If you sell your stuff online, why not set up an e-commerce store to do it?
It’s convenient, and you don’t have to be a computer genius to get started.
There are now e-Commerce platforms and online store builders that make it very easy (not to mention cheap) to set up shop online in no time.
Here are 8 best online store builders you can use to start your online shop.
Table of Contents
1. Shopify
For many, Shopify is the first platform for an e-commerce store they hear about, and with a reported total merchandise value of over $10 billion I can see why it’s many’s first go-to shop.
Shopify’s headquarters is based in Canada, and according to the company they have 200, 000 merchants currently selling their goods through the platform.
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They offer a 14-day free trial, and after that, you can sign up for three basic price plans:
- Basic Shopify ($29)
- Shopify ($79)
- Advanced Shopify ($299)
2. BigCommerce
You can try out BigCommerce for free for 15 days.
For emerging and still-growing businesses there are the Standard ($29, 95 per month) and Plus ($79, 95) price plans.
For those who get a little more traffic to their store, Pro membership to BigCommerce starts at $199, 95 per month.
There’s also an Enterprise option, which allows high-traffic e-commerce sites to customize their own price plan.
A handy bonus feature is the fact that you’re allowed to import your already existing e-commerce store from other sites such as Shopify and Volusion, so you don’t have to start from the ground up.
3. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an e-commerce platform built specifically to be integrated into WordPress – and it’s completely free and open-source.
This is great if you have an already existing WordPress-based blog and you’d like to start selling merchandise on it.
You don’t have to be a programming genius to set things up, and their technical support team is quick to help you out if there’s anything you’re unsure about.
See an extensive list of features offered by WooCommerce here.
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4. SquareSpace
Squarespace offers website-building, and isn’t limited to online stores – you can also set something up as a blogger, musician, restaurant owner and more.
The site offers a free trial to get the hang of things before you sign up for one of their paid packages.
Building your website starts off with selecting a domain, and then you’re on your way to creating your site or store.
They offer unlimited bandwidth and guarantee the security of your website (and, of course, your clients).
5. LemonStand
LemonStand is a cloud-hosted e-commerce platform, and you can try it out for a 14-day trial first.
After that, you can choose from a variety of price plans depending on what you’re looking for and how many orders your business currently has to deal with.
This includes:
- Startup ($49 per month)
- Professional ($99 per month)
- Growth ($149 per month)
- Premium ($499 per month)
Each of the price options are included in their 14-day trial period separately, so you can be completely sure before you sign up.
Again, you don’t have to know how to program anything to set it up – which is always a huge plus.
6. E-Junkie
You can try a trial of E-Junkie for a week before signing up.
After that, they let you pay a monthly subscription fee to keep using the service.
Plans start at as low as $5 per month and go up to $100 – at the lowest end of the scale, you get 10 products and 200MB storage space. This goes up to an unlimited number of products and 50GB total storage space for their $100 per month option.
They don’t just allow you to sell goods, but also digital downloads as you would sell anything else.
7. Etsy
Etsy’s focus is vintage and hand-made items, which makes it the perfect platform if you’re looking to sell your crafts.
Their commission is set low – at 3.5% – so while they do all the hard work, you get to take most of your profits from your craft for your efforts.
Unlike a lot of e-commerce sites, Etsy has no monthly fees, and will seemingly just charge you a listing fee of 20 just cents to list an item once you’ve set up your store.
Listings are active for four months, or until the item is marked as sold.
8. Storenvy
Storenvy looks like a direct rival to Shopify at first – and it holds up.
They only take a 10% commission fee on items that you sell for their trouble, and there are no other monthly fees to worry about after that.
They have a Dashboard to help you set up and manage your store (much like WordPress) and you get access to a large community of other Storenvy users to discuss tips and trade secrets.
Final Thoughts
Do you have your own online store?
If so, what platform did you use to build your shop?
Share your thoughts