Wixstores

In addition to offering regular website building, Wix has expanded into the world of eCommerce. This expansion has been truly impressive - it builds on the company’s great track record in sitebuilding to include an ample set of eCommerce features and capabilities that are perfect for small businesses. Wix eCommerce uses the same, accessible interface as its regular site builder, and is easy to use for everyone, even those who don’t know the first thing about coding. An uncommon perk not seen so frequently in the world of eCommerce builders: they don’t charge a commission on your sales.

• Excellent value eCommerce plans are accessible and beat competitors’ prices
• User friendly drag-and-drop editor allows for maximum personalization
• The ideal platform for small business owners

• Over 500 gorgeous templates organized by category, available in
• Wix Stores app with sales and marketing tools
• Truly simple interface makes it easy for anyone to use, regardless of experience level
• Keep all of your profits - Wix charges no transaction fees on sales
• Add product videos with information about what you’re selling

• Doesn’t offer abandoned cart recovery
• Not scalable - you won’t be able to add products in bulk, so it’s not great for large scale operations
• No multi-channel integration - you can’t sell directly through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest
• Compared to dedicated eCommerce platforms, Wix offers few tools for analytics and reports

Just like Wix’s regular site builder, its eCommerce builder is insanely simple to use, regardless of users’ tech experience. After choosing a template specific to your particular industry (whether it be organic cat treats or luxury camping) you will be able to personalize it using the drag-and-drop editor. This intuitive editor allows you to place different pieces of your site - photo galleries, videos, contact forms, email sign ups and more.

For the small business owner, Wix is an excellent option. For businesses who’d like to scale up - sell more, get more powerful features and analytics - you might be better off using builders like Shopify. Wix doesn’t offer abandoned cart recovery (which saves users’ cart contents when they leave the page without checking out) and doesn’t allow for large-scale product uploads.

Wix offers a pretty great free plan, which allows you to construct an online store and add features… but if you want to actually sell (which is the idea, right?) you’ll have to upgrade to a paid plan. However, you can save some money by spending as much time as you’d like preparing your website before launch, without paying a dime. Then when you’re ready to start selling, sign up for a paid plan. Take advantage of the 14-day money back guarantee to try out the different options and see which is the best fit for your business.

• Business Basic ($20/month): Unlimited bandwidth and 20GB storage, 5 hours of video, $300 of ad vouchers for Google, a unique domain name, order tracking, various payment options, a site booster app (to improve rankings in search results) and a form builder app (for booking/contact forms).
• Business Unlimited ($25/month): The most popular plan, Business Unlimited includes everything in Business Basic and 35GB storage, 10 hours of video, 20 Wix ShoutOut email campaigns each month, a professional logo and social media logos. All for less money than competitor Shopify’s cheapest plan.
• Business VIP ($35/month): In addition to everything included in the Business Unlimited plan, Business VIP offers 30 hours of video, 50GB of storage and first priority VIP support.

Compared with rivals like Squarespace and Shopify, Wix’s plans are remarkably affordable. And the prices listed above are for annual payments - if you pay for more than a year up front, there are significant monthly discounts.

Wix has a comprehensive set of tools and features to help your business get on its feet and prosper. All online store templates come with the heart of Wix’s eCommerce platform, its Wix Stores app, which has tons of features built in. And they are constantly developing more, so new, innovative features become available each month. You’ll be able to sell unlimited products, post beautiful image galleries and product videos, receive secure, SSL-encrypted payments through 12 different channels (like Paypal, Stripe, credit cards and offline payments), send automatic email notifications and newsletters (through Wix’s email marketing platform, ShoutOut) and shipping will be handled automatically as well (adjusting prices to customers’ locations). And they won’t charge you any transaction fees.

Here are some of the highlights of the integrated Wix Store features:

• Wix ADI - an artificial intelligence tool that will build you a customized site based on your answers to a few questions.
• Point of sale - this feature allows you to collect payments from a physical location using your phone.
• Wix Stores Pick Up - allows customers to retrieve their purchases locally
• Inventory - The Wix Store Manager tracks inventory and purchases
• Social Media Integration - Connecting Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or other social media platforms to your online store is very simple. You can add share buttons, feeds and icons, amongst other options.
• Multilingual options: Toggle this on and Wix will create a version of your website in another language, allowing you to expand your customer base.
• Wix Bookings: Straightforward to use for customers and store owners alike, it’s easy to add new booking services as well as to see what those services are before committing.
• “Thank you” message: after customers make a purchase, you can set up a customized message of appreciation for their support .

For features that aren’t built in to the Wix Store, check out the Wix App Market. With more than 260 apps (for both eCommerce and non-eCommerce sites, both free and premium, made by Wix and third-party sources), you’ll find some of the following:  

• Create discount codes, gift cards, rewards and vouchers
• Set up a live chat to meet your customers
• Integrate your Facebook, eBay, Amazon or Etsy store to your Wix account
• You can even integrate eCommerce platforms like Shopify!
• Hotels & Airbnbs Map App allows you to show visitors nearby places to stay
• Provide currency converters
• Automatic invoicing and accounting
• Analytics tools to track your site traffic and customer behavior

In the world of website builders, Wix is a master of templates. With over 500 designer templates, all fully customizable and mobile compatible, you’ll be able to create the perfect look for your online store. Templates are organized by categories that cover a full range of businesses - as specific as bicycle shops and modern art poster stores (and of course far, far more). This template library expands each month. We can’t overstate the importance of templates - as your online storefront, they’re the basis of customers’ first impressions. Ensure your site is attractive and well-put-together to bring in customers and keep them browsing (and hopefully making purchases!).

As with Wix’s regular site builder, you won’t be able to migrate your content to a different template if you decide to switch designs. To switch, you’ll have to reinsert all of your content manually. For example, if you’ve already built a non-Ecommerce site, you won’t be able to switch to an online store template. Luckily, there’s a way to get around that - you can customize templates by adding the Wix Stores app and ecommerce features. And voila! An online store.

Overall

So what’s the bottom line? If you’re a small business owner, don’t look any further than Wix eCommerce. While Shopify (perhaps the king of eCommerce) is 100% scalable, allowing your website to grow with your company, Wix fills an important gap in the eCommerce website builder market: affordability for small businesses. Wix has a free plan that you can use to design your site and access online store templates - and only then, after you’ve put your storefront together and are ready to start selling, will you have to upgrade to a paid plan. Or you can try their 14-day trial for free. All of this indicates a company that’s proud of the service it provides, and is willing to hedge on it to ensure customer satisfaction. Plus, did we mention they don’t  charge transaction fees?

Because it’s an all-around website builder before an eCommerce builder, Wix has all of the features that make building a site as simple and straightforward as possible, with the extra bells and whistles you’ll need for running a store. Nope, not as many bells and whistles as Shopify, but Wix actually allows for more customization in terms of your site’s image and overall look. If you want, you can even integrate Shopify and other valuable eCommerce tools into your Wix site. We anticipate that Wix, always an innovator, will continue to improve their sales platform and fill in some of the gaps. So, go ahead - build your store on a platform as ambitious and forward-thinking as you are.