Table of contents
3. What features does 3dcart offer?
3.1. Unlimited product variants
3.6. Customizable product design
3.8. Promotional opportunities
3.15. OOS (out of stock) and pre-orders
3.16. Abandoned cart optimization
4. Designing your store with 3dcart
5. What add-ons does 3dcart offer?
7.1. 3dcart Starter plan: $19/Month
7.2. 3dcart Basic plan: $29/Month
7.3. 3dcart Plus plan: $79/Month
3dcart hit the marketplace in 2001 as an all-in-one solution for ecommerce store owners.
The goal of the product was to provide something that worked just as well for the owners as it did the customers.
I find that a lot of the time you either get one or the other. You have an intuitive product that works great for the customer and provides an exceptional UX, but it’s not that great on the backend.
In some cases, it’s the other way around, but founder Gonzalo Gill set out to change that.
3dcart has a huge pool of features that provide an all-inclusive tool that might allow you to create the best ecommerce website on the internet with the right expertise and know-how.
That said, is it easy to use, is it affordable, and does it offer useful features that check all my boxes?
Who knows, you’ll have to stick around to find out!
3dcart logo
Okay, so in the most basic format, 3dcart is a SaaS platform that provides store owners with the ability to create a fully-hosted online store with a variety of pricing options and features to meet your needs and budget.
Over time, they’ve expanded the platform to offer more features that rivals the main competitor Shopify and with that came higher-level packages that also come at a higher price.
One exciting thing about 3dcart is the meaning behind the “3D” in the name.
The founder wanted to create a three-dimensional product that appealed to the store owners, search engines, and shoppers.
This would mean a SaaS that offers design tools, inventory and order management control, marketing tools, plus content, optimization, sitemaps, custom URLs, and optimized navigation, simple checkout, return authorization, wish lists, and more.
That’s quite a tall order when you think about it. Let’s see if 3dcart lives up to the name.
First, who are you and will you even get use out of 3dcart.
Before you go ahead and read this entire guide, you could ask yourself some of the following questions to determine if 3dcart is even an option for you.
If you answered yes to most of those questions, then you might find 3dcart useful.
Ultimately, the service is for those people who want to build and scale an ecommerce business by using a product that doesn’t require them to go out and buy a whole arsenal of other ones to compliment it.
It’s similar to what we’ve done with Systeme.io.
We’ve created an all-in-one marketing platform, so you don’t need to purchase anything else to go along with it.
I’ve said already that 3dcart is loaded with features, but what does that include exactly?
The cool thing about this service is that they even allow you to customize your package, so if you want something at an upper-tier because it’s important to you, it’s possible to do that.
You can customize what you get and how you get it.
Here are some of the out-of-the-box features you get with all the package options.
Having product variants is a great way to sell more of the same product or package two together that will act as an upsell.
Having unlimited variants is great because most of their competitors will charge you a premium price, not allow this, or require that you use an extension to make it happen.
There are many different categories where you can showcase your products.
3dcart allows you to put your sale items in a special category, so they take center stage in your store.
Managing your inventory and keeping control over what you have and what you don’t is essential.
3dcart makes that easy with low stock monitors and built-in purchase orders that you can populate and fill orders quickly.
With 3dcart, you have the choice to sell physical or digital products.
When we do a 3dcart vs Shopify comparison, this is one feature that this software offers that much of the competition can’t do.
3dcart is one of the only ecommerce platforms that will allow you to sell a digital product in your store.
You can do one or three-page checkout process, so if you want to include upsells and downsells in the checkout process, you’re able to do that.
3dcart is basically giving you the ability to have a sales funnel at the end without actually calling it that.
This SaaS allows you to upload product images, videos, social proof, testimonials, and much more on the product page.
These factors will help you sell more of your products while building trust with your customers, so they continue to come back.
Having the flexibility to create gift registries, wish lists, and gift cards are also not something that a lot of other ecommerce tools can do.
3dcart comes in hot with some features that really make this service stand out from the crowd. I think a lot of these features will really make holiday sales that much greater.
Referring to the previous point, you can also create promotions, coupons, and discounts with countdown timers attached to them.
This factor is great because when you pair this with the gift options and wish lists, you’re creating an inclusive environment that keeps you fresh in people's minds.
If you plan on selling a lot of different items or you’re doing dropshipping, you’ll appreciate the ability to bulk import products.
This feature also makes it easy for you to transfer from another ecommerce software if you’re switching from Shopify to 3dcart.
It’s fast and easy to process orders, create orders, and send invoices with 3dcart.
The software provides everything you need to do this is an efficient and effective manner.
In addition to sending invoices and orders, you can even print labels, create tracking numbers, and access shipping information all from your dashboard.
3dcart even provides you with the ability to split the same shipment across multiple locations.
It’s super intuitive, which really creates a great user experience, but I’m worried about the learning curve.
If you run a retail store, you can use 3dcarts POS solution with your iPad to incorporate your online sales with your in-store sales.
This helps you better manage inventory and customer service concerns.
At first, I was wondering if 3dcart was a marketing tool as well, and in some ways, it is.
They also provide email templates that help with your campaigns, but they’re pretty limited, and they don’t offer any automations or sequences to go along with it.
Depending on the package you choose, you can get one or more email hosting accounts with your 3dcart subscription.
A big part of maintaining your inventory is providing customers with accurate information.
This is especially true in high-volume sales, so you’ll want to have an OOS notification system and the ability to allow customers to pre-order items that aren’t yet in stock.
3dcart says they provide “abandoned cart notifications,” which I think means emails.
I would hope they allow you to do this through the platform; otherwise, you would have to integrate another email marketing tool to handle follow-up emails, which is an essential part of the ecommerce funnel.
Your customers can come and leave their own comments and reviews on the products they purchase from your store. This helps with social proof and brand trust.
The founder did say he wanted an ecommerce platform that works for the search engines, and this is a great way to make that happen.
Their built-in blog is a great way to boost your traffic and direct readers to your store by promoting products in your articles.
3dcart provides templates for free and ones you need to pay for.
They have more than 30 themes, but a lot of them are as much as $180, which I think is insane.
You have to pay for the service, and on top of that, if you want a decent-looking theme, you need to pay nearly $200 for it.
They do offer 30 free ones in the store and about 70 on your dashboard, but some of the 3dcart themes are just awful.
There isn’t anything that separates them from all the other designs online, they’re a bit cluttered, and even the premium options don’t impress me.
Here was the nail in the coffin for me with 3dcart.
The software is extremely difficult to customize and design because it requires knowledge of HTML and CSS if you plan on changing the layout.
This is not a drag-and-drop ecommerce store builder.
Frankly, from my perspective, I don’t know how you can sell a product in 2020 that doesn’t allow users with no developer knowledge to edit it on their own.
It’s just an outdated philosophy.
So, if you want to customize your already crappy themes, good luck. You’ll have to hire someone.
3dcart provides almost all the integrations you’ll ever need with a list of over 200.
There are many that come built-in to the store, but there are some that require you to purchase as an extension.
The app store isn’t huge, but it does contain some helpful choices for order management, shipping, marketing, dropshipping, and more.
Here’s an example of some of the options:
3dcart also offers payment processors, and they don't charge transaction fees for the service, which is a plus.
You can use the big cart processing choices like PayPal, Stripe, Square, PayJunction, Skrill, WorldPay, and more.
The tool boasts 24/7 customer support, but the amount of it you get is based on the package option you choose.
My research and personal experience dealing with their support was so-so.
The phone support was dropped many times, you’re transferred from department to department, and it doesn’t seem like they have a solid hold on handling your call.
The good news is, their live chat is super quick to respond, and the knowledge base they have is helpful in answering your questions.
Let’s take a look at the pricing now and see if it’s worth it to use 3dcart, despite some of its issues.
Systeme.io's home page
Okay, so yeah, 3dcart is pretty cheap when you compare it to other tools like Kartra, but does it offer all the marketing features and designer usability you’re looking for?
I just have to say, it’s not enough. There are a ton of features here, but they don’t add up to a product that allows you to create a store that will convert people into buyers.
I just can’t get over the 3dcart templates, the lack of user-friendliness, the learning curve, and the fact that they don’t even let you customize the templates.
By the way, with Systeme.io, we have a drag-and-drop ecommerce store builder, email marketing automation tools, blog platform, membership area, and we let you sell digital products too.
In fact, you can even create your own digital product and sell it using Systeme.io.
We will tell you all about it here.
Plus, you get all the features of 3dcart’s premium plans for $27.
It’s more affordable and loaded with the features you want.
You know, the ones you’ll actually use to generate an ROI.
Start your 14-day trial now
Try systeme.io for free, the only tool you need to
launch your online business