Freda D. CuevasAn ecommerce website is imperative for anyone who is looking to sell products and services over the internet today, unlocking the hypothetical door to business growth and increased product sales. Picking the best ecommerce website builder will provide you with a place to showcase your merchandise, help with online transactions and track your financial progress in the easiest way.
There are some elite ecommerce website builders that are the choice for multichannel selling, there are others that are ideal for beginners and of course, there are also top-tier affordable options for small businesses too. Getting your ecommerce website up and running is as simple as choosing a design theme, adding your products, customizing your shopping cart, setting up shipping and taxes, then selecting the preferred way you would like to accept payments.
If you are not into coding, there is a wide selection of ecommerce website builders that feature drag-and-drop page editors for you to create an entire website quickly and simply. They also make it easy for you to manage orders and shipping with ease.
With so many different options, it can be challenging to pick the right one to suit your needs. Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of the best ecommerce website builders on the market.
These are the best ecommerce website builders of 2021
Wix holds our title of the best ecommerce website builder of 2021. Wix supports digital as well as physical products, and allows you to display your offerings with videos alongside images. There is an option to customize the size and color, add the weight details of your products or add an SKU (a product code to enable automatically managing your inventory).
Whether you are just starting out or a more seasoned business owner, Wix promises something for everyone. Catering to over half a million stores worldwide already, Wix aims big on scaling businesses of all sizes with state-of-the-art online storefronts.
The website builder Wix offers for ecommerce platforms include essential features such as customizable store carts, customer reviews and secure payment options. There are also options for you to manage your inventory, fulfil orders and shipping all from the Wix dashboard, enabling you to track everything from the point of purchase to the delivery of a product to your customers’ front door.
Wix also makes it easy to promote your stock with coupons and set your own shipping and tax specifications. You get the option to choose from over 500 designer-made store templates to suit your ecommerce business. Wix ecommerce starts at $23 per month for their Business Basic plan.
Shopify gives you the option to choose from over 70 professional themes to create the right ecommerce website for your business. It offers users complete control over a store’s design, and no matter what plan you choose, you will have 24/7 customer support and up to two staff members from Shopify dedicated to helping build your website. If you are a complete newcomer, such sufficient customer support is something you will need to put at the top of your list when shopping for the best ecommerce website builder.
Shopify also offers dedicated web design experts who can completely customize your online store design, and can operate as a fully-featured Content Management System (CMS) in addition to being an online store.
Shopify also provides gift card options that can help increase sales by offering a flexible way for your customers to purchase from your store. Once you have created your ecommerce website, you get the choice to pick whichever payment gateway you desire with over 100 systems supported.
Squarespace prides itself on its ability to offer users “online stores that stand out”. Knowing that an ecommerce site isn’t just for physical goods, the platform offers templates for you to create a website that helps attract new customers alongside booking your services.
If your website’s main focus is customer retention rates, Squarespace encourages customers to explore your store, and helps them find what they’re looking for through a feature that suggests additional relevant products.
Squarespace charges a 3% transaction fee on all ecommerce items sold on its Business Plan, starting at $18 per month. Its Basic Commerce plan is $26 per month, which gives you access to in-depth analytics services, as well as allowing customers to create their own accounts on your website.
In terms of simplicity, Squarespace lays down the process of getting started in six simple steps. First, pick an ecommerce template and start your free trial. Then, register or transfer your business’s domain name, set up your online store by adding products and connecting a payment processor. After customizing your online store, all that is left for you to do is grow with email marketing and SEO.
Launched in 2009, BigCommerce provides a variety of templates and themes to help stores look their best and get up and running quickly. Like Shopify, Wix and Squarespace, BigCommerce users can create the online store they imagined with no coding knowledge required, as its intuitive Page Builder visual editor lets you change your site’s look and feel with ease.
Using modern development tools like Sass and Webpack, developers have the freedom to choose their preferred development environments and languages. You have the luxury of trying out the templates for 15 days before deciding whether BigCommerce is the best ecommerce website builder for you, picking from three plans, Standard for $29.95 per month, Plus for $79.95 per month and Pro for $299.95 per month.
Users can benefit from detailed and flexible product management, optimized search engine rankings, as well as a variety of integrated marketing tools and analytics. Payments can be accepted via 40+ pre-integrated gateways and shipping details can be customized as per the business’s requirements. BigCommerce also has a network of professional ecommerce designers and developers to help build your brand’s ultimate shopping experience, should you not want to do it yourself.
Zyro offers users the ability to launch an ecommerce store, sell online, and benefit from omnichannel marketing tools, all via a single dashboard.
Zyro’s ecommerce plan allows you to sell up to 100 products for just $9.90 per month. The ecommerce website builder doesn’t take any commission from what you sell, making you entirely independent.
The platform offers a range of ecommerce features, including discount coupons, gift cards, and order tracking functionalities. Zyro also offers dozens of payment options, and allows you to connect with a domain that you may already own.
Zyro also offers an SSL certificate to help protect visitor user data, meaning all main internet browsers will label your website as ‘secure’. Having an SSL certificate also boosts your website’s rankings on Google.
Alongside the basic plan, Zyro also offers an ecommerce plus option for $14.90 per month that gives you access to everything the regular plan does, plus the ability to sell up to 2,500 products, giving your customers more options for an extended shopping experience.
Weebly promises that your shoppers will be able to shop with the convenience of a fully integrated shopping cart and a secure checkout experience directly from your ecommerce website. Its shopping cart software is set-up automatically when you create your online store so you can start selling online immediately, with no technical skills needed.
Weebly gives you the ability to manage anything from a handful to hundreds of products, alongside the ability to track inventory to manage supply, show customers the number of items remaining to create urgency and boost buying behavior (e.g. only 2 left!), and automatically update shoppers when items are sold out. Its small businesses and stores plan at $18 per month (when paid annually) includes a free domain valued at $20 and $100 Google ads credit.
With Weebly, you can also manage your store on the go with its iPhone and Android apps, which allow you to process and fulfil orders, provide personalized service and respond to customer inquiries, upload new products and photos, notify customers when a purchase has shipped, check sales figures in real-time and receive notifications whenever a new order is placed.
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