- Ease of Use
- Features
- Customization
- Integrations
- Help & Support
When it comes to setting up an E-commerce web store, website administrators have many options to choose from. One tantalizing alternative is Ashop Commerce, a convenient and user-friendly hosted E-commerce platform. Ashop allows users to set up an E-commerce store and have it ready for business in a matter of minutes. Overall, it’s one of the best hosted E-commerce providers on the web. Here’s a quick Ashop Commerce review, covering all the important benefits and drawbacks of using the service for your website.
Main Features and Benefits
The primary benefit of using Ashop Commerce is the simplicity with which it can be installed. It’s like the WordPress of E-commerce providers in terms of user-friendliness. The default administrative panel offered by Ashop is one of the best in the business, giving store owners the ability to manage inventory and configure web pages all at the same time. Furthermore, Ashop has a gorgeous layout that makes other providers like BigCommerce look amateurish by comparison. On top of that, Ashop’s integrated Payment Gateways give customers peace of mind when it comes to security as they shop your E-commerce store. Finally, Ashop doesn’t charge any setup fees or require a contract. Their services are available at flat rate of $24.95 per month.
Principal Disadvantages and Caveats
No Ashop Commerce review would be complete without pointing out a few negative aspects of the service. While using a hosted E-commerce provider to handle transactions has its upsides, it also means that you won’t have full access to your installation files to modify as you see fit. The inability to modify some back-end aspects of your shop can be a problem, but in general it won’t affect the vast majority of users. In addition, Ashop can be a bit slow to load due in large part to its “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to including features. However, you can disable graphics and modules as needed to speed up load times.
The Last Word
Ultimately, Ashop is as full-featured and nearly as versatile as any other hosted E-commerce service available today. For 95% of users, it should provide everything they need to customize and configure a web store that will perfectly suit their needs. If you’re the type of person who likes to do everything themselves, it may not be your cup of tea. But if you need a reliable E-commerce solution that won’t gouge you on fees and provides superb technical assistance and support, Ashop Commerce is the way to go.
Good review. I agree about the inability to access source codes etc, but I think the average user will love Ashop as I have for the last 2 years. Sure, you can’t customize how a line or a dot appears on the checkout, but for the cost saving and the level of flexibility, it will definitely cover the majority of users. This is coming from my experience paying a fortune to a developer a while back! oh well, live and learn
I have to take exception to a few statements. First, “won’t gouge you on fees”… at 24.95 you get one email address and one domain connection. Add $5/mo and $3/mo for each additional. Want payment gateways other than paypal? Add $10/mo and hope you can get them to work. Affiliate module = $40/mo. Digital products? – $5/mo. If you are looking at pricing, make sure you actually press the + icon. The prices they show on the page are available only if you pay by the YEAR. All this adds up quickly.
Their live product support is very good.
Customizing a store is NOT that easy (I’m a developer and have coded and run online stores/websites for over10 years.)
Non-functioning features, bugs, feature updates take a very long time for the company to implement.
This is a good company, and with no contracts all you have to lose is some time.
I got sucked into this company. I tried the trial and liked the templates, i should have explored futher. I paid upfront for two years becuase I liked the interface. But i didnt realize I had to pay extra to use the payment gateways on top of tha,t I couldnt use the payment gateway from the company I had already signed up with. So within 48 hrs I requested to cancel my service and guess what? They told me no refunds! What? I had used the service for less than 2 days out of 2 years I paid for and they want to keep all of my $480???? This is not a company that cares about their customers. Its only about what they can squeeze out of you. Avoid them at all cost.