ThriveCart Review – Is this The Best Shopping Cart For You?

thrivecart review

ThriveCart Review – Is this The Best Shopping Cart For You? – The ThriveCart review has been and is still one of the most sorts after information by marketers on the web. Being in development for about 4 years plus, ThriveCart was then launched in 2016 by founder, Josh Bartlett. Until now, the shopping cart software is one of the most thriving software among others in the market and still offers a one-time heavily discounted fee through their pilot program.

Luckily for ThriveCart, the software gained popularity in the marketing sphere and now stands as one of the most used shopping cart software. More reason to wow about is the fact that ThriveCart now stands as a huge competitor for SamCart (which is the most used shopping cart by big brands).

thrivecart review

ThriveCart Overview

The tons of features slapped into this shopping cart software, ThriveCart, have made it one of the fastest-growing software and the big rival in the industry. For this reason, ThriveCart has managed to pull a huge cult-like following over the years.

ThriveCart aims at making sales easier by offering tons of functionalities to help you market your products and services with ease. Not only do you sell products or services with ease, but you also get a fantastic analytics dashboard where you can track your sales to see what’s converting and what’s not. It is great for creating bump offers and it also serves as an integrated affiliate platform.

Who needs ThriveCart?

Thanks to the dozens of ThriveCart reviews on the web (and just like this one), people can now know if ThriveCart is for them or if they would be able to get their job done with it.

Okay, let’s get straight to the point. ThriveCart is a shopping cart software and a shopping cart software is used by marketers who are looking for an advanced way to sell or market their products or services, which could be either physical or digital, on the internet. Nowadays, a shopping cart software just like ThriveCart is not only useful to those who take marketing as a profession, but it can be a handy tool for anyone who wants to sell an ebook, a digital course, a customized mug, a weight drug, a software, and the list can keep going on.

In simple words, if you are looking for an easy but cutting-edge way to sell products or services to internet users and have great analytics to track your performance, then ThriveCart is a great recommendation for you.

thrivecart

Features of ThriveCart

Why ThriveCart has a great following is because of its features. ThriveCart offers a wide array of features like the ability to set multiple payment plans or a one-time payment, automate sales tax, support over 20 currencies, design sales pages, and some more cool stuff.

So, in this ThriveCart review, we are going to be looking at certain important features that ThriveCart offers.

1.    Higher conversion rate features

ThriveCart lets you create amazing high-converting pages that increase the total conversation rate of the products or services you are marketing. Using ThriveCart, you can create and customize shopping cart pages, checkout pages, sales funnels, upsells, and more. And intelligently share your data with other tools in your marketing stack.

With these features, ThriveCart has aided bloggers and e-commerce store owners to increase their average order value and also their conversion rates. Now, let’s head on to talk more about some of these high conversion rate features.

  1. Discount: If you are looking forward to offering discounts to your customers in the future, ThriveCart can help you set up discounts. ThriveCart makes it easy to add a discount section to a checkout page and helps you set up and share coupons with customers who can add them as they pay. Discounts are a profitable way of attracting customers to a shopping cart and ThriveCart takes it seriously by even helping you create recurring discount coupons.

ThriveCart also offers you features to create coupons that can be accessed through a specific URL. You also can choose the type of discount you want to offer to your customers. ThriveCart offers an array of discount options to choose from. Some of the discount options are Percentage discount, fixed amount discount, Date range availability of coupons, Free shipping codes, Limited coupon usability, integrated coupons sent by triggers, etc.

  • Bump offers: Bump offers are created to be added as a supplementary to the main product on a checkout page. Thanks to ThriveCart bump offers, you can easily turn in some income when customers are on your checkout page and are eager to buy. ThriveCart helps you add a product or more to your checkout page. And with a single click, customers can also add them to their cart.

Setting a bump offer is different unlike setting up the main product. For the bump offers, you have to set them up in the bump tab of your main product settings. And when launching your bump offer, you will need to choose whether it is a digital or physical product/service, set a price tag, payment mode, product name, and so on.

  • A/B Testing: ThriveCart makes it quick and easy for marketers to set up split tests for their carts. With A/B testing, markers can increase the conversation rates of their products. ThriveCart helps marketers split-test multiple steps in their sales process by split-testing a couple of sales pages to see which sales page performs better by taking customers to the cart page. Marketers will also need to split-test the cart page to check which variation has a better performance.
  • Countdown Timers: With the help of countdown timers, you can invoke the feeling of scarcity. That way, your products, and services can get more attention and drive in more sales from prospective customers.

ThriveCart offers you only two types of timers: Evergreen timers; they begin their countdown only when the customer lands on the checkout page. The Fixed timers, on the other hand, are set to begin and end their countdown after a fixed time. This means they start counting down once they are set on whether customers land on the checkout page or not.

2. Shopping cart template plus editor

The shopping cart page is one important page to be keen about designing. This is because the shopping cart page is the page where customers will pile up the products they will be buying and simply click the buy button to head over to the checkout page where they will input their payment details. Think of it as a normal shopping cart in a supermarket.

Let’s be clear about our ThriveCart review — offering high-converting shopping cart templates is one thing that ThriveCart has always proclaimed about. But, of course, tons of shopping cart software in the market will say the same.

For some people, the available shopping cart template options seem limited and would wish to have more to choose from. Aside from that, ThriveCart has incorporated different checkout behaviors into the different shopping cart templates. This means that if you want a one-step checkout behavior, you will have to choose the one-step cart template. And if you want to incorporate a pop-up checkout page into a website, you will have to choose the pop-up cart template. Simple as that.

To be honest, in this ThriveCart review, ThriveCart did a good job by offering some level of flexibility when it comes to editing templates. But still, you can’t fully customize the overall appearance. A large following of ThriveCart would arguably say that too much customization would always turn out to be detrimental to achieving a high conversation. So, minimal customizable is better for achieving a higher conversion.

However, ThriveCart has done some upgrades to their shopping cart template editor. Now, their checkout editor features tons of elements that should drive conversions with a simple drag and drop approach. On your journey to designing your shopping cart, you will get to see only 4 template types offered by ThriveCart to choose from. These templates types are:

  1. Standard: In this type of checkout template, you can split the checkout page into two sections and have one part as the main page, and the other part as the sidebar. You can add content on whichever part you choose.
  1. Sales cart: This is a simple type of checkout template where you only have the main page and add a checkout at the bottom of the page.
  1. Embeddable cart: This type of checkout template lets you embed a checkout link in your website and can be placed in between web pages content. The Embeddable cart template redirects customers to a checkout page where customers can continue with their purchase.
  1. Pop-up: Pop-up checkout template can be embedded in a website page and pops up when a user clicks on a button or link.

3. Checkout page

The checkout page, hosted by ThriveCart, is the page where the customer will enter their payment details. After payments, the customer will be directed down the sales funnel to either an upsell or a downsell, or the final page — the ‘Thank You’ page.

We give ThriveCart a hat-off for testing multiple checkout page layouts and design options. The outcome? We now have in front of us layouts and design elements that help in increasing sales conversions.

Well, this has become better for people who want to quickly use their computers to set up a checkout page for their products and/or services and just get down to business. You don’t need to be a tech guy to get started on creating a checkout page for your products or services. The steps are simple for creating a converting checkout page. ThriveCart reminds us that its pages are simply designed to look premium and are built to increase sales.

Giving a frank ThriveCart review, ThriveCart checkout pages give you a clean interface to work with. You also have the freedom to add and remove elements you want and do not want using a simple drag and drop approach. For instance, you can choose what customer details you want to collect using pre-defined information fields or create custom fields to collect additional customer details whilst tweaking their order of appearance.

ThriveCart lets you tweak your checkout page just the way you want it using colors, padding, fonts, mandatory checkboxes, and more. You don’t have the time to design checkout pages or do you have one you have designed on some other eCommerce platform? Relax, ThriveCart also lets you import checkout page designs from other platforms as well. So, if you have a checkout page that you prefer, you can simply import it into your ThriveCart account.

4. Creating upsells and downsells

After creating your product or service, ThriveCart lets you create a sales funnel in the products area to present an upsell and/or downsells to your potential customers. All you have to do is go to the main product and click on “Create Funnel”. For the main product to not be reused, separate upsells and downsells should be created first.

When you create upsells and downsells to add to your sales funnel, the upsells and downsells are sequentially shown to your customers. Immediately after a customer is done purchasing a product on a checkout page, ThriveCart automatically leads them to the first created upsell in the sales funnel. If the customer successfully buys the product listed in the upsell, he will be taken to the next step in the sales funnel or the success of the page.

Meanwhile, if the customer refuses to buy the upsell, the customer will be taken to the downsells or the next step in the sales funnel which could be another upsell or downsell, or the success page. If the customer successfully buys or refuses the downsell, the customer will be taken to the success page or another step in the sales funnel.

An upsell or downsell process is like a new chapter that begins for a customer. But the good thing is that the customer does not have to go through the stress of filling out his payment details again. This is because the payment details were already captured when buying the main product. When it comes to funnel functionality, ThriveCart lets you add 5 upsells and their downsells subsequently.

4. Setting rules based on customer behavior

In this ThriveCart review, the next thing to talk about is how ThriveCart lets you set rules based on customer behavior. On ThriveCart, you can automatically set rules to trigger actions based on a definite condition or behavior.

Customer behavior rules on ThriveCart are easy to set up. You can easily set them up using third-party integrations like Memberium, Demio, and ActiveMember360. When setting up rules for customer behavior, you will be asked to select the rule to trigger and then select the third-party service that will execute the task.

For instance, if a customer finishes purchasing a product, he can be automatically added to an email list, tags, send an automated email campaign, push notifications or some sort of campaign list. On ThriveCart, there are many more customer behavior rules to choose from. Some of the customer behavior rules you can choose from are:

  • Purchases the main product
  • Purchases the bump
  • Recurring payment fails
  • Refunds the bump
  • Subscription canceled
  • Payment is declined
  • Refunds the main product
  • Abandons the cart
  • Makes recurring payments
  • Refunds a recurring payment

Another interesting thing to know is that ThriveCart keeps track of your cart abandonment too. So, anytime a potential customer abandons your cart, ThriveCart does well to send out a follow-up recovery email to get the customer back into purchasing your products.

You also get a tracker for overdue subscriptions and a built-in dinning system to help you automatically recover revenue, send notifications for payments, send notifications when cards are about to expire, follow up for overdue payments, manage subscriptions, and modify affiliate commissions, and more.

5. Creating a membership site

Another good feature you’ll come across in our ThriveCart review is that you can create membership sites for your customers automatically at the time of their checkout. Adding customers to a membership site is one of the three options (among displaying invoices or sending them to a specific URL) ThriveCart offers for the fulfillment area.

Don’t bother if your customers don’t have an account. ThriveCart automatically creates an account for your customers and applies a membership level to their accounts. But the thing is, ThriveCart does not have a built-in membership site, instead, they integrate with third-party membership site platforms like WPQuickStart, Thinkific, Wild Apricot, Kajabi, and Teachable, to provide this functionality.

Through your membership site platform that is integrated with ThriveCart, you can capture customers’ details automatically and an automated email will be sent to your customers with their access details to their membership site account. Furthermore, you can choose to create different membership levels and add multiple payment options like a Basic plan, an Intermediary plan, an Advanced plan, and so on.

6. Affiliate programs

Affiliate programs are a way to award your customers for their work of referring their friends and family members to shop products and services from you. This can increase revenue and customer loyalty.

Thanks to ThriveCart, you can use their in-built affiliate program feature to create and manage affiliate commissions, cookie durations, affiliate target URL, and sign-up processes. On ThriveCart, there are different affiliate commissions for the different pricing plans you have set up.

Furthermore, you can also select how your affiliates would be paid and how long it would take before they can get paid. Then head on to set your payments gateway — whether it will be automated (which is usually PayPal) or manually set. ThriveCart also lets you do more settings on your affiliate program. You can manage how you want to approve new affiliates; either automatically or manually. In addition, you can also choose to not allow new affiliates to join your affiliates program for a set time. More affiliate options include tracking affiliate leads, setting up cookies, adding affiliate redirect links, adding upsells and downsells, and more.

7. Order Success/Thank you page

Before I give my ThriveCart review, the order success or thank you page is the last step a customer takes is the last page a customer sees at the end of a sales funnel after making a purchase or rejecting to buy upsells and/or downsells.

On the ‘Thank You’ page, customers can see a total view of their purchase or invoice, get the link to download their digital products, add customers to a membership site, etc. During setup, the Order Success or Thank You page can be the second to last page as you will have to set up an email blast just in case a customer abandons their cart.

8. Analytics and reporting

ThriveCart offers you a detailed analysis of all your account processes and actions. You get to see a well-structured insight, metrics, and reports for your business. You don’t need to study data science or accounting before you can understand ThriveCart’s analytics. In other words, it is simple to understand.

With the metrics and reports that ThriveCart pushes out to you, you can make smart decisions and track how your products and services are doing. In addition, ThriveCart makes it further easy by making all metrics customizable thereby giving you the ability to drag and drop any metrics of your choice according to your preferred order. Examples of some metrics you will get are Total customers, Total transactions, Gross revenue, and annual revenue, Net revenue, Conversion rate, Average order value, and Cancellations, among others.

Thrivecart pricing

thrivecart pricing

We have come a long way in this ThriveCart review — on the part of pricing, I think ThriveCart was a little strict. ThriveCart has a one-time lifetime payment of $495 which is not recurring, which is a huge plus. They also don’t have a different payment plan — just this one. They have a 30-days refund policy — yay!

On the downside, ThriveCart does not have a free plan and does not give trials. This means that a user will never have a taste of ThriveCart before making his buying decision. But if you end up hating ThriveCart after your purchase, you can still have your money back in the space of 30 days.

Thrivecart pros and cons

pros and cons

Even if ThriveCart is being placed as one of the best shopping cart software out there in the market, there are still some things that would make it a turn-off for people. So, in our ThriveCart review, we shall be sharing with you the pros and cons of what makes ThriveCart what it is.

Pros

  • Simple and easy interface to understand and use even for beginners.
  • Availability of major payment gateways to integrate with.
  • Ability to manage discounts and create coupons
  • Offer support for upsells, downsells, bump offers
  • It has a built-in affiliate program management tools
  • Great analysis dashboard that’s easy to customize
  • Support deep integrations with important third-party platforms
  • Large and active community
  • No need for separate hosting
  • Checkout pages can be embedded in websites

Cons

  • Doesn’t accept payment in cryptocurrency
  • Limited options for templates
  • No live chat or phone for emergency support
  • Some issues of translation have been reported
  • Not the most beautiful user interfaces in the market
  • They don’t cover all the payments gateways
  • Third-party services are needed to complete product fulfillment systems.

Thrivecart Review Frequently Asked Question

Should I get ThriveCart?

If you want to sell products/services through an affiliate program and get everything that a shopping cart software should provide and more, all in a one-time lifetime payment, then you should get ThriveCart.

Is ThriveCart a Web site?

Although ThriveCart has a website, what they offer is a powerful software solution that helps you create shopping cart pages for marketers to sell their products or services.

Is reading a ThriveCart review worth it?

Of course, reading a ThriveCart review is worth it especially if you don’t know what you are getting into. When you read the ThriveCart review, you will have an insight into what ThriveCart is all about before deciding to purchase its software or not.

Does ThriveCart work with Kajabi?

Yes, ThriveCart works with several third-party software including Kajabi using Zapier. With Zapier, you can connect between ThriveCart and Kajabi to share information.

Does ThriveCart offer a free trial?

ThriveCart does not offer a free trial. However, they offer only a lifetime payment of $495 with no recurring payment. On the other hand, they let you set free trials and payment plans for your customers.

Does ThriveCart have landing pages?

With ThriveCart, you can create any page you want that is targeted at improving the conversation rates of your products and services.

Does ThriveCart work with WordPress?

Your ThriveCart can be integrated with WordPress using Fast Member. When customers buy your ThriveCart products that are linked through Fast Member, they are automatically added to your WordPress membership site.

Does ThriveCart work with Square?

ThriveCart can work with Square using Zapier. Zapier will let you send information between ThriveCart and Square automatically without you being techy.

Does Thrivecart host courses?

ThriveCart does not host courses for its users. However, you can host courses and sell other digital products on your account.

How do you duplicate items in Thrivecart?

You can duplicate items in Thrivecart by going over the product’s space and hovering over an item, clicking on the duplicate or clone button. Then you will also have the option to edit the newly duplicated product. You can also duplicate sales and checkout pages, and elements in the editor.

ThriveCart Review Summary

In this ThriveCart review, we have seen how this shopping cart software stands out from the crowd. Its non-recurring lifetime payment, deep third-party integrations, in-built affiliate program feature, customizable analytics, etc almost makes it steal the crown. But, yunno, no software is 100 percent likable by everyone.

It’s a great breakout to see that ThriveCart which was launched not too many years ago is taking on the spotlight and contending with the big guns like SamCart.

In all, we are happy that it just gets the work done!

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