4 Best Free eCommerce Website Builders For You To Start Selling Right Away
Due to technological advancements, it is no longer challenging to bring your store online, but making a store with a free eCommerce website builder can be a daunting task.
Since there is a limited choice for freemium users, we have laid down a few options for making an eCommerce website for free. Of course, they will not be feature enriched platforms, but you can build an "on the side" online store without a professional developer's need.
The platforms we will discuss would allow you to sell online without compelling you to sign up for their paid plans. With that being said, they all serve you with some trade-off; that could be a commission on per sold product or limitations of product numbers to be sold. But it is not a bad option to start and grow.
So, let's learn the art of selling by using free resources.
Square Online / Square Up
It is a straightforward eCommerce builder to set up. Since it uses ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence), it will ask you a couple of questions about your business, and based on your answers, it will create a site for you. Weebly has been integrated with Square, and with the help, you can efficiently process your payments from your online store at Weebly.
Since Square uses ADI, you will have less control over your website's feel and look. You may tweak this auto-generated design up to some extent, but not many options will be available for you. It also means that you will save yourself from the feeling of being overwhelmed, which comes with those website builders that have a lot of template options to choose from – and that's a good thing.
Source: Square
You can sell unlimited products with Square and integrate Instagram with it. It has a seamless payment system, and Square will charge 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction and $0.50 per delivery order.
Square could be a good option for you if you are already running a brick-and-mortar store and want to see if selling online is your cup of tea or not.
Weebly
Add unlimited products in this user-friendly website builder who recently made its eCommerce plans free for its US customers – that's why it is one of the most popular platforms in the United States. So technically, you can not consider Weebly as a free eCommerce website builder for the rest of the World.
It is super easy, and generally, Weebly is known for its ease of use.
It doesn't offer multi-channel integration (The way to sell via social media) and advanced inventory management (Keeping stock levels in check in hectic times). However, you can add unlimited products.
You cannot add a custom domain name with its free plan, and advertisements will be placed on your website.
Source: Weebly
Big Cartel
You can create and operate your online store for free, with no transaction fees and no hidden charges. However, as we mentioned earlier, there is always a trade-off, and here you can add only five products on the free plan - availability of placing one image per product. You will have a subdomain after your URL, which might do not look professional to your prospects.Big Cartel gives helpful prompts while you build your site on it. It has a free customizable theme and shows you real-time stats.
Source: Big Cartel
Ecwid
With Ecwid, you can integrate its shopping cart with your already developed website; add it with your WordPress website or any other enlisted platform. If you do not have a website, you can create a starter site using Ecwid. With an instant site, you can create a customizable one-page website with a built-in online store for you to start selling right away.
It has a free plan, which they claim will remain free forever. It has a $0 Monthly price and Transaction fees. It offers a Mobile responsive Shopping cart.
Source: Ecwid
With unlimited bandwidth, you can have up to 10 products on your website. Ecwid offers 70+ design themes so that you instantly start to make a site.
Other options of an eCommerce website for sale purposes
Apart from the above options, there are other cheap eCommerce websites option as well. For instance, you can build a WordPress website and can avail the WooCommerce plugin for free.
WooCommerce does have a paid plan, but you can start with a freemium plan. You will have access to various WordPress eCommerce templates if you opt to develop an eCommerce site through WordPress.
Making an eCommerce website Prototype
Before you decide on your free eCommerce website builders, you must start with your website's prototyping design.
Wondershare Mockitt is a complete solution for all your design and prototyping needs. It is equally user friendly for a novice and a professional designer.
No matter how good your eCommerce website builder is, if you do not have your website prototype with you, there is a likelihood that you will be facing many hurdles in your website development.
Mockitt knows how valuable your time is, and that's why it offers an uncluttered interface so that you do not need to spend much time on prototyping designing. You will find every essential element besides your working screen, and you can use them by drag-drop functionality.
With Mockitt, you can use all those fonts and color combinations you dreamt about using on your eCommerce website. It is vital to use unconventional colors to retain your visitors on your website, and to cater to this need, Mockitt allows you to put Hex color code and use that color on your design.
You can always view your design prototype and share it with all of your stakeholders. At times, your team members wouldn't be able to give you tips on your design, but when they get to see your prototype, their minds started giving them handy tips – that's why you need to share your prototype with them.
So, start with the prototype designing and when your design gets finalized, choose your eCommerce website builder; it will save you a lot of time.