Solid Platform with Great Potential but Needs Improvements!
I wanted to give this product a full 5 tacos, but after thoroughly exploring 99% of the Tier 3 features, I found a few limitations and shortcomings. My primary goal for purchasing this LTD was to sell digital products and subscriptions, and it shows promise in those areas. It’s also a great addition to my portfolio of cart platforms like WooCommerce, ThriveCart, and SamCart. I truly hope the team delivers on their roadmap and remains around for the long haul.
PROS ("The Good")
*Digital Products & License Keys: The standout feature for me is the ability to sell digital products and generate license keys for activation. While manual activation may be required on my end, I'd appreciate clarity on tracking and managing license keys—especially for refunds and deactivations.
*Customizable Landing Pages & Checkout Features: Offers a variety of options for customization, including the ability to add images, videos, and custom code.
*CNAME/Custom Domain Setup: Straightforward setup with clear instructions.
*Coupon Functionality: Ability to create fixed or percentage-based discounts is a nice touch.
CONS ("The Bad & The Ugly")
*White Label Limitations: The CNAME feature falls short when Zylvie branding is still visible in headers and footers. Charging extra to remove branding, especially for top-tier LTD buyers, is a poor practice.
*Outdated Design: The landing page design options feel stuck in the 90s, with limited flexibility.
*Brand Management Restrictions: There’s no option to delete and replace brands while preserving the inventory limit.
*Domain Linking Issues: After setting up a custom domain, the "view my store" link in the admin dashboard still points to the Zylvie site, leading to an error page.
*Cart Abandonment Disclosure: This valuable feature is locked behind Tier 5, which isn’t made clear in the AppSumo listing.
*Affiliate/Referral Limitations: Affiliate links can only be created manually via email invitations. The absence of a self-service affiliate registration (like Partnero) is a missed opportunity. Please refer to these screenshots: Refer to these screenshots: https://prnt.sc/yV4P7Wfbiii9, https://prnt.sc/KP_seoF5uvnq
*Coupon Date Errors: Coupons with specific start and end dates arbitrarily change when revisited for editing.
*In the cart, when customer selects the bump offer, the cart total does not add up correctly. There's also no option to "continue shopping" or go back to the home page if customer wants to select more products.
*Sales Volume Uncertainty: It's unclear what happens after reaching the stated $1 million sales cap for Tier 3 users.
Final Thoughts
This platform is a strong and cost-effective alternative to other cart platforms, but there’s room for significant improvement. Addressing the issues outlined above could make this a 5-taco contender.
Jay_from_Zylvie
Dec 27, 2024Hi there,
We definitely appreciate that you took all the time to provide us with both sides of the coin.
That's a very long list of cons (of course, can't fault your honesty), some are valid, some are a matter of opinion, and a few I also dare say are user error/misunderstanding.
All feedback are taken seriously and will be worked on.
It's really a lot, so I won't address all of them here, plus it goes beyond the scope of a review response (and AppSumo are quite strict about what goes into the reviews section).
But one thing I will definitely respond to here and now:
"Gating features" (cart abandonment) -- We submitted a change to the deal terms to AppSumo like 3 weeks ago now. We're trying our best here. I can't force AppSumo to move faster as there's a queue even just to fix 1 typo, let alone add features.
This is how it works behind the scenes: It's not like we can just edit the deal page independently. We submit a form, they decide "in their discretion" if they want to approve it, and then they make the change. This can take weeks -- hell, in this case, this HAS taken weeks.
Now. The reason we offer cart abandonment to Tier 5 users for now is not because we hate Tier 4 users and below. Let's make that absolutely clear; we love all of our users.
It's because cart abandonment is a very new featurre, and it's also computationally expensive just to run the cronjob 24/7 to monitor the status of carts and send out emails reliably and in a timely manner.
We want to know we can handle the load and volume on our servers before we open the feature up to all. You can double-verify this with anyone in IT or any LLM out there.
Plus it's our Tier 5 users who have the most sales volume right now, so the data gathering will be most efficient with them.
Even running the cart abandonment feature for just a few days so far (yes, it's that young, check out our roadmap when it was released -- we always have exact dates when key features go live), we have already made several key changes to the feature. It's being made stronger, better, and more reliable even as we speak.
These things aren't decided by accident or, worse, by greed/profit motive.
It would be comical to think that it's driven by greed, because selling on AppSumo is probably the most exactly-opposite thing that a founder can do to be greedy.
Jesus Christ, it's only $59 for a freaking lifetime plan, and we only make 45% of that. Assuming a lifetime is just 5 years, that's a few cents per month to support a lifetime user. Greed is hilarious.
Believe me, when the cart abandonment feature is ready for prime time, we'll extend it to more users.
I'm okay if a review alludes to incompetence, but I'm not so okay if it alludes to a defect in character or integrity. Let's clear the air up and allow me at least my right of reply.
To end of, let me reiterate what I already said above: All feedback are taken seriously and will be worked on.
Happy holidays now.
With thanks,
Jay