If you are willing to venture with online business then you need to have a website on which to promote your products. As a newbie, it may be tough for you to take ecommerce website development services. But thankfully there is no dearth of website builders in the market. Why don’t you try one and see how it does for your business? But in order to understand about best free online ecommerce website builder or about best ecommerce website builder you must look up for some information on the same.
You don’t have to be a technology expert to create an online store of your own. Thanks to the appearance of ecommerce website builders, you can now build a fully functional and professional-looking website without programming skills or design knowledge. This is why we have decided to make this article — we’ll show you some of the best free online ecommerce website builder options out there and thoroughly review their features.
Ecommerce is no longer the domain of the rich. In fact, millions of start-ups have been created by individuals who have good business ideas, but lack the funds to take it to its next level. Luckily, there are free ecommerce website builders that will help these individuals create good looking websites and launch their start-up into an ecommerce business.
Benefits of website builders
Website builders can be a lifesaver if you choose the right one for your business. You might be wondering if an all-in-one website builder is the best choice for your needs, so we’ve noted some key benefits of using website builders below to help you decide.
1. Intelligent website design
The first and most obvious advantage of using a website builder tool is that you can be a complete novice when it comes to coding and programming, and it won’t matter one bit. Website builders come with dozens of ready-to-use website templates or themes you can use to create your business website.
Constant Contact helps small business owners easily and efficiently build their brand and create a professional-looking, responsive website. Our simplified intelligent website builder creates a personalized and mobile-responsive multi-page website for you in just minutes, complete with images and guidance on how to populate the content. You can create websites that look great on any device and have fast load times which results in better rankings from search engines like Google. Constant Contact’s website builder tool can even pull in images from your Facebook page to automatically populate your new website.
2. eCommerce integration
An online store is a great way to create and run a business that isn’t restricted to the confines of a typical brick-and-mortar store. Many website builders provide you multiple features, themes, and other tools which help in getting your ecommerce website up and running.
Whether you have one product to sell or 1,000, Constant Contact provides you with a powerful ecommerce platform that’s easy-to-use and will help drive sales to your website. In just a few simple steps you can create your online store, upload products, and then step back as your orders start to come in.
Integrated right inside your dashboard and optimized for both desktop and mobile devices, the ecommerce store interface lets you easily add new products, organize your inventory, view sales reports, track orders and much more. With easy shop-ability, dynamic product pages, and a straightforward checkout and payment process, your customers will have a great shopping experience on any device.
3. Social media integration
Having a strong social media presence is as important as having a website. When people search for your business on Google, it’s likely that along with your website, your social media pages will show up, and potential customers might visit those to learn more about your business.
Almost every website builder comes with built-in social media integrations, so you don’t have to navigate an app marketplace or install any plugins. Integrating your website with Facebook not only enables you to extend your social presence and stay better connected with your social network but also makes customizing your website easier and faster.
Constant Contact’s intelligent builder lets you sync your Facebook Business Page with the builder tool to automatically bring in images and content to populate your website. Your pages will stay synced allowing you to bring in new content continuously as you update your Facebook page.
WooCommerce & WordPress
WooCommerce is a little like Magento. It’s a self-hosted and open-source software that requires you to get your own hosting and domain. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, so you’ll need to install WordPress (which is a content management system) and then WooCommerce (which is an ecommerce platform).
Simply put: WordPress is what you’ll actually use to build your site, and then WooCommerce is how you’ll add actual ecommerce functionality to it. WordPress gives you the design and WooCommerce gives you the ability to process payments. You’ll need to find a hosting service and domain name on your own.
There are plenty of WordPress themes available and there are more customization available here than with most other platforms. That being said, it’s also a little more complicated to set up, and true customization will require hiring a site designer and developer.
WordPress is a lot more user-friendly than Magento, and there’s so many plugins you can get for WordPress to improve the functionality of your site. WooCommerce is technically free, but different extensions will cost you. These are easily worth it, as you can see here. At least a few extensions will be necessary for most ecommerce sites in order to build the site they want.
Squarespace
If you want something straightforward and relatively modular, Squarespace is an excellent ecommerce website builder to consider.
It’s hosted, so it’s another all-in-one solution and their ecommerce templates (which are all designed to be customer-friendly) can be set up in the blink of an eye with its drag-and-drop technology. No coding is needed, but the customization options are relatively limited if you want something outside-the-box.
One great feature of Squarespace is the ability to change the template at any point without losing any content you’ve put on your site. All your modules will be shifted to the new layout, keeping your site intact even after a change. If you think may be interested in switching things up as time goes on or as you scale but don’t want a lot of hassle, this is a good option.
This platform does have fewer integrations than most of the others on this list, but there’s enough to get you where you need to go and to make your store functional for both you and your customers. Think abandoned cart recovery, bulk shipping labels, and more—it’s all there.
They also don’t have quite as many payment options, but customers can pay through PayPal and Stripe (the latter of which accepts most major credit cards).
If you want something that not only allows you to grow but is ready for instant scaling, Squarespace is a great option. There’s no growth limitations based on plan, as their standard ecommerce plan comes with unlimited storage and unlimited pages. This plan is just $18 per month.
Solo stove
Solo Stove website is an admirable example of how to use iconography in ecommerce. The fire pit manufacturer made custom icons for each product category to better convey what they are selling and highlight some of the main product specs. How-to product videos, illustrations, and FAQ sections help bring across their main point further — their products are durable, easy-to-use, and well worth the price as the reviewers will tell.
Bliss
Bliss website is an absolute cotton eye-candy. The spa-powered skincare brand uses three dominant colors — Millennial pink, baby blue, and Gen Z yellow — to visually appeal to their main buyer personas. The funky and friendly brand attitude is further reinforced through microcopy. The wording of button copy, section titles, and form descriptions makes you feel as if you are talking about your skincare routine with a friend.
The Mountain
The Mountain has all the great design features of an ecommerce website. Straight forward navigation bar, featuring main product categories prompts exploration. Service banner, placed under the header, immediately informs about shipping terms and possible delays — a good practice for managing customer expectations.
The hero slider highlights the latest seasonal goodies and promos and prompts further discovery. With a wider range of product categories, The Mountain did an excellent design job of organizing everything in categories to reduce the feeling of overwhelm a lot of ecommerce platforms can give you.
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Here we have another ecommerce clothing website. There are a bunch of these on the list, actually. This particular store is full of colorful patterns on their jackets, shorts, and t-shirts. So it’s no surprise that their ecommerce website design is full of big bold colors too. They also use a lot of orange, which stands out against the minimalist background of the site.
RYDER
Ryder is on the list because of their strange (but interesting) take on ecommerce website design. Their homepage is not what most online stores look like. But that’s a good thing. Because their web design is creative. Creativity helps stores stand out. Doing something a little different can help your bottom line a lot.
POGG
POGG, a sweet potato pie brand, does a great job at portraying the texture of its products on its ecommerce site. You can see an elegant white template spread through pink and gold palettes, which perfectly complements the high-quality product shots. The layout has a magazine-like structure with a delicate UI, with video clips nestled flawlessly inside the hovering blocks throughout the site.
Dick Moby
Dick Moby sells glasses. Their ecommerce website design is full of great design elements. First off, it’s the fun patterns and squiggles you see at the top of their home page. Second, it’s the quality photos of their glasses. Notice that on the shop page, the glasses are alone without anything in the background. That lets the product stand out. It’s a great ecommerce website example where the design helps create a unique feeling for the products.
The Horse
Everything starting from the name to the design of this ecommerce website is memorable. You see big bold pictures as part of their web design, with fewer words. If you’re looking for how to design a website in a unique way, you can definitely take some inspiration from The Horse’s amazing website design.
Amazon
Amazon is a good example of how a good eCommerce store should look, as its user-friendly website design instantly makes it easy for customers to find what they need.
To speed up the shopping experience, visitors can use the on-site search engine to look for their desired items, with the multiple filtering options also helping to show the most relevant products.
Despite having millions of products in its marketplace, Amazon does a great job of simplifying its interface. For instance, all product category pages are hidden in the sidebar hamburger menu.
This way, users don’t feel overwhelmed by the abundance of options, making the online selling site easy to navigate.
Nova Smart Home
This Icelandic telecommunications company has a one-of-a-kind microsite dedicated to its smart home devices. By using an animated 3D house model, it becomes an interactive product demonstration website for Nova’s products.
After selecting a product category from the top navigation bar, the page will show you where the item is used in the house. When clicked, the website displays a range of innovative home products to choose from in that category.
Though this microsite is best viewed on desktop screens, the website design translates well to mobile devices. The top navigation bar transforms into a handy hamburger menu, and the buttons remain visible.
Welly
If you want to make a minimalistic online store, consider Welly for your inspiration. This US-based first aid brand has a modern eCommerce website design, putting its products at the center stage.
The interface is simple and clean with tons of white space. A well-implemented typographic hierarchy improves the website’s readability, making it easy for customers to understand what the business is about.
Another standout feature is the color palette – the website primarily uses white for the background and green for text, while orange serves as the accent color.
This color combination helps direct the users’ eyes to essential elements like call-to-action (CTA) buttons. This is an excellent practice to improve your conversion rates.
Bite Toothpaste Bits
Bite’s online shop is one of the best examples of an effective eCommerce business website. The beautifully designed homepage grabs the visitors’ attention and perfectly communicates why their all-natural toothpaste is worth purchasing.
For instance, it has a testimonial slider with quotes from noteworthy publications. Near the bottom of the page, you can find a collection of customer reviews as well.
The homepage answers essential questions about the product, such as its benefits and how to use it efficiently. It also features several hero shots for demonstration.
All of these elements work together to eliminate potential obstacles in the customer journey. As a result, visitors should feel more confident about making a transaction.
Start building your website today
Starting and running a business is time-consuming and hard work. It can be challenging to know how to begin or where to go to get help. Building a website is an important pillar to a modern business, but the process doesn’t need to be intimidating.
Website builders can help your business hit the ground running. They provide all the tools you need to quickly and affordably build a professional website, attract customers, and sell products online.
Conclusion
Ecommerce Marketing You should be actively processing many aspects of ecommerce marketing when your business first begins. The most crucial thing is to have high quality, targeted traffic coming to your website. If you want to start selling an item from your website, think about creating a compelling promotions like free delivery available on all products, free gifts with purchase, or offer coupons and discount codes. When the site has sufficient traffic then, you can explore more advanced way for the ecommerce marketing such as dropshipping or look for places where you can start advertising your services and products.
Social commerce is one of the biggest trends that is occurring in ecommerce today. This new trend, which refers to the growing number of companies shaping their business strategies to allow consumers to interact with social media brands, has forced clever entrepreneurs to consider how they can integrate this technology into their ecommerce sites.