%252520(1).avif)
Are you looking for an unbiased and honest review of the creator of e-commerce store Shift4Shop?
I am going to share with you my opinions that will help you choose the best e-commerce platform for your online store.
But what makes Shift4Shop so special? Let's take a look at my in-depth Shift4Shop review.
What is Shift4Shop?
Founded in 1997, Shift4Shop manages over 29,956 websites in the world.
Over the years, Shift4Shop has made a name for itself as a tool for creating online stores. /
E-commerce is growing at a breakneck pace and its sales are expected to reach 4.9 trillion dollars in 2021. Therefore, to reap e-commerce success, you need a solid platform to develop your dream business.
Shift4Shop offers some features that you won't find on any other platform. It uses 40 technology products and services, including HTML, jQuery, and Google Analytics, to help users create a quality store.
Shift4Shop is a fully hosted shopping cart that was formerly known as 3dCart but, following its acquisition by Shift4 Payments in 2020, was renamed Shift4Shop.
Shift4Shop offers a wide range of features and a great selection of themes, all backed by 24/7 support, but is that good? Read the rest of the article to find out!
Who is Shift4Shop for?
Shift4Shop makes it easy for people with no coding skills to create a professional-looking e-commerce store. Whether you intend to sell physical products or digital downloads, Shift4Shop offers everything you need to start an e-commerce business.
Here are some types of websites you can create with Shift4Shop:
- Dropshipping
- Products printed on demand
- Clothes
- Furniture
- Electronics
- Books
- Downloadable e-books
- Toys and games
- Computer hardware
- School or office supplies
- Music and band derivatives
Ease of use
Getting started with Shift4Shop is very easy. Simply sign up for a free trial and Shift4Shop will help you with everything you need. The support team is very helpful. You can choose to be contacted by an e-commerce coach, who will help you get the most out of the tool. In this Shift4Shop review, we are going to deepen our understanding of the ease of use of this e-commerce platform.
As soon as you complete the registration process, you will receive a welcome email and links to important tutorials as well as an option to schedule a free consultation.
The Shift4Shop dashboard looks like this:
To create your store, all you need to do is”select a theme“, to personalize it, to add products, to choose a payment method and to configure your shipping methods.
What I liked the most about Shift4Shop was its chatbot that helps build the store every step of the way. For example, when I clicked on “Select a theme”, the chatbot told me:”I don't know if you chose the design of your site, but I just saw an absolutely beautiful theme that I think would be a great fit for your store.” “
You can then use the Shift4Shop page editor to make the theme unique. You just have to go to the Settings and click on Conception. You'll find options to change the store name, logo, home page, language, and system messages.
To add products, go to Products and click on List of products. You will see a list of sample products. You can choose to change them by clicking on the settings bar and then on Edit. You can also add new products directly.
My test of the ease of use of the platform led me to conclude that it is a user-friendly website builder. However, you may need to spend some time learning the tool.
Templates and design
As an all-in-one turnkey solution, Shift4Shop makes it easy to create your e-commerce site in no time - without relying on third party tools to help you.
Like many of its competitors, you can start the design process using a customizable template. You can choose from over 100 free themes, which meet the needs of different types of businesses. In general, these models are more suitable for e-commerce stores that sell a wide range of products than for small businesses that offer a minimal selection of products.
Also, while free templates are a good starting point, they're a bit “the same” - so don't expect groundbreaking designs for free. As a result, the models give the impression that they are in progress. Shift4Shop is still in the process of deploying its customization features for all of its themes and does not yet offer templates created by third-party experts.
All Shift4Shop templates were created using the Core Template Engine to ensure a mobile-friendly design, conversion-optimized checkouts, Google AMP-compatible product pages, and more.
Once you've chosen a theme, you can change its colors using the color picker and preview your changes in real time. You can also fine-tune your content using the flexible drag-and-drop HTML builder. It allows you to add content blocks such as text, images, titles, and other page elements.
That said, compared to other website builders, Shift4Shop's customization is very limited. For example, the drag and drop builder and template customization are only available with some themes. Additionally, personalization is limited to primary colors and the modification of the typography. So while you can access your website's HTML and CSS tags, designers who don't have coding skills can feel very limited.
Features
The best section of the entire Shift4Shop review is the features section.
Shift4Shop provides everything you'll ever need to start and grow your e-commerce business.
Here are the main features of Shift4Shop:
1. Order Management
Shift4Shop has powerful order and product management features that provide an accessible overview of your inventory. From a centralized dashboard, you can easily track the journey of your products from start to finish. For example, you can see which products are being processed, partially completed, shipped, and more. You'll also get a notification when you get a new order, so you'll never miss a thing.
You can also quickly move selected orders between them or as a group and even send them back “backwards”, a step for a new change - the latter is useful if a customer requests a change. You can also add orders manually, which can be useful, for example, when you're selling over the phone instead of through your online store.
The platform also tracks all the details of your complete and incomplete orders and allows you to automatically send updates to customers. Tracking incomplete orders is especially helpful in understanding why customers give up before making a purchase. For example, you can see exactly when a customer turned away, whether after adding items to their cart, selecting their shipping method, or more.
It's also easy to print shipping labels for the most common carriers like UPS, FedEx, USPS, and more.
And finally, Ship4Shop clearly recognizes the importance of subscription models. For example, let's say you sell items that need to be restocked regularly, like drinks or toiletries. In this case, Ship4Shop allows you to set up subscription services that automatically send recurring orders. It works great for generating regular revenue and building long-term relationships with customers - a win-win!
2. Returns Management
If a product doesn't work, customers will want to return it. Fortunately, this is possible thanks to Shift4Shops' integrated RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) system. This allows you to create selectable choices so customers can define why they want to return their product. It's also easy to specify various return options for customers to choose from. Some returns, for example, may be refunded. On the other hand, other returns may only result in an exchange for the same item or a different item.
The RMA system also allows customers to upload files to show what they perceive to be a problem with the item. This way you can assess the context of the return. Then, once you've accepted the return, you can send customers a printable shipping label to return the item.
Simple, no?
3. Product Management
Listing new products on your store is easy with Shift4Shop's product pages, ready for Google-amp. Not to mention that you can import and export products in bulk using CSV files.
Unlike some competing platforms, you can also add an unlimited number of options and product variants. For example, you can adjust the price of product variants that are more expensive to produce or ship. Even better, you can track product variants separately, just as you would for individual products. This is very useful to see which product variants are selling best and, conversely, which ones are not.
You can also create product variant templates that you can then assign to multiple products. For example, let's say you sell T-shirts. You can set “Small, Medium, Large, and XL” size options for your entire range with just a few clicks. You can also copy product variants from a template and paste them into individual products.
As with your inventory, you can track all product information from a single dashboard. From there, you'll see a bulleted list of all the main product details. You can also customize your dashboard tabs to easily add technical specifications, instructions, and other reference information to your products.
Another great feature is the ability for customers to ask questions directly on your product page. This allows you to create a question and answer section similar to Amazon's. Not only does this provide added value, but it's also a great way to engage directly with customers!
Selling digital products is also just as easy. Customers receive digital product purchases in the form of automated encrypted emails containing download links. You can also ask customers to log in to their customer account from your online store to access their download. You can also create unique serial numbers for each purchase that allow customers to access their purchases. You have a choice!
There is no limit to the number of product images you can add to your product pages. Customers can also benefit from dynamic zoom, embedded videos, and side-by-side product comparisons. Other features allow for cross-selling and upselling. For example, you can create product bundles at a small discount or show related items directly on the product page. All of these features are great for driving customer engagement.
Shift4Shop also has automatic and unlimited product categorization, which goes a long way in making site navigation more intuitive. For example, you can use smart categories to automatically identify active discounts, new products, and free shipping products. You can even advertise these products using an “On Sale” category to get them to the attention of your visitors.
Finally, you can generate detailed reports on the total profits made on each product. Identifying your best sellers thus becomes child's play!
4. Inventory Management
Your online store inventory is automatically updated with each customer order and even takes into account unprocessed orders. You benefit from a detailed inventory count, stock alerts, and the ability to change your out-of-stock settings. Each product has its own inventory count and a detailed inventory log that tells you how much inventory has been sold and what items are waiting to be sold.
Customizable stock alerts let you know if you are out of stock and if you need to restock your products. If you're out of stock, you can create rules that allow customers to continue shopping, with options like backordering or waitlisting. You can also automatically hide products that are out of stock.
Shift4Shop also has a purchase order system that simplifies restocking. This system automatically generates purchase orders when your inventory falls below a set threshold.
You can further extend Shift4Shop's inventory functionality by integrating it with your favorite inventory management software. It's worth considering if you're looking for more advanced features like warehouse management, synchronizing inventory across multiple stores, scanning bar codes, and more.
5. SEO and marketing
There's no shortage of tools to help you generate traffic and attract customers. For example, you can improve SEO by using Shift4Shop's customizable URL structures, PageSpeed optimization, and fully mobile-friendly stores. You can also change your meta tags, page titles, and H1 headers. In addition, product pages are automatically compatible with Google AMP for optimal ranking in Google. Additionally, you can integrate Google Analytics to get deeper insights on how to improve your SEO and user experience.
... This is only scratching the surface of some of Shift4Shop's SEO features!
When it comes to other marketing methods, the most important feature of Shift4Shop is its built-in blog. Here you'll find everything you need to create and launch a solid content marketing strategy (especially if you combine it with Shift4Shop's SEO features). Additionally, customers can subscribe to your blog and get updates as soon as you post a new post.
Additionally, you can advertise your store on social media by integrating your Shift4Shop store with your Facebook store.
Shift4Shop also allows you to create and send email newsletters, drip campaigns, automated post-purchase campaigns, and abandoned cart rescuers. Plus, you can create landing pages to streamline the customer journey and get new leads.
On top of all that, Shift4Shop allows you to create and use customer discounts, cumulative promotions, loyalty points, group deals, time-limited daily deals, (and more) to attract sales. You can also sell gift certificates for store credit or create products with “à la carte” prices, where customers can set their own price! Additionally, customers can create wish lists on your store, share them on social media, and create gift registries that are limited to your own products.
Shift4Shop also has a built-in affiliate marketing program, so you can reward your customers by paying them a commission when they refer other customers to your online store.
Payment gateways and transaction fees
An important part of Shift4Shop is the payment gateway. Shift4Shop offers over 200 payment providers across countries. All major payment solutions are supported, such as:
- PayPal
- Visa
- Carré
- Stripes
- Klarna
- Visa
- mastercard
- American Express
- bitcoin
You can also choose to add the “buy now, pay later” option to offer financing programs to increase sales.
The best part is that Shift4Shop doesn't charge you anything for transactions. However, you may need to pay 2 to 3% to your payment gateway provider for each sale.
Regardless of the country in which you live or where you sell your products, Shift4Shop has a payment solution for you, free of charge.
Integrations
No online store operates in a vacuum. That's why Shift4Shop allows you to work with your favorite tools to extend their already impressive feature set.
With over 200 add-ons available in the Shift4Shop app store, you can easily extend the functionality of your online store.
You'll find free and paid integrations for various categories, including:
- Mobile commerce
- Cart abandonment
- Order Management
- Email marketing
- Dropshipping suppliers
- Product supply
- SSL certificates
- Sales tax software
- Inventory Management
Shift4Shop also provides a RESTful API, so you can create custom connections if the applications you need aren't available.
Shift4Shop has a dedicated app store where you can download and use various plugins to extend the functionality of your online store.
The add-ons in the Shift4Shop store are organized into categories like:
- Cart abandonment
- Order Management
- Product supply
- Mobile commerce
... to name just a few!
To give you an idea of what's on offer, we've listed some of their most popular integrations for marketing, multi-channel sales, accounting, and more below:
- Mailchimp
- Aweber
- ebay
- amazon
- Facebook pixel
- Google Analytics
- PayPal
- QuickBooks
... and more.
Startups can also access the Shift4Shop API to create their own custom integrations. However, you'll need some coding knowledge to take advantage of it.
Security
Shift4Shop promises secure hosting, but what does that mean? In short, the platform is PCI certified and secure, with a guaranteed uptime of 99.9% and 24/7 monitoring. You will have your own domain name that is renewed every year and transparent monthly updates. A 256Bit SSL certificate is included with all online stores.
Shift4Shop hosting also comes with daily data backups in case you need to restore your content. Cloudflare powers the platform. So, Shift4Shop can use Cloudflare's global and extensive content delivery network to accelerate page speed. Additionally, this includes protecting and mitigating DDoS attacks for even greater security.
Customer support
The Shift4Shop team can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. Support is available via email, phone, and live chat. Additionally, the platform provides an online knowledge base with hundreds of articles, tutorials, and resources. Here you'll find answers to most questions about site design, customer management, products, marketing, settings, and more.
There is also a Shift4Shop forum on the support site that is exclusive to Shift4Shop merchants. There you can discuss with your peers if a problem arises and request new features from the Shift4Shop team. That being said, compared to its competitors, the forum is not very active.
FAQs
What is 3dcart?
3dcart is a shopping cart platform founded in 1997, bought in 2020 by Shift4 Payments, and renamed Shift4Shop. As Shift4Shop, the platform formerly known as 3dcart continues to host e-commerce sites.
Is 3dcart (now Shift4Shop) better than Shopify?
3dcart offered a low-cost alternative to Shopify as an e-commerce platform. Now known as Shift4Shop, 3dcart continues to offer a lower-cost alternative to competitors like Shopify. Read our comparison to decide which platform is best for you.
Is there a free trial available for Shift4Shop?
You can test the Shift4Shop eCommerce, with a free 15-day trial of the software. If you like what you see, you can sign up for a paid plan or choose the free end-to-end eCommerce plan forever.
What are the prices of Shift4Shop?
Shift4Shop's paid plans range from $29/month to $229/month. There's also a “free forever” plan called End-to-End eCommerce that allows access to all advanced features, with the requirement that users stick to the in-house payment processor, Shift4 Payments.
Is Shift4Shop Safe?
Shift4Shop is a safe choice for your fully hosted online store. Shift4Shop servers are protected by hardware and software firewalls and scanned daily by McAfee Secure. The software is PCI compliant, so your store data, including customer information, is safe and secure.
Final Verdict
While 3Dcart has received mixed reviews in the past, Shift4Shop strives to return those opinions; now, it's a new all-in-one solution for e-commerce enthusiasts.
The provider offers all the same categories of features as e-commerce giants like Shopify. That's a good comparison, especially since Shopify is often the first choice for new merchants.
Shift4Shop provides lots of features out of the box - especially if you qualify for its free and comprehensive plan. For example, by using Shift4 Payments, you only pay reasonable transaction fees and have access to Shift4Shop's full suite of marketing, product management, and CRM features.
That said, Shift4Shop is best suited for stores that have a wide range of products and product options. It's not as useful for smaller stores. However, its affordable price makes it a potentially viable competitor to Shopify. The crucial question is whether you are ready to stay with Shift4Shop while its features are still being expanded. Many features are still under development and are being extended to all available models, and there is still some uncertainty about the future of the Shift4Shop platform.
However, we consider that this news e-commerce solution is to be watched out for. Have you already tried Shift4Shop? Or are you considering using one of its competitors like Wix, WordPress, or BigCommerce? In any case, we'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. See you soon!
