So, if you’re reading this, it’s likely that you’re considering launching an online business and that you appreciate the concept of e-commerce. But before you take any action, you must choose the best online store builder for your company.
Fortunately, you are spoiled for choice. I’ve included and reviewed some of the greatest online store builders below to help you sort through the possibilities.
We’ll briefly discuss how to start your online store, what to look for when making a decision, and which online store builder is appropriate for both new and experienced business owners.
Additionally, we’ll discuss the top online shop builders for 2022, their benefits and drawbacks, costs, and target businesses.
What is an online store builder?
This is a platform for websites, designed especially for e-commerce sales. It allows you to sell physical objects that are shipped, digital products that are downloaded, online and offline services, and even pre-book appointments so that you may sell courses online.
Online store builders are the quickest and simplest method to start selling online, regardless of whether you’re expanding an existing business or starting from scratch.
On a single platform, they provide solutions that handle inventory, payments, shipping, and every other aspect of running an online store.
Some e-commerce platforms are better suited for particular business models and financial constraints.
What to look for?
There are many options to pick from when you start researching which website builder to utilize for your new website. It can be difficult to try to decide which one to choose, especially if you don’t know enough to even know what to search for.
When selecting the best website builder for your store, you should take into account several factors as listed below.
1. User friendly
The whole goal of a website builder is to make the process of creating a website simple. Make sure the website builder you choose includes an easy-to-use editing tool so you can easily customize your website to have the style and feel you like.
The ability to drag and drop elements on the website is a useful feature to check for because it allows users of all levels of web design expertise to reposition elements on the page with their mouse. Additionally, the editing tool must contain functions that let you upload any additional media without having to acquire new abilities while changing the page’s colors, adding new elements, and doing other things.
2. Customer support
You want to be certain that you can contact someone for quick assistance if you run into any problems while building your website or, worse yet, after it goes live. Look for a website builder that provides round-the-clock assistance and has a solid track record of being there for clients when they need it. Ideally, you won’t ever require customer service, but if you do, it’s critical to know that it is dependable and available.
A website builder should simplify your life and give you the ability to create a website that accomplishes all of your goals. Finding one that delivers what you require is crucial nevertheless.
3. Sales features
Getting visitors to locate your website will be difficult because there are so many websites already online. By assisting you in optimizing the pages of your website for search engine exposure, a website builder with SEO tools might provide you with an advantage.
Google will be more likely to include your website in searches for that phrase if you include relevant keywords in the URL, meta description, and image tags of each web page. That will be simple to perform with a competent website builder.
Once your website is live, you need to market it, hence, you want fans of your website to spread the word about it. Social sharing capabilities can be useful on both counts.
In addition to making it simple for people to share your web pages with their followers with a single click, you can easily push out fresh content to your social networks to inform your followers about it.
4. Website features
a. Templates
Selecting a template is the first step in using a website builder to create a website.
You can start building your website using the design and structure provided by the template rather than starting from scratch. The template may then be easily modified to better reflect your distinctive identity on your website.
If you can choose a template that is somewhat similar to what you have in mind for your website, creating it will be simpler. As a result, be sure the website builder you choose has a wide selection of templates.
b. Mobile-friendly
More people now use their mobile devices to browse the internet than they do their laptops. Your website must be mobile-friendly for the vast majority of visitors to find it useful. The best method to achieve it is to create a responsive website.
The same elements and content are present on responsive websites regardless of the device being used to access them, but they are automatically structured so that they look nice on all screen sizes.
Your chosen website builder should provide a simple method for you to make your website responsive.
Offering responsive themes is a smart move because you’ll already have a mobile-friendly website and won’t need to do anything to make it that way.
c. Other customization features
Although templates are fantastic for making the process of creating a website quicker, you need to make sure you can customize the template to create something your own.
A good website builder should offer a wide range of customization choices. Change the colors, create additional pages, upload your images, and add icons and buttons in any size or form that you like.
The goal is to develop something that accurately portrays your unique brand; you don’t want a website that looks exactly like everyone else’s.
Choose a website builder that provides you a lot of flexibility to tweak the template you select so you can make it uniquely yours.
Every website needs photos since they play a crucial role in how visitors will interact with the site. It can be challenging and time-consuming to find high-quality photographs to include on your website if you’re not a photographer or illustrator.
A picture library built into a website builder can save you a ton of time, improve the appearance of your website, and hasten the launch of your website.
d. Educational resources
Although the website builder you use should be simple to use, you still want to have access to useful materials that explain all the capabilities and how to utilize them.
Look into the availability of tutorials for the website builder you are considering. If you can fully grasp all your website builder can do for you and how to use it all, you’ll get more use out of it.
5. Value for money
Most likely, when starting a business from scratch you won’t have much money to invest in a website. This can be less of a bother when your business is already established.
Website builders typically charge on a subscription basis, so you must take into account both the current and future costs. Select a website builder that fits inside your website’s ongoing budget.
Consider everything that is included in the price rather than just choosing the cheapest option because in some circumstances the pricing includes items or services that you would otherwise have to pay more for.
How can I create an online store for free?
The stages of creating an online store are as follows:
1. Choose an online store builder, and sign up or log into your account.
2. Pick from more than 500 professional templates for online stores.
3. Customize the look of your online store.
4. add merchandise to your shop.
5. Create a shipment plan and connect a payment processor.
6. Select a unique domain.
7. Launch your eCommerce website, then start making sales.
What is the best online store builder in 2022?
#1. Shopify
Shopify is affordable, easy to use, loaded with features, and the most popular online store builder for start-ups and small enterprises who want to launch rapidly is Shopify.
It is also a one-stop shop for setting up an internet store, equipped with the resources you need to grow your business, no matter how big or little.
Even with no prior expertise, you can easily start and launch your online store thanks to the feature-rich platform and a drag-and-drop page builder.
You may even use a variety of free and premium store themes to get the design process started.
You can create a well-designed web store without writing a single line of code, complete with shipping, taxes, inventory management, fulfillment, and support for both online and offline sales in one location.
Shopify Advantages
1. You don’t need to bother about maintaining your web server because it is fully hosted.
2. There is a vibrant community on Shopify where you may ask questions and pick up helpful e-commerce advice.
3. Shopify facilitates cross-channel sales (online, offline, social, etc.)
4. The Shopify UI is extremely user-friendly.
Shopify Disadvantages
1. You’ll have to pay extra transaction fees to use third-party payment gateways.
2. There is no free plan offered by Shopify.
3. The theme you select will determine how much you can alter the appearance of your store.
4. Shopify doesn’t provide a B2B selling platform out of the box.
Shopify Features
Free SSL certificate
- Full platform for blogging
- 100s of themes for your eCommerce site
- Support for search engine optimization
- Mobile commerce ready
- Domain name
- Credit card payments
- Flexible shipping rates
- Dropshipping access
- Customer profiles and accounts
Here is a summary of Shopify’s plans and costs:
- Basic Shopify — $29 per month
- Shopify — $79 per month
- Advanced Shopify — $299 per month
Who is best fitted for Shopify?
Shopify is particularly designed for retailers who need to integrate their online and offline sales into one system or who send real goods to clients. In Shopify, it’s simple to publish products to numerous channels and keep track of inventory, client orders, and shipping.
With many plug-and-play connectors to these kinds of vendors, it’s also a great platform for dropshipping and print-on-demand enterprises. With its mobile app, you can even run your entire business while on the go.
#2. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is an online store builder with a multichannel focus that combines easily with Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Google Shopping, Amazon, eBay, and other sales channels.
BigCommerce has a ton of ready-to-use designs and is incredibly user-friendly, so you can quickly establish a business.
BigCommerce outperforms other all-in-one e-commerce systems in one crucial area: WordPress integration. This enables growth-oriented brands to combine the nearly limitless content features of WordPress with the potent multichannel sales tools of BigCommerce.
BigCommerce Advantages
1. Free Trial
2. The only platform with transactional emails
3. Very user-centric experience
BigCommerce Disadvantages
1. Restrictive pricing plans based on annual turnover
2. Limited template customization
3. A steep learning curve with little assistance
BigCommerce Features
- Easy website builder
- Access to marketing tools
- Domain name for the business owner
- Simple storefront
- Products and merchandising
- Shipping support
- Reporting and analytics
- Social media marketing
- Hosting and security
- SEO and analytics
- CMS and inventory management
Here is a summary of BigCommerce’s plans and costs:
- Standard — $29.95
- Plus — $79.95
- Pro — $299.95
Who is best fitted for BigCommerce?
BigCommerce is for you in case you want to grow your web business. Because you can access configurable APIs and webhooks with BigCommerce, it’s also fantastic for web developers. If you have the skills, you can customize it almost endlessly.
#3. OLITT
With Olitt, a free drag-and-drop website builder, you have the resources necessary to be successful online.
For any business use case, you can pick from a variety of 200+ beautiful predesigned and premium website designs. Olitt offers all-inclusive plans and prices with no hidden charges.
Olitt Advantages
1. Free basic plan
2. Free SSL Certificates for all Landing Pages and Websites you publish
3. Drag-and-Drop features hence user friendly
Olitt Disadvantages
1. Difficult first interaction
2. Currently not US based
3. Templates not categorized into niches
Olitt Features
- Sell unlimited products
- Unlimited Storage
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Variety of Shop Templates
- Free domain
- Connect Multiple Custom Domains
- DNS Management
- Security with SSL
- Discounted Domains
- Free Pre-built Websites
- Free hosting
- Ticket & Live Chat support
- SEO & Marketing tools
- Social Media Integrations
- Variety of online payments
Here is a summary of OLITT’s plans and costs:
- Basic – $0.00 per month
- Pro – $6.99 per month
- Pro – $29.99 per year
Who is best fitted for Olitt?
Olitt is for you if you are looking for modern website templates and landing pages. If you cant afford to pay for a website for your online store, especially for new entrepreneurs, Olitt has a free basic plan. It is literary a free website builder site.
#4. Wix
The most well-known feature of Wix is its simple drag-and-drop site builder. You can utilize hundreds of free templates, and their packages include web hosting and a domain name (either for free or for a fee).
If you want to increase the functionality of your store, there’s a strong chance you’ll discover the plugin you need in Wix’s fantastic App Market.
Wix Advantages
1. Great templates
2. Friendly onboarding experience
3. Advanced business functionality like CRM
Wix Disadvantages
1. Can’t change site design after publishing
2. Slower server response time than some competitors
Wix Features
- Intuitive website designer
- Customizable themes
- One–pagers
- Optimized mobile view
- Drag-and-drop builder
- HTML embed code
- Blog support
- Facebook comments
- Social feed
- Email marketing
- Communication tools
- Site analytics
Here is a summary of Wix’s plans and costs:
- Business Basic — $27 per month
- Business Unlimited — $32 per month
- Business VIP — $59 per month
Who is best fitted for Wix?
No matter what sector you work in, Wix likely has a template created with your target audience in mind: cuisine, art, music, photography, etc. are just a few examples.
What is the best online store builder for beginners in 2022?
- Wix – Best online store builder for beginners
- Shopify – It’s suited for all types of businesses
- Olitt – Free drag-and-drop website builder
- Jimdo – Easiest website builder to use
- GoDaddy – Best for a quick initial setup
- Squarespace – Best design templates
- Zyro – Lowest cost option
- Square E-Commerce (formerly Weebly) – Great for “what you see is what you get” editing
What is the best online store builder for established entrepreneurs in 2022?
If your business is already established, the listed online store builders are suitable:
1. Shopify
2. BigCommerce
3. Olitt
4. Wix
6. WooCommerce
7. Squarespace
8. Square
9. Web.com
10. Zoomforth
11. Brandcast
Best online store builder: Conclusion
These days, having an internet presence is essential for expanding your business.
Customers should be able to ask inquiries, access useful business information, and shop online even in conventional brick-and-mortar establishments.
You may establish a store with a user-friendly design that appeals to clients and showcases your product catalog by using one of the top e-commerce website builders.