Volusion Review: A Good Fit for Ecommerce Businesses?

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rob-binns
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Updated on October 31, 2023
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Volusion is one of the oldest ecommerce website builders around.

Created in 1999, Volusion lets you pay the bills, without the creative frills. What do we mean by this? Well, in summary, it has some great selling tools, but tricky design features. This makes it a good choice for more traditional stores who want to focus on physical products and analytics tracking, but less suitable for creative, brand-driven stores who need more creative control over their online storefront.

So how many people are using Volusion? The numbers are pretty respectable: it’s the chosen platform for roughly 30,000 online stores, and has churned through 185 million orders since it first launched.

But in the wild world of ecommerce, should you respect your elders? Or are there younger, more up-and-coming alternatives that will better fit the bill of your ecommerce business’s unique needs?Every store has different needs, which is why it’s so important to find the right builder for your specific goals. Now, let’s dive into what exactly Volusion is, what its pros and cons are, and most importantly, if we recommend it for your business. Let’s go!

What Is Volusion?

Volusion is an ecommerce platform that provides software and services for online businesses. With Volusion, you can create, design, and customize a website, then start selling through it: managing products and inventory, processing payments, and handling all other aspects of doing business online.

What Are Volusion's Pros and Cons?

Here’s a look at Volusion’s main pros and cons, to help you decide if it’s right for you:

Pros

✔️ Volusion supports a huge range of payment gateways: including PayPal and Stripe, plus digital wallet options such as Amazon and Apple Pay.

✔️ Volusion supports more than 1,000 apps through Zapier: allowing you a wider breadth and range of customization options.

✔️ Volusion has a mobile app: so you can manage your online store, on the go, from your mobile device.

✔️ Volusion comes with an excellent feature set: including the ability to add “suggest products” videos, a key win over its big rival, Shopify.

Cons

❌ Volusion isn’t user friendly: we had a real hard time customizing our Volusion test website, and dragging and dropping isn’t as intuitive as it is on ecommerce builders such as Wix and GoDaddy.

❌ Volusion isn’t affordable: its cheapest plan, $29/month, is almost double the price of Wix and Squarespace’s most affordable plan.

❌ You can’t sell digital products through Volusion: so it won’t be suitable for ecommerce stores with this business model.

❌ No blogging functionality: which sets Volusion miles behind ecommerce website builders such as Wix and Squarespace, which do offer this.

❌ Poor help and support options: phone support is only available on Volusion’s most expensive two plans, although email and 24/7 chat support are available to all users.

How Easy Is Volusion to Use?

In short, Volusion is pretty easy to use – if you have no interest in designing a website’s appearance.

But – and it’s a big but – if you want to design the actual website first, it’s very challenging. Most users in our testing found it simply too hard to navigate the front end. And, we have to admit – so did we.

Volusion drops you into the site builder without much fanfare or fuss, but – equally – without much guidance as to how to do things. Compared to Wix’s drag and drop interface or Squarespace’s emphasis on clean lines and minimalist designs, Volusion meets the eye as a cluttered, complicated mess: with too many different elements jostling for our attention, and not enough explanation to go with.

Volusion demo website screenshot
Volusion started us off with a website that looks like this. Okay – so far, so good. When we came to edit that website, however, we were in for a shock…
Volusion site builder demo screenshot
…because Volusion's site editor is hectic to behold. And a mystery to use!

And it’s not just our team who struggled with Volusion’s site builder interface. Here’s what one user had to say about Volusion’s ease of use:

There is just an utter lack of clarity over how to do things. It was just overly complicated.

For example, to edit text boxes, you need to find a strangely secretive blue button on the right hand side. Elements don’t move when you click on them and try to reorder and resize them. And undertaking simple tasks is, well, not so simple.Find Out More

Volusion Pricing – Is it Good Value for Money?

Volusion has a 14-day free trial – no credit card required, just a few details about you and your business – and four price plans:

  • Personal ($29 p/m)
  • Professional ($79 p/m)
  • Business ($299 p/m)
  • Prime (custom)

In our ecommerce website builder testing, Volusion’s price plans averaged as the most expensive. This isn’t so bad if you get tons of features for your money, but Volusion only scored 2.5 out of 5 for value for money.

For truly great value you’re better off with Square Online or Wix.

Wix’s cheapest pricing plan, for example, is $16/month – almost half the price of Volusion’s most affordable plan. Squarespace also starts at $16/month, and matches Volusion’s offer of a 14-day free trial. As for Square Online, you can get started – and get selling – for free.

What’s more – and unlike most website builders – Volusion doesn’t offer discounts for annual billing. The only prices available are the ones above, when you pay month-to-month.

Looking for value for money in your ecommerce website builder, then? Unfortunately, Volusion doesn’t offer it – and you’re better off looking elsewhere.Find Out More

The big question here is, what do people actually think of Volusion? Is it the best ecommerce website builder out there?

The answer is not quite. As we’ve said, it’s great for data-driven users, but lacks the actual website building traits. And the people we tested agreed, with one person saying:

Use Volusion for the inventory and analytics features they provide, not the customization or web creation.

Another common flaw that came up was Volusion’s identity crisis. It tries to convince you it can build websites (by starting the free trial at the storefront), but it’s clear Volusion’s strengths are at the back.

One user summarized this issue with a suggestion:

Volusion should just direct you to the dashboard, where all the issues I encountered could be removed. Don’t put someone in the storefront if you are not capable of creating a site like Wix’s.

As we can see, in terms of creativity, Volusion isn’t up to the leading standards of the website builder industry. But it does the ecommerce stuff fairly well. And most of our users felt the same way.

See how Volusion compares to Shopify here.

How Good are Volusion's Sales Tools and Features?

We’ve established Volusion is best for purely selling products. So, naturally, the ecommerce tools are very good. Let’s go over our favorite features:

Inventory

First of all, we love the product videos option. It’s a really handy feature that helps improve customer experience. But who should use it? Well, any business with great visuals – such as clothes retailers – would stand to benefit.

Volusion also offers a ‘suggested products’ feature. This is a key win against its rival Shopify, which relies on third party integrations for the same function.

However, with Volusion, you cannot sell digital products. This really narrows down the types of business that should use it for example, if you’re looking to sell ebooks, music, or digital art, you should definitely look elsewhere.

Mobile App

Need to sell on the go? Volusion lets you manage your online store from your phone with its excellent mobile app. So you can check inventory, update prices, or snap product photos straight from your phone!

Third Party Apps

Best of all, though, Volusion wants you to customize your store as much as possible. How does it do this? By supporting 1,000+ apps through Zapier, covering everything from accounting to customer management.

SEO

Despite its lack of blogging functionality, Volusion does offer a few staples when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

You can enter meta titles, descriptions, and keywords, and even – for the more advanced SEO brains – override default meta tags with HTML coding, allowing you to create custom meta information that search engines will love.

Security

Volusion uses industry-leading AES-256 encryption algorithms to secure your data, with equally sound approaches to payment collection.

You’ll also benefit from its in-depth approach to cybersecurity, that means your network traffic goes through a firewall, and must also pass through a comprehensive intrusion prevention system. This protects your website from a range of different types of cyber attack – and allows you to sell safely and securely.

Payments, Transaction Fees, and Shipping

Volusion supports a wide range of payment gateways, including PayPal and Stripe. It also caters for more tech savvy customers with digital wallet options like Amazon and Apple Pay.

However, some options, like Square, need to be integrated with Zapier. But it’s quick and easy to do.

volusion payment gateway options
Adding a payment option can be done in a couple of clicks

Within all of Volusion’s price plans, there are no transaction fees. However, usual credit card charges will be applied per payment.

And let’s not forget shipping. With Volusion, you can personalize invoices and packing slips with your own logo and text. Your customers will definitely appreciate the personal touch!

Blog

One issue with Volusion is that it doesn’t provide a blogging platform, which usually comes as standard with ecommerce builders these days. Why is this a problem? There are a few reasons. Blogs not only let you promote products and services, but they really help you rank higher in search engines.

While you can link your blog through a sub-domain, it’s time-consuming. As a business owner, do you need that added stress? We doubt it.Find Out More

How Good are Volusion's Templates?

Volusion offers 11 free themes, plus 34 paid themes costing $180 each. How does that compare with its rivals? There’s not too much difference: BigCommerce and Shopify both provide 50+ premium designs, costing $145-$235 and $140-$180, respectively.

But what do Volusion’s themes actually look like? First of all, they’ve been recently polished. They look much better than before the V2 update, but aren’t quite as sleek as those offered by Squarespace.

Also, the templates are very feature-specific. So, unless you find a theme to suit your business, you’ll have to pick a non-industry focused design. It’s not a huge problem, but it’s far from ideal.

volusion review ecommerce templates
Volusion has recently improved its templates, making them more sleek and polished.

One noteworthy feature is that Volusion lets you change templates anytime you like, which other builders such as Wix or Squarespace don’t allow. This means you can mix up your online store’s appearance without worrying about repopulating your content. They do it all for you!

How Helpful is Volusion's Help and Support?

As with all technology, you’re bound to experience some minor issues. And for all your Volusion solutions, you can schedule a call with their support, or simply call them between 8am and 7pm CST. The number is (800) 646-3517.

The only catch? You’ll need to be on either a Business or a Prime plan to access it. If you’re on Volusion’s cheaper pricing plans – so, the Personal ($29/month) or Professional ($79/month) options – you’ll need to access your support another way.

How? Well, Volusion does offer email support – and you can fire an email with your query to support@volusion.com. Otherwise, you can get in touch with Volusion via live chat, accessible round the clock via your Merchant Center dashboard.

Oh, and Volusion’s help and support doesn’t include social media, so don’t bother trying to get in touch via Facebook, Instagram, or X!

That said, you can still access Volusion’s Help Center, 24/7, regardless of whatever pricing plan you’re on. It contains a wealth of guides, FAQs, and step-by-step how-tos to help you get the best out of Volusions’ solution. (And, as we discussed earlier in our Volusion review’s ‘ease of use’ section, chances are you’ll need all the advice you can get!)

Overall, Volusion scored an unimpressive 1.7 out of 5 in our research for its help and support. So if great quality support is important to you, think twice before committing to Volusion! Instead, we recommend Wix, which scored highest for help and support in our research with 4.1 out of 5.

Who Is Volusion Best For?

Volusion is best for businesses with time and tech-savviness looking to set up a comprehensive, scalable online store.

Due to its lack of blogging functionality and inability to sell digital products, it won’t be right for writers looking to build a content empire – or those planning on selling ebooks, online courses, or something similar.

Volusion also isn’t best for those on a budget, owing to how expensive even its most (ostensibly) “affordable” pricing plans are. Nor will it be right for website builder newbies who need more help and support – particularly phone-based – as they build out their online store.

However, Volusion will suit those looking for a wide range of ecommerce tools and features, as well as site owners who need to be able to manage their online store while on the go, through a mobile app. It’ll also suit business owners looking to process their payments through a wide variety of methods, and connect to a litany of different third-party apps to boost their store’s functionality.

With the most extensive inventory of any website builder, Volusion well and truly focuses on data. While the excellent analytics tools let you manage and scale your business easily, it’s by no means the best ecommerce option. Shopify is the all-round champ.

In other words, Volusion sits in the middle of the pack in all areas, apart from sales. Its standout strengths include product videos, the number of payment gateway options, and the suggested products feature.

However, we’ve only given Volusion 3.3 out of 5 for a reason. It doesn’t let you blog, the storefront is confusing, and its help and support could be so, so much better – particularly if budget constraints mean you’re forced to opt for one of its cheaper pricing plans.

Volusion doesn’t have an overall niche, either – meaning it won’t draw a crowd from specific, targeted businesses looking for particular, sector-oriented features to boost their business and brand.

In a nutshell? Volusion is not one of the best ecommerce website builder options, but it does the selling stuff well.

So if you want a well organized store with some nice inbuilt features, and have a bit of money to spend – but don’t have time to get creative – give Volusion a go. 

Website Builder Expert aims to provide you with honest data. That’s why we conduct our own research and obtain direct, personal insight. Click here for further information.

Written By

rob-binns

Hi, I’m Rob:

Hailing originally from West Yorkshire, but growing up in Wellington, New Zealand, I’ve written for brands and businesses all over the world – empowering everyone from solopreneurs and micro-businesses to enterprises to some of the ecommerce industry’s best-known brands: including Yahoo!, Ecwid, and Entrepreneur.

From foretelling the extinction of the high street ATM to attending PayExpo – Europe’s foremost payments conference – I immersed myself in the payments space, which left me with a love of small businesses that remains strong to this day.

It was that love that took me to Website Builder Expert, where I spent half a wonderful year as Content Manager in 2021. During that time, I researched and wrote a portfolio of articles focusing on the technology small businesses can harness to get online – then make an impact there. 

When I left Website Builder Expert, it was for a new adventure – one that’s taken me all the way Down Under. I’m now based in Melbourne, Australia, where I write freelance content.

Going forward, I’ll continue to bring my passion, profile, and personality to bear on my work here at WBE, and at large. My promise? To always keep the reader – be they an individual, a business, or something else entirely – at the heart of my approach.

You can find me on Linkedin here.Rob spent three years writing, editing, and strategising for renowned B2B comparison site Expert Market. With presences in the UK, USA, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Spain, Rob helped drive a wide range of niche content across industries and sectors. He also researched, ideated, and wrote content unpacking a wealth of technologies: including fleet management software, telephone systems, POS devices, and asset tracking.

Specifically, Rob delved into the payments space – crunching, comparing, and contrasting the range of ways for merchants to take credit and debit card payments. And then sharing this with his business audience – empowering them to sell with greater security, convenience, ease, and affordability.

Rob joined Website Builder Expert in 2021, where he took on the role of Content Manager. Besides testing the platforms we review, Rob also applied his excellent research and writing skills, extensive business knowledge, and general motivational attitude to create articles for the site and lead a team of writers to do the same.

Between dissecting the internet’s best ecommerce platforms to its most effective email marketing tools, Rob was in his element. He also mentored and managed several of WBE’s remarkable team members – helping them build the skills and mentality required to progress, grow, and excel in their roles, and get the best out of their prolific writing talents.

Rob left Website Builder Expert for new adventures across the world in Australia, where he now writes freelance content – continuing to share his expertise for Website Builder Expert’s articles, among other projects!

Rob’s commitment for the future is to empower his audience to make better, more effective decisions: whether that’s helping them pick the right platform to build their website with, the best hosting provider for their needs, or offering recommendations as to what – and how – to sell.

So drop him a line, or check out some of his articles below – and leave a comment there if you like what you see. He looks forward to continuing the conversation!

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    Reply
  • Vicki

    I haven’t been able to add new products to my website for sometime because I can’t remember the admin way to do it.? And of course I can’t talk to someone because I haven’t paid enough for this stupid website consequently it is dead in the water it’s just a place for people to see my work and it’s old work. All I can think is I guess I need to switch companies and get a new website because this one is definitely not user-friendly

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Lucy Carney
      Lucy Carney

      Hi Vicki,
      Thanks for your comment! I'm so sorry to hear you're having problems with Volusion. If you're looking to switch, I would recommend checking out Shopify because it has a better rating in our research than Volusion, but has the same pricing plans and plenty of powerful sales tools. It's a very scalable option.
      If you value ease of use then Wix is another option worth looking at - while Volusion scores a 3.2/5 for ease of use in our testing, Wix scores 4/5. You can try both Wix and Shopify for free so I'd recommend trying them out first!
      You can see how the top builders compare in our list of the best ecommerce builders of 2022.
      Hope this helps,
      Take care!
      Lucy

      Reply
  • Cameron

    I would have to disagree with your view on support and its the main reason why I stay with Volusion.

    They respond quickly, they are professional and cant do enough to help resolve any technical issues I have.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Jordan Glover
      Jordan Glover

      Hi Cameron,
      Thanks for your comment. We're really glad you've had such a positive experience with Volusion's support. It's always super useful for our readers to hear about how other users have found the platforms we review. Thank you for sharing!
      Jordan

      Reply
  • Mike

    Volusion Sucks! We get several calls from angry customers everyday about transactions not going through. They get errors and are told by Volusion's system that they didn't enter information they DID enter. All Volusion's people ever say is "We can't replicate the problem." This has been going on since I started here 15 months ago.

    Today they told me, "There are a few different things that can be done to resolve this issue. They include: Empty out the chopping cart and add the items back. Then attempt the order again. Clearing the browser cache. Using another browser. Using another device. Using another internet connection."

    Am I supposed to post on my website, "If you want to give us money and our website won't let you.... try starting over in another browser on a different internet connection."?!?

    Needless to say, after 8 years, we are switching to BigCommerce.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Lucy Carney
      Lucy Carney

      Hi Mike,
      Thanks so much for sharing your experience with Volusion! I'm sorry you had such troubles with it - BigCommerce sounds like a much better choice. It also scored much better than Volusion in our research (4.1 stars compared to Volusion's 3.3 star rating!) I hope you and your customers have a much more enjoyable time with BigCommerce, best of luck!
      Best, Lucy

      Reply
  • Christine

    12yr + user
    CONS: Here's why Volusion should not be in the mix for consideration.
    1. Integrated Shipping- whether on Volusion or at 3rd party App requires an API. The first level API is included is BUSINESS $269/mth. It used to be included but is not any more; they took away. ( I have a notice on my web site 5/20/19 confirming if I want to use API I need to upgrade)
    2. Payment gateways. None of them are compliant with Unscheduled Credential On File, risking fines and chargebacks.
    3. Payment gateway authorization- I do preauth and settle some time later, often after 7 days. None of their gateways offer a way to reauth complying with #2
    What is good? The import export is better than some others.
    4 . Support. They switched to a poor help center "guide" that never has the right answers and the chat is a 'leave a message
    always says they usually respond back in a few hours. Phone support is not the instant help it used to be years ago.
    PROS: Uptime and speed
    3dcart may be a bit clunkier on some items but you get far more value for your money.
    Regarding SSL - I don't think FREE should be a basis for choosing a shopping cart. Everyone needs it; buy the one that suits you.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Lucy Carney
      Lucy Carney

      Hi Christine,
      Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
      Best, Lucy

      Reply
  • loomfenix

    I really do like the way Volusion works. It has very good design and easy interface. Before I used Mobirise web page software. It has the same way of working but I like Volusion better. The main flaw for me is the price. Can't afford to use it every month.

    Reply

    2 replies

    • Lucy Carney
      Lucy Carney

      Hi,
      I'm glad you like Volusion, but definitely agree over the monthly cost - especially as it didn't score too well for value for money in our research. Square Online is a much more affordable and better value option, if you want to read our review.
      Best, Lucy

      Reply
    • Lucy Carney
      Lucy Carney

      Hi,
      I'm glad you like Volusion, but definitely agree over the monthly cost - especially as it didn't score too well for value for money in our research. Square Online is a much more affordable and better value option, if you want to read our review.
      Best, Lucy

      Reply
  • zillfacon

    I agree with Ann. I had an urgent project, so needed to finish it till the morning. There appeared some strange issue. I couldn't add a link. It was very important, so I decided to contact their support. As they say, it works 24 hours.
    Some strange guy mumbled that I need to wait till the morning. What the crap!

    It was useless, and I started to look for another app. I was super lucky and found Mobirise web building software. This site builder helped me to save my job. As I finished the work precisely in the morning. Mobirise is much better, as it's easier to work with it. Off course it has some disadvantages either. Their support works very rarely and has a lot of paid themes with the same content.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Lucy Carney
      Lucy Carney

      Hi,
      I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with Volusion! We didn't rate its customer support very highly in our research - I'm glad you found a different platform to suit your needs!
      Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts,
      Lucy

      Reply
  • Kevin

    The new V2 platform is pretty nice, much better than the old one. I run a small ecomm store on Volusion, and it's working great - my data is well-organized and easy to get into and out of the platform, my store is MUCH faster than when it was on Shopify - I live where there's only 3g and Shopify sites take 20-30 seconds to load, while Volusion takes less than 5. Pricing is pretty good, and the support team's been great the few times I've reached out to them.

    Don't go with Volusion if you want a full website builder, because that's not what it's built for. But if you want a really good ecomm platform with a ton of features you can't get anywhere else, it's a great choice. I've used Shopify and Bigcommerce, and while they are better-polished overall and work better as blogs and sitebuilders, Volusion's just got a much better backend.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Lucy Carney
      Lucy Carney

      Hi Kevin,
      Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with Volusion! The new V2 platform is definitely an improvement on the V1, and I'm glad to hear it's working so well for your store. Totally agree that Volusion isn't suitable for the full website builder package - although it does market itself that way, you're right in saying that's not what it's built for. We always recommend it for its in-house analytics tools. Shopify and BigCommerce scored higher in our research overall, but every business is different - I'm so glad you've found the perfect platform for you!
      Thanks for reading and commenting with your insights, I'm sure other readers will find it really useful too!
      Best, Lucy

      Reply
  • MaryAnna

    It looks like you have reviewed the V1 platform. V2 is the new one and it's much more user friendly , except they are still working out some issues that are frustrating to me mainly because I have a large quantity of products that all require personalizing and have lots of variants.

    I will say that my experience with their chat support has been mostly positive. Usually I get a response pretty quickly - although in the late evening it has taken up to 5 hours for them to get back to me. I also, at one point, got so frustrated with my ever growing list of issues that they needed to work on that I contacted them via Instagram and one of the lead project managers scheduled a time to speak with me - one of the issues I told them about was addressed within days and he assured me that more adjustments were on the horizon.

    So all that being said, I'm pretty happy with the V2 platform so far. My shop has a nice, clean look and the ability to very easily integrate outside apps like Mail Chimp, Analytics, etc (for FREE!) has been a definite plus. SEO is automatically filled in as well - which I find sooo helpful.

    Oh! And it is MUCH cheaper than the V1 platform. BIG plus! I'm hoping I don't run into any bandwidth issues - all the new plans say "unlimited products and file storage".

    Reply

    2 replies

    • Peter

      Hi there, I've. Been there with Volusion for two years and haven't gotten a single sale. I was happy for a while until they the photo section and you have take a picture of the picture in order to populate it to your selling menu. I have had a very bad experience using there platform. Very confusing and even though they try to be nice and share the proper information it is still very hard to figure out especially when my old stuff placed perfectly. So if your looking for a website all done for you . Not so. You do have to put a lot of hours into it. Organic traffic is promised but to me it was never delivered. One of the mistakes there assistant helpers said that it was hard for my store to stand out from all of the other stores around. That I did take an account to. My bad. But still your company should stand by you for that. That will be my issue when speak to their high end tech people and decide if I should leave or not.

      Reply
    • Fred Isaac
      Fred Isaac

      Hi Mary, great to hear you've had a positive experience with Volusion. We regularly update our reviews so watch this space!

      Reply
  • Tom

    BEWARE! Volusion has been losing saved data ever since it was established. Volusion owners did nothing to address this issue in 15 years! Imagine working hard for many months entering your products into your store and boom some or even all positions or fields are reverted to old unsaved data ir disappear! Can one trust such a store and such a developer?

    Reply
  • Ann

    Volusion is the worst I ever used!!!! It seems nice on their website but all of it is not real.

    1.their functions are really confused to use and many errors that their can't fix it even you will try to inform them. Moreover, if you want to upgrade the function upgrading also error, you have to wait for them sending you the link for upgrade and payment. This is the top ecommerce website?

    2. They said they will support you 24 hrs. But actully they will have someone answer you back only office hour. And most of them are not well trained, them answer with stupid answer for example, I ask them to fixing the error on my back office. They reply with thank you and they need my permission to do that????? I ask them why they still need my answer for permission when I asked for your help to fix it???

    I asked them to help 2 things on the back office and both of it takes about 2 days to talk and understanding....not include fixing!!!!!!

    I can't wait for their support so I asked for the refuding, one of the support team said they will do the refund for me but after that the another one said it cannot be refunded and ther just delete my account from their system.

    So if you want to use this Volusion please think again and again. They really bad both functions and support. It's not real as they said. Hope you will not be victim of them like me.

    Reply

    2 replies

    • Christine

      As a Volusion user over a decade, I agree

      Reply
    • Fred Isaac
      Fred Isaac

      Thanks for the comment Ann, sorry to hear you've had difficulty with Volusion. Hope you've settled on a better builder?

      Reply
  • Kathryn Rousseau

    Volusion is THE WORST!! We've had them for quite some time and it's time to move and get a new provider, "time" has been an issue but it must be done.Two days ago, all of a sudden our site showed NO prices only descriptions. I spent 6 hours on phone and chat with several "tech's" whom oddly chose to do all I had already done myself, but nonetheless it HAD TO BE FIXED!! We'd spent thousands on a huge campaign/contest for youths ed and here we are hours before going live and our site shows no prices??? and long story short, it was NEVER fixed, and ALL that we planned months in advance went live with people unable to purchase or see prices due to whatever ridiculousness volusion had going on within their system. Sadly, we had no choice, the publicity the week before was expansive and today we just can't apologize enough for volusions lack of accountability. We are out not only thousands of dollars, our would be customers and those that gave so much of their own time in preparing for the contest etc.. it is a horrible feeling, we have lost OUR face due to volusion's disrespect for their customers whom are now apologizing for volusions inability to function, to DO their job and their unethical practice in servicing the needs of their customers whom pay volusions bills and now will have great difficulty paying their own.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Fred Isaac
      Fred Isaac

      Hi Kathryn,

      Sorry to hear you've had a tricky time with Volusion. Have you considered moving to a provider like Shopify?

      Best,

      Fred

      Reply
  • Cory

    If you run any sort of recurring billing/subscription business DO NOT use Volusion. If you ever have the need to switch your customers to a different system, they are unwilling to allow you to migrate your customer credit card info even in an encrypted, 100% PCI Compliant, manner. They will essentially hold your company hostage. Insane lack of care for their customers.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Tom Watts
      Tom Watts

      Hello Cory,

      Thank you for sharing your experiences with the community!

      That really doesn't sound like a good experience at all.

      Did you receive any communications from Volusion explaining the issues?

      - Tom

      Reply
  • Jasper

    Volusion's customer service is horrendous. To the extend that I'm going to find out all review sites about it and make it known.

    I'm subscribed to a plan with phone support, and have never been able to get hold of them. I waited for hours for someone to get to the line and gave up.

    If your phone support is non existent or a problem for oversea users, I don't think it should be advertised in your plans.

    On top, you need to wait hours for the chat assistant. And whatever pressing issue you may have, after waiting hours for their reply, they reply you with another question than actually helping you resolve your issue.

    Am hiring someone else to help work on our site currently, and will eventually migrate out of volusion for sure.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Tom Watts
      Tom Watts

      Hi Jasper,

      Thanks for sharing your experiences with the community. I'm really sorry to hear you've had such a frustrating time, hopefully it hasn't impacted your website too drastically.

      When you decide to migrate from Volusion, have you thought about the platform you're going to move to?

      It may be worth having a closer look at Shopify, who offer all the mod-cons of Volusion but with more highly regarded support on hand as well as industry leading ecommerce tools.

      - Tom

      Reply
  • Eddie

    Thank you so much for the information and the care you took to produce this review. I am just getting into ecommerce and really have been baffled by the multitude of options. Thank you again.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Tom Watts
      Tom Watts

      Great, glad you found the article helpful!

      Reply
  • Ayaz A.

    I am a professional web developer. I have been using almost all ecommerce platforms. According to my opinion Volusion is the worst nightmare for developers and site admins. It is very very restrictive.

    There are no good tools for bulk data migration if you want to switch to Volusion. It CSV spreadsheets tool for import and export data is full of problems. It does not read product pictures from URLs. Rather you have to upload them via FTP. And the pictures need to be renamed and sized in strict rules. So if you have 500 products and each having 4 pictures. Get ready to rename and resize 200 pictures before uploading them.

    I you want to assign your product categories you cannot do this via spreadsheets because it consolidates all category numbers in a single column and excel distorts those numbers because of being very long integer. You cannot assign categories in bulk.

    If your products has variations god help you. It has so complicated procedure to import variations that I ended up creating them manually putting the idea of CSV aside.

    I would never recommend any client to use this platform.

    Also I would not suggest any other platforms here because my sincere advise would look like I am marketing for some other companies putting down Volusion.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Jeremy
      Jeremy

      Hi Ayaz,

      Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. Have you considered Shopify or BigCommerce?

      What are your experiences with them?

      Jeremy

      Reply

      1 reply

      • Owner thewhiteroseusa

        We build our store thewhiteroseusa.com on shopify. And we love it. Definitely online eCommerce is not as simple as most sites make it sound. If you are serious about eCommerce solution, consider shopify. It is comprehensive, knowledgeable people. ECommerce involves learning a new channel and also adding some skills in addition to sourcing, curbing, publishing, marketing, fulfilling and servicing. We have done it for a year, and our sales are not exploding as most articles make it sound. It’s a hard work, commitment and passion for excellence for at least 4-5 years before you see your dream coming to reality. Definitely we have now paying customers, all thanks to shopify articles we are fed from time to time.

        Reply
  • ktb

    SCAM ALERT - Stay away from this bait-and-switch company that's riddled with hidden fees! Basically everything on the Volusion website and everything the sales people tell you is inaccurate and intentionally misleading. Absolutely do NOT sign up for their Merchant Account - it looks like a feature of their monthly plan but it isn't! You're actually signing up for a 3-YEAR contract that's at least $33.50 per month, with a $99 cancellation fee! The term is not in the contract anywhere, it's on a separate page on their website that you will never find until you get the contract. Who reads contract terms, especially when they link to additional terms? No one, and that's what they're counting on. Don't pay them for a website that looks like garbage to start with, and definitely stay away from any contracts with them. They will intentionally mislead you - even if you ask questions about their services, the sales reps know how to avoid giving direct answers.

    Reply

    2 replies

    • Clint

      Oh it is bogus man have been hitting me over the past month $500 2 $600 and hidden fees joke and then they use a third-party for merchant processing that you don't even use when you any launch the site yet joke salute joke

      Reply
    • Jeremy
      Jeremy

      Sorry to hear about your experiences, KTB. If you're interested in testing out other ecommerce builders, here is a comparison chart that you might find helpful.

      Good luck!

      Jeremy

      Reply
  • CHris

    We've been a long time customer of Volusion. As many have stated, their support is slow and more often then not, rude and unhelpful. I just got off the phone with "Josh" from Priority Support. We had an urgent issue and the ticket was a day old with no response. He told me to expect two more and is there anything else I can help you with?

    THAT is the Volusion I know. It's so frustrating, and we pay 4 digits/month for insults and a stale platform that hasn't changed in 5 years.

    We've been playing with Shopify - simply amazing in comparison. We have thousands of products so it's taking some time to move.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Jeremy
      Jeremy

      Hey Chris,

      Thanks for sharing your candid feedback with us and our readers. Sorry to hear about your experiences with Volusion and 5 years with the same platform is quite a long time.

      I completely understand that switching ecommerce platforms is a huge undertaking, so I do wish you all the luck with that! It sounds like you're switching over to Shopify - they're great!

      Take a look at our discussion about Shopify here (just in case you haven't yet).

      Jeremy

      Reply
  • Suzanne F

    I currently use Volusion, but cannot recommend it at all. They are over priced and do not stand behind their products.
    I have constant issues and the general response time, even though I pay for "Priority Support", is two days. Then the response is a half way answer to what I needed, requiring me to wait another two days for a second response.
    Too many features do not work properly on the mobile sites, making them almost worthless.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Jeremy
      Jeremy

      Hi Suzanne,

      Thanks for sharing your experiences with us, and sorry to hear about the issues you've encountered.

      Have you considered other top tier online store builders, such as Shopify or Bigcommerce? Take a look at this ecommerce builder comparison chart here if you're interested.

      Jeremy

      Reply
  • JANE

    The WORST platform ever used!!! paid $$$$$ get nothing updated. DIFFICULT TO close the account. Plus they charge $$$ FEEs to close it!! their templates are OLD OLD OLD!!! Their busienss model is OLD OLD OLD

    We left!! and was told we need to pay for early termination-which means, they blame on the clients for leaving early when they can't resolve their own issues!!

    this company is going downhill!!!

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Jeremy
      Jeremy

      Hi Jane,

      Sorry to hear about your experiences with Volusion.

      Take a look at this comparison chart here, where we've outlined and scored different ecommerce platforms against one another. I'd actually suggest taking a closer look (and perhaps free trials) at Shopify or Bigcommerce.

      Good luck!

      Jeremy

      Reply
  • Becky Eveland

    Thank you Jeremy, for your help in choosing an ecommerce provider. I thought I had settled on Volusion.....then realized that the Canadian Dollar is so poor, that my monthly costs are bad and undependable, So I began to look for a Canadian company that would do their monthly billing in Canadian $ and read that Shopify was Canadian....so I decided to switch. Their first billing of 79$ US was 123 CDN WOW thats over 50% exchange+fees. I called and yes their owner is canadian bbut all billing is ddone in US.
    So now I am searching for a Canadian Ecommerce company that bills in CDN$
    DO YOU KNOW OF ONE? THANKS VERY MUCH AND BEST REGARDS,

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Jeremy
      Jeremy

      Hi Becky,

      The conversion / exchange rate is determined by your credit card provider, and not by Shopify. To Shopfiy, they are only collecting US$79 per month (according to the plan you picked). So for some odd reason, your credit card provider is converting that to C$123. You might want to inquire as to why that is the case?

      I'm not aware of other comparable ecommerce platform in Canada that charges in C$. Sorry about that!

      Jeremy

      Reply
  • Cindy

    That's too bad they don't offer a blogging function. I just spent the morning doing a trial of both Shopify and Volusion. I like Volusion better, it feels more intuitive. I like how I can toggle between the back end and storefront easily. If I have a question I just pull up the chat screen to ask. I can't do that in Shopify. If I want to add a category, easy in Volusion. In Shopify - is that what they call a collection? I'm not sure.

    Reply

    1 reply

    • Jeremy
      Jeremy

      Hey Cindy,

      Shopify actually has live chat support as well. Just go to their support page and you can either live chat with them, or phone or email them.

      And you can build a blog with their platform (which is almost a "must have" when it comes to ecommerce websites).

      Jeremy

      Reply

      1 reply

      • Ron

        We started a business this year that caters to bicyclists but our experience with Volusion was a complete disaster. We chose Volusion, who convinced us to upgrade to the premium service since we would probably need the most access to support as we got started. Some of the support people were great. Some were an utter waste of time because they made me wait for hours on the phone while they read through the self-help FAQs on their own website to learn how to answer my questions. The most important problem had to do with credit card purchases. No credit card transactions actually went through for the products we shipped all Summer! Paypal transactions were going through and we didn't identify that the missing funds were all specific to credit cards until it was too late. Turns out, there is one more mouse click on a tiny link that says "apply," which you must click to get paid. The web page where we process orders allows us to complete these orders and print shipping labels, with no indication that we will never be paid. Not even a little explanatory "what's this" link next to the all important link we needed to click. Seems a little lax, considering that the whole website, our whole business and everything we do with Volusion revolves around that mouse click.

        At one point, I got curious about that link and started searching their help resources. I found volumes of info, including some cool videos, but nothing that specifically explained that link.

        We only get a 7-day window of authorization to complete those transactions so we can't get paid. Volusion seems helpless to do anything about it. They also don't seem to understand there is any issue with the order processing page.

        Now they are advising us to contact all of our customers around the world and ask them if they are willing to let us charge them again. So far, not one of our customers has responded to our request to run their credit cards a second time. Big surprise! Would you? It makes us sound like we're running a scam. Apparently we won't be paid for over 50% of our sales. It's probably going to be our one and only year in business. We wasted lots of 18hr days and investment of everything we own.

        Reply

        1 reply

        • Jeremy
          Jeremy

          Wow... I'm REALLY sorry to hear about that, Ron. That's a complete disaster!

          I've always tried to steer people to consider other options, together with Volusion. Other ecommerce builders such as Shopify and Bigcommerce are excellent platforms.

          Jeremy

          Reply

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