Nearly every website builder offers basic e-commerce features like product page templates and the ability to list a few items and prices. But for a successful online store, you’ll probably need more than that.
In addition to an attractive e-commerce template that makes your products shine, you’ll need a strong product management system to help you with all the online store essentials, including inventory, pricing, and shipping. You’ll also need effective marketing and SEO tools to help you build and promote your brand online.
On top of that, you’ll want a user-friendly platform that can help you build your online store quickly, even if you don’t have previous store-building experience. After testing dozens of options, I know which builders will let you create a fully functional, eye-catching e-commerce store without having to pay a premium.
Whether you’re only selling a handful of products or handling hundreds of orders per week, you’ll find the perfect website builder for your business on this list.
Short on Time? These Are the Best E-commerce Website Builders in 2022
- Wix – Over 800 customizable e-commerce templates with built-in online store tools.
- Squarespace – Gorgeous designs and integrated marketing tools.
- Shopify – Simple and intuitive interface with loads of features for rapid scaling.
What We Look For in the Best E-commerce Website Builders
Like your business, your e-commerce website needs to be able to grow and evolve, so your website builder needs to allow for that flexibility. Here’s what I focused on when compiling my list:
- Good-looking and customizable e-commerce templates. All builders on this list have attractive online store designs that you can easily customize to match your style. You’ll be able to create an authentic website that reflects your brand relatively quickly.
- Intuitive product management system. These builders guide you through the process of adding products, creating variants, tracking inventory, and more. Each one comes with plenty of product management options, and all your inventory and sales are in one place.
- Shipping and fulfillment tools. The website builders on this list offer your customers a variety of shipping options and help you track orders and packages.
- Marketing and SEO tools. To get those sales, you’ll need to market your products. I looked for website builders that let you sell across multiple channels, integrate email marketing tools, and provide strong SEO features.
- Fair prices (and good value). Some website builders promise you a perfect online store so they can charge a premium – but then the e-commerce features fall short of expectations. The builders on this list give you more than your money’s worth.
Wix offers over 500 e-commerce templates that cover everything from food and electronics to fashion and pets. This gives you plenty of choice to make your online store unique, and the intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes it simple to customize virtually any part of your site. And when I say any, I mean it – Wix is easily the most customizable website builder out there.
Wix Stores, which is Wix’s native suite of e-commerce tools, is built into every online store template, giving you tons of features right off the bat. For instance, you can customize product pages, track inventory and orders, print shipping labels, and create product subscriptions, all from your Wix dashboard.
If you need even more features, Wix’s App Market offers over 250 apps for expanding your store’s functionality. You’ll find apps for everything from blogs and contact forms to dropshipping and accounting.
Nearly all of Wix’s online store features are available on the free plan, but to accept online payments, you’ll need to subscribe to one of Wix’s e-commerce plans. Although pricier, they warrant their price tag with unlimited products, greater storage space, and video support – plus advanced features like abandoned cart recovery and a product review tool.
Wix is now only $4.50 per month!
Sign up for an annual plan and enjoy the savings.
Features
- Wix SEO Wiz. This extensive SEO guide walks you through the process of optimizing your site step-by-step so that potential customers can find you easily.
- Multi-channel selling. On the Business Unlimited plan and higher, you’ll be able to sell products on Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, and other marketplaces.
- Deferred payment options. With apps like Afterpay, Clearpay, and Laybuy, you can let your customers buy now and pay later.
- Wix ADI. If you’re in a hurry, the Wix ADI tool can generate a unique e-commerce website for you within minutes – just select “online store” as one of your necessary features.
Want to learn more? Read our expert Wix review.
| E-commerce templates | 500+ |
| Automatic tax calculation | ✔ |
| Transaction fees | Varies by country and payment method |
| Starting price for e-commerce plan | $16.00 |
Squarespace’s e-commerce templates dazzle with their elegant and polished looks. You don’t get quite the same level of creative freedom you do with Wix, but you’ll still be able to put your unique stamp on your site.
Squarespace has easy-to-use product management tools and a strong inventory system. You can offer discounts, sell gift cards, create product waitlists for out-of-stock items, and more.
But where Squarespace truly excels is with its promotion tools. For example, you’ll be able to customize email templates to match the look of your site and make your brand more recognizable. Plus, you’ll get the option to create pop-ups that alert customers of new products and pricing deals.
Squarespace’s online store features are available with the Business plan, but to make the most of them, I recommend upgrading to the Basic Commerce plan. This will get rid of transaction fees and unlock tools like e-commerce analytics, customer accounts, and the ability to display product reviews. To try out all of these features before you commit, you can take advantage of Squarespace’s 14-day free trial.
Save up to 30 % on your Squarespace plan today!
Plus get a free domain for one year!
Features
- Attractive gallery layouts. Thanks to its eye-catching gallery layouts and the use of full-screen images, Squarespace is great for displaying and selling creative work.
- Blogging platform. You can use Squarespace’s beginner-friendly blog editor to post product-related news and tips, which your customers can easily share on social media.
- Free logo maker. Squarespace’s completely free logo making tool can help increase your brand’s familiarity.
- Scheduling tool. If you sell services, you can use Squarespace’s scheduling tool to take appointments, manage your bookings, send automatic reminders to clients, and more.
Curious to learn more? Read our expert Squarespace review.
| E-commerce templates | 20+ |
| Automatic tax calculation | ✔ |
| Transaction fees | 3% on the Business plan, 0% on higher-tiered plans |
| Starting price for e-commerce plan | $23.00 |
Shopify is a dedicated e-commerce platform that enables you to create an attractive and user-friendly online store fast. It has around 90 high-quality themes (9 are free), which you can customize using its intuitive drag-and-drop editor. If you want more options, Shopify lets you import third-party themes, or even hire developers to create custom designs for you.
Shopify’s built-in tools are a big part of the platform’s appeal. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, Shopify’s Point-of-Sale (POS) system lets you sync data between your physical and online shops. In addition to inventory management, you can set permissions to control staff access in the POS system, and you get unified analytics that blend in-store and online sales.
Also, there are built-in marketing tools, such as Shopify Email, which lets you send up to 10,000 emails per month for free. And if you find that you need even more features as your store grows, Shopify has a robust app store with over 6,000 free and paid apps.
Shopify makes most of its features available on all its plans, so regardless of your subscription, you get access to unlimited products, multi-channel selling, abandoned cart recovery, and more. Higher-tiered plans provide more staff accounts, inventory locations, and lower transaction fees.
Save up to 25 % on your Shopify plan!
Limited-time offer - Don't miss it!
Features
- 3D asset displays. In addition to standard images, Shopify lets you add 3D photos of your products to give your customers a more interactive experience.
- Shopify Payments. Apart from allowing you to integrate with over 100 payment processors, Shopify has its own payment solution, Shopify Payments. For an additional monthly fee, this supports multi-currency selling and eliminates transaction fees.
- One-click multi-channel marketing. You can launch one-click multichannel marketing campaigns to showcase products on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, eBay, Walmart Marketplace, and more.
- Email automations. Shopify lets you create email automations to send messages at key points, such as welcoming new subscribers or sending discount codes to loyal customers.
Read our in-depth Shopify review to see more features.
| E-commerce templates | 90+ |
| Automatic tax calculation | ✔ |
| Transaction fees |
|
| Starting price for e-commerce plan | $29.00 |
Zyro focuses on speed and simplicity, giving you everything you need to start a small to medium-sized online business. Zyro’s e-commerce templates are mobile-friendly and pretty, and they’re easy to customize with the drag-and-drop editor. It only takes a matter of minutes to build a store where you can manage inventory, track orders and shipping, run marketing campaigns, and more.
Zyro supports over 70 payment methods and lets you sell on various marketplaces, including Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon. However, Zyro’s most intriguing features are its AI business tools, which can help you optimize your store’s content and branding.
Its AI Writer, for instance, can generate SEO-optimized content to help you rank higher in search engines, while its AI Business Name and Slogan generators can help make your brand more recognizable. Perhaps unsurprisingly, you’ll need to make your own tweaks to get the best results.
Zyro’s Business plan unlocks access to every e-commerce feature and allows you to host up to 500 products. It also comes with all AI tools, blogging features, marketing integrations (e.g. Facebook Pixel, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics), and a free business email for three months. What’s more, Zyro has a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can test it before you commit.
Features
- Customer Service Management. Zyro includes a customer relationship management (CRM) tool for keeping track of all your customers.
- Zyro Booking. If you sell services, this tool will enable your clients to see your availability and book their own appointments or classes.
- Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp integrations. These live chat apps enable you to communicate with customers in real time.
- Website Importer. If you have an existing online store, this tool will import all your content to your Zyro website, which you can then arrange to your liking.
Want to know more? Read our in-depth Zyro review.
| E-commerce templates | 29 |
| Automatic tax calculation | ✔ |
| Transaction fees | 1% |
| Starting price for e-commerce plan | $4.41 |
5. WordPress.com: Advanced E-commerce Functionality via Plugins
WordPress.com has several attractive e-commerce designs in its theme library, but there are thousands of other themes you can incorporate from third-party marketplaces like TemplateMonster and ThemeForest. However, to run a full-blown online store through WordPress.com, you’ll need to install an e-commerce plugin, such as WooCommerce or Ecwid.
WooCommerce was created specifically for WordPress and is the most popular solution. It allows you to add a shopping cart and a checkout process, monitor inventory, accept payments, and all other e-commerce essentials. That said, you’ll be able to add more functionality to your store via WordPress’s extensive plugin library. For example, you can add plugins for product recommendations and product FAQ sections, as well as galleries and booking tools.
To be able to sell products with WooCommerce, you’ll need to subscribe to the WordPress.com Business plan. In addition to premium templates and access to over 50,000 plugins, you’ll also get video support, advanced SEO tools, and Google Analytics integration.
Save up to 43 % on your WordPress plan!
Limited-time offer - Don't miss it!
Features
- Flexible content editor. WordPress’s Gutenberg editor lets you make section-specific changes to your content (such as customizing text sizes and adding multiple columns and background images) to make your pages more unique, which is ideal for showcasing different collections and products.
- Easy Digital Downloads. This WordPress plugin lets you manage and sell digital products. It has its own themes, a user-friendly interface, and advanced features like file access control, activity tracking, and discounts.
- Automated backup and one-click rewind. On the Business plan and higher, you can download a backup of your site or restore it to its exact state at a specific moment in time.
- Jetpack essentials. Thanks to the Jetpack plugin, you’ll get faster-loading pages, protection from spam, and optimized SEO to rank higher in search engine results.
For more on e-commerce plans, see our expert WordPress review.
| E-commerce templates | ~25, plus hundreds of third-party options |
| Automatic tax calculation | ✔ |
| Transaction fees | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Starting price for e-commerce plan | $25.00 |
6. BigCommerce: Best for Large (and International) Retailers
BigCommerce has over 300 modern-looking store themes (12 are free) to help you get started. Its interface includes a truly vast number of features and product options. This gives you a lot of control over your products, but it also means there’s a learning curve – especially if you’ve never built an online store before.
BigCommerce is ideal for large online retailers who regularly add new products to their store. For instance, you can categorize products by brand and other qualities, edit products in bulk, personalize prices based on customer segments, and add product filters for easy browsing.
BigCommerce allows you to build multilingual sites and have separate site versions and catalogs for different areas, which makes it a great choice for international e-commerce websites.
The Standard plan will likely be enough for most online stores. This gives you unlimited products and users, multi-channel selling, reporting tools, and more. To get access to features like customer groups, product filtering, and the ability to manage multiple stores, you’ll need to upgrade. You can always use BigCommerce’s 15-day free trial to see if the platform is right for you.
Save up to 10 % on your BigCommerce plan!
Limited-time offer - Don't miss it!
Features
- Robust app store. BigCommerce has over 800 free and paid apps covering everything from shipping options and order management to social media, email, and CMS tools.
- Persistent cart. You can improve your customers’ experience by saving their shopping cart to their account. If they switch devices, the items in their cart are still there.
- Customer segmentation. This feature allows you to sort customers into groups (i.e. for pricing, promotions, or product access) to create differentiated experiences on your site.
- Multi-currency selling. BigCommerce allows you to integrate payment gateways like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and accept payments in over 100 currencies.
Our expert BigCommerce review has more on features and pricing.
| E-commerce templates | 300+ |
| Automatic tax calculation | ✔ |
| Transaction fees | None |
| Starting price for e-commerce plan | $29.95 |
Choose the Best E-commerce Website Builder to Increase Your Sales
All the builders on this list will help you create an attractive and user-friendly online store, as well as giving you powerful product management tools to help increase your sales. Still, depending on your business needs, you might find that one is a particularly good fit for your business.
If you want maximum creative freedom and a diverse choice of online store templates, Wix is my top recommendation. Its suite of built-in e-commerce tools has everything you need to get your store up and running, and you can add even more features with Wix’s extensive app market.
On the other hand, if you don’t want to spend too much time customizing your site, Squarespace’s stunning templates with full-screen images and gorgeous gallery layouts will ensure that your store immediately stands out. Its integrated marketing tools will also help you attract a steady flow of customers to your store.
Or, if you want a dedicated e-commerce platform that provides advanced store management tools but is still easy to use, Shopify is a great option. With loads of built-in and third-party apps, and features like multi-channel selling available on all plans, Shopify will help you scale quickly.
| Free Plan | Best Feature | Best For | Starting Price | ||
| Wix | ✔ | Easy to use and highly customizable | Beginners who want the freedom to create exactly the store they have in mind. | $16.00 | |
| Squarespace | ✘ | Gorgeous templates and strong built-in marketing tools | Creatives and small/medium-sized stores that prioritize web design and email marketing | $23.00 | |
| Shopify | ✘ | Simple interface and advanced built-in and third-party apps | Stores of all sizes looking for an all-in-one solution | $29.00 | |
| Zyro | ✘ | AI business tools | Medium-sized stores that need help with content and branding | $4.41 | |
| WordPress | ✔ | Extensive third-party functionality | Flexibility to let your business grow thanks to a robust plugin library | $25.00 | |
| BigCommerce | ✘ | Advanced product management tools with focus on multi-channel selling | Retailers that sell a large range of products | $29.95 |
FAQ
What website builder is best for an online store?For small- to medium-sized online stores, Wix offers advanced e-commerce features and flexible site design, while being impressively easy to use. On the other hand, Shopify has strong product management tools to handle a greater volume of items, making it a good choice for large retailers.Can I build my own e-commerce site?Every e-commerce website builder on this list will help you build your online store, even if you don’t have any technical experience. You’ll be able to easily create pages, add products, and update your site content using built-in tools. If you need some guidance, check out our step-by-step guide to creating a website in 2022.How much does it cost to build an e-commerce website?Wix’s free plan lets you test the majority of its e-commerce features, but you won’t be able to accept online payments. In other words, you can use the free version to learn the system and build your site, but you’ll need to upgrade to make your store fully functional and unlock more advanced e-commerce features.What is the best e-commerce website builder for beginners?Both Wix and Shopify have easy-to-use editors that will help you build a fully functional online store quickly. Squarespace’s stunning templates are a great option if you want a clean and modern store right out of the box, especially if you sell creative work. Check out our list of the best website builders for 2022 for other beginner-friendly options.
