Jimdo
Is This Your Business?Author: Kalicia Bateman
Jimdo was founded in 2007 as a web hosting service and operated out of Hamburg, Germany. They launched their "shopping cart" service in 2010 to facilitate electronic commerce activity. In 2015, it was reported that Jimdo had facilitated in the creation of over 15 million websites. Shortly after that, Spectrum Equity invested in Jimdo and purchased a large percentage of their shares.
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The Good
- Ease of website
- Package breakdowns
- Customized options
- Additional Features
Ease of Website
Jimdo makes it easy for user to create a website and subsequently open up an e-commerce store to sell a variety of products. If users decide to create and design their website on Jimdo, it only makes it easier to also set up their online store and start generating revenue selling their products or services.
Package Breakdowns
While Jimdo does offer a free service, they also offer two other packages that are available at low monthly prices. Before purchasing one of these packages, store owners are allowed to try out the services for thirty days prior to making that investment. Each package is broken down as follows:
JimdoFree - $0
Professional Templates, Social Media, Mobile View, Blog, Storage and Bandwidth, HTML5, Photo Galleries, Password-protected areas, Google maps, Contact forms, Videos and file downloads.
Jimdo Pro - $7.50/month (billed annually)
Free domain, Email account, Support, Statistics, Ad-free, Optimized for smartphones, Basic online store (15 store products, No transaction fees), Search Engine Optimization, Popular widgets and everything included in free package.
JimdoBusiness - $20/month (billed annually)
Free domain, Business email package, Personalized priority support, Statistics, Ad-free, Optimized for smartphones, Complete online store (Unlimited products, Discount codes, weight-based shipping, No Jimdo transaction fee, Payment options, Up-to-date with International Law), SEO resources, Popular widgets, Mobile express page and everything included in free package.
Customized Options
Depending on which package a business owner decides to select, there is the ability to take advantage of both unlimited storage and unlimited product listings. This is great news for those who plan on hosting a large e-commerce platform with customized product listings and a number of orders being made each and every day. There are customized options for those who want to tailor their store to better serve their customer-base as well.
Additional Features
Jimdo boasts a wide array of additional features such as a drag and drop option, Google Analytics, customer support, search engine support, live chat, email accounts (with paid plans), custom domain for your site, iOS and Android compatibility, HTML and CSS compatibility, option to edit meta tags, small business tools, additional apps, share buttons and intuitive web design. The functionality of its online business website has a learning curve, but there are video tutorials to assist with this.
The Bad
- Transaction fees
- Missing features
Transaction Fees
Users will want to consider purchasing one of the monthly packages because they avoid the institution of transaction fees. While initially it may be more expensive to pay for a store each month (or annually), it can save a business costs since they do not get hit with transaction fees. The "free" version of the Jimdo shopping cart service will take out a percentage of each transaction made.Missing Features
Since Jimdo is first and foremost a web hosting service, the shopping cart platform is a second priority and does not hold as much clout. Jimdo has made great strides with their e-commerce service, however, there are still some missing features from their paid services.The Bottom Line
- Create the website - select the design and template, upload images, edit text, and avoid having to deal with any sort of coding.
- Create the online store - add products, upload product photos, connect PayPal or Stripe accounts, and then start conducting business.
