Top 5 best website builders for eCommerce 2021
The eCommerce market is constantly growing. It has caught the attention of entrepreneurs looking for opportunities to have their own business by opening an online store to sell products.
There are different ways to open an online store; for example, you can create it yourself in WordPress in case you have programming knowledge, or you can even hire a team to create it for you.
However, the easiest and practical way to create your website ready-for-eCommerce is to use an online eCommerce website builder. And that’s why we’ve decided to create a top list with the 5 best platforms for eCommerce to create your online store.
It’s worth noting that the positions on the list don’t stand out for quality, in the end, all the options are excellent.
Want to see what is the best website builder according to your needs?
Table of contents
- Advantages
- Templates
- Elementor
- Wix
- Squarespace
- BigCommerce
- Weebly
Let’s go!
About website builders for eCommerce
A website builder is an online platform or software that allows you to easily create a website in just a few steps, full of functionality and with no coding skills.
Most of them also allow you to set up an online store, though you don’t necessarily need a website to sell online.
However, it’s always a good idea to have your own website along with your online store to have a presence on the internet, from which you can centralize your efforts.
Imagine, for example, that the social network you normally use decides that it no longer accepts to sell your items. Suddenly, you’d find yourself in trouble, and that’s why it’s a good idea to have a website along with an online store.
Advantages of website builders
Some time ago, selling online was not easy, but now website builders and good eCommerce platforms make it easier for you. For example, to manage your online store, you don’t need to know how to code.
But in what other ways do they make your life easier?
- You can launch your online store without knowing how to program
- They can manage updates and security
- They allow to process orders and payments online
- Easy management of shipping and tax settings
- They’re a support content creation — with landing pages or blog posts
- They’ve marketing features that allow you to increase your sales
- They include reporting systems to track your progress
- They offer SEO optimization options
This doesn’t mean you won’t have to work hard to set up a successful online store, but these programs will allow you to focus more on selling your stuff, as they will free you from tedious tasks such as uploading products to the store or updating plugins and extensions.
What you should consider when choosing a website builder for eCommerce
Before choosing the best eCommerce website builder to set up your store, there are some factors you should take into account if you want to be sure you are taking the right decision. Let’s see…
Ease of use
If you don’t have the time or the technical skills, there is no point in deciding on an advanced content manager like WordPress, for example. Basically, any new modern website builder offers drag and drops functionality to create your design in a visual way.
Templates and design
To improve user experience and conversions, you should use clean and well-structured designs. A good eCommerce website builder should have:
- A decent number of templates to choose from
- Responsive templates capable to fit well on any device
- An easy-to-use system to customize your styles and designs
eCommerce functionalities
All the platforms that we’ve listed in this article have the basic functionalities that you need to sell online. This includes a system to process orders, tax, and shipping management, but also ways to promote your products.
Apps and extensions
These eCommerce platforms are impressive, but with additional extensions and plugins, you can further increase their functionality and optimize your online store.
Options for SEO optimization
Of course, any online store owner wants to nail their SEO strategy to attract organic sales with “free” traffic.
It’s true that most website builders have a knowledge base full of tutorials you can check out, but it’s also true that if you get stuck, you’ll want someone that helps you to save your time and money.
Then, what’s the best eCommerce website builder?
Top 5 best website builders for eCommerce right now!
1. Elementor
Used by more than 6% of all the world’s websites, Elementor is a powerful WordPress website.
Boasting a powerful WooCommerce builder, Elementor is the weapon of choice for those looking to create WordPress-based online stores without having to write a single line of code.
Elementor offers designer-made, fully responsive templates that allow you to stay on brand with maximum customization options.
Prices:
- Essential for US$49 per year – You can build one professional website with this plan
- Expert for US$199 per year – You can build 25 professional websites with this plan
- Studio for US$499 per year – You can build 100 professional websites with this plan
- Agency for US$999 per year – You can build 1000 professional websites with this plan
Pros:
- Elementor is your go-to choice if you’re unwilling to compromise on anything short of a comprehensive WordPress online store but lack technical expertise.
- Elementor offers an industry leading drag and drop editor, including 90+ widgets and 300 templates
- Those looking to create their online store from scratch can make use of Elementor’s Hello Theme- WordPress’ version of a blank canvas
- Those looking to get up and running immediately can leverage one of the ecommerce Full-Site Kits offered by Elementor. Complete websites, Kits can be quickly customized to fit your specs and launched.
Cons:
You cannot build an online store with Elementor’s free plan
2. Wix
Wix has become a very popular website builder. It now has more than 160 million users around the world.
Wix templates are highly visual as they have been designed with small businesses in mind. Wix can be complemented with numerous apps available in its App Market. This web creator makes excellent use of HTML 5 technology.
Prices:
- Free: Create a free site with Wix ads. It does not include the domain name.
- Combo: $13/month: Ideal for small professional pages. No ads and lots of webspace.
- Unlimited: $17/month: The right plan if you need more web space (up to 10 GB).
- Pro: $22/month: Includes analytics and additional designs
- VIP: $39/month: The best plan to create an online store or use their premium apps such as Wix Hotels or Wix Bookings.
Pros:
- Designs: Wix has exceptional designs and offers pre-made templates for specific industries.
- Flexibility: Wix allows you to work on your design in great detail thanks to its powerful visual editor.
- Animations: You can add animations to your texts and other elements.
- App Market: There are dozens of third-party applications that you can add to your websites like newsletters, live chat, appointment manager, and calendars…
Cons:
- Prices: The cheapest plan is Combo which costs $13/month but other website builders can cost half that price.
- You can’t change templates: Once you’ve chosen a template, you cannot change it without losing the content you added.
3. Squarespace
Squarespace is very popular due to its advanced customization tools and sophisticated design templates.
More than a million users pay to continue using Squarespace services after trying it free for 14 days, which undoubtedly is proof of quality. If you want that your website looks professional, attractive, and expensive, then Squarespace might be the perfect option for you.
Prices:
- Personal – $12/month: Perfect for personal projects and blogs. It offers most of the features.
- Business – $18/month: Perfect if you want to sell a single product, but there is a transaction charge of 3%.
- Basic Commerce – $26/month: The perfect plan for small internet stores. You’ll get specific tools for this.
- Advanced Commerce – $40/month: For large eCommerce companies. It includes additional advanced tools.
Pros:
- Spectacular and professional templates: Squarespace offers a great selection of exquisitely designed templates that instantly turn heads.
- Customizable templates for mobile devices: Squarespace automatically adjusts your site to fit the touchscreens on which it is viewed, regardless of their size.
- Flexibility in customization: You can customize your template using the powerful drag-and-drop editor.
Cons:
- It’s not the easiest web editor to use: It can take some time to learn how to use it.
- Pricing plans are expensive: In addition to that, it doesn’t offer a free plan, although it does allow you to try it for free for 14 days before you make your decision.
4. BigCommerce
Actually, BigCommerce has about 95,000 websites currently using its platform to sell items and process payments online, so it’s easy to see that it’s a good option for your particular needs.
Right now, BigCommerce is offering more integrations and lots of new features for their users than ever before, also providing easier access to analytics for all users.
Prices:
- Standard plan: $29.95/month: Unlimited products, storage ,and bandwidth. it also offers credit card and PayPal acceptance at no charge
- Plus Plan: $79.95/month: Additional features like real-time carrier shipping, best providers checkout, abandoned cart protector, and optimized customer segmentation. It’s a good option for medium-sized online stores that generate about $150k per year.
- Pro plan: $299.95/month: It offers Google customer feedback, product filtering, and an SSL dedicated installer available. Also priority support, but this plan also requires that you first contact them for custom pricing.
Pros:
- Great management tools: This includes order management, product management, reporting, analytics, and everything you can think of.
- Marketing module with AdWords: You can integrate email marketing tools like MailChimp and many others.
- 24/7 excellent support: Customer support is one of its best features. You can even get help figuring out things like SEO and marketing basics.
- No transaction fees: It doesn’t matter if you’re using a third-party payment gateway, BigCommerce doesn’t charge any transaction fees anyway.
Cons:
- Some themes can be quite expensive: Especially if you want something from the premium selection.
- Not so easy to use: It’s difficult to adjust every aspect of your home page, including text content.
- Additional fees for some features: You’ll have to pay an additional fee for access to certain features like the abandoned cart function.
- Limit to the number of annual online sales you can make: Be careful with this because if you exceed your limit, you’ll have to pay additional fees.
5. Weebly
Creating great websites without technical knowledge is what Weebly promises.
With a great and clean interface, Weebly makes it possible to see all the available functions at a glance. Its simple drag & drop system allows you to add text, images, or forms with a simple click.
Right now, Weebly is one of the most popular eCommerce website builders in the market. It’s not only about its ease of use, but it also offers great pricing. The main drawback that Weebly could have is probably that it doesn’t offer some of the most advanced features that other similar tools offer.
Prices:
- Free: This plan shows a Weebly ad in the footer and comes without a domain name. Good to see how it works.
- Personal: $9/month: You can connect your site with a domain name. Shows the ad at the bottom of the page.
- Pro: $16/month: Add-free, video, audio, and password-protected features.
- Performance: $29/month: The ideal plan to create an online store. Full access to advanced features.
Pros:
- Very easy to use: As said before, one of the most user-friendly website builders.
- Flexibility in design: It offers more than 270 apps between paid and free that you can use to add extra advanced functionalities to your design.
- Good designs: There aren’t so many templates like on other platforms and although they’re simplistic, they are also pretty good.
- Excellent for an online store: Weebly makes it easy to create your online store with just a few steps thanks to its template design for eCommerce. You can even add a products database with images and categories
Cons:
- The blog is very simple: Content creation is a key feature to attract more customers to your website, and powerful blog features are a plus in this sense, something that Weebly lacks.
- Not so good backup system: If you don’t mind losing countless hours of your work in the case something goes wrong, no problem but it’s hard to believe that.
if you’re looking to increase your online conversion but still feel you are not sure where to start – check out these resources below:
10 thoughts on “Top 5 Best Website Builders For eCommerce – 2023 Updated”
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