Wix.com – one of the popular online website builders has come out with an advanced eCommerce solution called WixStores, where you can create your own online eCommerce website (which is more of a DIY – do it-yourself eCommerce website builder), which helps to take your business to the next level.
These days most product owners look for a platform where they can market or sell their products online and they look for eCommerce sites that allow them to list their products and help them to sell the same.
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But thinking of having your own eCommerce site is a big dream for small businesses because they have to spend time, and money on designers and developers to code, maintain, and update their eCommerce site regularly and make them secure is also a big task as it deals with online payments, etc. Wix addressed this concern and created WixStores for small business owners.
More than that, WixStores offers all the services and tools one would need in order to manage their online business. For example, you might want to send out automated newsletters. The solution for that is Smart Actions.
As a first step, sign up at Wix.com and upgrade to one of the plans. You have two options to choose from, either the VIP or eCommerce premium plans. After creating your account, choose the desired category, which suits your business. Thereafter you can choose designer themes/templates and modify the colors by using their online site editor.
To navigate to WixStores, you can either click on the last icon on the HTML5 drag-and-drop editor. You’ll recognize it because it is a picture of a shopping bag. Or you can simply go to the Wix.com app market, search for an online store, and add it by adding the WixStores app. Check it out:
Then you’ll be able to get to the WixStores store manager. This is the place where one can create their own collections of products under various categories with a lot of basic options, which are required for an online shopping site.
Adding Products and maintaining Inventory is easy:
Here is how you can start your own online store by listing all your products, choosing your preferred payment options, etc.
List your Products:
Now go to the My Products tab, click on Add Product to list your own custom products with details like title, price, collection, uploading your photos, and then key-in overview/details of the product, also you can add some more optional information like size, and color.
How to Manage Your Online Store Products | Wix.com
Multiple Payment Options:
Once you are done adding your own customized products, just go to the Payments tab, where you can select payment methods like PayPal, credit cards, or Offline Payments.
Have your own promotional campaign:
In case if you want you are planning for any promotional campaign or want to provide some discounts to your users, you can create your own coupon codes under the Coupons tab with specific limitations provided in the interface.
Update Shipping & Tax Fees:
Now land into the shipping section, where you can dictate your store’s handling fees, choose your store’s shipping fee calculation method, and add your own shipping rules if any. Thereafter go to the tax section and include the tax details if applicable along with specific tax rules, etc.
Ready to launch your Online Store:
Yeah, you are almost done and ready to preview your own online eCommerce store. Preview your online store, cross-check everything, make the necessary changes, and then click on Publish to go live.
Below are the quick advantages of using WixStores:
- Easy to create your own customized Online eCommerce store with just a few clicks
- Hundreds of designer themes/templates and product galleries to choose from
- No need to engage any designer or programmer to create and change the look of your Online Store
- Easy to update the look and feel or design with their HTML5 drag-n-drop site editor
- They have a very useful and visually friendly HTML5 Site Editor
- The user interface of the site editor is easy to understand without looking for any help
- Advanced SEO-friendly settings
- Have your own custom domain
- The Wix App Market contains awesome apps to integrate into your sites like comments, subscribers, calendars, form builders, site searches, live chats, and more to choose from
- Multiple payment options to choose from
- Your eCommerce website will be optimized for mobile devices
- Tracking your store’s orders is easy via the WixStores store manager
- Have your own custom domain for your online store when upgrading to one of the WixStores premium packages
- The user experience of the WixStores is awesome
- Tons of videos and tutorials are available to understand their interface, and help you throughout the process of creating an online store
Cons:
- The only drawback I could see at present is, we cannot change themes/templates – to do so we need to create a new site and transfer your premium plan and domain to your new site, which is a tedious job to perform just to change the design or template.
- There are no multiple payment options to choose from at the checkout
So what are you waiting for? Go ahead, try WixStores, start your own online shopping website, and make your products available for sale online for a wider audience across the world by integrating with your own custom domain.
We would like to hear your thoughts and experience with WIXStores :)