When you’re starting an e-commerce business, building your website is the most important step in the process. All marketing tactics are aimed at increasing the number of impressions and consequently conversions through your website. With the advent of technology, building and launching an e-commerce website has become easier than ever. You don’t need to have any coding or design experience to build the website.
There are many website-building tools and plugins, which you can use to build your website. While you won’t find many completely free tools, plenty of them offer free trials or a basic free tier. Keep in mind that you’ll need a fast and reliable internet connection since all these tools require a dependable internet connection to build a website.
For that, we recommend using CenturyLink because of its excellent value proposition. Consider switching to CenturyLink, and letting it take care of your connectivity needs so you can focus on the important stuff.
With that sorted, here are a few top website builders and plugins you can try today to build a brand-new website or modify an existing one. Read on to know more.
1. Squarespace
Squarespace is arguably the best overall website builder that lets you access a ton of features. You can even make your custom URL to help build your brand name. Moreover, you get access to many SEO features and there’s also an option to optimize your website for mobile devices. This is essential for an e-commerce business since a significant share of purchases are made through mobile phones.
It has a range of different plans and some of them like the Commerce plan comes with zero transaction fees. You get unlimited bandwidth regardless of your plan, and if you opt for bigger plans, you can even sell gift cards. The only catch in an otherwise great platform is that there is no free tier. However, you do get a free two-week trial, which is ideal for testing the platform. If you don’t like it, you can move on to other platforms without any charges.
2. Square Online
If you don’t want to spend money on these tools, Square Online is a great platform that offers an excellent free plan. A ton of SEO features, omnichannel selling, ordering via QR code, and a lot of delivery and payment options. Keep in mind that you might need to get a paid plan if you want to access exclusive features like custom URL or PayPal integration.
The best thing about this platform is that it lets you access Afterpay, where customers can pay in four equal installments. This can boost your sales since customers don’t have to pay the full purchase price at once. Moreover, the risk is borne by Afterpay and you get the full price with a minimal processing fee.
3. Weebly
Weebly is another great website-building tool with both free and paid plans. The paid plans start from $10 per month billed annually. Alternatively, the free plan comes with a wide range of free features like unlimited physical items, inventory management, coupons, SEO tools, lead capture, and more. Weebly can even track abandoned carts and send emails on your behalf in its free plan.
The main limitations of the free plan are that you can’t accept payments through PayPal, and you don’t get a custom domain name. Moreover, you only get square ads.
4. Ecwid
In addition to website-building tools, you can also choose a good plugin to do the heavy lifting for you. Ecwid is an excellent plugin that offers an instant website builder, a mobile-responsive cart, Apply Pay checkout, and more in its free plan. You get ten physical products with the free plan. If you run a niche store that targets a very specific demographic, you can make the free plan work. Anything higher comes with the paid plans. The options start from $14.08 per month, which is billed annually.
With a paid plan, you get advanced useful features like live chat support, inventory management, coupons, multiple integrations, Google shopping, and more. If you choose their priciest plan, you can even create a custom mobile app for your store.
5. BigCommerce
If you run a large store, BigCommerce is for you. There is no free plan, but you do get a free two-week trial here. It’s a bit pricier than most platforms, but it’s worth it for large enterprises. The paid plans start at $29 per month, and you get unlimited products, staff accounts, bandwidth, and more. Having multiple staff accounts can be especially beneficial if you want more than one uses to have administrative access to the website so they can update the inventory.
Some other useful benefits include selling through eBay, Amazon, and Google shopping. Moreover, it supports a wide range of currencies and payment options.
Conclusion
Lastly, keep in mind that even if you use a free platform to build your website, you might have to pay the web-hosting fee to the hosting platform. First, you’ll have to buy the domain name and get it hosted on any platform and then you can use these platforms and tools to build your website. We’ve only included the best platforms that you can use without any technical or design expertise. Make sure to compare them yourself and choose the one that suits your needs best.
Sources
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-free-ecommerce-website-builder/