Best Ecommerce Website Builders for Small Businesses

If you are a small business owner or just starting your new ecommerce website and don’t want to invest thousands of dollars in developing it then this article is just for you. Ecommerce has become a new trend for selling products although there are marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Etsy where you can list your products and sell them without developing your own portal and spending a huge amount on marketing but its always good to have your own e-commerce website so that you can offer special discounts, Quick delivery and build a brand around your portal.
Today we are going to cover the topic “Best Ecommerce website builders for small businesses” and which type of businesses do require their own ecommerce portal.

Does a small business need ecommerce portal?

Now as we have already discussed that there are ecommerce marketplaces where you can sell your products and make money but the problem with such portals is a heavy commission charge that these portals impose from the sellers, No dedicated customer base as this portals has their own servers to hold the customer information, you can not offer special discounts for your customers if you are using these portals.
If you own an ecommerce website then you can do everything mentioned above and a lot more.
Earlier, Creating an ecommerce website was difficult because of a lot of customizations and website development has to be done in order to get a full-fledged Online selling portal but because of websites like Shopify, Bigcommerce, Woocommerce this problem is solved and now anyone can create an Ecommerce website in minutes.
Below we are going to list top Ecommerce website Builders (Free and Paid) using which you can create your own online selling portal.

List of top Free and Paid Ecommerce Website Builders

#1 Woocommerce – best ecommerce website builder for small business

Woocommerce is a free and open-source platform built on WordPress Framework. Woocommerce is a free ecommerce website builder and you only have to pay for the premium themes and plugins which adds extra functionality to your ecommerce platform.
For using Woocommerce you have to install WordPress on a website and then add the Woocommerce Plugin to it. as we said Woocommerce is free to use but for WordPress, you have to purchase hosting from a hosting provider like Godaddy, DigitalOcean which generally costs around $5 per month.
You can refer to a lot of tutorials on Youtube regarding how to set up WordPress on DigitalOcean and how you can start selling products on Woocommerce.
Pros :

• Free to use and open-source
• Good for SEO Purposes
• Lots of Plugins and themes available for free to enhance the look of your Ecommerce Store
• Website building tutorial available
• Free marketing channels integration available
• can run affiliate and ecommerce store together

Cons :

• Need WordPress expert to add extra functionality
• Good servers cost high
• Need to spend time to get friendly with the dashboard
• need technical knowledge for payment gateway and other third-party app integration.

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#2 Shopify – Ecommerce Website Builder

Shopify is a very popular Ecommerce platform with more than 500k active ecommerce stores running and hundreds of new online selling portals are added on each day.
Unlike WordPress which can also be used for blogging and other web development purposes, Shopify is a dedicated ecommerce platform.
With Shopify, you can easily Build a Fullfledged ecommerce website in minutes and start selling products immediately. Its as simple as signing up and adding products to your store.It is the best Ecommerce builder in terms of value for money and features it provides
Shopify offers you a Shopify hosted domain like example.myshopify.com or you can purchase your own domain from Shopify dashboard itself or from third-party domain registration services like Namecheap, domains.com, etc. and link it to your Shopify store.
With Shopify, you can do a lot of things easily and without any technical knowledge also it offers wide range of themes and “Shopify apps” to add extra functionality to your store and help you with a better understanding of your customers and products.
Also, we have to note that Shopify is a self-hosted platform which means you don’t have to purchase a separate hosting account and thus it also helps with maximum website uptime and speed.

Shopify also offers various in-house apps and tools to help store owners to increase their visitors and sell their products and services. Some of the apps are designed specifically to increase your subscribers. Apps like Tada allows your visitors play a fun, engaging game to win a discount in exchange for their email address. With Tada’s Gamified and full-screen pop-ups, you can increase subscribers by 500% and sales by 135% instantly and it will also helps in reducing the rate of shopping cart abandonment.

Pros:

• Easy to use and build ecommerce selling platform
• Add inventory/manage inventory
• Easy integration with third-party payment gateways and marketing apps
• Seamless integration with promotional channels like Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram, etc
• 14-days trial available for any new customer

Cons:

• Self-hosted platform (You have to use the given functionality only unless you are using Shopify Gold or Shopify Plus)
• Cost is high compared to Woocommerce
• Not that great for SEO purposes
• All Good apps on Shopify are paid and can add extra bucks to your budget.
• can not customize the checkout and thank you page in Shopify basic plan

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#3 Wix – Best Ecommerce Website Builder :

Wix is another popular Website builder tool. If you are looking for a Value for money tool then Wix is perfect for you. It suits all the requirements needed for starting an ecommerce business on a small scale.
Wix offers you a lot of features suitable for small ecommerce websites including inventory management, Shipment Management and tracking, Popular payment gateways integration including Paypal, Stripe and a lot more.
You can also opt-in for free as well as paid themes and features. The basic plan of Wix starts at $23 and you can cancel the subscription anytime.
Wix has a lot of pre-made themes for any type of business for example if you want to start a clothing or shoe business online then you can directly choose a clothing theme or shoe theme from the directory and you will have all the options already customized for you.
Pros:

• Easy to use – Drag and drop builder
• You can start Ecommerce business, Blog, Services business
• Hundreds of themes
• 24/7 chat and Email support team available

Cons:

• Expensive for a small business or for a newbie
• not so many advanced features
• limited access to customization
• No bulk upload product option available

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#4 BigCommerce – ecommerce website builder

BigCommerce is yet another Popular ecommerce builder and a great alternative to Shopify. With Bigcommerce you can create stunning ecommerce websites in minutes and it also offers you a 14 days trial version.
It has built-in marketing options such as SEO optimization, Facebook and Instagram selling channels. Google Shopping integration etc. Even if you are a newbie in this field there are a lot of videos available on Youtube if you are struggling to set up the store.
The Dashboard is user-friendly and anyone can learn to use it in few weeks also if you have any issue with your store then you can simply contact their 24/7 dedicated support team.
Pros:

• Friendly User interface with tons of options
• Multiple marketing channels supported
• Hundreds of themes and apps to choose from
• Dedicated 24/7 support team via chat and email

Cons:

• Fewer options compared to Woocommerce and shopify
• less control over store functionality and customization
• limited inventory and product options
• limited payment gateways and shipping channels integration

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#5 Squarespace – best ecommerce website builder

Squarespace provides you everything that a small scale or medium-level Ecommerce Business needs. With Squarespace ecommerce website builder you can build a “monthly recurring subscription website” sell digital content and physical ecommerce products.
You can manage all your ecommerce products under one dashboard and sell your products globally with easy to use tax and shipping rules also popular payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, Checkout.com, etc can be integrated. You can also accept cryptocurrency as a payment method.
Similar to Shopify you can also connect your online Ecommerce Store with POD services such as Printify.
Pros:

• Easy to use Ecommerce website builder
• Pricing is less compared to other popular website builders
• Create Subscription, Appointment booking, Digital services ecommerce website
• Best themes design compared to Shopify and Bigcommerce.

Cons:

• Fewer Features for a dedicated physical Ecommerce store
• If you want advanced features then you have to pay more
• No dedicated App store
• Everything is paid

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Frequently Asked Questions about Popular Ecommerce Builders

#1 Is there any free trial available?
Ans: Websites like Shopify and Bigcommerce offers 14 days free trial. For Woocommerce you don’t need any sort of Trial as it is a self-hosted and open-source platform.
#2 Can I Use my own domain on these websites?
Ans: Yes, Almost all the websites offer you to use your own domain name or you can also purchase the domain from the dashboard of each Ecommerce building platform.
#3 Is it possible to sell Print on demand products on these portals?
Ans: Ecommerce website building platforms like Shopify and Bigcommerce have some Top Print-on-demand suppliers like Printify, Printful, Pillow Profits which offers you a wide range of POD Products.
#4 Which Platform supports major Payment Gateways?
Ans: If you are looking for a Great payment gateways integration then you should opt-in for Shopify as it offers all the major payment gateways including PayPal, Shopify Payments, Stripe, Authorize.net, Payumoney, Paytm, Instamojo. If you are looking to use Bluesnap payment gateway then You should subscribe to Bigcommerce.

Conclusion

There are a lot of other Ecommerce website builders out there this is just a small list of best ecommerce website builders. As you have already read above that every e-commerce platform is unique in its own way and you have to choose for the one that is suitable for your business and meets your Ecommerce requirements. as some platforms only product you dedicated e-commerce features some can also be used for blogging and digital products websites.
If you have any issues or questions please drop your comment below and we will try to help you.