Are you trying to figure out where to set up your online store? Not sure which website is the right one for you? Well, you’re in the right place. This blog is going to tell you everything you need to know about the most popular store building apps out there. 

Online stores have been on the rise for some time now. The invention of the internet was truly a revolutionary event, and it’s hard to deny the fact that buying products from the web is much easier to do than walking to the store. All you have to do is go to the site that you want, pick one of the products, and a few clicks later, your goods will be on their way to your doorstep. 

There are a ton of online sites out there that offer a platform to build your online store. However, it is important to note that if you want your store to succeed, it needs to be suited to your business. Out of the hundreds of sites out there, only a few stand out as the best. We’ll be looking at three of these sites in greater detail – Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace. 

Let’s start at the top, 

What are the Main Features of these Store Builders?

When you’re building an online store, you need to consider two major aspects before you make a decision- who your target audience is and the type of business that you run. A shiny interface isn’t going to help you draw in a large crowd if your site isn’t easy to navigate. The way you present your products is going to drastically alter how your audience reacts to your store. 

Shopify: When you think of online stores, Shopify is definitely one of the main sites that pop into your head. This site’s name says a lot about its dominance in the field of e-commerce. Shopify is a site that was designed specifically to help businesses set up their online stores without any hassle. Founded in 2004, this site quickly grew to become a massive hub for online businesses. 

Wix: A good website can help you go a long way in the world of e-commerce, and that’s exactly why Wix is well regarded as an excellent app for site-building. The main selling point of Wix is that its setup process is simple, especially for people that don’t want to spend a ton of time on their sites. This app has also branched out into online store building with its new and innovative web designs. 

Squarespace: If you’re looking for a sleek, well put together a site that’s easy to set up, this is the app for you. Squarespace has many different templates to choose from, and their process is made for users that don’t have any prior experience with web-building. They also offer e-commerce services that allow you to put together an online store.

So, How do These E-commerce Sites Compare With Each Other?

Now that you know what these sites are meant, it’s time to look at how they stack up against each other. Keep in mind that you’ll have to take a deeper look into the various aspects of these sites before you make your decision. In order to make this choice easier for you, we’ve only focused on what we believe are some of the most important aspects of any online e-commerce site. You’ll want to take as much time as you need to research these details because they can make or break any online store. Without further ado, here are some features that you must look out for. 

Price: The only website that offers free services on this list is Wix. That being said, this comes with a catch; most of their e-commerce tools aren’t included in the free version. Nevertheless, the site is still the cheapest because it will typically cost you around $13 to get all the basic features that you need to build an online store, and there are also more expensive plans available. Next, we have Squarespace which stands at around $26 for a paid business plan. Lastly, Shopify is the most expensive on the list as it costs around $29 for a minimum plan, with the most expensive plan costing around $299 per month. Keep in mind that the higher-priced plans are meant for large companies so a smaller store has no need for them. 

Inventory management: Your inventory is the number of products that are present in your store. Here we have a clear winner. Shopify undoubtedly has an edge over the rest. Although both Wix and Squarespace allow you to set up an inventory and manage the products, Shopify has designed its inventory system to give the user complete control over their inventory. This includes checking the variations of products, assigning barcodes, tracking your products, and so on. 

Transactions: When your customers finally reach the last stage of their experience- the payment process- they need to be sure that their information is secure. Additionally, a variety of options means that your customers won’t have to scramble to find different paying methods. All of these methods offer good security options although they differ in the payment methods that they offer. Both Wix and Squarespace offer a few payment methods like credit cards and mobile payments. However, Shopify has a wide selection of payment methods, ranging from gift cards to debit cards and all of the major payment methods.  

Design options: A good online store design will keep your customers engaged. All three of these sites offer their own custom template that will allow you to design your store without much hassle. Wix stands at the top with the most number of templates. It offers around 700 templates that have a variety of creative designs. However, their drag and drop system can be confusing for newcomers. On the other hand, Squarespace is meant for beginners. Both of these sites are meant for building websites. Shopify is much better if you want to make an excellent online store. 

SEO: The SEO rating of your online store is crucial to its success. This rating will determine how many customers are exposed to your products on a day to day basis. Here, all three sites will allow you to attach blogs to your stores to boost your SEO. Wix and Squarespace are better suited to blogs, whereas Shopifygives you a better way to effectively market your store. That being said, all of these sites offer good SEO tools. 

Final Verdict: 

At the end of the day, your choice primarily depends on your preferences and the kind of store you’re looking to build. If your business is one that publishes a lot of blogs and isn’t very big, Wix might be your best bet. Squarespace is good for small to medium online businesses, but this site’s main purpose is to serve as a web builder, and due to this the e-commerce tools aren’t as good as the ones that you’ll find on Shopify. 

However, in case you’re looking to build the perfect e-commerce site that is easy-to-set-up and will draw in customers, Shopify is your best bet. The reason that this site stands out as the best online store building site is that it caters to businesses that are interested in e-commerce. On the other hand, both Squarespace and Wix were not built with e-commerce in mind. This is why we recommend Shopify to any business that’s looking to get into e-commerce as it allows you to set up a high-quality online store. 

But maybe you’ve decided that you’re finally ready to build a Shopify store and are not sure where to begin. The tricky thing about Shopify is that it isn’t as beginner-friendly as the other two, and that’s where we might be able to give you a helping hand. Jagandwolf is an online service that will build your Shopify store from scratch and we’ll also set everything up for you. All you have to do is get in touch with us and we’ll do the rest. Drop us a message or any queries that you have and we’ll clear them up in no time. 

If you need help building and scaling your online store, we reccomend Pathway, which will keep you on track, give you monthly goals, dashboards, tips and the ability to spy on your competitors. Pathway will also serve as your educational and operational dashboard.

Click the link below if you use Shopify https://apps.shopify.com/pathway

Click the following link for any other e-commerce solution including Amazon. https://pathwaycommerce.com