Best Ecommerce Builder Apps – There are a variety of helpful ecommerce apps, eCommerce plugins and eCommerce themes available online for your online store. Some of these choices can be time-consuming and confusing. We have gathered the best Ecommerce apps for you to consider.
It can be beneficial to your company to have a custom-made ecommerce platform. It can increase sales and profitability, while decreasing overhead expenses. The question is, how should you choose a platform that best fits your business needs? In this article we will cover four essential criteria to determine the best ecommerce builder app for building your ecommerce platform: functionality, costs, security & support.
Over the years, ecommerce has seen a huge growth. With millions of new businesses being created each year, it’s no wonder that ecommerce is not only mainstream but always growing more and more everyday. Even though ecommerce has been around for several years now, there are still products and companies who are looking for ways to utilize this convenient method of selling. So, what’s the best ecommerce platform for you? Are there any disadvantages to using an ecommerce platform? Should you start from scratch or try out ecommerce builder apps that allow you to take advantage of benefits without having to build everything from the ground up?
When you’re just starting up a business, it can sometimes be hard to decide if you want to buy a product or if you want to build your website for free. There are advantages and disadvantages of both. If you’re looking to create your own online store, then there are numerous platforms that provide you with all the tools needed to get your business going. This post will go through some of the best ecommerce builder apps on the market right now.
What Are Hosting Free Website Builders?
When looking for a plan, most people already have an idea of the domain or domains they want and what they want the end-websites or websites to look like. Once, only computer programmers who had a strong grasp of computer code were able to build and develop websites, but today there are a myriad of different software systems to help everyone from pro-web developers to web novices build a clean, attractive, functional website. These website-building software systems have become so popular that the best sites have recently integrated free builders into their packages. This is now an industry standard in the web hosting world which helps design, create, and organize websites with easy-to-use templates and control panels. Each package is different, just as each service is different, but many of these are intuitive to use, and best of all, cost absolutely nothing.
BigCommerce
Many big names from the industry like Ben & Jerry’s and SkullCandy, trust and leverage BigCommerce for their businesses. Big Commerce primarily offers solutions to build mobile commerce apps to help businesses, big or small, establish their mobile presence. This platform serves to build mobile-optimized pages and also offers unconventional and lateral mobile-optimized themes. However, you will have to incorporate modifications using plugins and built-in tools that are basically an additional cost on top of the standard subscription for a fully functioning mobile site with BigCommerce. You will also have to draw on extensions to design your mobile apps that require a substantial understanding of the platform itself to be able to fine-tune as well as sync your BigCommerce store, duplicating all functionality as well as configurations on your mobile apps.
On a side note: While most of these platforms offer easy-to-build tools and plugins to make it easier to build a native Android or iOS app for your e-shop it is best to opt for a custom-built mobile app simply because you have the freedom to play around with the theme, color, design – everything to appease to your customers and retain users – and above all, you can customize it. Custom-built solutions don’t put a limit on creativity.
Here are some other notable features,
- It allows plug-in POS integrations with leading providers such as Clover and Square
- Allows the vendors to integrate with channels including Amazon, eBay, Google, and Facebook
- Make it easier for your customers to pay with dozens of digital wallets like Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, PayPal One Touch, and more
- Global live BigCommerce support 24/7 (with 85% of issues resolved on the first call)
Oracle CX Commerce
Oracle is a cloud-based eCommerce solution that helps small to large-scale retail vendors build and manage their web stores, mobile applications, and social sites with search engine optimization.
Ranked highest in the Garter’s top 18 vendors for “fast, nimble implementations” Oracle Commerce Cloud is truly an out-of-the-box solution, hence mentioned in our 5 best eCommerce platforms list. It’s designed in a way that is customizable to meet your specific business needs, allowing you to launch within a handful of months. It allows the vendors to manage everything like commerce engine, experience management, search and SEO, content, PIM, AI, pricing, promotions, merchandising, intelligence, media, centrally using easy-to-use visual drag-and-drop tools.
With a simple UI, the vendors can manage – in a painless way – the entire customer experience, as well as view complete pages. Although, certain tasks like refreshed page design, optimizing search, and refined navigation will require you to hire an IT guy or team if you don’t have one. However, for the most part, most solutions can be taken care of on an immediate-basis by business with Oracle Commerce Cloud. Obviously, Oracle’s low-code app development is meant to take the pains of coding and whatnot out of app development but as industry experts, we recommend you opt fpr a custom-built app keeping in mind the comfort and convenience it brings in the long haul.
Oracle is trusted by many international big names including ZODIO (french-based), Pet Supermarket, and Walmart!
BuildFire
BuildFire is an app builder allowing you to create any type of apps without any coding and to publish them on iOS and Android. More than 10,000 apps are now active on the platform. In addition to the App Building product, BuildFire offers custom development for a fee. With the app builder, BuildFire allows to create eCommerce, events, content or religion apps. Their Design is of very good quality.
Regarding eCommerce, this section is an integration of Shopify. It is therefore mandatory to have a Shopify site to do eCommerce with BuildFire. The platform offers push notification and integration with Paypal and Stripe. The obligation to use a Shopify plugin makes the configuration of the shop quite complex. If your app has a large audience you will need to take into consideration that Push notifications and downloads are limited. Pricing starts at $89/month plus the additional cost of the Shopify subscription (starting at $29/month).
AppMachine
AppMachine was created in 2011. Their platform works around blocks (resembling Lego blocks), each of them representing a feature of the app. It’s very easy to use. Content and Design are directly managed within each block. Product import/export is available as well as integration to other services thanks to APIs.It is possible to publish on Android and iOS, send push notifications, promote the app via a QR code and access detailed statistics.
The eCommerce block is simple but not very detailed. Customization of the product page is limited (only 1 image, no similar product). There are no sales statistics and the only integrated payment gateway is Paypal. Pricing starts at $39/month. AppMachine offers Marketing Agencies the possibility to become Reseller starting from $99/month.
Plobalapps
Plobalapps is an app integrated to Shopify. Meaning, it is necessary to have a Shopify account to use this tool. Plobalapps decided to lean on the world leader of eCommerce platforms to propose to its clients to launch native apps from their Shopify site. The interface is quite easy to use thanks to the Drag-and-Drop. You can access sales statistics and send push notifications. Amongst some of their interesting features, promo banners allow you to display specific offers. Or the possibility to add search filters. Very useful if you offer a vast range of products.
The integrated payment gateways are the same as those in Shopify, which opens up a very wide range of payment options. Most parts of the world can be targeted. More than 170 currencies are available.
The main problem with Plobalapps is that it has to be managed from the Shopify back office which makes it a bit confusing. Mobile has its specificities and being integrated with Shopify can make you forget those specificities. Pricing starts from $99/month plus the additional cost of the Shopify subscription (starting at $29/month).
Swiftic
Created in 2014, Swiftic is an app builder dedicated to retailers and eMerchants who want to publish an app on the Stores (App Store and Google Play). The features revolve around sales, business promotion, and client loyalty. The options for promoting an app are numerous (Pushs, social media..). The general design is configurable to adapt the app to the colors of your business.
For eCommerce, an external store integration is possible (Etsy, eBay, Shopify…). It is a simple and economical solution for entrepreneurs who already own a shop on a different platform. Otherwise, it is possible to manage a shop directly from Swiftic but the options are quite basic. Only a title, description, price, tax rate, and shipping fee. The design is not up to recent standards and only Paypal is available as a payment gateway. Pricing starts at $29/month.
Square
If you want the option to sell in-person, like at a farmer’s market or craft fair, as well as through your online store, Square is the best choice. Your online and offline orders are all organized under a single dashboard, so there’s no jumping between apps, trying to track down customer details using random spreadsheets, or having to enter things manually after the fact.
Square bought the website builder app Weebly in 2018, so when you set up your store, that’s what’s running under the hood. If you occasionally see a URL direct to weebly.com, it’s nothing to worry about. (Note: we noticed fewer Weebly URLs popping up in the most recent review.)
Square has some of the best onboarding around. When you sign up, you have to fill in a quick questionnaire about your business and its needs. You’ve got the option to set up a single booking page, a full online store, or simple checkout links, depending on what you’re looking for. The default theme will also be tweaked to match the business category you chose.
In terms of storefront customization, Square is a little more limited than some of the other options. Instead of picking a theme that does most of the work, with Square you have to make your own design using the (admittedly excellent) site builder—or you can hire a designer from $99 to do it for you.
From the Square Dashboard, click Online then click Website > Edit Site to get started. In the sidebar on the left, you can select the different page elements, or you can just click on them directly. For more options, click the three little dots. You can change the colors, fonts, and layout of everything individually and, of course, upload your own images. It works well, but it is a bit constrained.
You can create “items,” what Square calls products or services for sale, through both the regular Square Dashboard and the Square Online Dashboard, and they’ll be synced to a common Item Library. This means that you can sell the same products both online and off, or have some things you just list in one location. Just go to Items > Item Library, and click Create an Item.
When you want to make an in-person sale, open up the menu and select Virtual Terminal, which acts just like a digital cash register. If you have a Square credit card reader (available for free), you can swipe your customers’ cards for a 2.6% + $0.10 fee from Square, and their details will automatically upload to your account. Otherwise, you can type in your customers’ credit card information for a 3.5% + $0.15 fee per charge. Online, Square’s charges are similar. On the free plan, you’re charged 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
Square also integrates with Zapier, so you can connect it to thousands of other apps to do things like post your in-person transactions to a Slack channel for the rest of the team to see or record the details using Airtable.
Square Price: Free with 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for unlimited products and a Square branded site; from $12/month billed annually with 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction to use a custom domain and remove ads.
Options
Selecting a host is more than simply choosing a server. Services today offer customers loads of bonus features that affect the development, maintenance and performance of a website. Before selecting, consider previewing the site builder that is offered with a package. While some packages provide only the basics, others provide a selection of platforms that come free with the package. It is important to remember that each website building service is unique and many are tailored specifically to the needs of either more advanced website creators or first-timers. The choice depends on one’s level of comfort, internet experience and the complexity of the websites you hope to build and maintain.
Conclusion
For beginners and startups to build a website, ecommerce app is the best option. Also, if you are looking for best ecommerce software options then this read will help you to make decision easily. As the ecommerce business is growing every day and people want to build it as their full-time business.
The best ecommerce builder apps let you create a beautiful, customized online store. But to get the most out of your ecommerce website, you need more than just an attractive homepage. The best website builders include a shopping cart and product catalog, so you can sell your goods on desktop and mobile. Ecommerce software lets shoppers buy easily and securely on every device, and even scale up as your enterprise grows.