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The best website builder for ecommerce is Wix, because it offers an unmatched selection of website and design features, robust email marketing to reach new customers, and seamless integration between in-store and online purchases thanks to its own POS products.
Wix isn’t the only ecommerce website builder out there, though. In fact, our research found a wide range of excellent choices that could be a better fit for your business, depending on your particular needs. Here are our top three picks:
Wix is best for powerful design and sales features combined.
Shopify is best for unparalleled ecommerce success and scalability.
Squarespace is best for elegant, high-performing ecommerce websites.
With ecommerce spending at an all-time high in 2024, getting your online store set up right can make a big difference. Read on to find out how the best website builders on the market compare for building a store to boost your business profits. Or you can get a custom recommendation by taking our website builder matching quiz.
Test Score Our score is based on independent assessments of ease of use, features, ecommerce functionality and value for money | Starting Price | Pros | Cons | |||
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BEST OVERALL | ||||||
Wix | Shopify | Squarespace | Hostinger | GoDaddy | BigCommerce | Square Online |
4.7 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 4.5 | 4.6 |
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Top 7 Ecommerce Website Builders
We put each ecommerce website builder through rigorous testing and an analysis program to cut the wheat from the chaff. Based on our thorough tests, these are our favorite ecommerce website builders:
- Wix – Best for smaller ecommerce businesses
- Shopify – Best for larger ecommerce businesses
- Squarespace – Best for marketing features
- Hostinger – Best for local businesses
- GoDaddy – Best value for money
- BigCommerce – Best for inventory management
- Square Online – Best for businesses on a budget
1. Wix – Best for Powerful Design and Sales Combined
There’s really no two ways about it: Wix is the best website builder for ecommerce, because it’s the best website builder period. It offers more website features, better design functionality, and more robust help and support options than any other provider in our research.
To be fair, though, Wix didn’t end up at the top of our research for sales features, an honor bestowed on Shopify for its vast selection of ecommerce-specific functionalities. Still, because Wix offers so much when it comes to general website building, and a very respectable selection of sales features, it earned the top spot if you want to build an online store.
Pros
- Robust email marketing with diverse templates, send options, and easy setup
- Outstanding shipping options
- Comprehensive mobile app to manage store on the go
Cons
- Unlimited storage only available for $159/month
- Cheapest POS is $69
- Highest transaction fees on POS
What we like about Wix
As we mentioned above, our previous research actually had Shopify ahead of Wix, due to its substantial selection of sales-focused features. However, Wix was able to leapfrog Shopify thanks to the array of AI features that have rolled out over the last year, which will build an entire website for you from just a few simple questions. Neither Shopify nor Squarespace offer this feature right now, although both do feature other AI functionality to help you build your site.
Wix’s Site-Level SEO Assistant to help you optimize your website for search engine traffic.
Source: wix.com
Wix offers the most templates for online stores with 19, each of which you’ll be able to customize with new text and images for all your products, plus contact forms and extra pages. There are also plenty of royalty-free images available. Wix’s drag-and-drop editor also makes everything super easy. Take a look at this tutorial video from Wix’s YouTube channel:
Another big perk of Wix is its customer support options, which received the highest score in our research. You can reach representatives 24/7 across virtually all mediums, including phone, live chat, and social media. Plus, this kind of support isn’t reserved for expensive plans, so you can get this level of help for a relatively low price, particularly compared to competitors like Shopify, who charge minimum $30 per month for 24/7 support.
Since our last update...
Wix has made building a website infinitely easier, by launching an AI chatbot that will ask basic questions to get you set up in minutes. All you have to do is converse with the AI chatbot about your website for a few minutes and the service will provide you with a wide range of components that will get you started on the right track. (November 2023)
What Wix should improve
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Wix is the inability to change templates once you’ve published your site. Unlike Shopify and Squarespace, you can’t change the theme after you publish your site, which can make for a stressful pre-launch experience if you aren’t sure about your design.
Wix somewhat compensates for this by giving you significantly more creative freedom in the design phase than its competitors (like Shopify) because it includes hundreds of templates to choose from. This does mean it’s less likely that you’ll want to change your site, but being able to make modifications after publishing is still a feature that newbies to the website building game would benefit from.
From an ecommerce standpoint, Wix isn’t ideal for larger businesses that need to sell a lot of products, because it puts a limit on the number of products you can sell at 50,000, even with the most expensive plan. Additionally, it doesn’t offer many inventory management features, unlike Shopify, so that enterprise-level functionality just isn’t there for Wix.
Wix ecommerce functionality works across desktop and mobile editors.
Source: wix.com
How much does Wix ecommerce cost?
Wix offers three pricing plans that allow you to build an online store, each with an increasing number of ecommerce features to improve the experience. Overall, Wix offers competitive pricing, although the $159 per month Business Elite plan certainly sets the bar a little high compared to other competitors on this list. Only Shopify has a more expensive plan, the $299 Advanced plan, and it offers far more sales functionality.
The $27 per month Core plan and the $32 per month Business plan, though, are fairly standard for the industry, and provide a robust set of sales and website builder features for your business. It’s worth remembering that no matter how much you pay for Wix, you’ll be limited to only 50,000 products, whereas Shopify and Squarespace offer unlimited products.
Check out our Wix pricing guide for more information
Plan | Price paid annually The price per month you'll pay if you choose to be billed annually | Staff accounts | Ecommerce | |
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BEST FOR SMALL SITES | ||||
Free | Light | Core | Business | Business Elite |
1 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 15 |
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2. Shopify – Best for Ecommerce Success
In our research, Shopify scored highest for sales features, offering an unmatched selection of ecommerce-focused functionality for really building out your online store. It’s ideal for larger businesses, owing to the fact it allows for the easy management of inventories that can only be handled by the most powerful software.
Shopify combines top-class sales channel integration with a simple and intuitive UI, and it features great reporting tools that help optimize your sales. What’s more, the provider is virtually unmatched when it comes to integrating disparate sales channels into a single online platform. For all these reasons, we’ve dubbed Shopify the best option when it comes to large-scale ecommerce website builders.
Pros
- The most ecommerce features across our research
- Vast selection of marketing integrations
- Built-in VR compatibility for showcasing products
Cons
- Monthly fees for POS system
- Scheduling and booking requires add-on
- No tutorials for setup
What we like about Shopify
The reason Shopify is the preferred choice for so many large or ready-to-scale online stores is there’s no other provider that is better at facilitating the addition and management of large amounts of products. Wix puts a limit on products sold, but Shopify allows for unlimited, which is why it’s great for larger businesses. Simply put, if you’re more interested in selling a lot of products than having a site that looks exactly how you want it, Shopify is the ecommerce website builder for you.
Even better, through its Shopify Payments system, you’re able to track everything from sales on Instagram, Google Shopping, and even real-world point of sale transactions. That’s right – if you run a brick-and-mortar store, you can manage all your sales, inventory, and accounting through one platform. Shopify also permits 100 other payment gateways if you’re not using Shopify payments – but there will be transaction fees.
Shipping is another feature that Shopify has locked down, with tons of ordering options. For example, Shopify’s carbon-neutral shipping option is great for businesses watching their environmental footprint. Wix isn’t too far behind, but you’ll still need some apps to help you with taking payments from across the world, as it only allows for up to 10 currencies maximum.
Screenshot of Shopify’s inventory management tools.
Source: Shopify
Although not nearly as good as Wix for design, Shopify is still better than a lot of other ecommerce platforms in this regard. It offers loads of different ecommerce website templates, all of which are optimized for mobile, and can be edited and changed to your liking with remarkable depth. In fact, despite all those sales features, Shopify netted a higher user experience than Wix when it comes to ease of use.
To see for yourself, simply take advantage of Shopify’s free trial (followed by your first month at just $1) and check out the video below:
Since our last update...
Shopify wants to make every part of running your store simple, which is why in November 2023, the ecommerce provider has enhanced Shopify Tax to support Point of Sale (POS) orders. This ensures that your transactions will be correctly taxed, no matter where they’re being purchased from.
What Shopify should improve
While it scored higher on user experience, Shopify definitely has a specific niche it’s going for when it comes to functionality. One person that took part in our user testing described it as the “inverse of Wix,” with a heavy emphasis on the management of inventory and sales channels integrations rather than the actual design of the site.
The biggest downside to Shopify, though, is that it’s more expensive than most other providers on this list. While its cheapest ecommerce plan weighs in at a modest $29 per month, its app library, which allows users to take advantage of basically any ecommerce feature they can think of, doesn’t come cheap either. This, combined with the lack of built-in apps available right out of the gate, means you could end up spending a lot on Shopify.
The transaction fees the provider charges when you don’t use Shopify Payments can range from 0.5% to 2%, which further adds to the lack of affordability, particularly in a marketplace where competitors like Wix and Squarespace don’t enforce any.
Check out our Wix vs Shopify guide for more information
An individual product page on a Shopify website.
Source: Shopify
How much does Shopify cost?
Shopify offers three main pricing plans, all of which offer a robust level of ecommerce functionality, including unlimited products, 24/7 support, and multiple sales channels.
As we mentioned, though, they’re quite expensive. The $29 per month Basic plan is one of the more expensive starter plans in our research, while the $299 per month Advanced plan is easily the most expensive plan across all of our ecommerce website builder research. Subsequently, Shopify doesn’t provide a lot of value, as the overall website and design features are lacking a bit, but as an ecommerce powerhouse, the cost is certainly worth it.
To be transparent, Shopify does offer a Starter plan for $5 per month, and Plus, an enterprise-level plan, for $2,000 per month. We recommend sticking to those middle three plans, though, if you’re interested in ecommerce. If you use the “$1-for-first-month” deal, you’ll have a long runway to see if the features really work for your needs.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning Shopify POS, which is software that can be used for in-person sales and also integrates with Shopify’s ecommerce and payments services. Check out our Shopify POS review for more information about the solution, and our Shopify POS pricing guide for details on its costs.
Plan | Price paid annually The price per month you'll pay if you choose to be billed annually | Price paid monthly The price per month you'll pay if you choose to be billed monthly | Staff accounts | Reporting | Gift cards | Online credit card rates | In-person credit card rates | Transaction fee if not using Shopify Payments | |
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Basic | Shopify | Advanced | |||||||
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2 | 5 | 15 | |||||||
Basic | Standard | Advanced | |||||||
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2.9% + 30¢ | 2.6% + 30¢ | 2.4% + 30¢ | |||||||
2.7% | 2.5% | 2.4% | |||||||
2% | 1% | 0.5% |
3. Squarespace – Best for Elegant, High-Performing Ecommerce Sites
You might be forgiven for thinking we’ve put Squarespace in by mistake. It is, first and foremost, a website builder that is designed to give you a sleek website, and not as an ecommerce platform. However, we found Squarespace to be a very competent online store builder.
Even if it doesn’t quite win in our Wix vs Squarespace comparison, our in-house testing and research saw it receive a better overall score than some of the dedicated ecommerce website builders like BigCommerce. In fact, we found it to have quite similar sales features to Wix, a big improvement over previous iterations of our research, due largely to its unlimited products and multi-channel selling.
Pros
- Unlimited products for all plans
- Mobile app can update pages, review traffic, and manage inventory
- Outstanding email marketing templates
Cons
- POS system is currently exclusive to the US
- Sorting and filtering of products requires add-on
- Not ideal for larger ecommerce stores
What we like about Squarespace
The built-in scalability of the software allows for growing businesses to develop alongside the platform. It’s also one of the most improved ecommerce website builders we tested – its user experience score jumped from 3.4 out of 5 in our last round of testing to 4.2 out of 5, which means people who are using the platform are more satisfied with its offering. This likely due to Squarespace adding more and more AI functionality, which in turns makes it easier to build a website in just a few simple steps.
While this Squarespace example store is selling t-shirts, it could easily sell prints of your photos.
Source: Squarespace
Squarespace’s compatibility with Square, one of the biggest POS providers, also lets you process cash and card payments that integrate with your online store. This can be a huge benefit to any business – particularly physical stores. Yes, some options have their own POS systems built in, like Shopify, but this free integration can be a big help considering Square is such a popular option.
As we mentioned above, Squarespace’s real advantage is that it has some of the best website builder templates on the market. Squarespace’s templates are all designed in-house and are completely optimized for cell phones, tablets, laptops, and PCs. There are plenty that are designed specifically for ecommerce websites as well, so getting started should be a piece of cake.
Finally, Squarespace is also ahead of the major providers when it comes to marketing and promotional tools. The platform offers a built-in search engine optimization (SEO) features, helping improve your store’s web ranking; social media integrations, so that can drive more traffic to your page; and a free integration with Mailchimp, a leading email marketing tool. Since most other ecommerce website builders don’t offer these perks, Squarespace might be the best ecommerce website builder for your team if you’re looking to maximize the reach of your business.
Since our last update...
Squarespace has launched the Refresh 2023 campaign, which is aimed at revamping the Squarespace website building experience across the board. The updates that have come along recently include Squarespace Payments, client invoicing, advanced commerce tools, and Squarespace AI, which can help you write content for your site, as well as email marketing and ecommerce descriptions.
What Squarespace should improve
Although Squarespace offers unlimited products and inventory management, other providers do it a bit better. Shopify, for example, offers customer wishlist options and product bundles, whereas Squarespace doesn’t. Additionally, Shopify offers slightly more robust analytics, allows users to see the ROI of marketing campaigns right in the software.
Overall, Squarespace is not the best choice for managing large quantities of stock, but it is a better option for businesses selling digital items (like event tickets) rather than physical items (like handbags).
How much does Squarespace cost?
Squarespace offers three pricing plans that allow for ecommerce functionality. However, the most affordable one, the $23 per month Business plan does charge a 3% transaction fee, whereas the next two plans, Commerce Basic ($27 per month) and Commerce Advanced ($32 per month) have no transaction fees.
As far as value is concerned, Squarespace is at the top of our research, offering low to moderately priced plans across the board, locking no features behind an exorbitantly priced enterprise plan, like Wix and Shopify. Squarespace does not offer a free plan, unfortunately, but the 14-day free trial should be more than enough time to get a feel for the platform.
Want to know more? Read our full Squarespace for ecommerce review, or check out the pricing table below:
Plan | Price paid annually The price per month you'll pay if you choose to be billed annually | Price paid monthly The price per month you'll pay if you choose to be billed monthly | Abandoned cart recovery | Gift cards | Transaction fees | Point-of-sale support | |
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Cheapest Plan | Cheapest Online Store | ||||||
Personal | Business | Basic | Advanced | ||||
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N/A | 3% | 0% | 0% | ||||
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4. Hostinger – Best for Local Businesses
The value of affordability cannot be overstated when it comes to building an online store, and Hostinger offers this in spades. Between the low starting price and the lack of transaction fees, local businesses in particular can keep their budget intact while selling products and services online.
At this price, though, there are naturally some limits, which is why we only recommend it for smaller, local businesses, namely the very limited marketing features for email and ads. Still, with a fairly intuitive interface, improved sales features, and lots of AI functionality, Hostinger will easily satisfy your basic ecommerce website builder needs.
Check out our Hostinger review for more information
Pros
- Advanced fraud detection system for security
- No transaction fees
- Customizable checkout options
Cons
- No email marketing
- No POS integrations
- No mobile app to manage your store
What we like about Hostinger
From an ecommerce website builder standpoint, Hostinger has a lot going for it. No transaction fees is hard to come by on this list, with Wix, Shopify, and GoDaddy all requiring them for all pricing plans. Additionally, Hostinger offers a surprisingly wide range of templates covering 18 different industries, more than every other builder in our research, other than Wix, which has 19.
Additionally, Hostinger is all about the new AI features rolling out to website builders across the industry. You can get a site up and running in less than 60 seconds thanks to these features, and all you have to do is answer a few short questions to get the ball rolling.
The AI template selection for Hostinger.
Source: Hostinger
What Hostinger should improve
While there’s a lot we like about Hostinger, the website builder is definitely missing some key functionalities that some users may consider a dealbreaker. For starters, there are no email marketing features whatsoever. This means you’ll either have to sign up for another service to attract and retain customers, or just hope that word-of-mouth can keep you in business. There are also no advertorial marketing features, so clearly Hostinger is not made for marketing in general.
Hostinger is also lacks content tools, offering notably fewer options than Wix, Shopify, and Squarespace. This means you won’t be able to present content on your site in calendars, banners, charts or tabs, so hopefully design isn’t at the forefront of your mind when using Hostinger. This leads some sites — especially those created by AI — to look pretty generic and unimpressive, particularly compared to the beauties created by Squarespace.
Check out our Wix vs Hostinger guide for more information
How much does Hostinger cost?
Hostinger is quite simple in the pricing department compared to others on the list, offering only a single pricing plan that costs $11.99 per month. However, Hostinger almost perennially offers discounts on this plan, bringing the overall cost down to as low as $2.49 per month. Even better, you can get Hostinger for free for the first three months with some of these deals, which dwarfs any and all free trials on this list by quite a bit.
From a value standpoint, Hostinger is a solid pick, but the lack of advanced functionality is definitely a problem if you’re looking to scale. Sure, the price is low, but with no marketing features, no mobile app, and generic templates, you’re getting what you pay for to a certain extent.
Plan | Price paid monthly The price per month you'll pay if you choose to be billed monthly | Abandoned cart recovery | International pricing Customize your product prices for different countries/regions with a percentage increase or decrease. | Ecommerce | |
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Premium | Business | ||||
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N/A – no ecommerce features | Up to 500 products |
5. GoDaddy – Best value for money
If you’re looking for value without sacrificing a lot of online store features, GoDaddy is an excellent choice for your website builder needs. For one, it undercuts the majority of our top picks on starting price for ecommerce functionality, and keeps costs low across all of its pricing plans.
On top of that, GoDaddy has made some big improvements to its platform since our last round of research, adding a lot of website features and design functionality that will make building and managing your site easier and more effective.
Pros
- Manage site from mobile app
- POS system integrates with your site
- Excellent site speed
Cons
- No option to remove transaction fees
- Users must report fraud cases
- Not able to customize the checkout page
What we like about GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a solid pick for businesses that are looking to get their online presence set up for the first time. The AI features available through GoDaddy were some of the quickest in our research, with the ability to get a site live and online in under 30 seconds. Hostinger can do it in 60 seconds, which isn’t much longer, but every second counts if you want your site online now. Additionally, its customer support team was unmatched, responding to queries quickly and expertly to keep problems for newbies at a minimum.
On top of all that, GoDaddy netted the highest score in our site speed analysis, beating out Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and Hostinger in this category. This means that your site will load faster with GoDaddy than any other website builder in our research. And considering slow load times lead to higher bounce rates, this kind of thing can make a big difference.
GoDaddy free website builder in action.
Source: Tech.co’s user testing
What GoDaddy should improve
The biggest downfall of GoDaddy is the design functionality. While it has been improved since our last round of research, the overall experience is quite limited, preventing users from having a lot of control over how their website actually looks, namely lacking the ability to customize checkout pages. This is especially true of the AI-generated sites, which admittedly save you a lot of time, but definitely turn out a bit generic-looking.
Another downfall of GoDaddy is related to security. For fraud detection, GoDaddy doesn’t just help users detect it, but rather relies on customers to report the fraud to combat the problem. Essentially, the strategy is reactive rather than proactive, which means the impact of fraud could be much worse for your business.
Check out our GoDaddy vs Wix guide for more information
How much does GoDaddy cost?
GoDaddy offers only one pricing plan that has ecommerce functionality. Appropriately named the Commerce plan, it costs $16.99 per month, which is decidedly lower than other options on this list. Wix, for example, costs at least $27 per month for just basic ecommerce functionality. Yes, you will have to endure transactions fees no matter what, but that’s fairly common for ecommerce website builders.
If you’re looking for a website builder without ecommerce functionality, GoDaddy really keeps costs low, with its starting price of only $9.99 per month for the Basic plan representing one of the cheapest options on the market. Still, you won’t be able to sell online with this plan, but it’s a good place to start if you aren’t ready to set up your online store.
6. BigCommerce – Best for Scalable Ecommerce with Robust Features
BigCommerce, as you can likely guess from the name, should be viewed as an ecommerce-exclusive website builder. It offers sales features on par with Wix and Squarespace, offering robust inventory management, no transaction fees, and excellent shipping features.
That, unfortunately, is where the good times end for BigCommerce. The ecommerce website builder lacks substantially when it comes to website features, design functionality, ease of use, and help and support options, scoring some of the lowest scores in our research in all categories. Even worse, BigCommerce is expensive, with nearly an identical pricing plan lineup to Shopify while offering notably fewer features.
All that to say, BigCommerce may be a good fit if inventory management is more important to you than anything else, but otherwise, there are other options out there that are a better fit.
Read our Shopify vs BigCommerce guide to see how the ecommerce website builders compare.
Pros
- 0% transaction fees on all plans
- Excellent shipping options both locally and globally
- Unlimited products on all plans
Cons
- Restrictive pricing plans based on annual turnover
- Limited template customization
- Steep learning curve with little assistance
7. Square Online – Best for Selling Online for Free
Yes, you read that right: Square Online allows you to sell products online for free without subscribing to any of its paid plans, a unique perk on this list. Some website builders on this list do have free plans, but none of them allow you to set up an online store and sell products without a paid subscription.
There is, of course, a catch, in that you’ll be subjected to hefty transaction fees that get as high as 2.9% + $0.30 for purchases. On top of that, Square Online is very limited when it comes to design functionality, netting the lowest score in our research due to the fact that it only has six templates, the fewest of any website builder by a substantial margin.
Still, Square Online provides all the tools you need to create an online store for free, which is great for smaller businesses with non-existent budgets that need to start selling now. If you plan to scale even a little bit, though, other paid options on this lists are definitely worth the investment.
Check out our Square Online review for more information
Pros:
- Live transaction monitoring enhances security
- Unlimited product capacity
- Excellent in-person selling functionality
Cons:
- Free plan is very limited
- No way to remove transaction fees
- Limited multichannel integration (Facebook & Instagram only)
We take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we're giving you the clearest, most useful product recommendations.
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established tools in the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to see their real strengths and weaknesses. In this case, we put ten website builder products to the test across 251 areas of investigation.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we've established a website builder testing methodology that scores each product in six main categories of investigation and 33 subcategories; this covers everything from customer feedback to design, ease of use, and more.
Our main testing categories for website builders are:
- Website Features: the capabilities and functionalities offered by a website builder, e.g. blog functionality, SEO capability, and marketing capacity.
- Design: the aesthetic appeal and visual layout of a website created using a website builder. It encompasses aspects such as page templates and customizable themes.
- Customer Score: external customer opinion. This is the feedback and ratings given by customers who have used a particular website builder – the market position and reputation a website builder holds.
- Ease of Use: how user-friendly and intuitive a website builder is for people with varying levels of technical expertise.
- Value for Money: the balance between the cost of a website builder and the benefits it provides. It considers factors such as pricing plans, subscription models, and available features.
- Help and Support: the assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance while using a website builder.
When it comes to calculating a product's final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others, which are simply "nice to have." After hundreds of hours, our process is complete, and the results should ensure you can find the best solution for your needs.
At Tech.co, we have a number of full-time in-house researchers, who re-run this testing process regularly, to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Buying Guide 2024: Ecommerce Website Builders
With so many quality ecommerce website builders on the market, choosing the right one for your business isn’t always an easy task. To make the buying process a little less daunting, below we list some important factors to consider before you make your final call.
How to choose an ecommerce store builder
We’ve ranked the best website builders based on their overall potential, but the right solution for you will depend on a variety of factors. We list some important considerations below:
- What type of business do you run? Different ecommerce builders have different specialisms. For example, if you’re selling products, you’d be better off going for a platform that prioritizes stock management like Big Commerce.
- How big is your budget? There’s no point opting for an ecommerce builder you can’t afford. Therefore, choosing a solution that complements your budget is a must.
- Are you an omnichannel seller? If you sell goods in-store as well as in-store, you should be looking for ecommerce builders that integrate with POSs like Square Online, Shopify, or Squarespace.
- Which online channels will you sell through? Not all ecommerce builders integrate with social channels, so if you want to sell goods through platforms like Facebook or Instagram you should check if they offer this capacity first.
- How much design experience do you have? If you’re a beginner, choosing an ecommerce builder with a shallow learning curb and user-friendly design functions, like drag and drop builders, is a must.
How much does it cost to build an ecommerce website?
Broadly speaking, the cheapest ecommerce plans from Wix and Squarespace will cost you between $20-$30 per month. Wix’s ecommerce plans, for example, range from $27 per month for the Core plan, to $159 per month for the Business Elite plan.
Meanwhile, Shopify’s cheapest plan is $29 per month, giving you access to a serious ecommerce experience. However, its other plans cost $79 per month and $299 per month, which are a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for with the best ecommerce website builder available.
These are designed for established ecommerce stores, so there’s no need to worry about the high prices if you’re just starting out.
Which is the easiest ecommerce website builder to use?
According to our research, Squarespace is the easiest website builder to use. The simple drag-and-drop functionality allows beginners to fully customize the site, and the ability to change templates after it has gone live makes it that much better than Wix. It scored a 4.2/5 in our ease of use category, topping all other ecommerce website builders in the process.
Which ecommerce platform is best for small businesses?
If you’re a small business owner, and want to create an ecommerce site, we’d recommend going with either Wix or Squarespace.
Wix makes creating a website incredibly easy, and you’ll have loads of design tools at hand to make it fit your existing branding. Squarespace, on the other hand, has a laser focus on design, and has loads of built-in ecommerce tools.
However, Wix does offer a scalable platform when compared with Squarespace’s ecommerce sites. So, while both are good for starting out, Wix will likely be a better fit in the long run.
Next steps to create an ecommerce site
These are the best platforms to create an ecommerce site, but how do you actually go about creating one? We’re going to run through all the things you should consider before, during, and after the creation of your site. With the global ecommerce market expected to be worth almost $6.9 trillion by 2024, there’s no time to lose.
- Pick the right software – This is crucial because, if you don’t get this right, your business might never reach its potential. We advise comparing all the available providers, but would recommend Shopify if you’re after a fully-featured website with the ability to sell products.
- Use the trial – Once you’ve picked your software, you should always try it out before committing to it. Most ecommerce builders will give you a free trial period, which normally last for a few weeks.
- Prepare – If you’re already running a business, it’s worth checking whether the software you’re going to use can work with the existing payment systems and accounting software you currently use. Some platforms encourage you to use their own payment systems, for example.
- Get people to try it – Ask friends, family, or even random people to use your store and gather their feedback. After all, when a customer navigates to your online store to buy your products, you should at least make sure they can use your website.
- Optimize – Don’t sit still; make sure you use the reporting tools offered by your ecommerce builder to improve different aspects of your site.
Alternatively, you can take our website builder quiz and you’ll be linked with ecommerce website builders that fit your particular needs.
What is The Best Ecommerce Website Builder?
The best ecommerce website builder overall is Shopify, offering an unmatched catalog of sales features, solid design functionality, and an excellent customer score. It’s ideal for larger businesses because it provides robust inventory management and reporting tools that can help you grow your business.
Wix is also a solid option with templates that are second to none, it is feature-rich, and easy to use. It’s a great choice for smaller businesses, and the attentive customer support — as well as the fact you don’t need to be tech-savvy to build a beautiful website — makes it an excellent option for beginners.
Still, Shopify is our go-to ecommerce website builder, particularly if you’re running a highly complex sales operation that involves managing a large inventory, perhaps split between online and physical stores. It is, however, a lot pricier than Wix, which is worth remembering if you’re on a strict budget.
For more information on both of these providers, including their various features and price points, check out our free website comparison tool today.
- Ensure navigation is easy
- Use high-quality images and videos
- Optimize your site for Mobile – (More than 40% of online purchases happen on mobiles)
- User-generated reviews
A well-designed ecommerce website can improve your revenue. Research by Shopify found a correlation between quality online store design and increased customer loyalty. In fact, Shopify is so confident in its research that it produced a 39-point checklist for all online stores to use when choosing a design.
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