Compare the Best Ecommerce Website Builders For Small Business 2022

Every business needs a website. This is especially true for an online store, as a website is the only way to communicate with customers, sell goods, and present new products. However, in the early stages of doing business, developing a website can require large financial outlays. But it is not necessary to contact professional studios because you can make a website yourself with the help of online constructors. The online space is full of various best e-commerce platforms for building small business websites, and choosing the perfect one is not such an easy task. IT-Rating has compiled recommendations for choosing a reliable of the most popular ecommerce platforms for website building - read on to find out more.

Also you have to look at a few of top ecommerce web design companies in the United States today.

The best e-commerce website builder for small businesses

There is a lot of competition between website builders. While some are trying to attract customers by reducing the cost of tariff plans, others, on the contrary, increase the cost but add a bunch of unique and very useful features. However, using even the most expensive platform is much cheaper than ordering a project from a professional company. Moreover, the final version is completely up to you: you can make a website for your business the way you want.

Below you can see our recommendations and the top e-commerce website builders for small businesses to choose the perfect one.

Design functionalities and themes

There's no doubt that a really good design matters. And here is why: pleasant colors and cool fonts attract customers. It is a fact that a good-looking website has more conversions and sales in comparison to one that was made in such a way that it looks unattractive.

That is why one of the best e-commerce platforms for small businesses should have all the important tools that will allow you to customize your page. For instance, you can change the background, set colors you like, and use various fonts. If you are not that good at designing, you can apply internal themes and templates. There are various turnkey solutions — all you need to do is to add some content, and your page is ready to make big sales.

Every good website builder offers these basic options for free. It is not good when a constructor asks for money just to change the size of the font. However, purchasing a premium subscription for more additional tools is worthwhile. Also, not all templates and themes are available for free, so some of them are waiting for you to pay for them.

Help and support

Great service and support are necessary. Who knows, maybe one day your account will be suspended, the page blocked, or something else bad will happen. If you want to be sure that nothing stops your website from working 24/7, check if the platform has support. If there is no such thing that will solve your possible problems, remember that you are making the website here at your own risk.

By the way, the support is also helpful when you have a lot of questions about creating a new ecommerce site. You can ask them for help and they will try to explain to you what is what. You can also find out more about payment, hosting, SLL, plans, and trials.

Sales features

When you are creating a website for your store, it must look like it is an online store, not a landing page or your portfolio. Many constructors have sales features that will allow you to sell products right on your website. For instance, they can view the gallery of your goods, add some of them to the cart, see the reviews of some positions, and set the delivery and pay right here without the need to redirect to some other page.

In the statistics, you can see how many people have seen your goods, how many people have even visited your store, and which goods are the most popular among others. The extra features are not always available for free, so you have to pay to use them. But many constructors provide basic options that are enough to run a stable business. Anyway, if you think that these options are necessary, you can always get a trial or switch from the free plan to the paid one.

Please note that not all constructors on the Internet have features that will allow you to make an online store. Only use the constructors described below.

Website features

Website features  are not less necessary than sales ones. Some constructors provide necessary interactive elements, such as online chat, a map with your geotag, social media links, pop-ups, and many others, on a free basis. That is perfect when you are just starting your business journey because it takes less money for site creation.

Some ecommerce store builders don't have important features in either the free plan or the paid one. So the best decision for you is to pick the other online constructor.

Speed and performance

The speed of the website also matters. Not just because your potential customers don't want to wait long. It is also because search engine machines such as Google always analyze your SEO. SEO for small business really matters for you if you want to get more clients and always want to be on top of search queries and replace your competitors. The principle is simple: if your page's loading takes a long time, Google sees it and lowers your reputation. It means that your site will not appear even in the first 30 search results. It hurts your business as well as your sales.

So pay attention to how fast your online store is and choose the builder that has more beneficial performance.

Ease of use

One of the main reasons why people prefer to make their own websites using the best e-commerce website builder for small businesses is the ease of use. While staff in professional studios should know coding, programming languages, designing, and other fields, all that is required for you to make a website is a creativity. With a special visual editor, you can change content, fonts, and colors and see the result before uploading the site on the Internet.

But rare constructors, such as WordPress, for instance, require some knowledge of coding to create a website. Choosing them is not your path when you can't even see the difference between a bit and a byte. Remember that the perfect website builder should be easy to use.

Integrations

Having just an ordinary website without integrations is not an effective way to earn money. Our recommendation for you is to choose the best ecommerce website builder that has options to integrate with various apps and tools. For instance, Google Analytics will allow you to see a brief statistical overview of your business and always make the right decisions. With marketing integrations, you can add ads to your page and get paid for them. Pay attention to Privy – it is a powerful marketing tool that will be helpful for you as an online store owner. Using such integrations increases sales and makes a lot of conversions.

Overall Value

Before choosing the best small business e-commerce website builder, compare all the offers you like with each other. Don't make price the main factor. For the best experience, it's best to compare services by the features and benefits you'll get, regardless of cost. Sometimes the cheapest contractors have few useful options as well as overpriced ones. Determine the final value: which website builder solves your problems and copes with its tasks best, and which does not? Answer this question as constructively as possible and make the right choice.

The Top Ecommerce Website Tools for Small Business Owners

We at IT Rating prepared a list of top e-commerce platforms for small businesses to help in choosing the right platform. For every service, we analyzed its opportunities, benefits, and disadvantages, and also found out what price the service asks for.

Shopify

Without a doubt, Shopify is the leader among constructors that specialize in the online store field. It does not matter how big or small your business is—Shopify is a comfort platform that is literally perfect for e-commerce purposes. The interface of Shopify is very user-friendly. It has clear and convenient tools that will allow businessmen to build a properly-working online store without knowing anything about coding and design.

Specialization

With Shopify, an online store is very easy to develop because e-commerce is its only specialization. It also has various SEO tools, friendly support, and tons of creative themes and templates. Your customers can make purchases right on the website. But Shopify charges a fee of 2% of every transaction.

Advantages

The advantages of Shopify are that this service is very user-friendly, has multiple plans, and has fast loading.

Disadvantages

To be honest, the SEO features here are not that perfect. Most tools are not available for free. Therefore you will need search engine optimization services from SEO companies for Shopify store.

Price

The monthly fees range from 29 to 299 dollars. Most of the themes and templates are free here.

Wix eCommerce

Wix is a well-known trustworthy ecommerce site builder that is used by millions of people. Wix is known for its free plan that gives a lot of opportunities, so if you have a little money, it doesn't mean that you can't create an awesome, well-working website for your online store.

Specialization

Even though Wix specializes in building landing pages and portfolio websites, it is also perfect for e-commerce.

Advantages

With Wix, you can create an online store from scratch. You can color it the way you want and add many interactive elements. Most of them are free. You can also use turnkey templates, add various content, sell goods, and change plans. Most people who work with Wix note that this platform is very easy to use and has quite friendly 24/7 support.

Disadvantages

The truth is that many powerful tools here require a paid plan. Some people stay away from this platform because of its overpriced features. Also, if you’re creating your first ecommerce website, you can't export it to other platforms in the future.

Price

If the free plan is not enough for you, you can purchase paid plans. Wix's monthly fees range between $27 and $59 USD.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is better known among businessmen because this platform does not charge any fees at all. In comparison to Shopify, choosing BigCommerce as a website builder might be more beneficial.

Specialization

BigCommerce specializes in the e-commerce field only. It is a perfect decision if website development is something new to you. You can sell products on your own online store and get paid for them. It is better to use BigCommerce than other ecommerce platforms if you have a large store.

Advantages

Speaking of advantages, BigCommerce is a very user-friendly platform that offers strong SEO tools, multi-channel integration, a free plan, and no fees. It also has the most sales features.

Disadvantages

But BigCommerce also has some disadvantages. It can be hard to use this builder for the first time because the interface is overwhelming and not easily understandable. Features also take a long time to learn.

Price

BigCommerce costs between $29.95 and 249.95 dollars.

Squarespace

Squarespace is both a CMS and a website builder, which is a godsend for those who want a powerful online store. Squarespace provides SSL, hosting, and a free domain name.

Specialization

Ecommerce is not the only Squarespace specialization. It is also good for building simple websites, landing pages, and portfolios.

Advantages

With Squarespace, you can sell digital products, and the free plan is enough to build a solid store. This platform has all the important marketing tools, such as one-click upsells, upselling, cross-selling, and many others.

Disadvantages

But there is a limited number of available integrations, so you probably need to use the Order API beta, which requires coding knowledge. If you are not an expert, it can be quite hard for you to set up your online store. Also, it has only three payment gateways, such as Stripe, PayPal, and Square.

Price

The price for Squarespace ranges between 26 and 40 dollars per month.

Selz

Selz is the cheapest platform you can ever find on the internet. Many businessmen love Selz thanks to its user-friendly interface, customer support, and many free features. If you have a small business, Selz is a great option for you.

Specialization

Selz's biggest specialization is e-commerce, so it is a perfect platform where you can sell your products, whether they are digital or physical.

Advantages

The advantages of using Selz are cheap prices, a good interface, and a lot of free options. Online stores that are made using Selz always work properly without any errors.

Disadvantages

People who use Selz regularly note that this platform charges third-party processor fees. Also, the price of a paid subscription might be very expensive for some business owners.

Price

The prices for Selz range between 26 and 599 dollars per month.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is not a builder, but rather a plugin that allows you to sell goods through a WordPress-powered website. With this plugin, your blog can become a shop for a while. If you want to try your hand at e-commerce, WooCommerce is an excellent choice.

Specialization

WooCommerce is an open-source plugin that allows you to create a customizable online store. If you are a small business owner, you will probably find WooCommerce helpful.

Advantages

Many people like WooCommerce because this plugin is very user-friendly. He works quickly and without any errors. WooCommerce is also an SEO-friendly platform where you can sell goods of any kind: physical or digital.

Disadvantages

WooCommerce charges 2.9% plus $0.30 for every transaction that is made on your website.

Price

The use of the WooCommerce plugin is absolutely free, so you do not need to pay for anything.

Weebly

Weebly is the most popular ecommerce website builder where you can create a simple online store that is not overloaded with helpless elements. Weebly is a user-friendly e-commerce platform that is used by millions of satisfied users. With this platform, you do not need to know coding and design because it has a lot of turnkey themes and templates that will make your page look attractive to customers.

Specialization

Weebly is a complex platform that specializes in any kind of website. It is good for landing pages and portfolios, as well as for online stores.

Advantages

The advantages of using Weebly are beautiful site designs, an easy-to-use dashboard that manages your online store, and powerful e-mail tools. Weebly also offers the lowest prices for marketing automation. This platform has powerful marketing tools, pop-up options, and also the ability to sell digital products.

Disadvantages

Speaking of disadvantages, Weebly has a lot of them. This platform has poor SEO tools and an additional transaction fee. Weebly also lacks Amazon integration.

Price

The prices for Weebly range from $8 to $28 per month.

Which Ecommerce Platform is Best for Your Online Store?

When you know about each a powerful ecommerce site builder and platform in more detail, it is much easier to choose. Before choosing, it is worth comparing all the designers in terms of the set of functions and capabilities, giving priority to the platform that is most beneficial. The last thing to consider is the price because to create a high-quality online store, using a free tariff plan is not enough. Shopify seems to be the most loyal builder-it provides a lot of free features and advanced functionality for a reasonable price. In addition, e-commerce is a top priority for Shopify, so the choice in favor of this platform is obvious. It is also good for creating an online store and full of free features. There are many beautiful templates and advanced marketing tools. Well, hope you already know what e-commerce platform is the best for a small business.

FAQ for Small Business eCommerce

Here are the clear answers to the most common questions about website builders:

Which is the best platform for eCommerce?

If you are wondering which e-commerce platform is best for small businesses, we say that Shopify is considered the most popular website builder. First, it has a lot more advanced marketing tools than the competition. What's more, it's specialized in online selling. Therefore, it is Shopify that should be given priority.

Which is the right option for beginners?

If you are a beginner, then we advise you to first analyze all the offers and only then make a choice in favor of a particular company. Choose a service that has all the tools you need to promote your online store. Shopify, Wix, and BigCommerce are perfect for this.

What is the cheapest eCommerce site builder?

In our selection, Weebly turned out to be the most affordable and cheapest service. Its use solves the main business tasks, and the platform itself is quite suitable for running an online store.

Which has the most design options?

Wix and Weebly are two constructors with a wide variety of options. They offer a bunch of free templates and themes that are colorful and concise. Compared to other services, with the help of Wix and Weebly, you can create a truly beautiful online store.