There has been a search for free and best eCommerce website builders among small businesses.
A website builder is a software application that allows you to design and manage your website without stress.
While some website builders with eCommerce operate on the freemium business model, others require that you pay before use.
The paid features help you run sales operations and integrate better with the best digital marketing tools.
Below are the best website builders for your eCommerce business.
Best Ecommerce Website Builders For Small Businesses
1. WooCommerce Website Builder
WooCommerce is one of the best free eCommerce website builders for small businesses. It is an open-source customizable software.
It offers an all-in-one cart solution on the most popular content management system, WordPress.
So, using WooCommerce to build your online store means you will need to buy a domain name and choose among the best web hosting.
One key reason I enjoy WooCommerce is the total control I have over my website design.
I can literally do as I want and sell anything with no restrictions.
Be you sell physical products (shirts, electronics, etc), digital products (ebooks, software, etc) or offer services (web design, writing, etc), WooCommerce can handle your operations.
WooCommerce works on WordPress, powering a large percentage of the web. It’s regularly audited by Sucuri, an industry leader in security, so you are in expert hands.
With WooCommerce, you can create coupons, manage orders, and view your sales in your dashboard.
Adding new products on WooCommerce is as easy as adding a new post to WordPress. The only difference is adding other extra information like the product’s price, categories, and more.
If you need help with setting up your online store on WordPress using WooCommerce, you can contact us here.
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2. Strikingly Website Builder
Strikingly is the best among the list of paid eCommerce website builders.
It allows you to create your website in minutes and build your brand without any code needed.
This is a web platform trusted by millions of entrepreneurs and creatives all over the world.
It has an easy-to-use editor that makes it possible to complete your website in 30 minutes.
Business owners prefer to use Strikingly to sell their products because of its many payment options made available.
So, if you are serious about turning your website visitor into customers, then use Strikingly. You will love it.
Below are a few of its many features:
- Get a new domain name or connect your existing one.
- Sell your physical or digital products whether one or a hundred.
- Engage your visitors with nice blog articles.
- Access full reports of activities on your website.
- Get a well-protected website because of its security measures.
3. Wix Website Builder
The cheapest among eCommerce website builders for small businesses.
Wix is best known for its competitive pricing, easy-to-use drag-and-drop site builder, and modern themes. It’s often used by business owners and creatives.
The website builder platform boast of helping small business owner interested in creative freedom set up their website.
If you want to build a complete website where an online store is an addition and not the core, check no further than Wix.
The Wix wizard welcomes you with a questionnaire that it automatically uses to set up your website.
You can also choose to answer a few more questions about what you sell and let Wix’s Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) do the work for you.
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4. Website Builder by Google
Google’s website builder is another of the best free platform to create and host your small business sites.
It is a drag-and-drop website for creating and editing simple sites. Whatever designs you make with this tool will automatically rearrange itself into a grid layout.
By doing so, your website will fit in into all devices – smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
Using Google free builder to design your website is like using Microsoft word.
You will have nothing to do with code or technicals. Google handles it itself.
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5. Shopify
The Easiest Among Ecommerce Website Builders For Small Businesses
Shopify is one of the best free and paid website builders popular among small businesses.
And I believe it’s because of its flexibility and ease of use. The smallest of businesses can set up and start receiving payments in minutes.
Shopify has a built-in CMS, multiple themes and lots of third-party apps, making it easy for business owners to start an eCommerce site.
Shopify wants to make it possible for everyone to design their own eCommerce websites, even having no coding knowledge.
The setup wizard walks you through a step-by-step guide on how to add your products, customize your eCommerce store, connect your custom domain name and start receiving payments.
There are free available themes to use, and you can also opt-in for paid ones if you need more functionalities.
Work with any of the best digital marketing agencies for setup.
6. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is an Open SaaS provider and web platform serving customers at low cost with powerful features.
It is one of the best website builders for eCommerce businesses.
With BigCommerce, their tutorials walk you through the step-by-step method you need to set up your online store.
BigCommerce’s guides are clear and well-detailed about the information you need, with links to help for further support.
There are hundreds of website-building apps in the BigCommerce store you can use to add additional functionalities like SEO, Social media, and more.
BigCommerce integrates with online payment processors like PayPal, Stripe, Braintree and many others.
As part of its flexibility, they give you the option to configure your eCommerce store to accept payments by bank transfer and check.
You can also choose to automate your listing on a popular marketplace like Amazon, eBay and Facebook.
With these, you save time listing manually and customers don’t have to buy directly from your store.
Just in case you need help, work with a digital marketing agency to bring the vision of your store to reality.
7. Magento
The Most Expensive Among Ecommerce Website Builders For Small Businesses
Magento is an open-source eCommerce solution. It’s preferred by top companies who are ready to invest in experienced developers and IT teams.
It is not suitable for do-it-yourself web designers or drag-and-drop small business owners.
You can customize and expand however you want with its in-depth feature list.
As a beginner, you may find Magento scary, but an experienced web developer should tweak it to meet your needs.
Magento is Open Source, and it’s free. But if you need more support with the eCommerce platform, there is a paid plan available for you.
Top companies like Nike, Cisco, and Adobe all believed in Magento to run their operations.
Magento has a community with many developers ready to work on your eCommerce store for a fee.
Magento’s marketplace is where you can get extensions and themes to increase your store functionality.
Magento is perfect for you if you:
- Expect to double online growth in the future
- Need sophisticated integrations
- Experience spikes in traffic or frequent surges
What Makes A Good Website Builder?
Every eCommerce business has different needs, and choosing from this list of the best website builders for your small business is critical to your success.
- 1. Hosting:
Do they provide hosting or not? If they do, how reliable is it? What is the uptime?
You don’t want to wake some day and find out your website is down. You know what that means to your business.
And if you are the one to host, then you can check out my guide on how to choose the best web hosting providers.
- 2. Domain:
Will you be getting a free domain? If yes, how long? Is it just for a year or as much as you keep using the platform?
PS: I don’t encourage buying your domain name with the same website-building companies you are using. Register elsewhere and connect with the platform.
- 3. Website Builder Software
You will definitely use a page builder if you are not writing codes. How friendly are the page builders?
Are the themes easy to customize? Can you see your changes in real time?
Also, with the increasing number of mobile users, check to know if the themes available on the platforms are responsive. I.e. They look good and fit on all electronic devices.
- 4. Add-ons and Plugins
As your business grows, you will also need to integrate some tools to meet up customer demands.
So, ensure you choose a website builder software with enough apps and integrates with major business providers for your smooth business running.
- 5. SEO best practices
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must for your online business if you want to appear on the front pages of search engines–Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.
Not all website-building platforms for small businesses are excellent for SEO. It’s important you note this.
Before You Sign Up
I am sure you will be happy with the offers you are seeing on all of these eCommerce website builders.
But wait before you commit yourself, a little research on your business and target audience is necessary.
- 1. Finance
What is your budget? How much do you dedicate to setting up your eCommerce website? You need to have full detail of what you are paying for and how long you can continue paying.
There are two sides to this.
A high-priced website builder software does not always mean the best. And the cheapest website builders will do you no good in the long run.
So you have to balance the features you need and the amount you have to pay.
The best way to do this most times is to compare features from various website builder software and their respective cost.
2. Target Audience.
Promoting your products or services to a targeted audience is a must if you are to succeed in business.
A standard website builder for small businesses should have built-in integrations with major social media networks, so you can market directly to buyers on these networks.
Also, that allows you to measure your conversion rate and know where you need more effort.
- 3. Inventory.
Do you sell many products or just some below a hundred?
Choosing a website builder software with low inventory limits can place restrictions on your business.
If you have a large products number to sell, choose the website builder that allows you to sell unlimited products. Very Necessary!
- 4. Growth.
How many people do you forecast on your website? What number of visits do you plan to have per month?
Does your website builder app have infrastructures in place to handle the number of customers coming in?
It’s expected that as you grow, your website builder grows with you. It becomes a poor business when the reverse is the case.
Don’t place a ceiling on your business today. Leave room for growth tomorrow.
If you can, choose eCommerce website builders with cloud hosting – Your site will be live even if there are server failures.
- 5. Support
In business, nothing is 100% guaranteed.
There will come a day when you will face technical issues or website errors. Will the website building company be available to help?
You need to be sure you are working with actual humans who will be there to assist should any problem arise and not bots.
Website Builder Software FAQs
What are the best website builder?
WooCommerce and Strikingly are the best free and paid eCommerce website builders for small businesses.
Website Builder or custom-building?
Website builder software lowers the barrier to entry to running your online business, saving you time and money.
While Custom solutions require huge capital and a team to build and maintain. Also, it delays before launching.
Are website builders really free?
While some website-building platforms offer their core products for free, you still have to pay to access other advanced features.
It’s called the freemium business model.
Which eCommerce platforms in Nigeria are best for dropshipping?
When it comes to dropshipping, I will encourage you to use Strikingly because of its many integrations and easy online store setup.
Conclusion on the Best Ecommerce Website Builders
There are three major reasons why you should use website builders:
- They grow with you as your eCommerce business grows.
- You save energy and time in setting up your web pages.
- They are cheaper than building from scratch.
