Whether you are starting a new eCommerce business or already have one on the run, an eCommerce website builder can be a game-changer for you. Nowadays, a lot of people are creating and managing online stores where they can market and sell their products and services. It’s easy and doesn’t require any IT or designing skills to get you started.
However, what makes an online store stand out from the other is the quality of your products, the way they are displayed and marketed, the ultimate customer experience, including navigation and purchasing process, and your website payment methods.
These main factors, among others, including SEO, marketing tools, CMR, and more are essential to driving more traffic, attract new customers, and increase your online presence. An eCommerce website builder can help you achieve your business goals by providing you with the right features and adequate tools.
With that said, in this article, we have researched and reviewed the top 8 Best eCommerce Website Builders in 2020. Check them out!
These are the Top 8 Best E-Commerce Website Builders for 2020
1. Wix
Wix is the best eCommerce website builder in 2020. You probably came across this website builder advertisements while watching your favorite Youtube videos or scrolling through your Instagram feed. The platform has been gaining a lot of popularity since its establishment in 2006.
It was created for small businesses and startups who want to sell their products online. With that idea in mind, it offered them a sheer number of essential tools and functionalities to help them build and grow their online stores.
Wix has more than 500 striking templates from which you can choose to start building your website. You can customize the templates to your business’ needs by using the various features and effects founded within the builder dashboard. The Drag and Drop builder is straightforward and easy to use, no coding or designing skills are required.
You can easily customize your storefront page to match your brand and domain. This includes the way you exhibit your product collection, the different galleries, a luring add to card gadget, and more.
After that, you can start working on increasing your online presence by integrating to other platforms and facilitating the purchase and shipment process. Within the platform, you can fix your pricing offers and shipping conditions.
This is possible by integrating your online Wix store to a larger marketplace and source from a sheer number of premium products that you can sell online.
Furthermore, the builder allows you to sell your products through different channels, including Facebook and Instagram. It also allows you to interact and engage with your consumers via these channels. Payments can be done through several payment gateways in a secured and protected way.
How much does Wix cost?
Wix has 5 pricing plans:
- Free plan which is remarkably abundant with a great number of features that can get you started. The free plan, however, doesn’t enable you to generate money. For that, you’ll need to upgrade your plan.
- The basic plan costs $23 per month, and it is ideal to receive only payments.
- Unlimited plan costs $27 per month, and it is an ideal option to grow your business and scale it up to the next level
- Business VIP costs $49 per month, and it is ideal for those who are looking for a complete package of essential and advanced tools.
- Enterprise plan costs $500 per month and is intended for large businesses.
Pros
- More than 500 stunning Templates
- Easy to use Drag-and-Drop Interface
- 200+ Apps integrations
- Free Mobile Application (Mobile responsive)
- Ultimate customization and optimization
- It allows you to create a well-branded website
Cons
- Suitable for small and simple eCommerce business only
- Ads.
2. Squarespace
Squarespace surely stands out when it comes to attractive designs and templates. It has outperformed any other builders you can come across on the market.
Squarespace eCommerce platform is suitable for everyone including small, medium, and large businesses. It is an excellent choice for those who want to sell their products by displaying and promoting them in the best way possible. It helps you to keep on record with your sales performance and inventory status.
This all-in-one website builder empowers business owners with original concepts that help them establish their online shop, and optimize it with the ultimate marketing and advertising tools.
The platform offers over a plethora of in-house designed templates that are made to meet with different business domains and industries. The templates are modern, and built-in in a way that helps you stand out with your products and better showcase your brand.
Squarespace offers the most inventive approach to sell your goods and services. You can organize and manage them based on different tags and categories, this makes it easier to navigate.
By featuring a rich display of your products, it enables your buyers to efficiently and easily skim through your products and services, choose the one they want to purchase and add it to the purchasing cart. The checking out process for the final payment is direct and clear.
The Sales features incorporated in the platform can be clearly recognized when browsing for your products. These features include flexible product variants, unlimited products, inventory management, selling digital products, physical products, and services, automatic emailing, and configuring sales taxes.
How much does Squarespace cost?
Squarespace offers 2 pricing plans for e-commerce businesses.
- Basic Commerce plan costs $30 per month ( if billed annually it costs $26 per month). This plan is a good choice for small businesses. It includes features like analytics, points of sale, customer accounts, and more.
- Advanced Commerce plan costs $46 per month ( if paid annually, it costs $40 per month). This offer is ideal for larger eCommerce business that requires more advanced features including, advanced shipping and discounts, APIs, limited availability labels, and more.
Pros
- The best website builder when it comes to visual appeal.
- Excellent features
- Great inventory mechanism
- Advanced analytical tools
- No purchasing fees
- SSL security
Cons
- No mobile app store included
- A little bit on the expensive side.
3. Shopify
Powering over 1.000.000 in more than 175 countries, Shopify is one of the leading platforms in the eCommerce realm. Established in 2004, this scalable platform is made for businesses of all sizes. All you need to start building your website are a good internet connection and quality products., and your website can be done in no time.
Shopify website builder is easy to use. You don’t need to have IT skills to get it going and surely you don’t need a high budget to get started. It is one of the affordable and effective eCommerce website builders that you can come across on the market.
The platform features a simple, straightforward, and beginner-friendly interface. It offers a sheer number of themes from which you can choose. However, not all of them are free. You will need to upgrade your plan to enjoy premium themes.
The themes are mobile-friendly and are easy to customize to your online store needs. They are attractive and professionally made. They are also organized based on industry categorization, most demanded, and value.
Sales wise, Shopify offers a set of good features and tools that are essential in creating the best customer shopping experience. These features include Applications, Shipping, Dropped cart recovery, Product management, Payment choices, Multi-channel integration, Tax, and more.
How much does Shopify cost?
Shopify offers 5 pricing plans:
- Lite plan costs $9 per month. This plan allows you to sell your products and engage with your customer’s Facebook. It comes with a 2% transaction fee if you don’t utilize the platform Payments.
- The Basic plan costs $29 per month. You can create your website with this plan offer by using the essential features. This plan includes 2 staff accounts. It comes with a 2% transaction fee.
- The Shopify plan costs $79 per month. This plan is ideal for businesses that are at the growth phase. This plan includes 5 staff accounts. It comes with a 1% transaction fee if you don’t use the website payments.
- The advanced plan is $299 per month. It is ideal for large businesses who seek to level up their game in a competitive market. This plan includes 15 staff accounts. It comes with a 0.5% transaction fee.
- For Shopify Plus plan, you will need to request a quote for an in-house sales specialist to know more about the overall price.
Pros
- Excellent inventory mechanism for product management
- Integration with multiple channels
- Professionally designed templates
- More than 50 global payment gateways
- Mobile responsive
- Solid security system
Cons
Transactions fees are imposed if you don’t set and Shopify payments
4. Weebly
Over 40 million people, around the globe, have used this website builder to create an online store. The platform is designed for everyone who is seeking to sell their products via an online store.
If website customization is your top priority, then the Weebly builder is for you. You can freely use your IT skills such as CSS and HTML, to dig deep into the design of the offered templates and website functionalities. The platform permits full access to the templates system for this purpose.
Weebly also offers a wide variety of customizable themes from which you can choose. You can select the one that goes with your products and business domain. The drag and drop builder is easy to use. The dashboard displays several useful features that help in the customization process.
You can also take advantage of the marketing tools. These tools can help you grow your business and increase your online presence. Moreover, your online store is optimized for engine research, ensuring a better reach. Analytics Wise, Weebly offers you the essential tools to trace your site and sales performance.
How much does Weebly cost?
Weebly offers 3 pricing plans for online stores:
- Pro plan costs $12 per month if paid annually. This plan is ideal for groups and organizations.
- The business plan costs $25 per month if paid annually. This plan is ideal for small businesses and stores.
- Business Plus plan costs $38 per month if paid annually. This plan is ideal for power sellers.
Pros
- Easy to use interface
- Connect custom domain
- Limitless storage
- Unmatched customization
Cons
Integrations with other platforms are not available.
5. Bigcommerce
Scalability and seamless integrations are what characterize Bigcommerce website builder. This platform is made for those who want to expand their online eCommerce business. It enables them to easily integrate with high-quality software. These integrations help you in growing your business and increasing your customer’s reach.
Many business owners like to use this builder for many reasons. First, it allows you to grow your business in no time and without crushing your bank account.
It is equipped with scam warning and 24h updated security system to keep your data and confidential information of your customers safe and sound. Moreover, it relies on itself when it comes to addressing needed functionalities.
When it comes to building your eCommerce storefront design, Bigcommerce offers an easy to use drag and drop builder to accomplish your mission. The interface is simple, intuitive, and doesn’t require any coding or designing skills to get you started.
The platform has a limited number of free templates. Therefore, to use a premium one, you need to upgrade your plan. Also, some of the templates are not mobile-friendly, they may appear improperly on more diminutive displays.
The best thing about this builder is its template customization access. The builder gives you an absolute authority when it comes to your site’s visual display. Besides, BigCommerce allows you to sell everywhere including eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Google Shopping, Square, and Instagram.
How much does Bigcommerce cost?
Bigcommer offers 3 for free once you choose your plan. Pricing plans-wise, there are 4 offers for online store:
- Standard Plan costs $29.95 per month after 3 months. This plan is ideal to get you started in designing your website.
- Plus Plan costs $79.95/= per month after 3 months. This plan offers a sheer number of powerful marketing and growth tools. This, eventually, helps you in boosting your sales.
- Pro Plan costs $299.95 per month after 3 months. It offers advanced features.
- Enterprise plan: Contact sales or reach out to them via their phone number 1-866-991-0872 for a custom quote
Pros
- Unlimited staff account
- Strong payment gateways
- Unmatched scalability
- Premium SEO
- Great customer service support
Cons
- Restricted free template choices
- Premium themes can be quite expensive.
6. Volusion
Volusion got everything you need to sell your products online. It helps you create, manage, and grow your online store easily and effectively. Unlike Squarespace, Volusion places more attention to creating powerful features that help you sell your products smartly, rather than the visual appearance of your website.
However, this doesn’t restrict the platform from offering a great set of themes and templates from which you can choose. When it comes to creating and setting your website, Volusion offers you the essential tools to achieve your goals. First, the platform provides its users with an easy to use and intuitive builder that helps you customize your online website seamlessly. There is no need for CSS or HTML skills.
For an increased reach, your website is Search engine optimized, allowing an easy browse and access to your stores. The templates included are mobile responsive and will be properly displayed on any device your consumers are using. For enhanced customer experience, the platform displays a navigator that helps your consumers navigate easily.
Sales wise, the platform provides you with a sheer number of tools to increase your sales and facilitate the payment and shipping procedures. Payments gateways include amazon Pay, cash, PayPal, Stripe, and more. Other tools including the inventory and CRM systems, made product management and analytics easier and accessible.
How much does Volusion cost?
Volution offers 4 pricing plans including:
- Personal plan costs $29per month
- Professional plan costs $79 per month
- Business plan costs $299 per month
- Prime plan: you should contact an inhouse sales for a Custom Quote
Pros
- Diversified payment methods
- Advanced analytics and management tools
- Mobile responsive
- 3rd party gateways
Cons
- Not enough sales channels
- Menu structure can be improved
7. Magento
Functionality, customization, and versatility are the chief factors that business owners are looking for in an eCommerce website builder, and Magento happens to include these traits. First of all, it is important to note that Magento comes in two versions, including open-source solutions and hosted solutions. Each comes with its benefits. The latter, however, is on the expensive side.
Magento is recognized as one of the leading eCommerce platforms on the market, and it’s mainly used by large companies that are massively endowed in IT or development or commercial enterprises that demand a more complex and involved eCommerce system.
The platform offers you the essential tools and features for the ultimate customer experience. It allows you to customize and personalize your content, your template designs, and functionalities to meet with your customer’s needs, all with single clicks.
This ensures seamless and easy navigating and purchasing procedures. Besides offering page builder, and customer segmentation and personalization, the platform allows for smooth shopping everywhere. This helps expand and grow your business effectively and increase your reach at the same time.
How much does Magento cost?
Magento doesn’t display its pricing plans on their website. However, you can either request a demo or contact them directly via their phone number 1-800-685-3624 or contact their sales representatives for more details.
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- Mobile responsive
- Great customization
- A great number of features
Cons
On the expensive side.
8. 3dcart
3dcart is another powerful and versatile eCommerce website builder. It comes with an abundance of in-built features and tools that helps you create, manage, and grow your online store. The platform is also partnering with over 200 driving industry service suppliers, including transportation and tracking, payment solutions, and more.
3dcart offers over 160 payment methods and more than 80 free attractive and professionally designed templates, making it an ideal option for anyone who wants to start an online eCommerce store website. This all in one website builder provides its users with an efficient and robust builder to market and sell their merchandise.
The process of navigating through the different products and checking out for final payments is made easier for consumers, ensuing an ultimate customer experience. The platform enables you to have full authority over your online store. That means you can easily and effortlessly access your data, stock, invoices and transactions, analytics, and more.
For customized and personalized them, you will need to upgrade your plan. Nevertheless, these templates are totally worth the price and will ensure a well branded and customized website for your online business. More importantly, 3dcart is a search-engine-optimized website, which makes it easy to improve your search ranking and bring in more consumers to your online store, and eventually, grow your revenues.
How much does 3dcart cost?
3dcart offer 5 pricing plans:
- Startup store costs $19 per month for 1 staff user
- Basic store costs $29 per month for 2 staff users
- Plus store costs $79 per month for 5 staff users
- power store costs $129 per month for 10 staff users
- Pro store costs $229/month for 15 staff users
- Enterprise you will need to contact an inhouse sales representative to receive a quote
Pros
- CRM features
- Plenty of SEO and marketing tools
- Reliable, scalable, and expandable
- No transactions fees
Cons
Templates can be improved.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you are a business owner, then you probably acknowledge the importance of having a commerce website for different reasons. These reasons include increasing sales, enhanced customer journeys, and ensuring your virtual presence for a better reach.
Ecommerce website builders help you achieve that by allowing you to create and build, through different and simple steps, a website that has the best purchasing experience for your consumers.
Therefore, depending on the type of business you are running, the website will be customized to meet your needs as well as your customer’s needs. It is important to note that not all eCommerce websites are designed the same way. They differ in terms of features, functionalities, and purposes.
Just getting started with your e-commerce business:
If you are about to start your business anytime soon, then the eCommerce website builder can be a great starting point. It can be a cost-effective option as you won’t have to spend that much money at an early stage.
And at the same time, you still get the functionalities and performance you are seeking at this level. The website builder in this aspect allows you to optimize and customize your website for the perfect consumer’s reach and shopping experience.
Already a growing business:
If you are already growing a business, then these builders can be a great option to improve and enhance your business performance and further grow your online presence. The website builders offer you the essential tools to develop your store and the different features that help in presenting your products the best way possible.
Moreover, at this point, you will be able to connect your store with unlimited applications and platform integrations. This helps you in improving your store visibility.
All in all, whether you are new or a mature business, using eCommerce website builders can be a great way to build and develop your business, and most importantly prepare it for the next level.
You don’t have to be a professional designer or have a background in coding, as these builders are convenient and easy to comprehend and use instantly.
The overall cost of eCommerce website builders is mostly based on several factors.
These factors include:
a. The type of business you are running,
b. The kind of platform or software you will be using to create your online shop,
c. The adequate customer journey that is suitable for your business and consumers,
d. The different features and functionalities you need to add.
e. And other complementary costs like marketing and data transferring.
As you can tell, creating an online store requires some cost-effective expenditure. However, using website builders can keep the expenditure within your budget.
The short answer is yes. Some eCommerce websites like Bigcommerce can help you take control of your inventory and product shipping procedures.
However, if you are running a dropshipping business, then you will need to integrate separate shipping alternatives and more importantly, you will be held accountable for shipping your goods to your consumers.
Most eCommerce website builders are supplied with various payment portals possibilities including PayPal, Amazon, Apple Pay, WePay, Payoneer, and more. However, it is important to note that the more payment choices you have in your online store, the more chances you give your consumers to purchase your products.
Therefore, it’s ample to decide on a builder that allows most if not all the popular and prevalent payment alternatives out there.
Pricing plans differ from one platform to the other. However, if we are talking about a free plan, you may come across a website builder that offers this option. This option helps and encourages you to start creating and developing your online store.
You can also try the builder for limited days to see which plan is suitable enough for you, but for this, you will need to choose one of the plans offered by the platform.
A lot of eCommerce website builders enable business owners to handle transactions tax from consumers when paying for their products. However, you will be held liable for taxed recording and filing. We recommend that you double-check with your platform’s footnote, the contract terms, and conditions for further comprehension on this matter.
In this case, it depends on the platform builder you chose. While some platforms make it possible for you, as a business owner, to integrate your store to other marketplaces, others do not offer this feature.
Regarding social media, most website builders make it easy to integrate and connect your online store to your social media accounts. This helps to expose your business to a larger audience and increase the level of conversions to meet with your expectations.
There are several factors that every business owner needs to take into consideration before proceeding with any pricing plan. The eCommerce website builder should be able to offer the following basic features
Easy and Simple Website Building Procedures
Trust me, no one enjoys complicated and hard to comprehend procedures. And if the website builder is not easy to comprehend and use, you will waste a generous amount of time and effort, while it could be done in a brief time. For this reason, make sure to choose an eCommerce website builder that is easy to utilize and manage.
Relevant and Serviceable Features
The platform you choose to build your online store should be able to offer adequate tools and features to effectuate your purposes. Therefore, make sure that the builder incorporates exactly what you need to improve and develop your business and attain a meaningful result.
Attractive Themes
The best thing about this eCommerce website builder is the fact that they offer everyone a set of excellent themes and templates for their business stores from which they can choose. Moreover, you don’t need to be a developer or have a coding background to achieve this. These builders got you covered. These themes are usually classified depending on the type and domain of your business.
Fair Pricing Plans
Surely there is a pricing solution that fits within your budget. After all, whether you want to invest a lot of money or not will depend on your funds and needs. For this reason, picking a builder that includes all your needs to launch your store with reasonable and fair prices is an end in itself.
Safe and Relatable Payments Gateways
Your consumer’s shipping information and credit details should remain protected and secured. Ensuring this security allows your customers to trust your store and your products as well. Besides that, choose a builder that provides purchasers with different payment gateways.
Final Thoughts
Picking the perfect builder for your online store is crucial and can be overwhelming with so many options on the market. Therefore, you need to understand the type of builder you will need to meet and fit with your business needs and goals. Investing in the right pricing plan is essential as it will put you on the right path.
Over time, once your business grows and expands, you can always upgrade your online store to the next level. Remember, smart and slow steps are important in the effective growth of your business.
