Ecwid v11 Store Building Widget Delivers New Best-of-Breed Features With Drop-in Ease

Ecwid, Inc., producer of the world’s first platform-neutral, drop-in store builder widget, is now live with version 11 of its software for web, mobile or social sites. Ecwid is available in a free or low-cost version and as a hosted solution for resellers or affiliates.

Ecwid v11's e-commerce solution extends its robust feature set by offering enhanced social sharing, expanded shipping and promotional pricing options, faster checkouts using Google Chrome's new autocomplete feature, plus control panel and interface upgrades, all while retaining Ecwid’s renowned ease-of-use and flexibility. A detailed v11 feature list is here: http://www.ecwid.com/blog/new-features-bulk-discount-pricing-sale-price-new-shipping-module-share-your-purchase-and-more.html.

Ecwid’s widget -- which can be easily embedded into any web, mobile or social network page in under five minutes -- is the first and only store builder made entirely in AJAX, so store owners can be confident buyers can use the shopping cart regardless of device or browser type and without the need to install a Flash plug-in.

Ecwid is used by 170,000 storefronts in 174 countries and is available in 41 languages. Ecwid’s partner and reseller program gives resellers a powerful hosted option to offer Ecwid’s easy-to-deploy e-commerce solution to their customers.

Ecwid v11's new features, updated automatically to all members, include:

• Social sharing - v11 has a "Share your purchase" option, which encourages a customer to share a purchase on Facebook or Twitter after an order is placed. As Ecwid is the second largest shopping cart app on Facebook, we've observed social behavior and believe the percentage of shoppers who will share a purchase is high.

• Revamped shipping module – which has been completely rebuilt and includes a shipping wizard that makes it easier for store owners to add new shipping methods, the ability to limit carrier-calculated shipping rates by region, and the ability to customize shipping rates based on order subtotals.

• Promotional pricing features - now include bulk pricing discounts via an algorithm which offers suggestions to shoppers on how to secure better discounts, and a "Compare to" sales price feature that highlights how much better your store's price is vs. the competition.

• Faster checkout for Google Chrome users - Ecwid v11 supports this experimental Google API allowing Chrome users to complete Ecwid checkout forms much more quickly, literally with a click. Google says one of the main bottlenecks to better sales conversions is filling online checkout forms. Inaccurate autocompletes will now cease as the software knows exactly which field is which. This will lead to a higher percentage of sales conversions and happier shoppers.

"Ecwid has advanced to the point where our feature set is comparable to the best online stores,” says Ruslan R. Fazlyev, Ecwid’s founder and CEO. “Yet our installation is still as simple as embedding a YouTube video, with ongoing management as easy as maintaining a Facebook page. This makes Ecwid an ideal, drop-in e-commerce solution that hosting companies and affiliate partners can easily offer their customers.”

Ecwid Partner and Reseller Program - Ecwid’s recently-launched program makes it easy for third parties to offer Ecwid v11 to their customer base. Ecwid’s fully-hosted solution can be easily integrated with any portfolio or site builder and mirrored on many sites simultaneously. Low overhead offers partners a high return on investment, and Ecwid’s freemium model encourages high customer adoption.

Ecwid’s widget integrates seamlessly with major CMS and site builder platforms such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Parallels Sitebuilder and many others; as well as all blog formats and major social networks including Facebook, Ning or any other OpenSocial-enabled network. Ecwid’s widget accepts payments from all major payment systems such as PayPal, Google Checkout and Authorize.net.

Ecwid Pricing - Ecwid is available free to stores with fewer than 100 products. The monthly plan for stores with larger product lines is $17. (U.S.).

About Ecwid

Ecwid offers a new approach to building an online store: a free, SaaS-based widget, compatible with any existing site and payment system, designed to be trouble-free and lightning-fast. Founded in 2009 by Ruslan R. Fazlyev, Ecwid won The Business Project 2010 startup contest sponsored by Google and Forbes Russia. Fazlyev’s first startup, X-Cart, was founded in 2000, producing the world’s first PHP store builder software. With no funding, X-Cart grew from a team of three students to 120 employees. Fazlyev has now made a full-time commitment to Ecwid.

Ecwid is a trademark of Ecwid, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.