Wix eСommerce Website Builder Review

In the thriving world of ecommerce, most enterprises overlook the fact that picking the right website builder can mean the difference between success and failure as an online business, especially for those businesses that are operating solely on the web. Although all website builders offer you the ability to create an ecommerce website, not all of them work in the same way. Some platforms can be fairly advanced and require the skills of an experienced developer, some offer a no-frills and lean platform to sell your products and services, while some are meant to swoon their audiences with aesthetics. But if building an elegant yet functional website that is both comprehensive and engaging, Wix is one of the best builder's and ticks all the right boxes!

And in the broader scope of things, here is a detailed list about the advantages of using Wix to create your web store:

• Comprehensive product galleries
• Dedicated product pages for each product
• Product variations based on size, color, etc.
• Fully customizable ecommerce design templates
• Automatic discount code generator
• 6 online and offline payment processors to choose from
• Location-specific tax and shipping quotes
• Auto-mail notifications
• Mobile-optimized store
• Order, inventory & sales management
• No transaction fees

Now we'll have a look at the step by step procedure of how you can create your very own ecommerce website using customizable templates:

Step 1: Registration

Open the WIX website, and go to the ecommerce section. You can create your e-store super-fast and with minimal effort. Registration takes less than 30 seconds or you could also sign in using tour Google or Facebook account, which will then forward you to your Dashboard.

The WIX ecommerce website builder sign up process requires nothing more than your email address and a give you access to your category page, which requires you to narrow down your template choices to those that best suit your industry.

Step 2: Choosing a Template

Once you've chosen your category of business, the next page that processes is a template selection screen, where you can choose from one of the 500+ templates. The templates offered by the Wix website builder are very unique and make for great website layouts.

All of WIX's templates are pre-set and easy to custom according to any preference you might have. Just chose the particular template that you like, and you can immediately start filling it up with your content and changing the design elements.

Step 3: The Website Builder

You are then directed to a Wix's HTML5-powered website builder. As mentioned earlier, you can edit, add or delete your template according to your preference, convenience and requirements, especially considering the wide range of editing tools and features. Apart from the ability to add complex text and media-rich additions, users can even purchase additional apps via the Wix App Market. This includes apps of data integration, SEO optimization and related stuff, and the ability to get streaming statistics. Once you've made the requisite modifications to your template, all you need to do is press on the 'Publish' button to get your ecommerce site up and running. The website editor also has the option to make changes to the mobile view of your store.

All your modifications and content will be added within the easy to use drag n drop builder. All you'll need to do is click on the item that you want to add or shift and drag it from its source location to the destination of your choice. And although these drag n drop editors are pretty common among different website builders, the seamlessness and ease of use of WIX's builder earn top marks.

Step 4: Website Design

Anyone will judge the quality of a website builder on its ability to be easy to use as well as fully functional. And Wix's simplistic drag and drop editor is the perfect tool for even the most novice of developers to build an effective ecommerce platform. Among the numerous innovations of Wix's drag and drop builder is that it features a 'snap to grid' button that automatically calculates the alignment that would best suit your entire site's content & design elements. This eliminates the need to have to manually guess the margins of all your design elements, effectively saving you hours of editing time. The ability of the Wix site builder to automatically move and arrange the elements to exactly fit the modifications without manual adjustment have made it the website builder of choice for many.

Step 5: Managing your Online Store

Nearly all of your editor modifications are centrally managed via a menu bar that can be found at the very top, with a complement of sidebar of buttons on the left of the screen. And once you've got all your content and design elements in place, it's time to divulge into the backend details of your online store.

• The first you're going to have to do is click on the shopping bag located at the bottom of the sidebar.
• Then click on the "Manage Store" button, which will opens a window that allows you to add new or edit existing products in to your Wix ecommerce website.
• Once you reach the Product Page, you just need to select the item you want to edit, and click on it.

Step 6: Managing Products

Once you've chosen the desired item, editing it is even easier. There are pre-set options that allow you to alter the images, add discounts, update or refresh the inventory, and even make alterations you're a product's description.

Step 7: Managing Collections and Orders

The item you'll find on your side bar is "Collections." This tab enables you to categorize or group products by way of collections or groups. Such early stage organizing is another big win for Wix as it makes it way easier to keep track of your products and monitor the sales of a group-specific product on your ecommerce website.

The Orders Tab is the centralized hub for all your business orders. This is where you can view information such as name and address of the customer, what they've ordered and any other special requirements. Any order that you get will show up in the window below.

Step 8: Managing Coupons

This is one of the most useful yet underrated features of Wix, the ability to managing couponing via a dedicated tab on your merchant dashboard. The "Coupons" tab allows you to add, delete and edit coupon codes for your online ecommerce store! You can also install a random discount generator if you want. The coupons tab also allows users to implement group-specific offers or discounts, site-wide! What it essentially does is allow you to create customized codes for specific groups or categories. You can even implement coupons that are time or period-specific to a week, month, date or season. Another great feature is that you can even implement coupons for products depending on their level of inventory, making it extremely easy if you want to sell a specific slow moving or surplus item.

Step 9: Using the Wix App Market

As mentioned earlier, the Wix App Market is Wix's integrated app store that allows you to make add on purchase of trendy and useful apps that you can use for your exclusive Wix ecommerce website. Whether you're looking for something that will provide customers and additional payment gateway or an app that will calculate state of country specific shipping and tax charges, the Wix App Market has everything you would ever need to make your website more functional and user friendly.

Pricing Plans

The Wix website builder is a free option, but the ability to create an ecommerce platform for your brand comes at a price. And although you can use the builder for free for a limited time offer, using a coupon code, the paid version of WIx's ecommerce website builder is the most recommended. These premium builder packs are designed with a focus on catering to specific needs of customers, and provide them the ability to pick and choose the added features they want through the app market.

Presently Wix offers a choice of 4 premium plans to choose from; Connect Domain, Combo, Unlimited, and Ecommerce. All of Wix's premium services come with the added advantage of being given your own domain to create a customized website. All 4 plans come with Google Analytics service and premium customer support, in the rare case that you get stuck with one of your design elements. The support extends so far as to even recommend categories and templates for your business.

Here's an overview of the differences between all 4 plans:

• Connect Domain – Standard features such as 1GB bandwidth, 500MB of storage, Domain Connections, Google Analytics, premium support and free web hosting.
• Combo – Connect Domain features + 2GB bandwidth, 3GB of storage, no ads, free domain, no mobile ads, customized Favicon*, and a $75 Google Ads Voucher.
• Unlimited – Combo features + unlimited bandwidth, 10GB of storage, Form builder App, site booster, and two free premium apps worth $118.
• Ecommerce – Unlimited features + 10 GB of bandwidth, 20GB of storage, and an online store.

* Favicon support enables users to display a logo for your website that will be made visible on the left hand side of the website's URL, in the address bar.

Conclusion

In terms of simplicity, functionality and exposure, Wix's ecommerce website builder is easily the best among its competition. Apart from basic functionalities, the builder offers a lot in terms of free peripheral web elements. The useful "Add" button allows users to add content, picture, videos, audio files, galleries, and other media like Sound Cloud & iTunes audio files, a Spotify Player, and all sorts of shapes and lines. This unique 'social settings" option allows users to control how their products are viewed on social media platforms, right from privacy settings to allowing you to specify the size and look of your website's thumbnail, if and when it is posted in anyone's Facebook status. The integrated blog elements are also a great addition to an already capable website builder. The blog, which gets automatically added to your site, allows you to engage in meaningful and productive conversations with your visitors.

The inclusion of various social media elements, including:

• Facebook "Like" & "Share" buttons,
• Twitter "Follow" and "Tweet buttons",
• Google "+1" button,
• Pinterest "Pin It" button, and
• YouTube "Subscribe" buttons

All these social media additions don't just make it easier for your customers to easily view your shared content, but they are also most likely to result in more social networking, which will translate in to more website traffic and subsequently higher profits. The ability to add additional apps that enhance your site's functionality and usability is one of Wix's most profound features. The App Market has varied options that allow users to add anything from contact or feedback forms to Google Maps. It also allows you to add multiple content elements with a single click, right from HTML5 elements to flash content. The ability to add optional PayPal, Skype, and Flickr Gallery button in your webpages with ease, is another big plus over the competition. The powerful "Settings' tab helps you choose a variety of site-wide settings and browser preferences.

The mobile and Google SEO optimization options are a great way to identify and specify SEO relevant data for your ecommerce site. With the added option to switch between search engines and visibility settings, Wix allows you be as loud or discreet as you want your website to be. The online store options that allow you to sell any conceivable product of service online, allows users to upload and publish entire product galleries, an integrated shopping cart, a "View Cart" button and an "Add to Cart" button. All in all the Wix ecommerce website builder is a great website builder for those who want to set up and online business but lack the technical expertise or time to spend weeks designing a customized website.