There are many eCommerce platforms, and we work with most of the popular ones. So how good is Volusion specifically, and who is it actually right for? This is an honest pros-and-cons look to help you decide.
Volusion is one of the older eCommerce platforms – one of the original all-in-one, hosted online retailing systems. We’ve done Volusion store design for everything from startups needing a first site to enterprise clients transitioning to a new image. Before you commission professional Volusion design work, weigh the trade-offs below.
Editorial note: this article was originally published in 2015 and has been updated. Some specifics – notably named payment products such as Google Wallet (folded into Google Pay in 2018) and plan details – change over time; verify current features, pricing, and integrations on volusion.com before deciding, as the platform has evolved since the original review.
Pros of Volusion
1. Design and templates
Volusion offers a sizable template selection, an increasing share of them responsive. Merchants migrating in often want to keep their existing look – in practice that means either choosing a Volusion template or commissioning custom Volusion design to recreate it. Decide which up front, because “keep my old design exactly” usually means custom work, not a theme.
2. Mobile experience
Volusion provides a mobile experience, historically with some limitations versus desktop, though responsive themes have improved this. Given that most traffic is now mobile, treat the mobile experience – not the desktop preview – as the primary thing you evaluate during a trial.
3. Reviews
Shoppers trust other shoppers, and reviews convert. Volusion merchants can send follow-up emails inviting customers to leave a quick review; a steady stream of genuine reviews on product pages supports both conversion and the trust signals search engines value.
4. Catalog import/export
Moving products from an old store is time-consuming. Volusion’s import/export function speeds this up significantly – it won’t perfectly handle every edge-case item, but it removes most of the manual entry, which matters most for large catalogs.
5. Payment and shipping options
Volusion supports common payment methods – major gateways and PayPal alongside its own Volusion Payments – and built-in or third-party options for order management and logistics. (Specific named products change; confirm the current supported list, since some processors referenced historically have since been renamed or retired.)
6. Pricing and no transaction fees
Volusion offers tiered plans with purchasable add-ons (such as SSL) from the dashboard, and notably does not charge its own transaction fees on top of payment processing on any plan – a real total-cost-of-ownership advantage worth weighing against platforms that do.
7. Customer support
Phone support is a Volusion strength, with generally fast response times, which lowers the risk for less technical merchants who need quick answers.
Cons of Volusion
1. Admin learning curve
The admin interface has limitations and assumes a degree of merchant know-how; newer merchants may find themselves contacting support more than they’d like until they learn it. Budget time for ramp-up, or plan to work with a partner who already knows the platform.
2. Reporting and exports
Custom reports can be difficult without technical skills – data feeds, accounting, and fulfillment files often need expert help to customize, which is a recurring cost to factor in if your operations are reporting-heavy.
3. Email support latency
Phone response is strong, but email responses can be slower – a friction point for merchants who prefer written, asynchronous support. The live chat option partly mitigates this.
4. Accounting/QuickBooks integration
Standard integrations may not fit every business; accounting in particular often needs a custom solution. If your finance workflow is non-standard, plan for integration work rather than assuming the default will suffice.
5. Built-in email marketing
Volusion’s native email marketing is limited. Strong third-party email platforms integrate well but add cost – capability that ships standard on some competing platforms, so include it in any cost comparison.
So who is Volusion right for?
Volusion fits merchants who want a long-established, hosted all-in-one platform with strong phone support and no added transaction fees, and who are comfortable either learning a slightly technical admin or working with a partner. It is less ideal if you need advanced built-in reporting, native email marketing, or a very gentle admin learning curve out of the box – in those cases, weigh it against alternatives and price the add-ons honestly. As with any platform, the right choice is the one that fits your catalog, operations, and roadmap – which is the evaluation we run with clients before recommending one.
Volusion vs. the alternatives: how to decide
The honest way to choose is not “is Volusion good” in the abstract but “is Volusion the best fit for this specific store.” Run your requirements through a short comparison against the platforms you’re also considering. Weigh total cost of ownership, not sticker price: plan fee plus required add-ons (email marketing, advanced reporting) plus any custom integration work, summed over twelve months – Volusion’s lack of added transaction fees is a real lever here. Weigh how much built-in functionality you need versus how much you’re willing to assemble from third parties. Weigh your team’s technical comfort against the admin learning curve. And weigh your roadmap: a platform that fits today but caps the growth you’re planning is a future migration in disguise. The same disciplined evaluation applies whether the answer turns out to be Volusion or something else.
If you’re already on Volusion and weighing a move
For existing Volusion merchants, the question is usually not the platform’s features in isolation but whether a specific, quantifiable limitation is costing real revenue or operational time. If it is – and it can’t be reasonably resolved with a custom integration or design work – that’s a migration case, and the right approach is a planned move with redirects mapped and data validated before launch, not an impulsive switch. If it isn’t, targeted design or integration work on Volusion is often the cheaper, lower-risk path. Either way, the decision should be driven by a named cost, not by platform fatigue.
Conclusion
No platform is perfect for everyone. Volusion has been around a long time and understands the needs of businesses small and large; for many merchants it is a sound choice, provided you go in clear-eyed about the trade-offs above and verify current specifics before committing. We work in Volusion regularly – if you want experts in Volusion web design and want to confirm it’s the right fit for your store, contact 1Digital® Agency.