How to start an online store using a website builder?

Your requirements:

• very easy to use
• small to medium-sized online shop (fewer than 100 products)
• automated ordering system
• low or no transaction fees
• range of standard payment options available (PayPal, etc.)
• compliant with e-commerce legislation for USA/Canada/UK
• search engine optimized
• domain name and email address included
• customizable design
• individually customizable contact forms
• blog and social media integration (e.g. Twitter, Flickr,...)
• fast and reliable technical support
• optional: use of discount coupons
• cost: $8 - $30 per month

• non-standard page structures
• sophisticated algorithms that can make purchase suggestions based on customer viewing habits

Our recommendations
 

Two easy solutions are currently available for basic users: Jimdo offers a very simple online shop for physical products. It's extremely easy to set up and is improved on an ongoing basis. It offers a wide range of payment options together with automated ordering and stock management systems.

One great advantage of this platform is how seamlessly it integrates with the website builder itself – everything works together smoothly. Jimdo charges US $7.50 per month for its Pro package, and US $20 for its Business package (without transaction fees).

Jimdo store video review
 

> Read our in-depth Jimdo test report here.

> For a free trial, click here.
 

Squarespace Business (currently only available in the US) offers an excellent e-commerce option at $24 per month for both physical and digital goods. Most notably it includes automatic stock control, a convenient order fulfillment interface and a voucher module. You can either grant a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of the sales amount. It's also possible to limit the validity of coupon codes.

Payment options include only Visa and Mastercard at this time. Instead of Paypal, Squarespace uses Stripe as a payment processor. They charge $0.30 + 2.9% of each purchase. Similar to Jimdo, your customers cannot create accounts to store their address and payment details. But they have a neat integration with Mailchimp that allows you to import your users email addresses directly into your email database. If you are a Shopify or Big Cartel user, you can import existing product data.




> Read our Squarespace review

> Try Squarespace for free

Ecwid is a particularly attractive option if you already own a website that doesn't have an e-commerce feature. It includes an impressive range of functions, such as integrated payment gateways for credit card payments, Paypal and even voucher codes for special promotional offers.

You can also sell both physical and digital goods. Varying VAT rates between different states are no problem here either. The only drawback with Ecwid is that there is no really easy way for Google to index your product pages. Learn more about it in our detailed Ecwid review.

Ecwid video review
 

> Ecwid features a free plan. To test drive Ecwid, click here.

 

Our recommendation for e-commerce on a larger scale

If you are planning to set up a professional large-scale online store, then you should take a look at Shopify. Packages here start at US $29 per month. Shopify excels in its wide range of templates which are optimized for e-commerce. It also allows your customers to set up individual log-ins.

And it includes a blog module, which helps with search engine optimization. On the downside, Shopify charges a transaction fee on all its packages with the exception of the “Unlimited” package, which costs US $160 per month. Shopify also offers its e-commerce module as a stand-alone html widget to be embedded in any website of your choice. You can read more about this here.

> Click here to start a free trial with Shopify