So, you have finally finished your WordPress website for your business. Ready to get sales? Hang on just a minute, for small businesses such as yours there aren’t many options that make way for fast and easy online business.
Introducing SureCart, a fresh alternative for selling your products on the web.
What is SureCart?
This is a recently launched headless ecommerce answer to all your ecommerce problems, exclusive to WordPress.
SureCart lets you sell products and receive payments from your website by using easy to understand and tailormade order forms.
In case you are not aware, headless ecommerce is a rather innovative idea.
In geek terms this means an ecommerce platform that dissociates the front-end interface from the back-end database.
Simply put you will be able to customize and arrange order forms, customers, payments and more. You will be able to do this on WordPress but the magic really happens on SureCart’s servers. There are many advantages here including:
- Minimized traffic on your WordPress hosting server.
- Amplified security as complex and personal information is not kept on your WordPress mainframe.
- No need to expand your database.
Who Should Use It
In its current state. SureCart would be ideal if you find yourself as a:
- Creator who dabbles in selling online courses or templates
- A Freelancer who wants a hassle-free alternative to collect payment for your invoices
- Community focused organizations who gather contributions from their patrons or followers.
- A Businessperson who sells unique physical products like novels or CDs- yes people still buy CDs
- Promoting events and marketing tickets to an online event
At the moment, SureCart wouldn’t be ideal if your business has multiple products where the usual ‘shopping cart’ function would apply. However, SureCart aims to expand this throughout the course of the year.
How SureCart Works
Now you know what SureCart is and what it is used for, lets help you set up.
Getting Started
Getting SureCart set up is the same as using other WordPress plugins.
When you have connected and started the plugin, you can find SureCart on your WordPress Admin navigation.
When you click on this, you will be directed to the onboarding process. Here you will be required to sign up for a free account.
You will also be prompted to add your shop information, and link to a payment processor like Stripe or PayPal.
When you have done that, you will get an application programming interface (API) key. You need to copy this to your plugin settings.
Creating a Product
Okay so the basic setup is done and dusted. Now let’s show you how you can create your first product.
First go to your WordPress Admin. Now click “SureCart” then “Products” and then “Add New”.Now you need to add your product name and set your pricing options. SureCart currently lets you choose between One Time Payments, Subscriptions, or a Payment Plan.
The One Time Payment is upfront and it gives you the choice to determine how much you would like to charge.
This is flexible as it allows you to choose a set price, and there is the option to “allow customers to pay what they want”. This means that your customers can give personalized donations or set their own price.
As far as subscriptions are concerned, you will have the ability to choose many pricing options for each product.
When it comes to the Payment Plan options, you choose can set the number of payments you need and how often they should occur.
Again, there are many options for determining the value of your product. You will also have total control over what reflects on the checkout form.When you maneuver over every option to price, you will see the “Copy Buy Link” button. This button gives your customers a faster method to purchase your product without the need for a custom checkout.
Creating a Checkout Form
Time to create your first checkout form. First click on SureCart and then Forms. Here you will see a checkout form that’s already been made. This is your default checkout form that will be used in your Copy Buy Link.
If you want to create a custom form, it will largely boil down to the products that you have on sale. A custom form gives you the freedom to show specific pricing choices or to gather detailed information about your customer. As soon as you choose to create a custom checkout form, you will be able to modify a basic template to your liking.
Designing your own checkout forms can be really cool and it is all created in Gutenberg- another Wordpress editor.
You will have the ability to re-organize your form and add any information fields as you would want them.
Design your form with cool headings, dividers, columns, checkboxes however you see fit to use them.
Adding Your Checkout Form to A Page
Your checkout form has been created. Now we will show you how to add it on a page.
With Gutenberg you will be able to add the Checkout Form block and choose your newly created form.
You will be able to add this to pages, posts and even product review articles.
Should you prefer using a page builder, you can click on SureCart and go to Forms. Now copy the shortcode, and place it inside your page builder.
Since each form comes with a short code, SureCart is compatible with all WordPress page builders and themes.
Creating Tickets
Creating tickets is unbelievably easy with SureCart.
You will be able to choose from a variety of ticket code text, allocate discounts where applicable, how long they are valid and how many tickets each customer may redeem.
Getting to Know Your Customers
You will be able to see who buys from you and who doesn’t. You can do this through using the “customers page”.
Don t be alarmed if this list looks longer than you might imagine.
SureCart also adds “abandoned carts” to the list.
At the moment you won’t be able to sift through the list to distinguish the buyers from the browsers. However, this is something that is in the pipeline.
You will be able to see the complete profile of each customer though.
This will show all purchases made, what they have subscribed to along with their linked WordPress user account.
You will also be able to reimburse orders, cancel subscriptions, and restrict log ins to certain files from the customers page.
Controlling Subscriptions
You can view all subscription activity from the, you guessed it, “subscriptions page” .
From here you will have access to associated orders, and it allows you to fully control the subscription database as well.
You will be able to do things like change the number of subscriptions, add a trial free of charge, or even change the subscription to another product completely.
You won’t be able to find this much from other ecommerce platforms.
Customers Have Free Range
Giving your customers more freedom is also important for advancing your business. You probably won’t have time to get to every customer who wants to change their account for whatever reason.
Right from the start, you and your customers will be provided with a stunning dashboard. From here, they will be able to have control over their account:
This approach is completely DIY , so you shouldn’t even really need to hear from your customers if a change is needed here.
Then again, you might want to restrict certain areas where you might need to implement some limits on a subscription.
Fortunately, SureCart lets you choose what your customers will and won’t be able to do.
From the Customer Dashboard, your customers will also be able to track their orders, check invoice history, and access their downloads.
Once more you will have total control over your customer dashboard through the Gutenberg editor. You will also be able to design new tabs and insert any content you want.
Every part of the dashboard is its own Gutenberg block, meaning that you can design your own custom dashboard from a blank canvas.
Integrations
SureCart is sure to have multiple integrations, let’s show you what they offer at the moment.
Secure Payment Processing
You will be able to secure your online payments as SureCart utilizes Paypal and Stripe. There are other options expected to follow soon.
Apps For Added Value
A big drawcard for SureCart will be its ability to join in with other platforms. It currently has a few essential integrations assembled openly. The app also aims to add more benefits with another platform called SureTriggers.
From here you will be able to add customers to Google sheets and send messages on Slack. This feature is still being developed but expected to launch soon. Presently, when your customers buy a product, you will be able to add them to a LearnDash or TutorLMS course. You can even allocate a WordPress user role while adding them to SureMembers or MemberPress membership. By doing this, your products will be linked to the rest of your site.
Advanced Features
When it comes to advanced features, it seems as if the app’s designers are still trying to figure out where to put what.
Managing Your Funnels
There is no sure-fire answer to whether SureCart will let you manage your business clickfunnels. We are pretty sure this is on the table for discussion on their end.
Business Reporting
SureCart’s Facebook group has hinted at a reporting dashboard, however this is not featured in the free version. We suspect that this will be adjusted into the pro version when it launches.
Tax Calculation
One bulletproof advanced feature in SureCart is its free tax calculator
Here you can keep your finances up to date with the TaxJar calculator. This absolutely mahala feature is a fantastic bonus for business purposes if you ask us.
Easy To Use
The platform has put a lot of effort in being extremely user-friendly and it shows. If you have never sold any of your products online, SureCart’s interface is completely fool proof.
It has a responsive User Interface that feels completely natural and clean. It looks sleek as well.
Even though it is still in its Beta phase, the platform does make some informative videos available in case you get stuck for whatever reason. An updated and detailed information hub should be added when SureCart releases officially.
Strong Support Structure
Those who have reached out to their support structure say that they have received phenomenal service. But this does bring into question whether SureCart will be armed and ready to deal with problems of a large scale after its release.
Providing support through the Beta phase is minute compared to a massive wave in users, but their efficiency in dealing with potential problems will be tested here.
The Price Tag
At this point in time, SureCart is available as a free version.
Even though you won’t pay a cent for this, there are whole bunch of benefits. The SureCart app comes fully stacked with everything you need to start an online shop. From selling products straight to getting paid.
A Pro version is anticipated to launch by the end of 2022. This version is obviously expected to host even more features than what you currently get for free.
Some advanced features such as one click upsells, and affiliate platforms are among some the extra features you can expect in the pro version. Even though you get everything you need from the free version, we are anxious to see the enhancements of the pro version in all its glory.
Conclusion and Review
Even though the application is new, and somewhat in its formative phase, we are really excited to see how it pans out in future.
Because of their extensive data usage, many online business owners seem to think twice to use other online selling platforms.
SureCart is a safe and easy solution for this and won’t make you feel detached from the rest of your website. It is also guaranteed to give you an ecommerce experience that is unpretentious, is visually appealing and enjoyable to use.
