TicTail is a communal shopping network that has been acknowledged as a costless e-commerce website generator. Since the year 2018, the company has amalgamated with the renowned e-commerce software – Shopify and, consequently, it can no longer be recognized as an independent entity anymore. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to highlight the major TicTail characteristics that were possessed by them until the end of 2018.
Despite discussing the merger of TicTail with Shopify in our earlier article, this information may be beneficial for those users involved in e-commerce website development as well as for those curious about the website builders and web design in general.
So, let’s begin now.
What is TicTail?
TicTail was a communal shopping website for consumers to unearth new, emerging designers worldwide with a special emphasis on fashion, art, and home decor. Through this, you could have formed a customized website and appended your product to the marketplace, expanding your visibility and the potential of making more sales.
TicTail Characteristics:
The standout feature of TicTail was the Go Shopping section, which organizes all of its shops into categories for people to come and assess unique products that would not be found elsewhere on the internet. It was somewhat similar to Etsy, but it had a modern look with an extensive list of categories such as the great outdoors, holidays, fashion and items for pets.
Unquestionably, the Go Shopping page was exceptional for both customers and sellers. The feature set was minimal, but they included most of the essentials for you:
- Establish your own custom domain.
- Incorporate an unlimited number of goods.
- Attain access to an endless amount of bandwidth space.
- Link to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
- Set country, currency, and tax.
- Administer orders and products with ease.
- Create discounts for customers.
- Construct a store with a mobile-responsive interface.
- Gain access to numerous apps to enhance how your store operates.
TicTail Pricing:
That was the enticing part of the TicTail to some people
TicTail was a completely free platform, with free hosting, and an unlimited supply of bandwidth and product uploads. You still had to pay for any transaction fees through Stripe, PayPal and Klarna, but everything else was free.
This meant no monthly or checkout fees, and no payment for premium features or early terminations.
TicTail Income Streams:
TicTail had two primary income streams:
Transaction payments for purchases made through the TicTail platform and paid add-ons to enhance merchant stores. TicTail did not charge its merchants sign-up, monthly subscription, or product listing fees, but the Company took a 30% cut of all revenue generated through user stores. This constituted TicTail’s main income stream, for most of the Company’s annual revenue.
The Company also generated revenue through the sale of premium add-ons, or apps, that served to enhance the functionality of users’ stores. While there were a number of free apps available, many of the platform’s most beneficial or popular apps were only available as paid-for offerings. These apps cost as much as $20 per month to use.
What Was The Selling Process on TicTail:
Creating a custom shop in TicTail was simple and free. And the best part was that all sales you drove yourself were yours. Only if customers found you through TicTail’s marketplace you were charged a 10% commission. Follow the subsequent steps of how users sold on TicTail.
- You needed to set the country, currency, and tax for your store. Otherwise, TicTail would set this by default based on your browser’s input.
- Then you added your brand’s name, a description to explain what you wanted to sell, and your first product. You were required to include a picture of the product, mentioned a name, price, category, quantity, or if you offered any variations of the same item, such as different colors or materials.
- TicTail gave you the freedom to choose your themes and make them more personal.
- Next, you had to go to Payments
- The subsequent step would be Shipping to add your different shipping options and the custom message that would be automatically sent to customers who place an order.
- Finally, you had to select your terms and conditions. You could have added a standard 14-day return policy or the generous 30-day return policy
Next steps: You checked the App Store. TicTail could have been very basic if you used it as a free platform, but you could have upgraded it using apps. Some were free, for others, you had to pay a monthly subscription.
- Custom domain name. €1/month.
- Yotpo Product Reviews. free.
- Sellfy, if you wanted to sell anything digital you create instead of physical products. €11/month.
- Plugin SEO detects issues that may affect your performance on search engines. free.
- Printout Designer Premium, to create customized invoices, labels, and other printouts. €6/month.
Pros and Cons:
Like any other e-commerce website builder, TicTail came with its pros and cons
- Simple and quick setup;
- User-friendly and convenient for beginners and web design pros;
- Many web store creation options;
- Availability of applications that can enhance functionality to your website.
When it came to the drawbacks of the system, there were not too many of them These were:
- Lack of integrated shipping options, which occasionally slowed down the delivery process for bulk sales
- Insufficient web store customization tools
- Absece of a blog, which could have been a handy tool for any online store.
What Occurred To TicTail?
[bctt tweet=”In November 2018, TicTail was bought by Shopify.” username=”vizacamagazine”]
TicTail shuttered its site on 1 April 2019. Shop owners could have accessed the dashboard until 1 May 2019.
If you are looking for a drag-and-drop site developer, TicTail is not the best choice as you cannot customize the header or footer of your website as easily as you can with Weebly or Wix. However, TicTail had some reasonable features.
