Author
7 minutes
If you're a small business looking to build a website, you probably need a budget-friendly option that doesn't involve hiring an expensive website developer. This is where drag-and-drop website development tools come to the rescue. You can use a website builder to create your own website without knowing HTML, CSS, or any coding.
In this article, we present a ranking of the best online store builders for 2024. We have prepared a list, taking into account the latest trends, features, and user reviews to help you make the best choice for your business. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced online retailer, our ranking will provide you with a tool that will meet your needs and support you in achieving success in the world of e-commerce.
In addition to an attractive e-commerce template that makes the products on display shine, you'll need robust sales features to help you attract shoppers, keep them on your site, and encourage them to make a purchase.
You'll also need an easy-to-use platform that makes it easy to build an online store, add products, and manage customer accounts, inventory, pricing, shipping, and other details.
Equally important are effective marketing and SEO tools to help build and promote your brand online. After testing dozens of options, I know which wizards will allow you to create a fully functional, eye-catching e-commerce store without paying a high price.
Open-source e-commerce platforms, such as WooCommerce, Magento, or PrestaShop, offer advanced configuration and personalization of an online store without licensing or subscription costs. Although the basic version of these platforms is free, there is an option to expand with additional templates and plugins, which can be paid for.
The main advantage of such solutions is complete control over the code and unlimited ability to modify the store, which is possible due to the open-source code. The user community of such platforms often offers support, develops new features, and provides original add-ons.
E-commerce platforms based on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model are viral due to the speed and ease of implementing an online store. Unlike open-source solutions, SaaS platforms do not require advanced programming skills - it takes just a few clicks to set up a store and add products.
Using such a platform involves a monthly subscription, which is necessary to keep the store running. However, SaaS platforms have some functional limitations that can become a problem as your business grows.
Dedicated e-commerce platforms are characterized by full flexibility and adaptation to the individual requirements of your business. This type of solution is ideal for those who are looking for maximum customization of store features.
However, creating a dedicated web application is a significant investment, both financially and in terms of time. The process of creating such a store from scratch can take months or even years, requiring intensive work by a team of developers. In addition, maintaining and servicing a dedicated platform involves ongoing costs, which can be significant.
Create your website, your way
WebWave offers an intuitive interface that makes creating websites without coding knowledge easy. Pages created on WebWave are automatically responsive, ensuring that they display correctly on various devices. The platform also provides technical support through tutorials and video tutorials, as well as direct contact with the support team.
You will create your store using convenient templates, which you can fully edit and customize according to your needs.
However, for larger online stores or fast-growing businesses, WebWave may have some limitations. It offers essential SEO tools sufficient for most small and medium-sized sites, but more advanced SEO features may require additional tools or integrations. Maintenance costs vary depending on the package selected, and domain registration is free for the first year in paid packages.
Ultimately, WebWave is a good choice for users looking for an easy-to-use website-building tool, especially for small and medium-sized projects. Still, more is needed to meet the demands of large, growing businesses.
Sell online with WebWave online store and grow your business!
Shopify is a dedicated e-commerce platform that allows you to create an attractive and user-friendly online store quickly. It has about 180 high-quality themes (12 are free), which can be customized using an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. If you want more options, Shopify can import third-party themes and hire developers to create custom designs.
Shopify is a big part of the platform's appeal. The basics, such as multichannel sales, customer segmentation, one-click payment, and multiple payment methods, are just the beginning. Shopify's Magic feature is an artificial intelligence-based tool that helps create more professional-looking product images and product descriptions, personalize live chat interactions, and automatically timed emails to improve conversions.
Wix offers many templates, covering everything from food and electronics to fashion and pets. With so many choices, you can make your online store unique, and the intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to customize virtually every part of your site. And when I say every, I mean it—Wix is easily the most customizable web development tool.
Wix Stores, Wix's native e-commerce toolkit, is built into every online store template, offering a wealth of features right off the bat. For example, you can customize product pages, track inventory and orders, print shipping labels, and create product subscriptions, all from the Wix dashboard.
BigCommerce has over 180 modern-looking store themes (12 are free) to help you get started. Its website builder includes a vast number of features and options for displaying products. This gives you a lot of control over the functionality of your site, but it also means you have to learn - especially if you've never built an online store before.
BigCommerce is ideal for large online retailers who regularly add new products to their stores. For example, you can categorize products by brand and other characteristics, edit products collectively, personalize prices based on customer segments, and add product filters to make browsing easier.
If you're considering choosing Squarespace, it's worth considering that the price for using this platform is just one of the expenses you have to face when selling on this platform. In Squarespace, you will pay 3% commission on sales, if you use the Enterprise plan. If you select the Commerce Basic or Commerce Advanced plan, you will not pay a commission on sales.
Squarespace can be integrated with social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn or Tumblr, but it is not set up to support other direct sales channels.
Another option to expand and improve the customer experience is to manually share your free ecommerce store or products via a link, or to simultaneously publish posts on different social networks that have been approved in Squarespace.
Choose one of the free templates and create your website effortlessly
For those looking to build an ecommerce website, options like WebWave and Shopify provide robust ecommerce features tailored to your business needs. You can choose a reliable ecommerce site builder that allows you to create a stunning online store or ecommerce website quickly.
If you're considering drop-shipping, numerous ecommerce tools can assist in streamlining your operations. Whether you decide to create a free online store or invest in a more comprehensive ecommerce platform, the options available for building your ecommerce site are abundant. Start sells online today and watch your online business thrive!
Company.
Help.
Templates.