Planning to sell online? Today, a variety of platforms offer flexible solutions for creating an online store website. It’s the most effective way for ecommerce, and the main advantages are:

• Automated ordering and online payments;
• Quick updates of stock and price information;
• Organizing products into categories;
• Convenient shopping with filtering;
• Using promo codes and displaying discounts.

In this article, we will compare the most popular ecommerce website builders, their benefits, and for whom each option is better. When choosing, pay attention to the professional templates, tools for online stores, and integration with third-party services for payment and delivery.

How to create an online store yourself

Creating an online store may seem like a complicated and long process, but most modern platforms offer simple and user-friendly tools. So, everyone can make their own website even without experience in design or programming. Here is a short list of steps to follow:

• Choose a platform. A website builder should meet your needs in terms of functionality, budget, and growth opportunities.
• Create a design. Add a logo, colors matching your brand identity, and your assortment.
• Set up payment and shipping. Choose payment and delivery methods.
• Launch and promote. Publish your online store website, set up SEO and advertising to increase traffic and attract customers.

Now, it’s time to dive into the features of the most popular ecommerce website builders for creating an online store.

Online store builders

Weblium

Price: from $8.25 per month.

Weblium is the easiest intuitive online store builder that is perfect for both beginners and professionals.

The template collection has more than 300 options for different industries, from electronics to lingerie. You can use them to create a visually appealing online store easily. This helps you save time on design and focus on content and products. A simple editor and convenient settings will help optimize the website for conversion.

Main features

• Quick online store building. A basic online store can be created in just a few hours, with no prior experience.
• Shop design without limits. Weblium makes it easy to customize colors, fonts, and other elements to achieve a unique store look.
• Ready-made templates for stores. The collection includes many professional templates adapted for different types of businesses, divided by categories.
• Convenient toolbar. Updating content, adding new products, and processing orders are easy and convenient. There are export and import functionality, variable goods, inventory tracking, and category creation.
• Qualified technical support 24/7. Weblium offers 24/7 support to help resolve any questions or issues you may have while using the platform. You get answers from real people interested in making your online store perfect.

For online stores

To ensure greater convenience when shopping, you can add product filters to the online store. Visitors will be able to select product categories, subcategories, and parameters that can be changed to find the same product. This feature allows you to structure all the information on the website.

Attract more customers using promo codes. You just need to come up with a promo code (for example, AUTUMN25), the amount of the discount, and the limit of uses. Do you need it to work only for certain products or orders over a certain amount? Add an expiration date or make a delayed promo code for future promotions.

Want to drive more sales and make an impression on a bigger audience? Weblium makes it easy to import your store’s products to Google Merchant Center, helping you control how your products appear on Google. Then, you can connect Facebook Commerce Manager to your website and attract new customers from Facebook and Instagram.

With the Weblium builder, you can also quickly create an effective website for the sale of one product, revealing all its advantages in detail, adding high-quality photos and videos, and adjusting SEO.

Weblium has prepared a detailed video instruction that makes it easy to create your online store:

In order to make convenient purchases online, connect various payment systems so that each buyer has the opportunity to choose the one that is more suitable for him. Weblium offers all the most popular payment methods. International systems include Stripe, PayPal, Square, and others.

Integration with SendGrid allows you to take communication with customers to a new level. Using it, you can configure the automatic sending of letters to the e-mail addresses of customers, which they specified in the shopping cart. Thus, after the order, the buyer will receive a letter with all the details and will be able to make sure that it is prepared correctly.

Better for

Weblium is the best website builder for online stores to cover the needs of small and medium-sized businesses, which will ensure effective sales without too much effort.

Wix

Price: from $7 per month.

Wix is ​​a popular all-in-one online store builder with a powerful set of features for online sales. It allows users to create personalized online stores based on a large number of templates.

The builder offers designs for stores with a large product catalog with several product categories and advanced navigation, for example, for selling various clothes. For a small catalog, the layouts have the products at the center of the home page.

With the Wix builder, you can not only sell online but also promote your business.

Main features

• More than 500 customizable online store templates and design solutions like product galleries.
• Personal online storefront and shopping cart. It’s easy to create collections and wish lists and add related products.
• Multi-channel sales across Facebook and Instagram, all managed from a single platform.
• Advanced marketing tools such as email and social media advertising.
• The Wix Owner app, with which it is convenient to manage the website from the phone.

For online stores

Both physical and digital products can be added to the website. The Wix builder makes it easy to sell products like music files, e-books, online courses, and more. To make order management simplier, you can enable the function of automatic order confirmations, as well as order status messages that can be configured and sent automatically.

The advantage of Wix is ​​the generation of content with the help of artificial intelligence. If you need to add, for example, a product description quickly, you can have it in minutes with AI Text Creator, not only saving time and effort but also improving conversion and search engine optimization.

The Wix app allows you to manage your online store from anywhere via your phone. There, you can view orders and revenues, add new products, change shipping options, and view transactions.

Online store creation using the Wix builder is presented in a short video:

When possible, Wix automatically connects the website to the payment system available in the region of account registration. However, if you need to connect another one, it’s easy to do. The popular payment methods include PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and others.

Store owners can calculate the delivery themselves by defining the regions and rates. It is possible to add your conditions to encourage purchases, such as free shipping for purchases over a certain amount or fast shipping.

Better for

Wix is the best website builder for online stores that will satisfy those who need a complex website or who plan to expand their assortment constantly.

Shopify

Price: from $24 per month.

Shopify is one of the most famous ecommerce platforms in the world. It is designed for businesses of all sizes and offers comprehensive tools for product management, marketing, and customer service.

Shopify is built to scale, so this platform is suitable for businesses that plan to grow.

Main features

• More than 70 professional themes can be changed to emphasize the uniqueness of the products.
• Full customization. The online store can match every element of the brand: colors, fonts, photos, design, etc.
• App store with thousands of integrations: shipping, marketing, and customer support.
• Ease of use. You can create a website using a simple drag-and-drop creator without programming.
• Multi-currency support and international shipping. Customers can choose their own country and currency at the time of purchase.

For online stores

If you are short on time and need to add inventory quickly, you can use Shopify Magic. It’s an AI tool that creates headlines, product descriptions, chat replies, and more in minutes.

Free apps that can be useful for online stores include a logo maker, privacy policy generator, discount calculator, and many others. All of them are designed to improve the efficiency of online trading.

There is an option to add search and filtering so that customers can find exactly what they are looking for. In addition, recommended products can be added to those selected by the user to encourage them to fill their cart with more products.

Shopify allows you to sell on multiple platforms. To do this, you need to connect the product catalog to the desired marketplaces. Also, the platform offers to increase the audience with the help of tools that will help sell on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.

A quick explanation of how the Shopify platform works is in this video:

Shopify platform supports different payment systems and different countries. For online payment without a credit card, you can use PayPal, Meta Pay, Amazon Pay, and Apple Pay.

Shopify simplifies inventory management, order processing, and returns and refunds. If the goods are in different warehouses, you can use the function of special routing of orders, which determines the optimal place from where to take a particular product, according to the place of delivery.

Better for

Shopify is the best website builder for online stores that need all the tools for creation, management, scaling, and growing their large business.

Squarespace

Price: from $16 per month.

The Squarespace builder is known for its elegant website templates and is ideal for businesses that need a visually appealing online store.

Although Squarespace’s original purpose was to build websites for creative people, it is now one of the best online store builders.

Main features

• Award-winning templates: easily customizable and designed by world-class designers.
• Convenient business management. From payments and ordering to delivery, everything is in one place.
• Store manager permissions. Managers can be assigned to control inventory and orders but not the rest of the website.
• Selling digital products. Users can buy music, e-books, and other digital content by downloading directly from the website.
• Squarespace app enables website management from a phone, inventory tracking, and effective communication with customers.

For online stores

This builder has its Squarespace AI tool to help stores with product descriptions and pages. Also, there is a function for creating a brand logo.

For convenience, you can set up automatic discounts with different apps: for all orders, above a set amount or individual products, and also offer free shipping. Discounts can be limited to one use per customer or by setting a total quantity.

Inventory management is convenient, with a simple and clear interface and a quick overview of options and quantities. Squarespace sends email alerts when inventory is low.

Track orders and resend email updates to customers all from one place. For more convenience, there is an option to customize the order page and allow customers to track the status, from shipment to delivery.

You can learn about the first steps in ecommerce with the Squarespace builder in this video:

Squarespace enables multiple payment methods for a store website (credit cards, Apple Pay, Stripe, PayPal, and Square). With Squarespace Commerce, it is possible to select currency options.

Shipping methods are also easy to customize and add all necessary options. You can send anywhere in the world, if the chosen postal operator supports this option. The shipping cost includes a flat rate, a free one, and a calculated one according to the total weight of the order.

Better for

Squarespace has all the tools to create and manage a functional online store. Taking into account its original focus, it would be better suited to creative businesses.

Godaddy

Price: from $10 per month.

GoDaddy is known for its hosting services, but its functionality also includes an ecommerce site builder. This is an excellent option for small businesses.

The platform is easy to use and provides basic tools for starting an online store that is suitable for beginners.

Main features

• Simple interface and flexible configuration. You can add up to 5000 products and up to 10 images per product.
• Pre-designed templates. Moving sections around is easy, and you can try out new designs with just one click.
• Online bookings allow customers to choose and pay for services at a time convenient for them without double bookings and the need to call.
• Integrated marketing tools, such as social media advertising and email newsletters.
• Easy product promotion on your Facebook business page in minutes.

Functionality for online stores

GoDaddy’s builder allows you to effectively showcase your products and services, as your website can be edited from any device. This platform allows you to sell everything from physical to digital goods. For those selling digital goods, there is an option to allow customers to download files directly from the website.

To help customers quickly find what they need, you can create product categories and subcategories. In addition, you can add featured products so that visitors can see the most popular products (bestsellers, special offers, or services).

From this video, you can learn how to create your online store and manage products on the GoDaddy builder:

Among the payment methods, there are credit cards (PayPal, Apple Pay, etc.). It is possible to give customers discounts, as well as to set exact tax values.

When paying for an order in an online store created with the GoDaddy builder, customers will see the shipping cost calculated based on the selected settings. This can be free shipping with a minimum order amount, a fixed one, a percentage per order, and one according to weight or carrier rates.

Better for

GoDaddy is a builder for quick website creation and easy editing, which is suitable for those who have a small inventory and are just starting to sell online.

BigCommerce

Price: from $29 per month.

BigCommerce is the best online store builder to create a secure, stable, and scalable ecommerce experience. It is a powerful platform for businesses of all sizes, offering a variety of tools that make it a robust choice for creating and managing online stores.

Main features

• Customizable storefront. It is a drag-and-drop builder and includes a variety of responsive themes.
• An extensive catalog of products is available, as well as unlimited products, variants, and options, like size or color.
• Multi-channel selling, including Amazon, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace.
• Built-in marketing tools help stores grow their customer base, e.g., email marketing integrations with platforms like Mailchimp and Klaviyo.
• Hundreds of apps and integrations. For example, QuickBooks for accounting, Salesforce as CRM, and WordPress for the frontend.

Functionality for online stores

It’s possible to sell any product with BigCommerce. It supports digital products such as eBooks and software. To encourage customers, there are pricing discounts and customer-specific pricing options. To simplify navigation, it offers the ability to create and manage product categories and assign products to multiple categories.

BigCommerce supports a variety of payment gateways, including popular options like PayPal, Stripe, and Square. There are over 65 pre-integrated payment gateways in more than 100 countries. For faster checkouts, users can choose between Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay.

Here is an introduction to the BigCommerce platform:

BigCommerce integrates with leading shipping providers, allowing online retailers to offer real-time shipping quotes. Among the delivery options there are in-store pickup and local.

For customers who leave the website without completing a purchase, the builder provides abandoned cart recovery, which sends automated emails to them. To boost credibility and drive conversions, it offers customer reviews and ratings.

Better for

BigCommerce is the best ecommerce site builder that provides the tools and flexibility needed for businesses to grow and succeed online. It is an excellent choice for businesses that want to build and manage powerful online stores.

Shift4Shop

Price: from $39 per month.

Shift4Shop is the best online store builder designed to help businesses create and manage online stores. Known for its wide array of features, Shift4Shop caters even to large enterprises.

Shift4Shop offers a free plan for U.S. merchants powered by Shift4 Payments. This plan provides an ecommerce solution with access to all of its basic features at no cost, as long as the business uses Shift4 Payments as its payment processor.

Main features

• Customizable themes. Users can choose from free and premium templates and customize them using the drag-and-drop builder.
• Seamless product management. Unlimited products and categories, tools for selling digital products, and advanced product options like variants, bundles, and kits.
• Direct integrations with popular marketplaces and social platforms: Amazon, eBay, Facebook, and Instagram.
• Customer account creation and management and customer groups for offering discounts.
• The app store includes accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero, shipping and logistics tools like ShipStation and ShippingEasy, etc.

Functionality for online stores

Shift4Shop provides a built-in CRM to manage customer relationships and interactions directly from the platform. There is an automatic email notification option for order confirmations, shipping updates, and abandoned cart recovery.

Shift4Shop supports a wide range of payment gateways, making it easy for businesses to accept payments from customers worldwide, including PayPal, Stripe, and Square. The main advantage is no transaction fees when using Shift4 Payments. For faster checkouts, it has also support for digital wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay.

The builder offers customizable shipping methods and options, including flat rates and free shipping. It also integrates and enables shipping label generation and order tracking.

More information about Shift4Shop opportunities is available in the video:

Better for

While there are a lot of tools and third-party services available on this builder, its free plan makes it highly attractive for startups and small businesses.

Conclusion

Choosing the best online store builder depends on your business goals and budget.

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use platform with modern templates and trading tools, Weblium is an excellent choice. It’s also one of the cheapest platforms.

For scaling large businesses, Shopify, BigCommerce, and Shift4Shop are reliable solutions.

Wix and Squarespace are the best online store website builders for creative entrepreneurs looking for a unique design. GoDaddy offers a simple and affordable option for small businesses.

First, try the features on a trial period, as this is a quick and accurate way to find out whether the platform meets your business’s needs.

Free ecommerce website builders, for example, Weblium, allow you to create a website without prepayment and test it during the trial period. We wish you a smooth launch and effective sales!

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