In a Nutshell
pros
- Tons of professional ecommerce tools built-in
- 24/7 US customer support
- Easy-to-use builder, editor, and dashboard
cons
- Sales limit on paid-for plans
- No phone support
Ideal for
- Wide variety of online sellers
- Tech novices
- Mom and pop shops
Why Go With
Shift4Shop has a lot going for it as far as website builders go. For one thing, there’s a totally free plan. For another, templates are responsive, and you can test out lots of different styles to see how your site will look with each design. The shopping cart comes with smooth, single-page checkout functionality that you can customize to fit your store’s branding. There’s also product management, inventory control, shipping tools, promotions, SEO tools, and payment processing.
But the tools on offer go beyond just the basics. Shift4Shop has really gone above and beyond with these tools, using the latest technologies and research. For example, the pages are optimized for fastest loading, the shopping cart is designed for optimal conversion, and checkout pages are condensed to one page for better user experience. The amount of detail and functionality Shift4Shop has put into its features is impressive for a free service.
Features
- Abandoned cart recovery tool
- Coupons and discount system
- Customizable shopping cart software
- Drag-and-drop template editor
- Full CMS
- Full product manager
- Inventory manager
- Marketing and SEO tools
- Multichannel selling
- Order management system
- Payment processing
- Secure CRM
- Shipping tools
- Subscription software
- Third-party integrations
More Reasons to Choose Shift4Shop
One of the biggest reasons to choose Shift4Shop is its pricing structure. It gives you great value for your money. In a word, it’s free. That’s right, the ecommerce builder is available to US-based businesses completely for free. And that plan comes with a truckload of features. In fact, you’ll get more features with the freemium plan than you would if you signed up for the basic plan. Here’s a breakdown of the pricing plans available from Shift4Shop:
Shift4Shop doesn’t charge you individually for important features. Instead, Shift4Shop includes all of the features you need within the plan you order. So there are no hidden fees or surprises to deal with.
When you opt for the end-to-end plan, you don’t pay for the website builder services or any of the cool features that come along with it. But you agree to use Shift4Shop’s payment processor. That’ll cost you 2.9% +$0.30 per transaction. Those are good rates for transaction fees anyway, and you’ll need to pay them to one processor or another. So you are getting a really good deal in terms of value for your money.
It’s important to note that Shift4Shop’s paid-for plans do have a sales limit. If you make more than your limit, you’ll be upgraded to the next tier of plan coverage. Limits are high, starting at $100,000 for the Basic Store plan and going up to $1M for the Pro Store plan.
Customization
Shift4Shop has more than 100 professionally-designed templates to choose from, and they’re organized according to industry for easier referencing.
Designs are all mobile-responsive too, which offers a smoother smartphone experience. Business owners can edit using the simple drag and drop functionality: just click, drag, and drop an element into the right place. You can also customize color schemes with a color picker, use content blocks for faster tweaks, and include images, links, and other page elements. What we really like about this editor is that you can see the changes in real-time, so you don’t have to publish to see what a tweak will look like on the site.
Shift4Shop also has Google AMP-enabled product pages, AJAX implementation, and deferred JavaScript and CSS for faster page loads too.
Payment Processing
Shift4Shop has a built-in payment processor, which makes it faster to get moving if you’re just starting out in the business. With this processor, you can accept credit cards, digital wallets, and other payment options.
Shift4Shop processor is PCI-compliant and has built-in security features like fraud detection and tokenization. The processor also has an analytics tool for tracking and comparing orders, revenue, and costs.
SEO Tools
Shift4Shop has SEO tools included in the bundle. There are the usual perks like free domain name registration and customizable meta tags and URLs. But Shift4Shop also has more SEO tools than is customary, including:
- Control of Robots.txt
- Google AMP for products
- Google Analytics integration
- Page speed optimization
- Schema.org markup
- SEO-friendly navigation with breadcrumb links
You can also include a blog, connect your pages to social media accounts for targeted and dynamic ads and purchasing, set up targeted email marketing campaigns, and offer discounts and promotions. All in all, Shift4Shop has lots of versatile and powerful SEO tools to really grow your business.
Secure Hosting
As mentioned, Shift4Shop is PCI-certified and secure. The company has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, unlimited disk space, and IP blocking. When it comes to hosting features, Shift4Shop doesn't disappoint either. You’ll get your own domain name, monthly upgrades, and secure 256bit SSL certificate.
Customer Support Services
Shift4Shop has excellent customer service. For one thing, it’s available 24/7 and based in the US. For another, you can reach out using the live chat feature for fast and informed responses. Shift4Shop is known for having reliable, responsive, and helpful customer support. There are also tons of articles on the site in case you want to DIY troubleshoot.
Bottom Line
Shift4Shop is an excellent option if you are looking to start your own business, or sell and promote your current one online. The free end-to-end solution makes a compelling argument for business owners, and the fact that plans include a parade of useful features just makes it that much sweeter. The number of features is almost as impressive as the quality of them. Shift4Shop includes all the important features you could ask for, and then goes deeper into each category for an incredibly diverse and powerful suite of ecommerce tools. Responsive, reliable, and helpful, Shift4Shop also has top of the line customer support.
About Shift4Shop
Shift4Shop used to be 3dCart, a popular ecommerce software platform that began in 1997. The company recently changed its name to Shift4Shop after a smart acquisition in 2020. Today the company uses its massive technology and experience to deliver feature-rich ecommerce solutions to businesses of all sizes. The turnkey solutions allow any business owner to create a beautifully-designed website that is loaded with functionality. And over 22K customers agree that Shift4Shop is reliable, results-oriented, and helpful.
