With the advent of website builders, it’s easy for anyone – regardless of technical skill – to create their own online store that customers will love. eCommerce website builders and store creators provide everything necessary to sell online, including inventory management, automated shipping and tax quotes, and customer engagement tools. Skip the expensive web designers and make your own site that is both professional and simple to manage!
To get you started, we’ve compiled a list of the seven best eCommerce website builders. They typify everything the platform can and should be. With impressive and exclusive features, it is up to you to decide which will best meet your needs.
Shopify
N
early 400,000 online stores have been built using the Shopify builder platform. Users can choose from over 100 beautifully designed themes for a professional and modern look. The platform is extremely flexible and gives you a range of tools that will help you run your business on the backend by managing accounts, keeping track of inventory and handling payments. Additional apps are available to expand the features of your site. These apps are fully integrated so you will never struggle to add features to your website.
Customers will be able to buy from your store from their mobile device without any hassles. This is because Shopify includes free eCommerce shopping cart features for mobile. All themes include mobile-friendly features that automatically convert and scale down for mobile browsing.
Shopify even has a free downloadable app which allows you to manage your online store on the go from their tablet or smartphone.
BigCommerce
The Big Commerce platform has processed over eight billion dollars in sales. This is a testament not only to the popularity of the platform but to the usability of the sites it creates as well. Included in their monthly packages is a comprehensive set of eCommerce tools which you can use to set up newsletters and autoresponders, run promotions or send out coupons, and integrate with a secure payment gateway. This will ensure that your site looks and acts like one that could cost thousands of dollars to create..
The platform offers new users seven free templates and dozens of paid premium templates. Once your theme is chosen, the intuitive drag-and-drop feature allows you to place your content onto your website. BigCommerce automatically pushes security upgrades and other technical changes so you can concentrate on running your business. As part of a premium account, you will also get unlimited bandwidth and storage space; No matter how many products you have in your online shop, you will always pay one flat fee.
Wix
Wix is an innovative website builder that non-professionals can use to create stunning websites. The templates are fresh and modern and it only takes a few minutes to acclimate with the platform and learn your way around the website editor. You can also edit your mobile site separately from your desktop site, creating a tailored experience for your mobile visitors.
Wix offers an affordable month-to-month plan. If you sign up for an annual plan, however, you can save 30% to 45% a year, depending on which package you choose. Wix is very generous with their free sites, enabling users to create fully usable sites that are hosting on the “.wix.com” platform. This means that you can try it for free before you decide whether it suits your needs. Wix does have some drawbacks. Once you’ve committed to a template you can’t switch it, and you can’t automate some eCommerce functions such as email purchase confirmations. Other than that, Shopify makes it simple for the novice website builder to set up an online store.
Wix does have some drawbacks. Once you’ve committed to a template you can’t switch it without manually transferring all of the data from your site. Additionally, some eCommerce functions cannot be automated, such as email purchase confirmations. Other than that, Wix makes it simple for the novice website builder to set up an online store.
3dcart
Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, you can use 3dcart to create the perfect online store. They offer secure and reliable hosting, optimized performance and the most SEO-friendly shopping cart solution available. 3dcart’s user interface is not as simple to use as some of the other website builders, but once you get the hang of it, you will be surprised by the number of great features it has. These include one of the best shopping cart functions we have used, which allows shop owners to add tons of options including gift-wrapping.
The site carries over well on to mobile. The themes, which admittedly are somewhat stale, are extremely responsive no matter what platform. Sites can be expanded and further customized using apps. What we like best about 3dcart is how easy it is to grow on the platform. It is extremely adaptable and offers users the features that give them the ability to sell on other sites including eBay and Amazon.
[divider]
Volusion
Volusion offers you a choice of four plans. They don’t charge any transaction fees and there is a wide range of themes to choose from. With nearly 360 templates, there is something for everyone. Over 80 of Volusion’s themes are free, allowing users to avoid the paid themes, which tend to be on the expensive side. Worth nothing, however, is that only 23 of the themes are mobile responsive.
If you can get around that, you’ll find their website builder easy to use. But they only give you a limited amount of bandwidth so if your site proves to be popular, you’ll have to buy more. On the security side, they include an IP-blocking security feature which is normally only offered by the best eCommerce providers.
Weebly
Weebly is one of the most intuitive website builders available. There are 24 themes for you to choose from, all of them responsive both on desktop and mobile operating systems.
You can customize your design by dragging and dropping elements directly within the software. The system ensures that it won’t take you long to learn your way around and that you will be able to create your website with very little effort or time. It also allows you to tweak the code, so if you have any coding ability, you can customize your templates even further.
As with most website builders, Weebly manages everything on the technical side while you get on with business. It offers excellent value for money, especially for novice website builders who are looking for a simple, straightforward website builder.
Squarespace
If the overall look and feel of your site are important to you, Squarespace offers a range of styling options that you won’t find with any other website builder. Meeting the needs of today’s online consumer, their templates are extremely modern and streamlined.
Even if you have no knowledge of coding, you can still play around with fonts, colors, and sizes to your heart’s content. On top of that, it offers the eCommerce store builder a huge range of tools to make managing an online store seamless and simple.
Not only does Squarespace manage your hosting and security, but you can export pages and blog posts from Squarespace to WordPress if you decide to leave. It’s rare that a website builder offers users options for changing platforms, but this can be looked at as Squarespace’s confidence in their platform.
If you are still unsure about which website builder is right for your eCommerce needs, take advantage of the trial versions they offer. They will provide you with the opportunity to get a feel for their editors, features, and themes. Once you find one that you’re comfortable with, you will be surprised by how easy it is to run your own online store. Happy selling!
