Update March 24, 2022: Updated with accurate new info and 2022 tutorials on how to start an online store with each platform.
Launching an eCommerce business in 2022 is easier than ever. With so many opportunities for eCommerce platforms, business models, product niches, and marketing tools to help your new business thrive, now is definitely the best time to start an online store.
How to do it though? One can easily get lost in all the information flooding you from here and there – about costs, shipping options, SEO capabilities, etc. For this article, we’ve picked 4 popular and powerful eCommerce solutions to help you sort out your thoughts and get started with your online store. We’ve included pros and cons for each, so you can weigh them for your own store-to-be and decide on the best option for you.
For each platform, we’ve also included thorough tutorials for beginners that will help you easily set up your store in no time. So, let’s get started!
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#1 Shopify
Basic Shopify – $29/month
Shopify – $79/month
Advanced Shopify – $299/month
*14 days of a free trial.
*See what’s included in the plans.
Shopify is a leading platform for eCommerce solutions, which requires no coding skills from the user. Suitable for small and big eCommerce businesses, Shopify has made it extremely easy for everyone to start an online store in 2022 and manage their business via an intuitive and user-friendly interface.
The platform comes with over 170 ready-made template designs for your eCommerce site, so you don’t have to worry about hiring a designer if you choose this platform for your future online store. According to the plan you’ve chosen, the monthly cost of your online store with Shopify would range from $29 to $299. In some cases, the price may rise due to additional charges, such as transaction fees, paid apps for additional features, and more. Let’s go through the pros and cons.
✔️ Shopify Pros
- Very easy to work with in terms of creating and managing your online store.
- Very flexible and suitable for online stores of different scopes.
- Comes with a diverse library of 170+ free and paid pre-made templates for online stores. All are very tastefully designed, intuitive for the user, and responsive (mobile-friendly).
- Offers a lot of free and paid apps to add useful and handy features to your store.
- It allows you to open additional eCommerce channels such as Amazon, eBay, and Facebook.
- Excellent customer support to take care of technical issues. 24/7 Live chat.
- Shopify has a helpful community of developers and experts.
- Shopify provides great guides for beginners and broad documentation.
- For programmers – you have full access to the code.
❌ Shopify Cons
- You have to pay transaction fees (up to 2% for each) unless you use Shopify Payments. The service, however, is not available worldwide.
- The content creator is oriented towards product pages rather than blog pages which may be a disadvantage if you also want to have a blog.
- Generally, Shopify allows you to create a one-language store. If want to create a multi-language store, you’ll have to purchase additional apps that may be pricy.
- Inflexible URL structures that may affect your SEO results.
- For programmers – Shopify’s custom markup language for creating templates Liquid is not very straightforward and easy to work with.
Want to start an online store with Shopify? Awesome. We’ve gathered a few super easy video tutorials that will lead you through the process step by step and will help you get your store ready completely for free.
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Shopify Tutorial For Beginners 2022 – Create A Shopify Store Step By Step
A step-by-step video tutorial for beginners that will take you through the process of how to start an online store with Shopify. An extremely useful video. The recommendation is to start building your own store simultaneously as you follow along with the video.
How To Start Dropshipping on Shopify in 2022 (FOR BEGINNERS)
A great video tutorial that will help you get started dropshipping as a complete beginner. The creator walks you through the entire process of getting your Shopify Dropshipping store off the ground.
COMPLETE Shopify Tutorial For Beginners 2022 – How To Create A Profitable Shopify Store From Scratch
A very valuable video full of insight and tips to help you succeed with a dropshipping eCommerce store. From this video tutorial, you will learn how to make a profitable online store with Shopify from scratch. The video is very detailed and suitable for complete beginners.
#2 WooCommerce
Pricing depends on hosting, domain, theme, paid plugins, etc.
WooCommerce is a very popular and powerful eCommerce solution introduced as a plugin to WordPress in 2015. WooCommerce, along with WordPress, is open-source and free for personal and commercial use. However, since this is not a platform, you will have to set aside a budget for hosting, domain, a website theme, email service, additional paid plugins and extensions, and probably – developer services and support.
WooCommerce itself comes with many features that allow you to launch and manage a professional eCommerce online business. Before you get there, you have to choose a hosting service – some of them conveniently offer WordPress and WooCommerce bundles and help you set up your site, plus include domain and email. Then, you’ll have to choose a theme that is compatible with WooCommerce and guarantees security standards.
✔️ WooCommerce Pros
- A huge diversity of plugins and extensions to add all kinds of functions to your online store.
- A huge diversity of great design themes for WooCommerce – free and paid, with different features, editable.
- A helpful community of WooCommerce developers and experts.
- User roles – customer and administration accounts can easily be created and managed.
- For programmers – you can easily customize themes via modifying the code.
❌ WooCommerce Cons
- Unexperienced users will probably find WooCommerce difficult to set up and use. Consider getting help from a developer or a coding agency.
- Lack of central support. For each issue, you will have to find its particular support channel or search for a solution yourself.
Decided on using WooCommerce for your eCommerce business? Great. These tutorials will help you understand the installation and setup process, and include useful tips and insight for your future store.
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A Complete WooCommerce Tutorial For Beginners 2022
A great tutorial that will take you through the process of creating an eCommerce website using WordPress, Elementor, and Astra for beginners tutorial for 2022 covers all the steps needed to create your own WordPress website and a shopping cart for free from start to finish with steps skipped. The course explains how to pick the best web host, how to get a free domain name, and how to get the best possible price.
The Complete WooCommerce Tutorial for Beginners – Step by Step – 2022
In this ultimate WooCommerce tutorial, the creator will guide you through how to start an online store with WooCommerce in a step-by-step guide.
Woocommerce Tutorial A-Z | Complete WordPress eCommerce Website Tutorial 2022
A detailed tutorial that shows you all the steps needed to take in order to start an online store with WooCommerce. The tutorial covers everything you need from the very beginning – buying a domain name and hosting, installing a WordPress theme, setting up the WooCommerce plugin, and then, of course, creating and managing the actual eCommerce site.
#3 BigCommerce
Standard – $29.95/month
Plus – $79.95/month
Pro – $249.95/month
*15 days of a free trial.
*See what’s included in the plans.
Perfect for eCommerce businesses of all scopes, BigCommerce is one of the most popular platforms and a great solution for online stores. BigCommerce is full of features, which may save you a lot of money that you would otherwise spend on additional premium apps. Regardless of the many features, the platform is easy to use by beginners and the user experience is seamless.
The user-friendly visual editor that they provide will help you edit pre-made themes fast and easily without requiring any coding skills. Also, BigCommerce allows you to manage stores on other channels like Amazon, eBay, Facebook right from the platform. Let’s see the pros and cons.
✔️ BigCommerce Pros
- Perfectly suitable for big and small businesses. Easily adaptable as your store grows.
- Beginner-friendly interface with many features included.
- A library of free and paid templates + a visual editor to change colors, fonts, layouts easily.
- No transaction fees whatsoever with any plan you’ve chosen.
- Up to 600 product variants (huge diversity) and flexible product presentation.
- Powerful SEO capabilities and built-in marketing tools.
- BigCommerce also offers a plugin for WordPress.
❌BigCommerce Cons
- Automatic upgrades to a higher plan if your annual sales exceed the limit.
- The content editor is oriented towards product pages and offers limited options for content pages.
- A multi-language option is not included in the built-in features. You will have to hire a developer to help you out with that.
Want to start your online store with BigCommerce? Perfect. We’ve picked a few:
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BigCommerce Tutorial 2022 (Make an eCommerce Store The Easy Way)
This video is a step-by-step tutorial to show you how to make an eCommerce site in less than 1 hour. With this tutorial, you will know everything you need to know to get started and create a beautiful professional online store.
BigCommerce for WordPress Tutorials
As mentioned, BigCommerce is also available as a plugin for WordPress, introduced and released earlier this year. If this is your chosen way of launching an online store, the team of BigCommerce has published video series on the subject. Here is the first one.
#4 Wix
for Website
Free plan with Wix’s domain name.
Most Basic – $4.50/month
Combo – $8.50/month
Unlimited – $12.50/month
eCommerce – $16.50/month
VIP – $24.50/month
*See what’s included in the plans.
for Business & eCommerce
Basic – $17/month
Unlimited – $25/month
VIP – $35/month
Wix is a platform for small and medium eCommerce sites. It’s affordable and works best for simple stores, so if you don’t aim for something really big, Wix may be a wise choice for you to start an online store.
Wix is very easy to use and perfect for newbies. However, it doesn’t have a lot of built-in features that other platforms contain. In the Wix store, you will find over 280 additional plugins and extensions to add to your store if necessary.
Regarding the setup process, Wix offers you two ways to do it – via an automated assistant or via the Wix Editor. The first option is advisable for newbies, as the platform sets up your store by asking you questions. The latter allows you full control over customization but is still user-friendly – with a handy drag-and-drop editor. Let’s see the pros and cons of Wix.
✔️ Wix Pros
- Affordable and suitable for low budgets.
- Easy setup and simple interface.
- Perfect for small and medium online stores.
- A library of 100+ pre-made design templates, including a lot of free ones.
- High-performance speed.
- No additional transaction fees.
❌ Wix Cons
- Not very suitable for large eCommerce businesses.
- Poor SEO capabilities and a lack of marketing features.
- HTTPS security issues.
- Limited customization options for some features.
Chosen Wix for your online store? Cool. Here are a couple of video tutorials that will help you set up your brand new online business in no time.
Visit Website
TUTORIAL: How to Create a Wix Store Step-By-Step (How to Sell on Wix)
A step-by-step tutorial on how to build an online store with Wix. This useful video tutorial will help you get your store running as you watch and complete each step simultaneously. In the description below the video, you will find a breakdown of all steps, so you can skip steps if you are already familiar with them.
Wix Tutorial 2022: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
A complete video tutorial of how to build a successful eCommerce website with Wix. The tutorial’s content is broken down into 10 steps that will lead you through the process of creating an online store with Wix.
To wrap up,
Your future online store is on its way to being a reality! We hope we helped you make the right decision and choose the best eCommerce platform for your needs. We keep our fingers crossed that you go through the setup process easily and seamlessly. If you have any advice for the community, we’d love to see it in the comments below.
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