Weebly Review

There are a lot of website builders that come with tools, design, and functionality that suit anyone’s needs. Weebly, a free web hosting platform, has been long-standing in the website builder niche. Yes, it’s free unless you need an upgrade in its features to make it more personalized. It has been in the market since 2007 and continues to grow.

It’s the choice of over 50 million entrepreneurs globally because of its all-inclusive website solutions. Weebly-built websites are considered all-in-one platforms since they merged with Square. They can now manage inventory, get marketing and website solutions, and accept payments online and even in person. There are also two editors to choose from Weebly and Square editor. Weebly editor is intuitive and easy to use with a drag and drop design layout for content, while the Square editor offers a pre-designed layout that is ideal for eCommerce.

Anyone can set up a website with Weebly in 3-simple steps.

1. Sign up

Setting up an account is the first step for easy access and editing. It is as simple as providing the user’s name, email, and password.

Tip: It’s important to have a professional email intended for the website. Once done, choose what kind of website to create – a personal site or an online store. A personal website is ideal for portfolio, blog, or services without products to sell. If the objective is to sell, then an online store is the way to go. On the other hand, a business website is a great platform to sell items and services as it is automatically synced with Square’s POS.

2. Build the website

This is where the exciting part comes in – choosing a theme! Weebly has over 50 themes, divided into 6 different categories – business, personal, events, portfolio, and blog. Each category has great selections, from minimalist to festive designs with helpful elements. Once set with the theme, it’s time to register a domain for the website. There are two options: a subdomain of Weebly or a stand-alone domain like www._____.com for a professional online presence.

3. Manage content

Even after publishing, it can still be edited according to preference by adding pages, posts, even tweaking arrangement and features. With Weebly, everything is plug-and-play, so it is entirely fuss-free. But for those who want to amp up their website, it is also customizable with HTML/CSS code and the editor to design their page.

Anyone can have a website with Weebly in just a few clicks. It is fully customizable to adjust to different businesses’ needs and styles. Everything is provided, from design and layout to tools. There’s also endless support from the community to grow the business where anyone can ask questions, share insights, tips, and give feedback.

In case issues arise, a Help Center contains articles and tutorials to guide users in setting up a website. The topics included span from the basics of building a website to integrating third-party apps and tools.

Site Search

This is a must-have on every website, so users can easily search for what they need without going through each section. A site search tool can be dragged and dropped to the page.

eCommerce Features

Weebly is a great choice because of its impressive eCommerce tools that help businesses grow. Weebly eliminates tasks that can be automated, such as selling and shipping. The tools that can be integrated on-site for a streamlined transaction make shipping simple. It is necessary to have at least a business plan to take advantage of these features, but the cost is well worth it because of the time saved by these shipping solutions.

Shipping features:

• Set shipping areas – Weebly supports international shipping, and there are tools to automate the calculation costs by area by simply selecting the state, country, or region.
• Real-time shipping rates – Sometimes, carriers change their shipping rates. So, to avoid the hassle, there’s a tool that integrates the site to the carriers’ services to reflect real-time rates. However, it is best for businesses that do bulk shipping to set it manually to adjust the rates and incentivize customers. Options are flat rate, by order weight or total delivery, and free shipping.
• Modify shipping rates and areas – Add as many areas and modify the rates as the business expands.

Inventory management system

With Weebly's inventory tools, you'll never lose a sale or run out of best-selling items. Knowing when and what to replenish is critical for meeting consumer demand. An online store is similar to having a physical store, except that eCommerce is more cost-effective in terms of operations.

Here’s how:

• Utilize Weebly’s dashboard - Organize and filter the products by name, category, SKU, type, and description. This allows anyone to see the stock items at a glance.
• Merged multiple channels – Have multiple stores? Be efficient by merging it into one inventory database.
• Know which items are selling fast – Weebly automatically lets the customer know which ones are best-selling items that are running low on stock, thereby creating a sense of urgency and scarcity.
• Track shipment status – Everything is automated as soon as the customer places an order. The inventory database is automatically updated for every transaction made, so there’s no need to count and record every sale manually. Whether you only have hundreds or thousands of items to sell, having this tool is an ultimate time-saver in every business.

Customized and Automated Email Marketing

Email marketing, promotions, and announcements are made simpler with Weebly Promote. With smart marketing integration, website visitors can quickly turn into repeat customers in just a few clicks. In addition, the messaging can be customized and automated, be it for launching a product, announcing a sale promotion, or re-engaging an old customer.

• Import contacts – Import contacts from one account to Weebly email.
• Customer segmentation – Create groups to categorize customers based on engagement goals to send the right message to them.
• Ready-made layouts - No need to bother about layouts and designs. All you need is a great message, and it’s done in less than 5 minutes.
• Track results – See if all efforts are effective. Get insights by knowing each marketing initiative's views, clicks, and open rates.

Site Analytics

Site traffic, conversion, click-through, and bounce rates are essential in managing and tracking a website's performance. Know how many are visiting the page. What are they clicking on? How long do they stay on-site? Which sections do they go to? Analyzing all those things is possible because Weebly has a metric dashboard that provides real-time stats.

Many third-party apps can be integrated with Weebly to elevate the conversion rate if all this isn't enough.

Weebly can be connected to over 350 apps to efficiently run one’s online store – be it for the site, marketing, customer relationship management, and sales. Different apps can automate workflow and systematize processes from CRM, inventory, advertising, marketing, emailing, and integrating social buttons.

Sales booster apps:

Sales Pop

Create a pop-up of live sales notifications to create urgency and encourage users to buy the items they’ve been eyeing.

Trusted site

Get people’s trust by having a trust mark that certifies secure login and checkout. It shows that sites with TrustedSite certification enjoy an increase in sales by up to 30%.

Payment button

Integrating PayPal supports 25+ currencies, which works, especially for businesses that cater to clients worldwide.

Store metrics

Boost sales by getting insights into net revenue, number of orders, sales per visit, items per transaction, day and products with the highest revenue, cart abandonment rate, conversion rate, etc.

Testimonial builder

Providing social proof can boost sales by up to 30%. Add five-star ratings with feedback about the product. And no need to collate it by yourself as it can automatically collect and collate from SMS, Whatsapp, and chatbox via a URL.

Communication and Customer Relationship Management apps

Easy Contact Form

Integrate a fully customizable form that wouldn’t consume so much data storage.

Quick Facebook Chat

Get people’s trust by having a trust mark that certifies secure login and checkout. It shows that sites with TrustedSite certification increased sales by up to 30%.

Payment button

Integrating PayPal supports 25+ currencies. This works especially for businesses that cater worldwide.

Marketing:

Privy

Increase the site’s email list and sales through customizable pop-ups, targeted promotions, and coupon codes.

Email Opt-in Popup

Increase email subscribers list, reduce abandoned carts, and generate more leads.

Google Ads by Kliken

This is the top-rated marketing app on Weebly that allows marketing to any business in just 5 minutes.

All design options are mobile responsive, so no coding skills are required. Even beginners can set up a website with intuitive design and templates.

Drag & drop editor

This allows for simple customization without overwhelming users. The look can be tested by moving the elements to where they should be.

Beginner-friendly templates

Weebly is filled with over 50 templates that have simple, easy, and intuitive designs.

Responsive themes

There's no need to worry about whether the website will look good on a mobile phone because it's mobile-optimized. The interface is automatically resized to fit small screens.

Full-Width Image and Color Backgrounds

It is fully customizable– from size, placement, texts, and color background.

Video background

Make the website more upbeat and engaging by having a video background. There’s a free video library integrated on the platform, but uploading a unique video is encouraged to align it to the store’s branding. Tip: Make sure that it is in MOV, MP4, M4V, or WMV format and not less than 1 GB for a quality video to avoid pixelated graphics.

Custom Headers

It is a great way to align the main navigation to the brand’s branding and drive more sales.

To assist customers in getting started, there is an onboarding experience available from the start. There is access to a library of articles and tutorials to help build a website that meets the needs of one's business, which is excellent because it saves a lot of time. They know their customers very well, as answers to almost every user's questions are already available.

Apart from the knowledge-based articles, there are also FAQs. If all those aren’t enough, Weebly is proactive and helpful enough to add a live agent as a last resort, accessible during office hours. Weebly’s office hours: Monday - Friday: 6AM - 6PM US Pacific Time (9AM - 9PM US Eastern Time) and Saturday - Sunday: 6AM - 6PM US Pacific Time (9AM - 9PM US Eastern Time). Regardless of the plan, all customers have a chat and email support access. But only those with business and professional plans have access to live agents that speak US English.

Weebly offers 4 plans with monthly and annual payment options – FREE, Personal, Professional, and Performance. It is suggested that business owners avail of the yearly plan to save more. The FREE plan doesn’t have a custom domain, but it can be purchased via Weebly. SSL certificate is also provided for all plans for the entire website.

Free plan

Cost: $0/month

Key features: Basic design and tools to get started

Limitations: There will be advertisements displayed.

Personal plan

Cost: $9/month, or $6/month billed annually

Key features: Basic design & tools, allows custom domain.

Limitations (In comparison to the Professional plan): Advertisements can’t be removed.

Professional plan

Cost: $16/month, or $12/month billed annually.

Key features: Access to a wide array of templates, option to add video backgrounds, password protection, unlimited data storage, shipping calculator

Limitations (In comparison to Performance plan): Membership is up to 100 people only; no abandoned cart emails

Performance plan

Cost: $29/month, or $26/month billed annually.

Key features: All features included + Can accommodate unlimited members and public registration; abandoned cart emails; priority support via chat, email, and phone.

Weebly is a great choice for personal websites, blogs, and small businesses. It is easy to set up with all the tools provided. It is a time-saver for anyone who is just starting. Even a kid can have a professional website for FREE with its features and benefits. It is as easy as drag and drop. There is no need to learn how to code because everything is provided in templates already.

There’s also an FAQ and tutorial section for other exciting features. It’s made better for eCommerce since it merged with Square. Built-in tools improved sales and marketing with Square’s POS system and in-person payment. Almost all aspects of Square are linked to Weebly eCommerce.

To sum it up, Weebly is convenient, provides great value for money, and is customer-oriented.