can directly chat with its senior specialists.
• Blog: Volusion does run a blog, which covers a variety of topics such as marketing, online selling, and website development.

POS System

Volusion offers a POS (Point of Sale) solution which you can utilize to sell products from a physical store. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, a POS solution will set you up with credit card swipes, barcode scanners, and other helpful tools.

The only downside is that you cannot process orders from a tablet or smartphone. You will need a computer because there’s no app exclusive to the Volusion POS.

On the brighter side, the Volusion POS system enables merchants to quickly handle and complete orders directly from their store admin area.

Volusion Pricing

Volusion comes with four different pricing options:

• The Personal plan
• he Professional plan
• The Business plan
• The Prime plan

Personal Plan

$29 every month, or $26.10 every month if billed annually

The Personal plan costs $29 every month, which offers unlimited bandwidth, social media integration, and 0% transaction fees. You can list up to 100 items with the Personal plan. This is the cheapest option of Volusion’s price plans, but you’ll get most of the necessary features for a small store.

Features:

• 0% transaction fees
• Up to 100 items listed in store
• One staff account
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Social media integration
• Built-in SEO tools
• Secure checkout
• Securely support payments

You can access online support with this plan, including the Volusion Help Center where you’ll find a range of articles and advice in various topics. There’s also a live chat feature that can give you more detailed results.

Professional Plan

$79 each month, or $71.10 each month if billed annually

The Professional plan is priced at $79 per month, letting you list up to 5,000 items, generate newsletters, and unlock abandoned cart reports. This plan also allows you to have reviews and ratings on your website and support phone orders.

The Professional plan is suitable for regular-sized stores searching for growth because it offers more advanced features to sustain your store’s success and make your life easier when you run your business. If you want newsletters for your consumers or a review section to increase trust in your products, you should go for this plan.

Features

• Five staff accounts
• Newsletters
• Import/ export function
• Abandoned cart reports
• Rating and reviews
• Phone orders and CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

These features are created to bring customers a more professional service and set your store up for development. For instance, abandoned cart reports provide you data on how many customers abandon their carts and send a handy email motivating customers to return and complete their order.

The Professional plan aims to support stores that can earn up to $100,000 in online sales per year. You will receive phone support and online resources like live chat.

It’s impossible to call Volusion anytime, but you can arrange a call for Volusion to contact you at a specific time.

Business Plan

$299 each month, or $269.10 each month if billed annually

The Business plan is created for large stores, costing $299 on a monthly basis. This enables you to sell an unlimited number of items, integrate with eBay and Amazon, and access third-party calculated shipping rates. You also can receive a higher level of customer support and get help from a dedicated success team.

If you run your business seriously, you’ll need the Business plan. Fueling stores that earn $500,000 in online sales annually and granting the power to sell an enormous number of products, this plan is for stores planning to bring in huge sales.

Features

• 15 staff accounts
• Unlimited items to sell
• API access and batch order processing
• Attentive success team
• Deal of the day and customer loyalty plan
• Amazon and eBay integrations
• 3rd-party gateways
• 3rd-party shipping calculated rates
• Advanced report builder
• One on one setup

It’s clear that these features can power your business efficiently. With third-party integration, more customized support for your team, and more rewards for repeat customers, you can give your customers much more excellent service.

When you pay for the Business plan, you can enjoy a whole new level of customer support - priority support. That means you can reach out to phone support without arranging a call.

If you want to arrange a call, you have more slots available than others. Plus, you acquire priority responses on the live chat, so no matter what support options you choose, you can get a quick response.

This premium support is particularly important if you run a large store that will lose a lot of money if there’s an issue with the website. When time is money, fast support is extremely precious.

Prime Plan

Custom pricing

The Custom plan is the most expensive and advanced Volusion plan. There’s no fixed price - instead, you make a personal quote, so the price depends on your business. You will receive a better level of service, with many experts and VIP support and unlimited staff accounts.

If you need some real energy to foster your store, then the Prime plan is your best fit. There’s no set pricing - you raise a request for a specific quote, you can enter anywhere from $250,000 to more than $5 million for your business revenue.

Features

• Everything in the Business plan
• Sandbox
• Unlimited staff accounts
• Unlimited restores
• Site speed server resources

These features power your store as it develops and performs. Acquiring a Sandbox allows you to test adjustments before publishing them, and getting the server resources to preserve site speeds during busy periods is crucial for success.

The Prime plan gives you VIP support, which allows contacting multiple experts from design and marketing to finance and more until you achieve the result you want.

Additional Volusion costs

Credit card processing fees

Although you don’t need to pay any transaction fees, you get to pay credit card processing fees. It’s a fee required by the payment gateway on every transaction.

Rates can range among providers, so you want to ensure you’re having a fair deal. Volusion accepts a variety of different payment gateways across the world, so you should find one that meets your needs.

If you want to keep things easy, you can consider using Volusion Payments. This is the platform’s in-house payment gateway and ensures some of the industry’s most affordable rates. Volusion Payments offers a 2.15% transaction rate, with zero setup fees and low monthly prices.

SSL Certificates

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) security is crucial for online stores, as they keep important information secure when passing through your website. Without that encryption, your customers’ card information is vulnerable to all types of online nasties.

Most e-commerce platforms provide an SSL certificate for free, but Volusion does not. You only have your SSL certificate for free after you’ve paid an initial amount.

In other words, you need to buy an SSL certificate for your online store. In Volusion, there is a range of options of SSL certificates, varying in type, brand, and price. The cheapest is $89, while the most pricey one is $995 (paid annually).

If you’ve paid the upfront fee, you won’t need to pay anything later. You won’t have to pay $89 each year. It’s the first and last payment.

It’s a pity Volusion doesn’t provide a basic free SSL with its e-commerce plans. Moreover, remember that if you’ve bought an SSL certificate from elsewhere and want to apply it to your Volusion store, you’ll have to pay a $99 installation fee.

Apps

If you want to have more power or special functions for your store, you should visit the App Marketplace of Volusion.

Volusion offers nine free apps and some premium apps that vary from $0.88 to $199 per month. Some apps have separate pricing packages, while others have their unique pricing tiers within the app. It’s about seeking one that is suitable for your store’s needs and your budget.

Fraud Protection

You can rest assured that your store will be protected from credit card fraudsters by adding Volusion Fraud Score to your plan.

Volusion comes with three Fraud Score plans: Basic ($12.95/ month), Standard ($29.95/ month), and Deluxe ($49.95/ month).

Volusion FAQs

1. Who should choose Volusion?

If you are a data-driven business owner searching for an e-commerce website builder with incredible analytics tools, Volusion would be suitable for you. For everything else, such as creating blogs or designing the storefront, this may not be a good option.

2. Is Volusion pricey?

Volusion is quite pricey compared to other website builders in the market. Its price plans can be up to $299 per month. Besides, you have to buy an $89-99 SSL certificate. Nevertheless, it offers a $13.50 per month option if you can sign up for a year.

3. What can I sell on Volusion?

Inventory is one of Volusion’s strengths. You can sell unlimited items with the support of some helpful tools like product videos and product suggestions. However, it isn’t easy to sell digital items.

Final Thoughts

Like any e-commerce software, Volusion has both strengths and weaknesses, and it can become an ideal option for some businesses but doesn’t work well with others.

My recommendation is to try its free trial to find out whether the platform’s features address your requirements. Therefore, you can be sure that you don’t miss out on any good chance to grow your business.