There is a plethora of free tools available for ecommerce website. Nowadays, much depends on word of mouth and SEO to drive traffic to your store. I mean, how can users know about the free tools if you don’t talk about it? But before that, you need to create your beautiful ecommerce website with all the features needed for a good user experience, with the help of some great ecommerce website builders.
Ecommerce is the future of business. Retail giants such as Amazon and Alibaba are now the top ten largest companies in the world. But building an ecommerce website isn’t easy, and it takes a lot of time and effort to develop a functional ecommerce website. If you are planning to start your own e commerce business, you may have enough information from online or from your friends or from your competitors, but how can you be sure about it? Where would you get that extra information that can prove to be helpful for your ecommerce business? How about taking help from social media and forums? Why not! They are always full of people who are supportive and share their knowledge regarding anything.
There are some free tools you should use to build your ecommerce website.You can find some excellent online calculators, ecommerce templates and mobile friendly frameworks for your site. There are many companies offering premium themes, blog templates and shopping cart plugins which have a free version available for download. Here is a list of Top Free Tools for Ecommerce Website.
Ecommerce business owners commonly complain about the difficulty in gathering, analyzing and using data. This is a stressful situation for any ecommerce owner but it gets worse when you look at the financial picture. It’s even scarier when you understand that half of all ecommerce sites fail.
Can I use Free Tools to Create my E-Commerce?
Prestashop for creating an E-Commerce in an intuitive interface.
Prestashop has become an e-commerce reference for web site creation. It is an intuitive interface, easy to access which allows you to build your e-commerce step by step.
Prestashop is free and Open source platform. Easy to use, it’s defined by its customizable front office. The website is regularly updated, you can download the latest version for free straight away. Prestashop is offering you a lot of modules to improve your e-commerce management, free and paid.
It’s even possible to configure your payment options. You can handle transactions in a safe and secure way, whether the payment is made by credit card or by Paypal. The tool was conceived to make sure your customers receive a good quality service.
1. WooCommerce
Best WordPress ecommerce plugin
WooCommerce
Best WordPress ecommerce plugin Very Good
4.2 out of 5
- Very WordPress-compatible
- Extremely scalable
- Helpful setup wizard
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $12.95 / month
Pros
- Huge variety of plugins
- Lots of payment options
- Tools for selling internationally
Cons
- Have to install most features yourself
- Cost of plugins and tools can add up
- Only works with WordPress
Overview of WooCommerce
WooCommerce requires more technical skill than a website builder, but it’s still pretty easy to install. You’ll have to rely on extensions for most features, but there are seemingly endless options to choose from. We recommend WooCommerce for anyone selling on WordPress. Website builders are the easiest way to start an online store, so WooCommerce naturally can’t compare to the likes of Wix or even BigCommerce.
However, if you need the more advanced capabilities of a WordPress site, then WooCommerce is as easy as ecommerce will get. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress, meaning you can add it as an additional feature to any WordPress site. It comes with a helpful setup wizard, so you won’t have to worry about learning the ropes on your own.
Once you’ve successfully installed WooCommerce, adding and managing products is really straightforward. There are only three free themes in the WooCommerce marketplace, but they’re extremely customizable – as long as you have some knowledge of HTML and CSS code, which is basically the norm for open-source platforms.
If you’re willing to go for a paid theme, you can expect to pay between $39 and $79 for one. WooCommerce comes with a decent amount of features built-in, like the ability to add unlimited products and users. But the real benefit of this software is the huge amount of additional functions you can add if you want to.
The WooCommerce Extensions Store covers everything from abandoned cart recovery to multi-channel integrations, so the sky’s the limit in terms of features. Just note that not all of these extensions are free, so be sure to budget for the ones that you really want! If you’re running a WordPress site, then you’ll need to pay for your own web hosting (a web host is a company that manages the server where your website’s content is actually stored). No website can get live on the internet without a host, so even with a free software like WooCommerce, you’ll have to pay a separate hosting fee (this is already included in the cost of a website builder).
We recommend using Bluehost with WooCommerce, because it’s an officially recommended provider by WooCommerce itself.
Bluehost has plenty of WooCommerce-specific plans, starting at $12.95/month.
WooCommerce Gallery
Click the image below to expand
Want to Start Selling on WordPress?
WooCommerce and Bluehost are a powerful combination for an online store, and they’re surprisingly easy to use.
More Information
- Top 6 WooCommerce Hosting Providers – Find out why Bluehost is our top-rated hosting provider for WooCommerce, and which other providers we’d recommend.
- Bluehost Pricing Review – A full breakdown of all the costs you can expect when you sign up to a Bluehost plan.
2. Magento
Best for enterprise-level businesses
Magento
Best for enterprise-level businesses Good
4 out of 5
- Very customizable
- Very scalable
- Not very easy to use
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $6.99 / month
Pros
- Powerful features to support huge stores
- Can manage thousands of products
- Trusted by brands like Nike and Samsung
Cons
- Difficult setup and installation process
- Beginners will need to hire a developer
- No help and support
Overview of Magento
Magento is not for small stores, or beginners – it’s pretty difficult to use if you don’t have some level of tech skill going in. However, the payoff is that Magento is the most powerful ecommerce platform on this list. We recommend Magento for very large stores who already have a strong base of loyal customers. We’ll be honest: Magento is not for beginners. It’s a hugely powerful platform, but it’s also complex – so the amount of effort required to use Magento just wouldn’t be worth it for a small store that doesn’t need so many heavy-duty features.
If you can’t code, we don’t recommend Magento. It’s aimed at developers and enterprise-level businesses, and it shows.
If you can code, Magento offers scalability and customization that’s unrivalled by any other ecommerce solution, open-source or otherwise – but don’t expect the setup to be easy. In fact, unless you have experience in web development, you won’t be able to set it up at all, far less customize it to your liking. Only one of the themes in the Magento Marketplace is free, and the rest cost anywhere from tens to hundreds of dollars. Once you’ve chosen a theme, you can customize it yourself – if you’re comfortable with CSS.
If you’re not super tech-savvy, then the best way to get the most out of your Magento design is to hire a web developer to tweak the theme for you. Just note that you can expect to pay at least a few hundred dollars for this option! Magento comes with some built-in features – more than WooCommerce, in fact – but for real power and customization, you’ll still need to add extensions from the Magento Marketplace. These can be pretty pricey (its multichannel integrations alone can cost up to $499 each), but there are 1,970 free ones to choose from, so you have plenty of options. Just like with WooCommerce, you’ll need to pay for your own web hosting in order to get your Magento site up and running.
There aren’t many hosts that cater for Magento, which is why installation can be so difficult. We recommend SiteGround’s Magento hosting plans for easy installation – it’s one of the few hosts with Magento-specific plans, and prices start at a modest $6.99 per month.
Magento Gallery
Click the image below to expand
Need an Enterprise Ecommerce Solution?
Magento is the best ecommerce platform for very advanced stores – it can help you take your online store to the next level!
More Information
- Best Magento Hosting Providers – HostGator came out top for Magento hosting – see who else made the cut!
- Magento vs Shopify – A complete comparison of two very big players in the ecommerce world.
WooCommerce and Magento are the standout ecommerce software providers – they’re powerful and each integrate with a variety of tools. Plus, they’re very popular – so if you ever get stuck, chances are someone on an old help forum will have been through the exact same thing.
Still, they’re not the only ecommerce software options available. So if you’d like to broaden your horizons before making a decision, here are a few software options that are decent, but didn’t make our top two.
OpenCart
If your store is too large for WooCommerce, but too small for Magento, then OpenCart is worth a look: it’s a powerful platform, with a ton of scope for customization and additional features. In fact, there are over 13,000 OpenCart integrations available.
Just keep in mind that OpenCart itself is very light on built-in features, so you’ll need to make use of these add-ons. There’s a fairly steep learning curve though, and unlike WooCommerce, you probably won’t be able to ‘muddle through’ without any developer experience.
PrestaShop
PrestaShop is an open-source software that pitches itself as more of a website builder. As you’ve seen with the platforms above, ease of use can be a real sticking point when it comes to using open-source software, so combining open-source power and potential with website builder simplicity sounds like a winning recipe.
Unfortunately, while a good platform, PrestaShop kind of misses the mark on both fronts. If you’re set on an open-source software, pick from one of the platforms above (depending on your business size). And if you’re after something that’s as easy to use as a website builder, why not pick… a website builder! The ones we featured at the very top of this article will be a safe bet. Go to the top
Is It Worth Upgrading to a Paid Plan?
Unlocking extra features is key for a successful online store. And, with the website builders around today, it’s cheaper than ever to do so. Remember – Constant Contact’s plans start from just $10 per month, while Big Cartel’s start from a mere $9.99 per month. So if you’re wondering whether it’s worth upgrading to a paid plan, the answer is almost definitely: yes!
In short, upgrading to a paid plan will upgrade your business. How is that so? Well, like any subscription, if you pay more, you get more. Below, we’ve listed five of the best features you can get on a paid plan…
1. No ads
You may be a really small or totally new business, but nobody will actually know that – unless, of course, you’re using a free plan on an ecommerce builder, and your site is plastered with ads as a result. There’s an element of ‘fake it till you make it’ as a new business, and an unprofessional website isn’t going to give off the right signals.
It can feel daunting to pay for an ecommerce platform before you’ve got any guarantee of customers and income, but think of this as a small but necessary investment. And remember, all these platforms will allow you to pay month by month, so there’s no pressure to commit to something long term if you’re not sure it’s going to work out.
2. Better sales tools
A paid plan won’t just make you a website that looks more professional – it will make you a website that acts more professional, too. Ecommerce platforms withhold premium features, like the ability to send abandoned cart recovery emails, for paying members – and with good reason. In fact, 69% of online carts are abandoned (i.e. the customer leaves the site without paying for the items they have collected in their cart). Emails sent to these customers can have an impressive open rate of 45%, and are hugely effective in re-engaging these customers.
Even upgrading to the cheapest ecommerce plan will get you a ton of better features. For example, Wix’s Business Basic plan piles on features like five hours’ worth of video and a free domain name for the first year.
3. Sell more products
Most free ecommerce plans put a cap on the number of items you can sell. By opting for a paid plan, you’re giving yourself more freedom, and your customers more choice.
4. Get better support
Paying customers tend to be able to access support in more ways, such as over the phone. Even if you get the same help and support options as premium customers, you better believe you’re not going to be top of the priority queue when you need help. Don’t wait until your site is down, or until you can’t get an answer to something that’s driving you nuts, before you upgrade – do it now, and your future self (and site) will thank you!
5. Increase payment methods
Paid plans typically allow you to connect more payment methods. This in turn makes for an easier shopping experience for your customers, increasing the likelihood that they’ll come back.
6. Don’t forget your hosting
If you choose to build your ecommerce store using one of the open-source software we have listed here, you’ll know that you need to arrange hosting separately. We recommend Bluehost across the board for this, although SiteGround also has brilliant Magento-specific plans.
Our top tip would be to review your hosting plan on a regular basis, rather than signing up and considering it a job ticked off.
As your ecommerce business grows, this can put a strain on your hosting plan, which in turn can lead to problems such as:
- A slow-loading website, or users being timed out
- Your site crashing when too many people are using it
Providers like Bluehost are great because they cover websites of every size, and offer excellent customer support to walk you through the different stages.
Conclusion
Ecommerce websites have come a long way since their inception. What started as a simple storefront to sell products online has evolved into a complex system where technologies like RFID, GPS, and machine learning are being used in conjunction with each other. It is a good thing that thousands of free tools are available to improve the functionality and provide more data for ecommerce websites to help them compete. The selection of free Ecommerce Tools has matured over the years, so it is not easy to find the best ones nowadays, which brings us to this post.
The internet has given us the opportunity to do business with millions, if not billions of potential clients. If you have a product or service you like to put on the web, it’s time to think about how you’re going to offer it for sale, who will buy it, where they’ll buy it, why they’ll buy from you and how much they’ll spend.