Volusion: A Deep Dive into the Ecommerce Platform's History, Services, and Future

Volusion: A Complete Company Overview

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For anyone exploring the world of e-commerce, the name volusion has likely come up. As one of the pioneering platforms in the industry, Volusion has a long history of helping entrepreneurs and businesses sell their products online. But with so many options available today, it’s crucial to understand where this veteran platform stands. Is it still a viable choice for your online store?

This comprehensive overview will provide a deep dive into the Volusion company, its history, core features, and its place in the modern e-commerce landscape. We’ll cover everything from its powerful feature set to its pricing and how it stacks up against competitors, giving you the complete picture you need to make an informed decision.

Table of Contents

What is Volusion and What Does It Do?

So, what is volusion? At its core, Volusion is an all-in-one, cloud-based e-commerce solution designed to provide businesses with all the tools they need to build, manage, and grow an online store. The official volusion definition is that of a comprehensive software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, meaning you pay a monthly fee for access to its hosting, features, and support without needing to manage the technical backend yourself.

But what does volusion do in practical terms? It empowers merchants to:

  • Create and customize a professional-looking online storefront.
  • Upload and manage an unlimited number of products.
  • Securely process payments from customers.
  • Track inventory and manage orders.
  • Implement marketing campaigns and improve SEO.
  • Analyze sales data and business performance.

Ultimately, the goal is to explain how does volusion help businesses by streamlining the entire process of selling online. By offering a unified dashboard, the volusion ecommerce platform aims to be the central hub for all of a company’s online sales activities.

The Volusion Company: A Brief History

Founded in 1999 by Kevin Sproles, the volusion company has one of the longest track records in the e-commerce industry. For years, it was a leading choice for small and medium-sized businesses looking to establish an online presence, known for its robust, data-driven feature set.

However, the company faced significant challenges. In July 2020, Volusion filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure its debt amid increasing competition. This led to a period of uncertainty for its users and the market.

The story didn’t end there. Following the restructuring, a critical question for many was who owns volusion now? In 2021, Volusion was acquired by Newfold Digital, a major web technology company that also owns brands like Bluehost and HostGator. This acquisition provided new stability and resources, allowing the platform to continue operating and developing its services for both existing and new customers.

Core Features of the Volusion Platform

The strength of the volusion platform has always been its rich, built-in feature set. It’s designed to be an out-of-the-box solution that covers nearly every aspect of running an online business.

  • Volusion Website Builder: Users can create a fully functional volusion website using a range of professionally designed, mobile-responsive themes. The drag-and-drop editor allows for customization without needing to code.
  • Volusion Shopping Cart: At its heart is a powerful and secure volusion shopping cart that ensures a smooth checkout experience for customers. It includes features like abandoned cart reports to help recover lost sales.
  • Volusion Inventory Management: This system allows merchants to track stock levels, receive low-stock alerts, and manage product variants (like size and color) directly from the dashboard.
  • Volusion Payment Gateways: The platform integrates with dozens of payment processors, including Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.Net, giving businesses flexibility in how they accept payments. It also offers its own volusion merchant services for integrated credit card processing.
  • Volusion POS: For businesses with a physical presence, the volusion pos (Point of Sale) system helps sync online and in-store inventory and sales, creating a unified commerce experience.
  • volusion dropshipping: The platform supports volusion dropshipping with features like variant pricing and integrations that help automate the order fulfillment process with third-party suppliers.

Beyond these core components, Volusion offers a wide range of other volusion services and tools, including CRM, reporting and analytics, and integrations with third-party apps to extend functionality.

Volusion Pricing Plans

Volusion pricing is structured in a tiered subscription model, designed to scale with a business’s growth. The plans are primarily differentiated by the annual online sales volume a store can process, as well as access to more advanced features. While specific pricing can change, the typical tiers include:

  • Personal Plan: Aimed at startups and small sellers, allowing for up to $50,000 in annual sales.
  • Professional Plan: For growing businesses, this plan increases the sales threshold and adds features like abandoned cart reports.
  • Business Plan: Designed for established stores, offering a higher sales limit, dedicated support, and advanced reporting.
  • Prime Plan: A custom-tiered plan for high-volume enterprises.

A common question is, is volusion free? Volusion does not offer a permanently free plan. However, it typically provides a 14-day free trial, allowing potential users to explore the platform and its features before committing to a paid subscription.

Marketing and SEO with Volusion

Getting traffic is just as important as having a great store. Volusion provides a suite of tools to support your volusion ecommerce marketing efforts. These built-in features help merchants run promotions, manage social media, and engage with customers through newsletters.

For a comprehensive strategy, businesses can implement a full volusion digital marketing plan using the platform’s foundation. This includes:

  • Promotional Tools: Create discounts, coupon codes, and run daily deals.
  • Customer Loyalty: Offer a rewards program to encourage repeat business.
  • Social Media Management: Link products to your social media accounts for easy sharing.
  • Email Marketing: Integrate with leading email providers to build and manage your mailing list.

SEO is another critical area, and Volusion includes features to help your store rank in search engines. You can edit meta titles and descriptions, create SEO-friendly URLs, and generate a sitemap. For businesses needing more advanced help, partnering with a volusion seo company or using volusion seo optimization services can maximize visibility. Dedicated volusion seo services can help with everything from keyword research to technical site audits. The platform also includes a built-in volusion blog, a crucial tool for content marketing and attracting organic traffic.

Volusion Competitors: How Does It Compare?

The e-commerce landscape is crowded, and there are many volusion competitors. Its most direct rivals have historically been other all-in-one platforms.

A classic comparison is volusion vs bigcommerce. Both platforms are known for their powerful built-in features and focus on data-driven e-commerce, appealing to businesses that want to avoid relying heavily on third-party apps. BigCommerce is often seen as having a slight edge in scalability and modern design flexibility, while Volusion has long been praised for its robust analytics.

The larger market conversation often includes the bigcommerce vs shopify vs volusion debate. Shopify is the dominant market leader, celebrated for its user-friendliness and massive app ecosystem. Volusion distinguishes itself by having zero transaction fees on any of its plans (you only pay the payment processor’s fee), which can be a significant cost-saver compared to Shopify’s model.

Examples of Websites Powered by Volusion

Over its two-decade history, countless websites powered by volusion have been launched across nearly every industry imaginable. These stores range from small home-based businesses to multi-million dollar enterprises.

So, what companies use volusion? You’ll find a diverse mix, including sellers of apparel, electronics, specialty foods, automotive parts, and more. While many large enterprises have migrated to other platforms over the years, Volusion continues to be a solid choice for small to medium-sized businesses that value its all-in-one feature set and analytics capabilities.

Volusion Shipping and Fulfillment

Managing shipping is a cornerstone of e-commerce, and Volusion provides a robust framework for it. The platform features an in-house shipping rate calculator that can provide real-time quotes from major carriers like USPS, FedEx, and DHL.

Merchants can set up various shipping methods, including flat-rate, free shipping, and weight-based rates. For businesses looking for a specific shipping company for volusion, the platform’s integrations make it easy to connect with the carrier of their choice. While Volusion itself is not a volusion shipping company, it acts as the central hub to manage and process orders through your preferred providers. Finding the top shipping for volusion often comes down to which carriers offer the best rates and services for your specific product types and customer locations.

Is Volusion Legit and Safe?

Given its history, some potential users ask, is volusion legit? The answer is yes. Despite its past financial restructuring, the volusion ecommerce platform has been operating continuously for over 20 years and is now backed by a major web technology corporation, Newfold Digital. This makes it a stable and well-established player in the industry.

From a security perspective, another common question is, is volusion safe? The platform is Level 1 PCI DSS compliant, which is the industry standard for ensuring that credit card data is processed and stored securely. All Volusion stores also come with an SSL certificate to encrypt data transmitted between the customer and the store, protecting sensitive information. Therefore, is volusion a legitimate company with a secure platform is a question that can be answered affirmatively.

Should any issues arise, the platform provides support through its volusion customer service team, which is available via phone, chat, and email, with higher-tiered plans offering priority support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is volusion still in business?
Yes, Volusion is still in business. After a Chapter 11 restructuring in 2020, it was acquired by Newfold Digital in 2021 and continues to operate and support its e-commerce platform.

What is a volusion store?
A what is volusion store question refers to an online retail shop that is built, hosted, and managed using the Volusion e-commerce software. It’s a complete, self-contained website for selling products online.

What is volusion used for?
What is volusion used for primarily is creating and managing online stores. Businesses use it to sell physical or digital goods, process payments, manage inventory, and handle marketing and fulfillment from a single dashboard.

How does the volusion to shopify migration work?
Migrating from volusion to shopify is a common process for merchants looking to switch platforms. It typically involves using a third-party migration app or service to transfer data like products, customers, and order history. It’s a complex process that often requires careful planning and technical assistance.

Is volusion down?
Like any online service, Volusion can experience temporary outages. If you suspect an issue, it’s best to check Volusion’s official status page or social media channels for updates. Widespread or prolonged downtime is rare.

What are volusion design services?
Volusion design services are professional services offered either directly by Volusion or by third-party agency partners. These services help merchants create a custom-designed storefront, update their branding, or optimize their user experience.

What is the difference between BigCommerce vs Volusion?
The main difference in the bigcommerce vs volusion comparison lies in their approach to features and scalability. Both are feature-rich, but BigCommerce is often considered more modern and slightly more scalable for very large enterprises, while Volusion is known for its strong built-in analytics and a straightforward, all-in-one package.

What is volusion software?
The volusion software is a cloud-based, or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), platform. This means you don’t download or install anything on your own computer. You access the software through a web browser, and Volusion handles all the hosting, security, and updates on its servers.