5 best free e-commerce platforms – Here, we will talk about the five best tools to create a free e-commerce website.
Some of these tools help you create a 100% free store, while others let you set up your store for free but charge you when you start selling.
We will test these platforms based on the following:
- Free package feature
- Limited from free package
- Other key features
- Price for packages paid when applicable
- Transaction fee
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Ecwid
If you want to have a sales website, Ecwid is a very useful platform.
Free package
Ecwid has a very useful free package. When registering, a fully functional store is set up to sell up to 10 products. Here is what you get:
- Mobile responsive online store with product options
- Mobile responsive cart
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Add it easily at WordPress or any other website
- Sell concurrently on multiple websites
- Pixel Facebook
- Integrated support for SSL certificate, security, server configuration, hosting
- More than 40 payment methods in multiple currencies
- Integrated Google Analytics integration
Limitations of free packages
You will not have access to digital goods, employee accounts or promotional codes. This feature, along with many others, is only available in premium packs.
Other key features
- Sell on the go with Ecwid mobile
- Store management application
- Many other sales channels for Facebook, Instagram or POS
- Unlimited products, including digital goods
- Inventory management, automatic tax calculation
- Create orders, product filters, variations
In short, the free package from Ecwid is a good choice for small traders with basic sales requirements.
Prices and transaction fees
In addition to the free plan, there are three paid plans available:
- Joint venture – $ 15 per month
- Business – $ 35 per month
- Unlimited – $ 99 per month
Transaction fee:
There is no direct charge by Ecwid, however the payment processor you have chosen will likely charge.
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Big Cartel
If you have T-shirts, paintings, jewelry or other things to sell, you'll feel right at home with Big Cartel.
Free package
With the free package, you get:
- Start your free store with up to five products
- Choose a theme, customize
- Add photos with each product with the same options, product catalog
- Selling directly on Facebook
- Choose to accept payment by credit card or PayPal or both
- SSL encryption
- Basic order management through Big Cartel dashboard
- Email support
Limitations of free plans
On the free package, cannot be custom domain. You also won't be able to add multiple photos on each product or track inventory.
Other key features:
- Allowed to track inventories
- Provide discount code
- Google Analytics
- Customize the full code
Since minimalism is an advantage from Big Cartel, you won't see the platform burdened by too many features. At the same time, the free package gives you enough features to set up shops, sell, receive payments.
Price and transaction fee:
There are three premium packages for which you can sell different quantities of products:
- Platinum – you can sell up to 25 products for $ 9.99 per month
- Diamond – 100 products for $ 19.99 per month
- Titanium – 300 products at $ 29.99 per month
Transaction fee:
Not charged directly by BigCartel, however the payment set you have chosen will likely charge.
See more: .Htaccess file in WordPress
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Wix
The Wix package helps you build your website just by dragging and dropping. Moreover, you can customize it a lot without knowing anything about the code.
Note: With Wix you will create a free eCommerce website, but you will have to upgrade to a paid plan to start selling to customers.
Free package
- Online presence with free, secure web hosting
- Bandwidth up to 500 MB with storage up to 500 MB
- Hundreds of fully customizable templates, the website is optimized with mobile devices
- Access to a large collection of icons, images, clip art, free apps
- Free Wix domain name – (username.wixsite.com/siteaddress)
- Email marketing, SEO support and other marketing solutions
Limitations of free plans
Your website will bring favicon Wix. Moreover, you will find Wix ads on every page. You cannot own a custom domain or change a template.
Most importantly, you are not allowed to accept free package payments. Again, when you create a free store, you need to pay when you're ready to start selling.
Other key features
- The page has no ads, custom favicon
- Easy-to-use tool in drag and drop WYSIWYG editor
- Support Wix artificial design intelligence to build a personal website
- More than 500 designs including any type of website
- Integrated tool to customize designs
- Unlimited bandwidth and 10 GB storage
- Hassle-free encryption with advanced functionality
- Mobile friendly, SEO friendly
- Including Google Analytics
Belonging to a free e-commerce platform, Wix is ideal for websites that want everything to be taken care of with just the normal website features.
Prices and transaction fees
Premium plans start at $ 29 per month. There are four premium packages available for small and medium business owners.
This entire package helps you to be connected to your own domain name, no ads. They differ in terms of storage with the provided bandwidth, as well as the level of support and applications available.
Although this website package you are allowed to set up a store, to accept payments, see Analytics details, to access other advanced Wix Business applications, you will have to choose from their separate e-commerce package with them. .
Transaction fee:
Wix payment helps Wix business, e-commerce subscribers accept card payments without having to integrate a third-party payment gateway.
It is only available in a few countries, in the US, for a fee of 30 ¢ plus 2.9% per transaction. It is lower than in the EU, at 1.9% of the transaction amount + 0.30 EUR.
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Gumroad
Gumroad is the right platform to sell physical and digital goods, although the emphasis is on digital products and creative tools such as images, text, podcasts and design.
It helps you to create free upfront e-commerce websites, but they charge a commission for everything you sell, different from other free e-commerce platforms on this list.
Free package
- Create and customize your storefront
- Sell as many products as you like
- Send four updates per month
- Set up automatic workflow
Limitations of free plans
Besides missing some important premium features, you will pay higher transaction fees at the free account.
Other key features
- Enter your email list and rely on strong analytics
- Selling physical product variations, tracking inventory, shipping management, restrictions in the country
- The seller of a digital product has many activities – multiple versions, generating license keys, providing discount codes
- With a simple '+', ask customers to pay what they want
- Prevent integrated abuse with stamping PDF or turning off downloads
- Sell before they are ready, schedule future payments
- Support for periodic registration with membership package provides access to content library, software license key
- Many easy payment options
- Customers create accounts, keep all content in one place
Furthermore, Gumroad promotes product branding with a custom URL and then markets your product with customized previews to social channels like Facebook or Twitter. Thank you for notes, automatic workflow updates help you engage customers on your side.
Prices and transaction fees
Professional features cost only $ 10 per month.
Transaction fee:
The fee for each free account sale is 8.5% + $ 0.30 (USD) on each sale.
It's lower for premium packages at 3.5% + $ 0.30 (USD) per sale. There is an additional 10% fee for first-time buyers to sell through Gumroad.
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Shopify
Shopify is a fairly popular e-commerce platform among free e-commerce platforms, very easy to set up.
Note: Like Wix, with Shopify you can create an e-commerce website for free – however you will have to upgrade to a paid plan to start selling.
Free package
Although there's no completely free plan, sign up for a free trial from Shopify for 14 days without sending credit card details.
Limit
During your free trial period, you can set up your store and discover features. But before you sell your product or service, you will need to pay the plan.
main feature
- Online shop with custom themes, Shopify POS application, many sales channels are part of the basic package
- Also under the basic plan, unlimited products, manage products, inventory, track sales and growth trends
- Shopify includes a dashboard with a complete ecommerce builder
- Including hosting, domain name, design, theme, marketing
- More than 100 mobile-ready themes and hundreds of apps to enhance storage
- Integrates with most social media forums
- It is also possible to create common web content – static pages, website posts, contact forms, etc.
Shopify is a good way for anyone who wants a realistic approach to setting up and maintaining an online store. With a range of plans for all types of business needs, it is suitable for everyone.
Prices and transaction fees
Four packages with different features and monthly fees are available:
- Lite – $ 9 per month
- Basic – $ 29 per month
- Shopify – $ 79 per month
- Advanced – $ 299 per month
The entire package, except Lite, allows you to create a fully functional Shopify store. The Lite package only shows you sales on Facebook, in real locations, as well as integrating the purchase button on the existing website.
Transaction fee:
There are no separate transaction fees when you use Shopify Payments (available in some countries). If you choose an external payment gateway, there will be an additional fee of 2%, 1% or 0.5% respectively with the basic Shopify package, Shopify and Advanced Shopify.
Epilogue
If you want something you create as a free store, the best option you have is Ecwid or Big Cartel. Gumroad is also an option if you are willing to bear the transaction fee.
Shopify, Wix will also help you create a free e-commerce website, but you'll need to sign up for a paid plan once you're ready to sell it publicly.
Finally, if you are willing to go the DIY way, you create an affordable e-commerce store with WooCommerce.