Why We Use Simplero: Eliminate That Tech Stack Pain

Running an online shop can be a real challenge. You need to make sure all the technical details are working together, like your website, payment processing, and email marketing, digital product delivery. It can be a real headache, and it's easy to get bogged down in the details and lose sight of what really matters - creating great content and delivering value to your customers.

I know this from hard experience. When I started my first online business back in 2008, which focussed on counselling for body image issues, I loved it.

I ran The Body Image Revolution, an online summit where nearly 5000 women participated over a couple of years. I was also doing 1-on-1 counselling work. By the time I got to the third series I was complely burned out from constantly juggling all the tech, updating plugins, making sure everything still worked after any updates, remembering to change passwords, linking up payment processors with my website, making sure the membership plugin delivered the content in the right order to the right people and cut off access if they opted out, and on and on and on.

Before I retrained as a counsellor, I'd spent years working in communications and part of that was building websites for clients. So I had some tech background and really thought I could manage the tech in my business. But honestly, in the end it sucked all the joy out of my business. I eventually gave up and went back to a job in 2011.

But, I love working for myself. It’s such a deep desire that it’s hard to ignore. But I don’t want the pain - and the head drain - I had before so this time around, I'm doing things easier!

I found Simplero way back then but was only using it to maintain my email list, process the payments and deliver the files from my summits. I had my website hosted on WordPress on SiteGround (We still use SiteGround for our l'il cross stitch shop). I did maintain my Simplero subscription for all those years because I always thought I'd jump back in to the body image space.

Still, ten years later, my interests have moved much more into coaching and design. So, Kirsty and I set up ClickSell Studio in 2022 to help coaches and therapists and online business owners get the tools they need to make fast products so they can serve their clients better. Everything is with Simplero now - website, blog, shop and courses. And all the stress of the tech stack is just gone! I’ve completely relaxed about all the tech stuff in the last year.

Anyway enough about us - this is about Simplero, and how the all-in-one tech has taken the stress out of online business infrastructure for us this time around.

Streamlining Your Online Shop with Simplero's Page Builder

One of the things I love about Simplero is the page builder. It's quick, easy, modern, and very customizable. I can make changes to my website fast. I’ve used WordPress page builders for years so wasn’t too worried about making pages in Simplero.

It’s not WordPress though - you have to find where everything is. Once I did that (marketing > main website > new page!>) it was really easy. At time of writing I’ve only built about a dozen pages but it gets faster and faster. You can save any page as a template or duplicate any page to change the content, so you don’t have to create layouts again and again.

BUT what I’ve loved is that as I’ve been adding products to the shop, I’ve been able to create a custom thank you message for each product. Kirsty’s had the idea to set up a thanks page for each category so that’s in the workplan too.

Honestly the user interface in the page builder is pretty easy. I wanted to add a link to our contact page and it’s all just clicks - select the text, click the hyperlink button that popped up, browse through to the page. You can browse through to products or blog posts or even triggers. I’d expect that with WordPress but was delighted to find it here.

Need Help? It’s a click away

I sometimes think the helpdesk must sigh when they see yet another question from me pop up. They have a fantastic knowledge base that’s highly searchable but I’m a WordPress user: I’m used to being able to (eventually) find a plugin that will do anything. (Otehrwise known as another thing to maintain and hope is upgraded when WordPress updates.)

The Simplero support team is always ready to help, right there in the same screen you’re working in - no need to go trawl a forum, create a new login to the support desk and check back. You just click the help button and search the really comprehensive knowledge base. No answer? Log a ticket. Right in the same screen! The answer pops up, right in the same screen.

We’re in Australia and Simplero is in the US and Europe so there’s a bit of a time zone difference. But answers are almost always given within a few hours, even on weekends!

It's really reassuring to know that I can get the help I need whenever I need it. This level of support is something I never experienced with WordPress, and it's been a real game changer for me. Yes I can find a WordPress specialist and pay them for their expertise, but this support is built right in.

And if you want them to do closer hand-holding, there’s what they call a Concierge service - you can buy hours to ask them anything, and they’ll set up funnels or help with automations or course setup or set stuff up with you - so training, really. I haven’t used them yet (I can do it all myself, right? :D)

I am about to use them though to work out if I can import my Etsy shop from a spreadsheet file, rather than add my products one by one (over 100 products takes some time.) It will be money well spent. My appointment is next week (a Thursday in April 2023) so I’ll maybe write a new post about that afterwards.

And their ethos…

I don’t know about you, but I like doing business with ethical businesses. I usually find that most often in other small businesses.

That’s what I loved about Simplero when I first found them. Calvin Corelli founded it - he built the all-in-one tool he needed for his own business. In those early days he was often on the help desk!

13 years later he’s still at the helm, does weekly lives to help people with their businesses, and really cares about their customers. (I’m pretty sure he’s not on the help desk anymore!). Want an example of their ethos in action: Just click the simplero logo in the top left corner of any page. Seriously, I can’t help but grin.

Simplero Actually Does Make Managing our Small Business Easier

Overall, Simplero has made my life as an online business owner a lot easier and more enjoyable. Seriously - everything is just THERE, in one place. Affiliate account, membership site, media library (yes, you can store and embed videos and audios, no more 3rd party stuff!) and I’m really keen to try out their interactive worksheets with our upcoming course.

No more searching and testing and juggling and multiple subscriptions. Anytime we want to do anything, we know it’ll be possible in Simplero - it lets us focus on creating great content and delivering value to our customers. I hope I’ve been able to describe some the relief I’ve got from not having to think about that tech stack.

If you're looking for a way to make your online business lighter and easier, and feel less on your own about managing it all, Simplero is definitely worth considering. It's intuitive, customizable, and packed with features that will make your life a lot easier.

So why not give it a try? You can get a free 14 day trialto see if it’s right for your business so you can see for yourself how it can save you time, hassle, and stress as an online business owner. I hope you’ll be as glad you did as I have been.

Full disclosure

I just wanted to mention that I am an affiliate of Simplero. This means that if you sign up for Simplero through my link, I may receive a commission. We use it and love it. If you have any questions about Simplero or our experience with it, please don't hesitate to reach out. And of course, there's absolutely no pressure to use my affiliate link - I'm just happy to share what has worked well for me in the hopes that it might help you too!