Shift4Shop (ex. 3dcart) Website Builder Review

Shift4Shop – is among the veterans in the industry of eCommerce software providers. This service has been in usage for over 2 decades, which is quite a long time to find out what customers need and which tools are of more importance to an online shop owner. Previously known as 3dCart, Shift4Shop is today a robust and complete eCommerce platform created to help virtual stores thrive in this highly competitive market.

Ever since Shift4 Corporation purchased the company in 2020, users can benefit from the fully-integrated payment processing solution thatShift4 provides, while also availing of the impressive reservoir of built-in features 3dCart suggested. Today the platform is a great option for those business models which search for a quick and painless method to enter the market. Shift4Shop comes with hundreds of supremely useful in-built features despite the easy functioning that’s praised so much. It’s appropriate not only for SMEs and big enterprises but also for no-coders and beginners.

Pros and Cons

To find out whether this eCommerce platform can be efficient to set up, operate, and maintain an effective eCommerce website, we suggest digging into this comprehensive and unbiased review. It will analyze the various aspects of the shopping cart to give you a precise image of how efficient it can be. But before that, let’s go over the most vivid pros and cons of the platform:

Ease of Use

Shift4Shop has paid a lot of attention to making the platform extremely easy to use. So far, it has succeeded. The back-end of this eCommerce platform is built so that anyone can start up an online store with absolutely no coding knowledge and experience. Apparently, everything is easy on the platform from setting up a store and choosing the theme, to maintaining it. Furthermore, Shift4Shop has nothing unnecessary on its interface, hence nothing will confuse you on the way to building your eCommerce store.

Having added a drag-and-drop HTML editor for adding content to the site or its blog section, Shift4Shop has saved its users from the urge of learning how to use the platform. Besides this, the provider simplifies all other processes related to the setup and management of online stores for both big sellers and newcomers.

Actually, it’s pretty easy to get started with Shift4Shop. After signing up for a free trial (it is recommendable to try the free option before passing to the paid version if you are new to this platform), you will get an email with links to all the tutorials a beginner might need, along with an offer to schedule a free consultation. The interface of Shift4Shop looks very clear and accurate. On the left-side menu, you will find the main sections:

• Orders;
• Products;
• Customers;
• Marketing;
• Content;
• My Shortcuts;
• Setting;
• Reports;
• Modules.

Each of these sections leads to several subsections. To build an online store with Shift4Shop, choose the theme and customize it. You will be required to pick the most convenient payment method your customers can later use to make payments and set up the shipping methods based on the demographics of your business. If you are going to build a store for the first time and feel anxious, calm down since Shift4Shop provides a chatbot to help you with every step you make. For instance, if you haven’t picked a theme for your website yet, the chatbot will pop up with an offer of the most appropriate theme based on your business type and requirements. Furthermore, the theme you choose can be customized further easily with the help of the Shift4Shop page editor. Head to the Settings and click Design. This will open you access to such options as the store name, logo, language, homepage, and system messages.

Once you are ready to add products, click Products and then go to the Product List. A whole list of sample products will pop up. To edit them, click on the settings bar and choose edit. If not, add new ones straight from your computer. The same goes for other options available.

Shift4Shop Features

Perhaps the most important part of this review is the Shift4Shop features. Apparently, the eCommerce software is richly packed with all the features to build an impressive online store and run it effectively. Let us separate the most essential features into categories for you to find what’s necessary for you easily.

Website Builder Features

Shift4Shop offers themes appropriate for all business niches. These are all mobile-responsive themes that will make excellently structured websites on both desktop and mobile screens. The drag-and-drop HTML site builder offers such amazing tools as:

• Automatic integration of Google AMP;
• A broad range of stock images for an even more unique website theme;
• Advanced customization tools;
• Option to change languages;
• AJAX implementation (necessary for minimizing page reloads);
• Integrated blogging platform;
• Uploading unlimited products through a CSV file.

And if the user already has their store built, they can successfully connect any website to the Shift4Shop storefront.

Marketing Features

Shift4Shop has a wide range of powerful toolkits for facilitating marketing strategies. What we like about this platform is that it has all the marketing-related settings grouped on one page, unlike other eCommerce platforms. To find the suggested options, navigate to the Marketing section located in the back-end and head to the Onboarding checklist designed from beginner to advanced levels. More on this below:

• SEO tools are suggested to configure Google Tools, Meta tags, image ALT tags, customizable URLs, Facebook Like button, Robots, and Social Bookmarking. Furthermore, the platform compiles quite a long list of marketing agencies you can apply to and get assistance in displaying your website at the top of search results. The prices for these services differ depending on the third-party providers.
• Time-limited daily deals;
• Schema.org markup;
• Dynamic XML sitemap generator;
• Loyalty programs;
• Digital gift certificates;
• 404 auto-detect and 301 redirects.

Email Marketing Tools

To promote your online store, take the importance of email marketing seriously. It plays a big role in engaging potential customers and enhancing the store. Shift4Shop suggests enhancing the process of sending commercial messages to your store customers and subscribers with the help of the service’s Autoresponders and Newsletters settings. The latter can be customized to your liking. For instance, the Newsletters feature will let you share promotions and news, as well as other important information with your current customers and new leads. It will also enable you to carry out efficient email marketing campaigns targeted at specific groups of customers. All these automated emails increase your website conversions.

eCommerce Features

Being leading eCommerce software in the market, Shift4Shop offers relatable eCommerce features that stand out for their convenience and practicality including product comparison option, product Q&A, upselling and cross-selling, discounts based on the order quantity, etc. Here are some of the most important ones reviewed:

• Payment gateways: One of the most striking merits of Shift4Shop is its big leap in the integration of payment processing solutions straight from the dashboard. You don’t have to set up any separate merchant account or even integrate any other payment provider, thus saving quite a lot of time. In the Payment subsection (you can find it in the Settings), you can get all the necessary data on the available payment methods, gift certificates, tax management, as well as the type of credit cards accepted. The service offers integrating any of the 200 available payment providers across the globe. And yet, the most widely chosen ones are:
  • PayPal;
  • Visa;
  • MasterCard;
  • Bitcoin;
  • American Express;
  • Stripe;
  • Square.
• Inventory management: Here again, Shift4Shop allows tracking important information from the dashboard. All the necessary information appears in the Orders and Products tabs. Whether you need to find out the number of stock-keeping units or track the order status, you will find everything neatly arranged. The Waiting List, meanwhile, will show those customers who have already conducted the payments and are now waiting for the delivery of their orders.
• Selling channels: Shift4Shop suggests using REST API to integrate store owners with social media websites and prominent marketplaces such as Amazon, Facebook, etc.
• Zooming tool: Thanks to this built-in tool, your customers can inspect the showcased products in detail.
• Dropshipping features: Shift4Shop store owners can benefit from the integration with such dropshipping tools as AliExpress or Doba. This way you can get products from different suppliers showcased in your store automatically. You will also not have to think about the real-time shipping rates since the eCommerce software is responsible for everything. Furthermore, it schedules email notifications to be sent to the product suppliers every time a new order is placed or canceled.
• Advanced eCommerce tools: Shift4Shop offers its users a series of advanced eCommerce tools including shipping tools, label printing, shipping discounts, split shipments, etc. Anyway, all these advanced features can be acquired only through the integration with third-party services.

Shopping Cart Tools

If we are to summarize all the shopping cart features, the array will include:

• 1-page or 3-page checkout;
• 200+ payment methods supported;
• Three options to choose from and set after a customer hits Add to Cart (take them to checkout, view the cart page, or add the chosen product to the cart instantly with no redirects);
• Customizable carts for the website customers;
• Sending automated emails to customers to remind them about the abandoned carts.

Security Features

In terms of security, Shift4Shop can be relied on unconditionally. The software meets all the demands one could expect from an eCommerce platform. Particularly, the most essential hosting and security tools provided are as follows:

• 256Bit SSL Certificate;
• Automated renewal of the domain name;
• Protection against DDoS attacks;
• Unmetered disk space;
• 99.94% uptime;
• Daily backups;
• FTP access to files;
• CDN especially for enhanced loading speed;
• IP blocking security.

As you see, Shift4Shop is sure to protect your business data at a premier level.

Add-Ons and integrations

Shift4Shop has a rich app store packed with over 200 various add-ons to extend the functionality of any eCommerce store easily. The array includes both free and paid options all separated into relevant categories. These are:

• Cart abandonment;
• Mobile commerce;
• Product feeds;
• Order management;
• SSL certificates;
• Dropshipping suppliers;
• Inventory management;
• Sales tax software;
• Email marketing.

Furthermore, the eCommerce platform offers a RESTful API that enables users to set up custom connections in case there are any apps required which are missing from the app store of Shift4Shop.

Shift4Shop Design and Templates

One of the most important aspects for attracting potential customers and, respectively, driving more sales, is the design and look of the website. Apparently, the stats show that customers are inclined to make purchases only from those websites they like to browse. Shift4Shop features a broad array of professionally designed website templates (see live examples). All the suggested options are perfectly mobile-responsive, SEO optimized, and fully customizable. Overall, there are more than 100 templates separated into the following categories:

• Apparel & accessories;
• Art & fashion;
• Bags and backpacks;
• Donations & fundraising;
• Books & publishers;
• Education;
• Food & drink;
• Health & beauty;
• Toys & games;
• Wedding;
• Sports, etc.

However, although more than half of the templates are free (the 49 premium ones priced between $149 and $189), to decorate the storefront with a mesmerizing design at Shift4Shop, you will have to pay extra for plugins. On average, it will cost you $200.

Whichever template you choose, the store will be built on Core Template Engine – an eCommerce site framework that makes sure the storefront not only looks great but also operates fast regardless of the device it is launched on.

What makes the website designing process great at Shift4Shop is that you can switch between templates every time you find it expedient while the overall content of the storefront won’t get distorted.

If the suggested templates don’t suffice the user, they can always scheme theirs from scratch or apply some drastic changes to any of the available free templates. Just mind that to do this, you need to know HTML and CSS. Even though Shift4Shop is easy to use and requires no experience to set up a store, the creation and customization of a new theme will be a hard nut to crack for no-coders.

Customer Support

Shift4Shop features an extended and neatly organized Knowledge base. Here you will find user’s guides, webinars, audio recordings, blog posts on any theme related to eCommerce starting from payments and shipping and ending with SEO and modules. The eCommerce University free resource provided by Shift4Shop, meanwhile, will help you learn everything about online sales. So, even if you are new to this sphere with absolutely no practice and knowledge, Shift4Shop can be a great place to start with.

Users can get in touch with Shift4Shop representatives through ticket forms and online chat regardless of their pricing plan. The 24/7 phone support, yet, is available for all plans except the Startup.

Shift4Shop Pricing

Shift4Shop stands out for its quite richly packed free End-to-End plan. This is not a trial, though a 15-day trial period is provided for premium plans, but a full account with unlimited users, products, bandwidth, and features. The free plan also offers a free site migration in case you already have an online store on another platform. Mind that the End-to-End free plan implies 2.9% transaction fees plus 30 cents.

The paid plans by Shift4Shop are as follows:

• Basic: Priced at $29 per month, the plan includes a basic website cart, shipping tools, and allows 2 users. This plan has a $100K annual sales limit and no transaction fees.
• Plus: Priced at $79 per month, the plan includes a more advanced product cart, shipping tools, loyalty, and shipment tools, and allows 5 users. This plan has a $250K annual sales limit and no transaction fees.
• Pro: Priced at $229 per month, the plan offers all the features that Shift4Shop has, and allows up to 15 users. The annual sales limit is $1 million and no transaction fees are ever applied.
• Enterprise: Costing $1,999 per month plus a one-time setup fee worth $499, the plan suggests all the features Shift4Shop offers to its clients, along with advanced high-volume product management, automation, and shipping tools. Unlimited users are allowed. Furthermore, there is no limit on the annual sales and absolutely no transaction fees.

Shift4Shop Alternatives and Competitors

Shift4Shop is definitely a credible platform to choose when one wants to build an attractive web store with a series of practical tools. However, it is not one of a kind in the market. The company has several alternatives in the eCommerce platform, with Shopify as the most powerful. The company is designed to help users set up their scalable virtual store with numerous built-in features and thousands of apps. In addition, it allows vendors to sell their products straight from the website or across various marketplaces and social media platforms.

Shopify has proven to be an excellent variant, especially for larger stores, since its unique inventory system allows managing and scaling larger stores with a breeze. In addition, this variant will enable users to choose from 100+ payment options, including the brand’s gateway – Shopify Payments. However, the platform is more expensive as compared to Shift4Shop.

Final Thoughts

In the general sense, Shift4Shop is definitely a reliable eCommerce platform. It offers almost any tool that can come helpful in creating a virtual store and running it effectively. Shift4Shop fits all businesses regardless of their size and niche. And yet, it’s particularly appropriate for beginners who don’t have much practice and knowledge in the sphere. With numerous payment gateways, professional-looking but free templates, built-in SEO tools, sensibly priced plans, and round-the-clock customer support, Shift4Shop is currently one of the best eCommerce platforms in the industry. Shift4Shop is, undoubtedly, a recommendable choice for those seeking trustworthy, powerful, and at the same time easy-to-use eCommerce software.