Though discovering an appropriate ecommerce platform for your small business is important, it can be time-consuming. There are such a lot of standard options on the market – Shopify, Bigcommerce, and Wix, to call a number of!
Nevertheless, there are additionally rising platforms value contemplating for his or her distinctive presents, and this overview does exactly that.
We’re zoning in on one such ecommerce solution designed to swimsuit companies of all sizes: ikas.
On this ikas overview, I am going to talk about the options, professionals, cons, and costs of this platform after which present a step-by-step information for utilizing it.
That’s a ton of knowledge to get by way of, so let’s make a begin on this ikas overview!
ikas Evaluate: My Backside Line Upfront
If you happen to haven’t received time to learn by way of my whole ikas overview, right here’s a fast abstract:
ikas is an ecommerce platform appropriate for all enterprise sizes, but it surely locations specific emphasis on small and medium-sized companies and solopreneurs.
Customers can create on-line shops inside minutes with none technical data or experience with ikas. You’ll be able to promote bodily and digital merchandise in your ikas retailer and handle omnichannel promoting on varied marketplaces, together with Amazon (all from the comfort of a single dashboard).
It is value noting that your market stock robotically updates whenever you make a sale in your ecommerce web site.
ikas presents a free 7-day trial and three value plans after that. Every plan features a beneficiant variety of options, together with free buyer help, 16 modern web site themes, an SSL certificates, limitless product uploads, website site visitors, and internet house.
Themes are customizable and might be modified utilizing the ikas drag-and-drop theme editor. ikas additionally presents a variety of selling and automation options on every value plan.
Abandoned cart reminders and advertising promotions (e.g., 3 for the worth of two) can be found on all plans.
What’s ikas?
Based in 2017, ikas has places of work in Berlin and Aalen, Germany, in addition to Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey. It’s primarily geared toward European and Turkish eCommerce entrepreneurs and firms, and on the time of writing, 6,000 companies use it to gasoline their web sites.
Its web site has testimonials from a few of its outstanding clients, together with OzNatur ,LSTNR clothes, and Hofkueche.
ikas’s website tells us that you could “simply construct your eCommerce web site in three simple steps” and increase gross sales utilizing its advertising automation options. We’ll discover this in additional element beneath.
Each facet of your e-commerce website is managed from a single dashboard, and also you don’t want any technical data to make use of the platform.
Promoting merchandise out of your ikas e-commerce retailer is seamless, and omnichannel promoting is simply as simple – this contains bodily shops and on-line marketplaces corresponding to Amazon and Zalando.
You’ll be able to promote bodily and digital merchandise utilizing ikas, and it’s additionally value highlighting that ikas is powered by AWS servers throughout Europe.
Every value plan features a free SSL certificates, PCI-secure funds, and limitless product, site visitors, and internet house.
ikas Options
Now we’ve lined the fundamentals, let’s flip our consideration to ikas’s core options:
- Web site Themes: There are 16 image-led, modern, and attractively designed themes to select from.
- One-Web page Checkout: Every ikas theme presents a one-page checkout, i.e., clients can full purchases from the comfort of 1 web page. This contains including their title, handle, transport technique, and fee.
- Theme Editor: You’ll be able to customise these themes utilizing ikas’s drag-and-drop template editor. Extra particularly, you possibly can edit pictures, textual content, movies, and different content material to fit your model. You can too Web optimization-optimize themes (i.e., add meta tags, titles, and descriptions).
- ikas App Retailer: Accessible through your ikas dashboard, Integrations are cut up into the next classes:
- Achievement and Logistics: integrates with SendCloud
- Accounting: integrates with Zero and PDF Invoices
- Market: integrates with Printful
- Worldwide Commerce: ikas integrates with UPS, OPLOG, Navlungo, and Sendcloud. This allows you to present clients with localized product costs, web site translation, and currencies. You can too supply customers the next fee choices: Stripe, PayPal, and Klarna.
- Digital Advertising Integrations: With just some clicks, you possibly can combine your ikas retailer with Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Supervisor, and Common Analytics. You can too add your TikTok Pixel and Fb Pixels to your retailer. Plus, you have got entry to conversion APIs.
- Dashboard: From the comfort of your dashboard, you possibly can handle all of your Amazon and Zalando orders, in addition to your eCommerce web site and bodily shops. Each sale you make is robotically logged on the dashboard. So, in case you make a sale through your ikas eCommerce website, your Amazon and Zalando stock is robotically up to date.
- Studies: Out of your dashboard, you possibly can create 36 completely different experiences, together with conversion experiences over varied intervals, merchandise incessantly purchased collectively, best-selling product classes, and extra.
- Limitless Product Uploads: You’ll be able to add and promote as many merchandise as you need. Merely add merchandise through your dashboard and import merchandise through a CSV or XLSX file. You’ll be able to add merchandise as a single product add or as variant merchandise (i.e., a number of merchandise with completely different attributes corresponding to colour and dimension).
- Advertising and Automation: The cart reminder function robotically generates focused SMS and email campaigns if clients abandon their carts. These campaigns can embrace low cost codes and encourage customers to return to their carts to finish their purchases. There are additionally ikas’s cross-selling and up-selling choices, which let you supply discounted and non-discounted merchandise in your checkout web page.
- Superior Product Search: Amongst different search settings, you possibly can create filters to assist clients discover merchandise simply in your on-line retailer. You can too set key phrases for merchandise you want to spotlight when clients search.
- Want Lists: You’ll be able to permit clients to create want lists of merchandise for future shopping and potential buy.
- Web optimization Optimization through Meta Title and Description Size Checker: See in case your meta tags, meta product titles, and meta descriptions are the best size (50 to 60 characters for a tag and 120-158 for an outline). Merely sort in your proposed meta title and outline, and the instrument will present it in pink if it’s too brief and inexperienced if it’s a suitable size. You can too see what your meta titles and descriptions appear like on Google Desktop View and Google Cell View.
- Limitless Web site Site visitors: ikas doesn’t impose bandwidth restrictions, permitting you to drive as a lot site visitors as you wish to your website (together with on busy eCommerce holidays corresponding to Black Friday and Cyber Monday).
- Limitless Net Area: There aren’t any limitations on the quantity or dimension of the web site recordsdata you possibly can retailer on ikas’s information facilities.
ikas Pricing
Apart from its free seven-day trial, ikas presents three pricing plans. All costs are in euros, together with VAT, and might be paid utilizing Stripe or PayPal:
- Starter: €25/mo paid yearly or €35/mo month-to-month
- Hero: €69/mo paid yearly or €99/mo month-to-month (that is the preferred plan)
- All-in-One: €199/mo paid yearly or €299/mo month-to-month
All plans supply the next:
- A “lightning-fast” e-commerce storefront
- Free buyer help
- FreeSSL certificates
- Web optimization optimization
- Gross sales experiences
- Limitless product uploads/gross sales, website guests, and internet house
- 16 web site themes to select from
- One-page checkouts
- Cart reminder campaigns
- Want lists
- Product evaluations
- Entry to digital advertising and on-line market integrations
- Returns administration
- You’ll be able to promote bodily and digital merchandise worldwide
- You’ll be able to set transport zones based mostly on postcodes
- Promote and handle in-store merchandise
- You’ll be able to create pricing and transport presents
- Entry to stock administration
Nevertheless, the next options are per plan:
Starter Plan
Entry all of the above and:
- 5 worker accounts
- 3 inventory places (shops and warehouses)
Hero Plan
All of the above and:
- 10 worker accounts
- A number of on-line retailers
- Ship automated deserted cart reminders (these can embrace low cost codes) through electronic mail, SMS, and Whatsapp messages (Whatsapp is optionally available)
- Product evaluations – (clients can embrace photographs)
- Optionally available cross-selling and upselling options
- Social login (clients can log into your web site with their Google and Fb accounts)
- You’ll be able to supply customizable merchandise (i.e., clients can customise these merchandise with their model’s texts and graphics)
- Prolonged marketing campaign administration
- You’ll be able to supply clients the choice to ‘Click on and gather.’
- You’ll be able to supply native supply out of your retailer throughout opening hours.
- Amongst different issues, you possibly can ship SMS notifications to clients about their order standing.
- Handle as much as six inventory places (your warehouses and shops)
All-in-One Plan
You profit from all the above options, plus:
- 15 worker accounts
- AI-fuelled product suggestions
- Cart reminders through WhatsApp
- 10 inventory places
- Superior cross-selling and upselling
- Prolonged product evaluations
- Superior product search
- Prolonged gross sales experiences
- Multicurrency on-line shops
- B2B capabilities and instruments
Lastly, ikas Premium can also be an choice. Costs aren’t obtainable for this plan; as a substitute, it’s a must to full a type along with your particulars, and the ikas group will name you to barter a customized plan.
It presents all the pieces within the ‘All-in-One’ plan, a devoted Buyer Account Supervisor, and the next perks:
- Search end result choices: Create customized itemizing preparations for search outcomes in accordance with your preferences.
- Product bundles: Use AI to advocate product bundles that generate the next buy worth
- Superior cross-selling: Recommend further merchandise to clients who’ve already accomplished a purchase order
- Superior experiences: Generate superior conversion and stock experiences utilizing greater than 30 information factors, together with site visitors sources, orders, addresses, gross sales channels, campaigns, and extra.
- Superior integrations: These can be found through the ikas App Retailer. Superior integrations embrace Etsy, MailChimp, and Klaviyo.
ikas Execs and Cons
No ikas overview could be full with no fast pro-cons record:
Execs 👍
- You’ll be able to promote bodily and digital merchandise and, on some plans, in-store merchandise.
- You get a lot of options in your cash, even on the Starter plan
- There aren’t any limits to what number of merchandise you possibly can promote
- Omnichannel promoting is straightforward
- ikas’s templates (albeit a small record) are customizable, code-free, and engaging.
- There’s a 7-day free trial.
- You profit from limitless internet house and web site site visitors.
Cons 👎
- ikas’s web site is mild on info and self-help assets.
- There’s a little bit of a studying curve
Critiques and Help
As beforehand acknowledged, ikas presents free help throughout all its plans, accessible through cellphone, and electronic mail. As well as, ikas customers obtain a free one-hour onboarding session with a member of the ikas buyer care group.
Nevertheless, self-help assets are virtually non-existent; no video tutorials or guides exist. That stated, there’s a weblog with posts organized into classes, together with Digital Commerce, E-Commerce, Entrepreneurship, and Social Media.
Plus, every function web page presents an FAQ part, which helps handle widespread questions.
As for person evaluations, I headed to a variety of overview platforms to see what individuals are saying about ikas:
G2 reviewers give ikas an total ranking of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Customers reward that there aren’t any hidden charges, ikas’s pace, and its multilingual capabilities.
Nevertheless, reviewers had been much less optimistic concerning the restricted variety of integrations and ikas’s costs.
Elsewhere, Capterra customers give ikas a convincing 4.8 stars out of 5, liking its three hundred and sixty five days, 8am-10pm buyer help, ease of use, and ikas’s big selection of options.
The negatives primarily revolve across the restricted alternative of templates and “lack of web site administration customization.”
Half Time Abstract
Ding-ding! We’re midway by way of my ikas overview.
To summarize, ikas is an efficient contender for anybody searching for an alternate eCommerce platform to among the greater gamers like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Wix.
Its lowest-paid plan presents a superb vary of options and a seven-day free trial.
That stated, template choices and integrations are restricted. Additionally, as there’s a scarcity of self-help assets, newbies could discover ikas’s studying curve steeper than competing platforms like Wix or Shopify.
Nevertheless, though ikas’s templates lack in quantity, the 16 obtainable are engaging, code-free, and simply customizable, permitting you to create an exquisite storefront.
As well as, its dashboard is comparatively simple to navigate, and I like that you could handle your eCommerce retailer, market, and in-person gross sales in a single place.
ikas Person Information
Shifting on to the second half of my ikas overview. I made a decision to attempt ikas to see if its assertion that you could arrange “your very personal on-line retailer” in “simply three easy steps” was correct.
These three steps are as follows:
- Design your eCommerce web site
- Add merchandise to your web site
- Full your eCommerce web site
Clearly, you might want to carry out a number of further actions inside every step, not least establishing an account first!
ikas’s pricing web page additionally states, “Organising an ikas store often takes 1 to three days. The required length is determined by the variety of merchandise and the chosen package deal.”
With that in thoughts, let’s have a look:
Organising an Account
This half was simple. From ikas’s house web page, click on the “Begin Free Trial” button and sort in your:
- First title
- Final title
- Retailer title
- E mail handle
- Cellphone quantity
- Create a password
After which, click on the purple “Create My Trial Retailer” button. ikas then asks a number of extra supplementary questions on the kind of retailer you wish to create (however you possibly can skip these for now).
Then it’s straight to the ikas dashboard (as pictured beneath):
The left-side menu means that you can entry all points of establishing and managing your retailer. Alternatively, you possibly can click on the purple retailer icon on the backside of the left-side menu simply above the “settings” icon.
Now, you might want to full the remaining 4 steps pictured above (the final being – make a sale!). So, with that stated, let’s discover how to do this:
Add First Product/Import
Click on the “Import” button in your dashboard. You’re then taken to a web page the place you possibly can import merchandise through CSV and XLSX recordsdata.
Alternatively, you possibly can add merchandise by clicking the “Add a Product button.” This populates two choices: ‘Easy Product’ (i.e., you possibly can add a product as a single merchandise) or ‘Variant Product’ (i.e., you possibly can add a number of merchandise with completely different attributes, corresponding to dimension and colour).
In every occasion, you’re taken to a web page the place you possibly can add the required product info, together with product title and sort, value, picture and/or video, description, Web optimization, and extra.
As soon as performed, you possibly can transfer on to the subsequent step.
Select Your Theme and Edit Your Web site
- Out of your dashboard’s homepage, choose the “Select Your Theme and Edit” bar.
- You’ll be taken to a theme customization web page. Right here, ikas reveals a theme that may fit your retailer. If you happen to don’t prefer it, click on the “Add Theme” button to see the entire record of themes ikas presents.
- Choose a theme you want. You’ll then be requested to provide the theme a reputation. Click on “save,” and the theme shall be put in and saved in your dashboard, from which you can begin customizing it.
- From the dashboard, click on the “Customise the Theme” button.
- You’re then taken to the editor. From the left-side toolbar, you possibly can choose varied customization choices, together with enhancing the next:
- Add textual content
- Footers
- Headers
- Product slider
- E mail handle
- Banner
…And extra.
- You’ll additionally see an Web optimization button on the prime proper of the left-side menu. Click on that so as to add Web optimization titles and descriptions. With every motion you carry out, keep in mind to click on the purple “Save” button within the prime left-hand nook.
When you’ve edited your themes and are proud of them, you possibly can return to your dashboard homepage.
To entry your themes at any time, click on in your retailer icon within the left-hand menu of your dashboard after which click on on “My Themes”.
Configure Cost Settings
- Click on the “Configure Cost Settings” bar out of your dashboard’s homepage.
- Then, click on the “Add Cost Technique” button.
- You’ll be able to then add the fee strategies you want to supply clients. You’ll be able to select from the next:
- PayPal
- Stripe
- Cost on supply (money)
- Pay on supply (bank card)
- EFT
- Mollie
- United Cost TR
- Payriff AZ
- Paratika TR
- Sipay TR
- Klarna
- Apcopay MALTA
- Param
Please replace the picture, wedon’t have adyen anymore
In every occasion, click on on the fee technique(s) you intend to supply. You’re then taken to a web page to attach your account along with your most well-liked fee gateway along with your ikas account (as illustrated within the screenshot beneath). On this occasion, we chosen Stripe:
Different Settings Price Noting
Along with the core steps listed above, you’ll probably have to do a number of different issues to get your retailer up and working.
Though these steps aren’t included in ikas’s fast information in your dashboard’s homepage, you’ll nonetheless probably want to finish the next:
Buyer Settings
- Out of your dashboard’s homepage, choose the “Select Your Theme and Edit” bar.
- From the left-side menu, click on “Buyer Settings.”
- From right here, you possibly can edit your checkout web page settings. For instance, you possibly can specify what clients need to fill out in your checkout web page and make particular fields obligatory, corresponding to inputting a contact cellular quantity or their postcode.
On this web page, you can too supply clients the selection to:
- Have their order reward packaged
- Add a coupon code
- Checkout as a visitor
- Settle for your phrases and circumstances
Arrange Transport Settings
- Once more, choose the “Select Your Theme and Edit” bar out of your dashboard’s homepage.
- From the left-side menu, click on “Transport Settings.” Right here, you possibly can add your inventory places. You can too customise your “Transport Guidelines”. This contains:
- Which nations you’ll ship from
- Which supply strategies you’ll supply (both commonplace transport or quick supply
- Transport guidelines (For instance, robotically providing free supply after a buyer spends over a set quantity. Or setting paid supply if the client spends lower than the restrict you’ve set)
When you’ve created your transport guidelines, they’re seen on the principle transport web page of your dashboard.
You can too handle buyer returns by configuring your “Return Settings”. Click on “Edit Refund Settings” to create guidelines for accepting returns.
Automations
- Once more, choose the “Select Your Theme and Edit” bar out of your dashboard’s homepage.
- From the left-side menu, click on on “Automations.” From right here, you possibly can arrange your:
- Deserted cart settings: To re-engage with customers through electronic mail once they go away their checkout earlier than finishing the fee/
- Again-in-stock alerts: Notify clients by electronic mail when their desired product is again in inventory.
- Product evaluations: E mail clients post-purchase to ask them to judge your merchandise
- Cash switch reminders: E mail clients to remind them to settle their unpaid orders
Notifications
- You guessed it: out of your dashboard’s homepage, choose the “Select Your Theme and Edit” bar.
- Then, from the left-side menu, choose “Notifications.”
- From right here, you possibly can customise all of your electronic mail settings and notifications:
Beginning with E mail Settings:
- Click on on “Edit E mail Settings,” there, you possibly can add the e-mail addresses to which order and return requests are despatched. You can too choose your language desire (English, Turkish, or German).
- Click on “Save” as soon as performed.
Returning to the “Notifications” web page (illustrated above), you possibly can customise emails with your individual branding and content material when sending clients notifications regarding:
- Orders
- Cargo
- Refunds
- Prospects
- Automations
(Inside every of the above classes, you’ll see a listing of all the varied emails you possibly can ship to clients)
For instance, below orders, there are ten various kinds of emails you possibly can customise and ship to clients, together with:
- Order canceled
- Order created
- Order delivered
- Cost accepted
…And so forth.
With Transport notifications, there are three electronic mail drafts you possibly can customise:
- Order prepared for cargo
- Order fulfilled
- Order monitoring info
With refund notifications, there are 4 electronic mail drafts you possibly can customise:
- Order refunded
- Order refund request
- Order refund request accepted
- Order refund request rejected
With buyer notifications, there are two electronic mail drafts you possibly can customise:
- Reset password
- The client’s welcome message once they create an account
With automations, there are 4 electronic mail drafts you possibly can customise:
- Deserted checkout
- Buyer overview
- Product again in inventory reminder
- Cash switch reminder
All you might want to do is click on on the edit icon for the e-mail sort you’re involved in. You’ll be taken to the customization web page for that electronic mail.
From right here, you possibly can customise the emails, as proven within the instance beneath:
When you’ve completed customizing your electronic mail, click on the purple “Save” button on the prime proper nook of the display.
Handle Settings
- Out of your dashboard’s homepage, click on the “Settings” icon on the backside of the left-hand menu.
- This takes you to what’s primarily your retailer’s again workplace. From this web page, you possibly can edit the next:
- Service provider Settings: You’ll be able to edit settings your retailer’s settings, together with your handle, most well-liked forex, and time zone, and outline order quantity and forex formatting guidelines.
- Inventory Places: You’ll be able to outline a number of inventory places. Your value plan, nonetheless, limits you to the variety of places it permits.
- Tax Settings: You’ll be able to outline country-based tax charges and specify whether or not product pages embrace or exclude taxes.
- Filters and Search: Amongst different settings, customise the filters clients see in your on-line retailer’s search perform.
- Workers Members: If you add new employees members to your retailer, you possibly can assign completely different permissions to those accounts.
- Retailer Exercise Historical past: View and filter the actions carried out by employees members or functions.
- Transport Template: Customise your transport label’s info and paper dimension.
- Languages and Translations: You’ll be able to add a brand new language to your retailer and carry out bulk or particular person translations for stated language.
- Buyer Attributes: Customise the fields utilized in your registration type to collect extra buyer info.
- E mail Area Settings: Use your individual area to extend electronic mail deliverability.
- Retailer Switch Settings: Import your clients and merchandise from different platforms like Wix.
Managing Orders
All order administration might be performed from the left-side toolbar in your dashboard’s homepage. Simply click on “Orders.”
From right here, you possibly can submit orders, gather funds, and test the standing of your orders.
Underneath the “Orders” tab, you will see a sub-menu itemizing the next choices:
- Drafts
- Deserted Cart
- Tags: Create order tags that will help you handle orders; for instance, mark orders as pressing
Managing Prospects
- From the left-sidebar in your dashboard’s homepage, click on “Prospects.”
- Right here, you possibly can handle your whole clients’ info, together with their title, handle, electronic mail contact particulars, cellphone quantity, and order historical past. Prospects will robotically seem right here once they have ordered out of your retailer.
- You can too add clients by both clicking:
- Import: (Add clients through a CSV or XLSX file)
- Add New Buyer: (Manually add the aforementioned buyer particulars for particular person clients).
As well as, you possibly can add and handle buyer teams. These are nice for concentrating on particular clients with tailor-made advertising campaigns, sending bulk emails, and working extra granular experiences:
- Underneath the “Prospects” tab on the left-side menu, click on “Buyer Teams.”
- Click on on the purple “Add Buyer Group” button. You’ll be able to then carry out one in all two actions:
- Manually add clients to a gaggle.
- Create a dynamic buyer group by robotically grouping clients who meet particular standards (e.g., their most well-liked language, their spending restrict, and so forth).
Weblog
Final however not least, you can too add a weblog to your eCommerce retailer.
- Out of your dashboard’s homepage, choose the “Select Your Theme and Edit” bar.
- Click on the “Weblog” button on the backside of the left-side bar.
- Choose the purple “New Weblog put up” button. From right here, you’re taken to a web page the place you possibly can add your put up’s content material and your:
- Weblog title
- A brief description of the weblog put up
- Picture
- Writer title
- Class
- Tag
- Language
- Web optimization titles and descriptions
- As soon as performed, click on “Save.”
Extensions
So as to add the extensions talked about above (Google Analytics et al.), click on “Extensions” within the left-side menu of your dashboard. You’ll be able to add any or all the extensions to your retailer.
Set up Apps and Gross sales Channels
From the left aspect toolbar of your dashboard’s homepage, click on “App Retailer.” You’ll see the apps we referred to earlier that ikas integrates with. Every has an “set up” button.
Alternatively, to combine with different gross sales channels, return to the left toolbar of your dashboard’s homepage and click on on the + subsequent to “Gross sales Channels.” You’ll be able to then add the next:
- POS (level of sale) in your bodily retailer
- B2B Wholesale (On-line) Retailer: Set distinctive costs for purchasers or buyer teams and permit solely licensed customers to see your merchandise or costs.
ikas Evaluate: My Ultimate Ideas
That brings us to the tip of my ikas overview! Hopefully, my ikas overview has offered loads of meals for thought of ikasIkas’s choices, costs, options, and, importantly, the way it works.
Though ikasIkas is much less well-known, it presents subscribers many options, even on its most cost-effective plan.
As well as, the dashboard is straightforward to navigate, and ikas’s themes are engaging and easy to customise with no coding expertise wanted.
The customers typically reward the platform on overview websites, and it’s definitely constructive that there aren’t any hidden charges.
So, can you actually arrange your individual on-line ikas retailer in “simply three easy steps?” In principle, sure.
However in apply, as our information has simply demonstrated, you’ll probably need to undergo a number of extra hoops to rise up and working.
The place it falls is its lack of expertise, significantly since there aren’t any directions or movies that stroll you thru your retailer setup, which can be a deal breaker for newbies.
However, you do get a one-to-one hour-long onboarding session whenever you enroll.
As with all our evaluations, I like to recommend using the 7-day free trial earlier than committing your hard-earned money. That is one of the simplest ways to see whether or not this platform is correct for your small business.
Are you contemplating becoming a member of the 6,000+ companies already utilizing ikas? Tell us what you assume within the feedback beneath!