Are you an entrepreneur who has a physical store? But suddenly, are you forced to lock it up because of the pandemic? Are you thinking about how to reach your customers who are forced to stay at home? Maybe, now is the time to set up an eCommerce store online to take their orders.
Websites nowadays are necessary to boost online presence, improve brand awareness, and increase your sales on the internet. It also helps to connect with customers and provide essential information about your business. Specifically, putting up an eCommerce website provides you achieve these goals.
eCommerce deals with buying and selling of products or services using the internet, and transfer the money and data to execute these transactions. It is also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce. eCommerce is most-commonly used as selling physical products online but it can also describe any kind of commercial transaction that is facilitated through the internet.
If you are in a tight budget, don't have the technical know-how, and doubting to create your website yourself, some of the best website builders are up to these challenges. You can explore website builders and try out different themes for your business even if not an expert web developer.
To make your eCommerce transactions smoother and easier, three (3) of the web builders are best and popular because of their ease of use, reliability, and intuitive qualities. We give you a brief description and some main features of each website builder - Strikingly, Shopify, and WordPress.org.
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# 3 – Strikingly.com
Strikingly is popularly known as a great single-page web builder in the web development market. It is ideal for start-ups and small businesses who want to make their products introduced to the web. With the convenience and ease of use, you can build the website in just a few hours.
It comes with a Free Plan (with free businessname.mystrikingly.com domain name) without paying a single penny. Strikingly is also recommended to post blogs for your business.
They also have paid plans that come with more features like more themes, accommodates up to 3 sites, multiple pages feature, and others. You can start using the Free Plan if you're on budget constraints. A superb 24/7 live chat customer support helps you create your website.
The beauty of Strikingly, you can upgrade the Free Plan with either Limited, Pro, or VIP Plan without affecting the content you previously uploaded and posted in Free Plan. You can also get a domain name registration with a minimal fee.
Strikingly also has Online Store Builder that can make an online store on your website. It is also mobile-friendly if customers want to put orders through their cellphones.
Strikingly Website Pricing, Plans, and Features
You can place up to 500 product photos to showcase your products or services with ease. It also gets you an integrated online payment system that lets your customers pay for the merchandise in PayPal and Stripe.
Strikingly also has the number of in-site plugin or tools you can choose from building forms to getting product reviews.
Strikingly built-in apps or tools in the App Store that may help increase your sales conversions:
WhatsApp Chat
All-in-One Reviews
All-in-One Chat
Popup
Contact Form
Form Builder
Countdown Timer
Social Share Buttons
Payment Buttons
Strikingly is perfect for entrepreneurs and small business owners who are just starting to set up an eCommerce website.
# 2 – Shopify.com
Shopify is one of the leaders in website builders and a pure eCommerce site with more than 800,000 online stores, $63 billion worth of sales, and over 3,000 employees.
This web builder makes you create your eCommerce site without coding.
It comes with a free business name or domain name generator to build your brand within the site. If you’re looking for convenience, you can get the business name or domain name within the Shopify platform.
You can start to sign up for your 14-day free trial, add products, customizes themes in Theme Editor, add images, enable payment, and add shipping options. Then, you’re ready to publish your Shopify store.
Shopify Website Pricing, Plans, and Features
Shopify is also great in shopping cart solutions, order fulfillment, dropshipping, and various secured payment options. You can showcase an unlimited number of product photos and add collections album for the products. It has 24/7 customer support via live chat, email, or phone that you can rely on whatever technical issues encountered in your eCommerce store.
Shopify hailed as the best eCommerce site for all business types because of its intuitive, clear, and ease of use features. It's platform always updating and improving that its competitors won’t able to catch up. These are some of the Shopify App Store in-site extensions or tools that may boost your eCommerce sales:
Oberlo
Sales Pop by Beeketing
Buy Me App
Free Trust Badge by Hektor
Tawk.to Live Chat
Loox Reviews
Improved Contact Form
SEO Site Audit, Benchmark Hero
Printful
Abandonment Protector – Email Marketing Automation
Hurrify – Countdown Timer
If you want to be assured that you can hover over your eCommerce store with ease, Shopify is definitely for you.
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# 1 – WordPress.org with WooCommerce
WordPress.org is one of the best free and open-source eCommerce web builders without needing to be a web developer. The platform is used by 35% of all the websites against other sites all combined. That means most online stores are built with WordPress. WordPress.org is a self-hosted WordPress which differs from a free-hosted Wordpress.com.
WordPress.org is a drop and drag web design tool to build a new website. You can customize your themes, add images and blogs, and put up an online store called Content Management System (CMS). CMS gives you some easy-of-use tools so that you can edit your site's content with zero codings required.
WordPress.org Homepage
WordPress.org also has customer support who can help you start your website. There are many resources and learning available online on how to begin creating your eCommerce store using WordPress. This can be useful to make your customer’s online shopping experience easier and without hassles.
Together with WooCommerce plug-in, you can set up an eCommerce website in minutes. You can get a secured payment system, configurable shipping options, and add online store themes for free. WooCommerce is a customizable, open-source eCommerce plug-in or extension built on WordPress.
Some features include product display pages, shopping cart functionality, and multiple payment gateways. Integrate some add-on in your WordPress eCommerce store that includes specific functionalities, add security features, and manage shopping carts.
Aside from Woocommerce tool, a bunch of plug-ins is free and ready to be integrated into your WordPress site are:
Classic Editor
Elementor Page Builder
Yoast SEO
Magento
TinyPNG
Akismet
Disqus
Google XML Site Map
Contact Form 7
MailChimp for WordPress
WP Super Cache
Live Chat
If you’re running a Shopify store, it can be integrated with your WordPress store for better coverage of your online presence. You can also edit some HTML and CSS codes if you’re familiar with basic website design. WordPress.org is also preferred by some businesses that want to optimize their site behavior through Seach Engine Optimization (SEO).
Domain Name and Web Hosting
To put up a less-costly business name or domain name registration for a new website, sign up in one of the web hosting services installed with WordPress and other eCommerce web builders. Web hosting service publishes your products or services, blogs, and others on the internet. You can get affordable, cheap but reliable domain name registration and web hosting service from the following:
Bonus Tools and More!
Other open-source and free online sources to make a stunning new website for your eCommerce store include free images, DIY graphic design tools, product design mockups, grammar checks, browser extensions, icons, vectors, fonts, logos, and web design mockups.
Free Stock Images
www.pixabay.com(with free stock videos)
For DIY Graphic Design
Canva- www.canva.com
Crello - https://crello.com
Picmonkey- https://www.picmonkey.com
Easil - https://about.easil.com
Snappa- https://snappa.com
For Blogging and Content Writing (checks grammar and sentence structures)
Browser Extensions
Colorpick Eyedropper – get the specific hex code of the color you want
Page Load Time – get the average load time of the web page
Full Page Screen Capture – screenshot the whole/part of the website
Fonts Ninja – get the fonts used in the website
SEMquake – SEO/SEM tool extension by SEMRush
Icons
Free Fonts Generator
Web Design Mockups/Website Wireframe
Adobe XD
Figma
Now that your website is up and running, orders become bulkier and messier, an eCommerce Virtual Assistant can assist you in maintaining your eCommerce online store on the game. Ping us a message on how we can help you manage your inventories.
Sources:
https://www.shopify.com/encyclopedia/what-is-ecommerce
https://www.sitebuilderreport.com/best-website-builder
https://www.strikingly.com/content/blog/introducing-strikingly-simple-store/
https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/website-builders/strikingly-review/
https://elfsight.com/strikingly-apps/
https://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-selling-advice/build-online-shop-less-15-minutes-shopify
https://www.shopify.com/blog/free-shopify-apps
https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/10/best-free-shopify-apps-small-business.html
https://www.websitetooltester.com/en/reviews/shopify/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/popular/
https://www.wpbeginner.com/guides/
https://wordpress.org/support/article/new-to-wordpress-where-to-start/
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