Shift4Shop

Pros

Like the fact that its an entire platform like all the rest you pay for but its FREE!

Cons

Not found any as of yet any negative issues

Pros

Shift4Shop (previously 3dcart) is a FREE website ecommerce platform. Unlike some of their competitors that charge you for every transaction, Shift4shop does not take a commission and they do not charge a monthly fee. It really is free, which is amazing. You do need to use their credit card processor, and the fee is 3%. But you will pay a CC processor no matter what, so ultimately the ecommerce website is still free.
They have templates that are ready to go and are pretty decent. Updates are done automatically, so you don't need to be a techy to keep up (this was a concern when we previously self hosted and did Woocommerce). Ultimately we are happy and would recommend Shift4shop.

Cons

You have no control over some things. One time the entire website went down. Customer service told me I didn't even have a domain with them - even though it had been working and taking orders until the day before. And their customer service is not good. They are out of the country and have no control. Every issue needs to go to a different department. Which is not a big deal for small things, but when your entire website won't work and you have customers emailing and calling (and ultimately ordering elsewhere) losing an entire day because of poor service is huge. Once their error was fixed, there was no apology or explanation. Before we launch any advertising campaigns or send emails to our customer database I always check the site, to make sure it's working. So the free price does with a tradeoff. I calculated what places like Shopify would take per transaction, vs what I lost in one of being down and I am still way, way ahead.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Shift4Shop

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Shift4Shop

Pros

Because of the aftermath I couldn't possibly recommend this company for any reason.

Cons

I cannot use 2 of their payment providers and was told I could bring in my own option. After months of not hearing back, they suddenly changed their mind and told me I had to pay a bill for services I didn't receive from them before they would let me back into my site. I could have exported the contents to transfer if I had been warned.

This is unbelievable. It is well documented that I emailed and didnt hear back, I included many people and they never replied. How can you hold my property hostage to services that weren't rendered?

You guys will end up with a class action lawsuit for this. When you do, I hope a lawyer contacts me. My email is my first and last name together at gmail.com if anyone is interested.

Pros

For a small, growing business with an ever-expanding product base, 3dCart meets the need for scalability, ease of adding product details, behind the scenes product management and point of sale tracking, giving a really good all-in-one place to track and grow without the heavy investment of some other popular solutions.

Cons

The printed reports are good, comprehensive, and useful; the ability to integrate them easily with other software is somewhat lacking; it can be done, but with some of the accounting software we tried, it was a difficult porting process. Customer service was as helpful as they could be, but many of our shortcomings became wish list suggestions for their developers.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Shift4Shop

Reasons for Switching to Shift4Shop

Pros

Initially because it allowed us to utilize Klarna. As we converted from ARI, I found that the site was much easier to navigate and manage than ARI.

Cons

Sizing of the photos. Some of the pages require a specific size of photo which isn't readily available. I haven't identified the path to convert what I want to what will fit, so my photos aren't consistent and frankly look amateur. When asked, the 3D staff said that they don't have a solution for this.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Shift4Shop

Reasons for Switching to Shift4Shop

Pros

They had an excellent plan where you got the cart free, if you used their payment processor. Lots of apps are included. Can use "out of the box" without having to add a bunch of paid options.

Cons

Their apps and setup are confusing and hard to figure out for someone just starting out. Single plan. One price good for established ecomm not good for start ups.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Shift4Shop

Pros

Free, no fees except a processing percentage inline with other options.

Cons

Instructions to set up the site and transfer over your domain were missing. Hours wasted when I had to perform a specific ticket to get it to work that wasn't listed or documented. Setup is atrocious, not fluid, old outdated. I finished setup and took my site live and found out the credit card processing wasn't working. Several messages to support and the reply's back were so incoherent, no one could understand what they were saying. It wasn't even proper English or legible. I have missed over a month of sales because of how bad their processing setup is. Some of the support staff are ok, some shouldn't be allowed to work in the tech sector and should require adult supervision.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Shift4Shop

Reasons for Switching to Shift4Shop

Pros

Shift4Shop (formerly 3dcart) is decent for small businesses that need a lot of included functionality fresh out of the box. You have access to a lot of tools if you know how to find and use them.
Unfortunately, if any of these tools break or get held up, good luck getting help with fixing it.

Cons

By far the worst customer support I have experienced in a while. Many of the employees are quite kind and try hard to be helpful, but they send you around in circles and you can never talk to someone who is actually capable of resolving technical issues. Even when tickets are "elevated" and "marked as urgent" I run into the same issues of having to re-explain issues and getting nowhere.
We are personally going on for over a month now with an unresolved issue that is significantly affecting our business. We have literally NOT MADE ANY PROGRESS on the issue, and it feels like I'm running in endless circles with their Tech Support team. I will go into further detail below.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Shift4Shop

Pros

We are constantly discovering new functions as the software is being used on a daily basis. Shift4shop truly has everything we need to operate a successful e-commerce business, and at no upfront cost (terms apply to that assessment). As far as we can determine, there are no essential features missing from the services that Shift4shop offers.

Cons

The software is most definitely not user-friendly for the common e-commerce entrepreneur. When we first starting using Shift4shop in early 2020, composing our storefront was a nightmare, and required that every member of our team need learn information, processes, and language just to navigate and operate the software. (Shift4shop does provide basic video tutorials for most functions, for new users).

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Shift4Shop

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Shift4Shop

Pros

Allows me to offer a large number a variations for my products
Free shipping for specific items only
Integration with Canada Post
Huge database with How To info
Helpful customer service, quick to phone and the chat feature is handy

Cons

Occasional glitches where buttons won't work or tricky to find some menu options
templates are not very customizable unless you have strong coding skills

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Shift4Shop

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Shift4Shop

Pros

Payout is faster then other soon as a batch out it’s settled faster then others

Cons

They don’t do payout same day at all they should

Pros

There is nothing to like with the service and support they offer!

Cons

Their software which certainly is not theirs based on how a lot of support seems to go through outside parties, horrible service going all the up to the president!

Pros

We stayed with Shift 4 Shop/3dcartstores due to the functionality of the platform. The cost used to be good and the customer service much better in the past.

Cons

Increasing "glitches" either globally or domain specific. Long or no response from upper management on serious issues such as missing orders, description issues. etc.

Pros

ease of use, updates are automatically applied and are not done very often so there is no disruption, excellent service support, flexible program can be easily customized, competitive pricing, excellent tutorials, no coding skill is necessary for use, good communication from the company
from

Cons

too many options for add ons for similar types of add on modules, a lot of space wasted on the screen (better now with the latest upgrade), finding photos in file manager is difficult

Pros

Generally under 3dcart they resolved any issues we had quickly.

Cons

Under 3dcart very little issues except technical coding that with our 20 odd years of building sites from scratch we overcame.

Pros

Versatility, variety of plugins. Nice templates.

Cons

Customer service has really declined in the years I have used this software. When I first started you could get hold of someone early in the morning. Now it takes an executive order from Trump.

Pros

Easy to get ahold of custmer service when issues arrose.

Cons

Difficulties integrating with platforms such as facebook and instagram.

Pros

It was fairly easy to set up my store, although there was a learning curve associated with getting it set up. I like that it integrates with our credit card processing company, Payjunction.

Cons

Customer service could be better. It takes support a few days to respond

Pros

The choices and ease of use. The little clips that walk me threw something that I am trying to do for the first time.

Cons

Not having a little clip in certain sections to walk me threw the first time.
Wish you had more options like constant contact for news letters Then I would not need them and would be able to do it all in one spot.

Pros

I moved my store from another website host that use a very hard program to use. I found this software very easy to use and navigate. I was able to get my store up and running in a few days.

Cons

There is no way to make price adjustments without changing each one individually. It is repetitive and time consuming.

Pros

Our store website is built using the 3dCart platform. I really like how it tracks and give your detail information regarding the customers and their purchases. As a store manager you can really use this information.

Cons

The customer service chat takes a very long time to get responses at times. I should however mention that their staff is really knowledgeable!

Pros

Full solution

Cons

hosting resources and bandwidth fees

Pros

Once set up its easy to add product if it works correctly

Cons

My customers ALWAYS have problems with the payment screen at checkout. I've lost so much money with this account. Customers resort to calling me with their order because 9x out of 10 their is an issue with the site.

Pros

3dCart has so many features it's awesome. You can tweak every product to have individual options and custom messages etc. It also can handle buy buttons that you can place on other websites. The individual product options were very impressive.

The user interface was easy to use.

Lots of third part applications are integrated as well.

Cons

The stock templates always felt very dated. The layout blocks for new top sellers and new items etc are features that are never used on todays professional websites. The in store search did not work well and the filtering options were extremely limited without an add-on...which was still limited.

The Mobile functionality was somewhat broken and people were not able to checkout for a while.

The Customer Service wasn't too bad. The Chat was easy to get in touch, but the people on the other side didn't seem to understand their own platform sometimes. The email support was super slow.

Pros

All the features and the reliability of the company.

Cons

Pricey on the hosting plan I am on due to traffic but not reflected in my sales.