Have you ever thought about creating an online store for your business, but abandoned the idea because it seemed impossible or you didn’t know how to get started?
Here’s a list of 4 simple e-commerce platforms that anyone can use to create a professional online store for their business.
Many of these tools don’t require any coding, and getting started is as simple as choosing a theme to give your store a unique look, uploading photos of your products, naming your prices, and telling your customers that you’re open for business.
They also include features that make it simple for store owners to handle shipping, manage inventory, accept a range of payment options from customers (including credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, etc.), create customer promo codes, and more.
1. Big Cartel
Big Cartel is an e-commerce platform built for artists. The platform offers a range of tools that aim to make it easy for creative professionals (makers, designers, musicians, photographers, and more) to sell products online. Users can choose one of several pre-made themes [link] to quickly launch an online store without ever having to write a single line of code. In addition to physical products, users can also sell digital products in their stores, including ebooks, music, art, photos, and videos. Big Cartel offers 4 price plans, ranging from free to $29 per month.
2. Etsy
Etsy is an online marketplace for purveyors of handmade goods, vintage items, and craft supplies. One of the platform’s main selling points is that it’s free–there’s no membership fee or monthly subscription. Merchants only pay a $0.20 fee to list products for sale, and a %3.5 fee for products sold. Like most other e-commerce platforms today, creating a store on Etsy doesn’t require any coding. Merchants can use Etsy’s basic storefront theme, or upgrade to Etsy’s premium service called Pattern for greater control over the look and feel of their storefront, including additional themes and the option to have a custom web address.
3. Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce solution geared towards entrepreneurs of all kinds. Use it to setup an online storefront to sell physical products (i.e. clothing, accessories, homewares, food, and beyond) as well as digital products (i.e. music, ebooks, movies, and more). Shopify also Provides access to multiple sales channels, allowing merchants to sell products on Facebook, Pinterest, Amazon, and more. Creating a storefront on Shopify setup doesn’t require any coding, and pricing starts as low as $29 a month.
4. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the most versatile e-commerce platforms around. In addition to providing a robust set of tools that allow entrepreneurs to create a simple and solid online storefront, the platform also offers a range of premium “extensions” that bring advanced selling capabilities. Extensions give entrepreneurs the ability to implement various online business models– from setting up paid members only sections on a website, to accepting payments for appointments and other time and date-based services, and more. WooCommerce is free to use (there isn’t a monthly subscription fee), and offers seamless integration with the WordPress content management system.
