Wix.com was created in 2006 to offer an alternative to traditional web development. The Israeli cloud-based web development platform set out to create easy to use yet professional looking websites with their “drag and drop” technology and “freemium” pricing model.

At the core of “Freemium” is the opportunity for merchants to begin by launching an online store, first for free, and then selecting additional features that come with a small fee. The add-ons may range from everything to having your own domain to using a form builder to expanding ecommerce capabilities, extra bandwidth and data storage.

Wix Ecommerce is an offshoot of the original Wix service that specialized more in developing websites for personal, not for profit reasons.

Why Wix Ecommerce?

Wix Ecommerce gets an A+ for its simplicity. It is definitely one of the easiest website builders on the web. The drag and drop interface requires little to no experience with previous web development as it skips the complicated HTML and other coding that merchants used to have to rely on if they wanted to expand their services to the Internet.

If you do not like fiddling around with computers and just want to move to an online store that still looks professional, Wix Ecommerce is one of the premier options, especially for small business owners. Wix Ecommerce is extremely affordable and has a good reputation among merchants that have or currently use the ecommerce software.

Wix Ecommerce supports a variety of merchants regardless of how unique of a product you sell. They are innovators in creating professional looking sites at the drop of a hat compared to what major corporations and large businesses spend each year on a web development team.

While Wix Ecommerce does lack some of the speed and power of other ecommerce software providers like Shopify and BigCommerce, it is still adequate for small businesses that are still growing.

Website Builder

For its affordability, Wix Ecommerce actually has some really stylish pre-built templates for customers. The purpose of web templates is to brush past the time consuming nature of building a website with HTML code and instead get you selling immediately.

All of that is very possible thanks to Wix Ecommerce drag and drop interface. Most of the pre-built templates are very clean. The information on the screen is not jumbled and should allow for a seamless shopping experience for potential customers, new and old.

 Though the templates are already built, Wix does provide the opportunity to customize them to your own liking. You can play around with the color theme as well as showcase an unlimited number of products with large photos.

Wix Ecommerce has done an excellent job of staying with the times and for pre-built themes and templates, they are quite modern. Also, if you have a little website building experience, you can also evolve into a more customized experience with Wix Code that enables API for advanced customizations as well as integrations.

Management Tools

Wix Ecommerce has a number of quality management tools though less supporting apps than what you would find with Shopify and BigCommerce. Among the highlights:

• Track Inventory and add or delete products with a click of a button
• Build merchant credibility with apps designed to provide customer feedback, such as testimonies
• Offer coupons to lure new as well as existing customers
• Connect to popular social media to expand your name further
• Market and promote your products in a variety of ways
• Create email marketing and other campaigns to keep customers informed
• Provide excellent customer service with contact forms and more

Features

Unlike other ecommerce software providers, Wix Ecommerce does not charge a fee for every transaction. Instead they make their money by the services you use through their “freemium” pricing model as well as advertisements they display on your online store.

It means that you will keep 100 percent of the profits from every sale which is of course very important if you operate on a tight budget. Between no transaction fees and affordable pricing to use Wix Ecommerce, you are getting an exceptional deal.

Managing inventory always seems like a hassle and can be even more troubling when you are offering products online, because obviously you want to make sure you have the product available if someone has already paid for it and is expecting it to be shipped soon.

Wix Ecommerce actually has really good inventory tracking. It is easy to add or remove products, as well as create product specifics such as featuring collections, tags or even store promotions. It is also possible to calculate real-time shipping and scan barcodes to track shipping so customers can monitor when packages are expected to arrive.

Wix Ecommerce also supports secure shopping as you make transactions with customers through PayPal, Authorize.net, Skrill and Pagseguro (to name a few). Wix also presents you with the option to establish your own shipping rates and tax rules. You, as a business owner, also have the ability to utilize the Wix Mobile app in order to manage the online store from a mobile device.

Customer Service

Wix.com offers a decent support center though we have seen other ecommerce software providers that are quicker with response and have more contact options. However, Wix Ecommerce does get bonus points for all the articles and support forums it provides for everything from building your website to selling products and managing payments.

Wix also breaks down troubleshooting into trending topics so you may get solutions to common asked questions, as well as take solace in realizing your not the only one with these types of questions or concerns.

Pros

• Ease of use. Wix Ecommerce is far and away the easiest ecommerce software to use with drag and drop technology to launch a new online store in no time flat.
• Clean, modern web templates will be the rival of competitor stores. For such an affordable rate, you can get pre-built templates that look like you spent hundreds, if not thousands, to produce from a team of web developers.
• Affordable rates enable small businesses to compete with the big guys. Though cheap monthly plans do have a fewer setbacks, the overall presentation of your online merchant store will not suffer.

Cons

• While it is very affordable (even free) to get started with Wix Ecommerce the price will build as you select more add-ons. It all depends on what you are willing to spend.
• Speed and performance is not quite up to speed with other web builders, domain providers and web hosting like Shopify. It still is comparable, though, to other budget options like Volusion.

Conclusion

Wix Ecommerce has a lot going for it and is especially ideal for startups or existing small businesses looking to expand to an online market. You can launch a professional looking website with no hassle and not break the bank doing so.