Ready to build an online store? This process isn’t as intimidating as it sounds. With numerous ecommerce website builders on the market, you can get set up in no time.
But where do you start? After spending over 300 hours testing and evaluating 12 leading ecommerce platforms during our March 2025 in-house research, we know how to get you started. Whether you need to sell a few products or have a large inventory to get through, this simple eight-step guide covers the ins and outs of creating an online store.
I’ve freshened up this article to reflect the ecommerce landscape in 2026. I’ve added more up-to-date information on social media, AI, and shipping, so you can sell online according to current best practices.
- Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace are the most beginner-friendly platforms to build an online store with.
- The majority of purchases are made on mobiles, so you should test that your site performs well on different devices.
- For the highest chance of purchase, use high-quality product photos and clear descriptions that include keywords.
- Offer multiple payment methods and shipping options at checkout to accommodate for buyer needs.
- If your builder has a native shipping solution, you may be able to get discounted carrier rates.
Video Guide
Short on time or prefer to listen? Our YouTube video covers all the key steps and considerations for setting up an online store:
1. Prepare Your Business
Don’t rush into things just yet. Setting up your online store takes careful planning, so look into these three key steps first:
- Register your business as a distinct legal entity by registering for a business license. Do your research to make sure you stay on the right side of the law.
- Find your niche by conducting market research. You need to work out your specialty and see what you can offer buyers that other stores can’t.
- Decide your branding: To give your store a cohesive and recognizable design, your brand identity should be present in every part of your site, from your color scheme to your logo.
2. Choose Your Ecommerce Builder
With three in five business owners stating that they’re being impacted by labor shortages (Bank of America report), ecommerce website builders are a useful tool to have in this turbulent economic climate.
These platforms make it quick and easy to set up a store even if you have limited staff, and they also come with built-in selling, shipping, marketing, and AI tools so you can complete multiple tasks from one dashboard.
Ecommerce platforms help you build an online store without any coding or tech experience. For beginners, we’d recommend Shopify, Wix, or Squarespace – our top three website builders. If you’re on a budget, then check out Hostinger, our fourth-rated platform and one of the cheaper builders on the market.
Use the table below to compare your options:
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Overall rating
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Starting Price
|
Free custom domain
|
AI website builder
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Transaction fees
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Payment gateways
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Recommended for
|
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
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Wix |
Shopify |
Squarespace |
Hostinger |
GoDaddy |
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|
4.8
|
4.8
|
4.7
|
4.2
|
4.0
|
||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
2.9% + $0.30 |
2.9% + $0.30 |
2% |
0% |
2.7% + $0.30 |
||||
|
80+ |
100+ |
6 |
100+ |
3 |
||||
|
Businesses promoting their online presence |
Businesses who want to easily scale their store as they grow |
Creatives and service-based businesses |
Beginners and budget-conscious businesses |
Businesses using socials to drive traffic |
The platform you choose depends on your unique needs. For instance:
- A fitness brand selling a high volume of gym wear would need a builder that can help them scale and comes with effective product management tools, like Shopify.
- An entrepreneur selling as a side-hustle may need Hostinger’s time-saving AI tools to make running your business easier.
➡️Check out our guide of the best beginner ecommerce platforms in case you’re looking for a user-friendly journey.
With the rise of AI-powered shopping tools like ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout, an increasing number of shoppers are using AI search engines to directly find and purchase products in 2026. If you’re able to get your products shown in AI-generated search results, your store could benefit from increased sales.For this reason, I recommend looking into Shopify’s “Agentic Storefronts” feature if you’ve decided to build a store with the platform. Introduced during Shopify’s Winter 26’ Edition product update, this feature puts your products directly in front of users on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot.
Buying Guide: How To Choose the Right Ecommerce Platform
Other aspects to consider when choosing an ecommerce platform include:
- Your expertise – If you’re new to ecommerce builders, look for strong help and support, speedy set-up times, integrated payment and shipping methods, and an intuitive interface with a drag-and-drop editor.
- Your budget – If you have limited funds, look for low-cost plans that come with the key features you need, free online store templates, free ecommerce extensions, and reduced transaction fees.
- Your time – If you need to set up quickly, look for pre-made templates, built-in sales tools, and speedy customer support response times.
- Your item quantity – If you have a large number of items to sell, look for a plan that lets you sell unlimited products, has ecommerce inventory tools that help you manage a high volume of items, and product categories and filters.
For more top tips on how to choose the right ecommerce platform for you, refer to our video below:
Which Pricing Plan Is Best for Me?
The right pricing plan depends on what features you need. If you need more features, then you’ll have to upgrade to a more expensive plan.
We’ve looked at our four top-rated ecommerce platforms to give you an idea of how much you’ll be paying.
- Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace have a number of plans to choose from.
- Hostinger keeps it simple with just one ecommerce plan.
Your chosen builder needs to align with your current budget and leave room for your long-term growth plans, so examine each plan carefully before you make your final decision.
Refer to the table below to see what these four ecommerce platforms offer on the least expensive and most expensive plans:
| Wix pricing | Shopify pricing | Squarespace pricing | Hostinger pricing | |
| Cheapest ecommerce plan | Core plan at $29/mo (billed annually). | Basic plan at $29/mo (billed annually). | Basic plan at $16/mo (billed annually). | Business Website Builder plan at $3.99/mo (for a 48-month term). |
| Key features on cheapest plan | • Up to 50,000 products • Social media and marketplace selling • 5 website collaborators • 50 GB of storage • Customer accounts • POS • Abandoned cart recovery • Automatic discounts | • Unlimited products • Shipping courier discounts of up to 77% • 10 inventory locations • Automatically localize your store in 3 markets • POS | • Unlimited products • Checkout on domain • Customer accounts • Abandoned cart recovery • Invoices | • Sell up to 500 products • 100+ payment methods • 0% transaction fees • Inventory management • AI generated product pages • Customizable checkout options • Appointments and bookings |
| Most expensive ecommerce plan | Business Elite plan at $159/mo (billed annually). | Advanced plan at $299/mo (billed annually). | Advanced plan at $99/mo (billed annually). | N/A (Single ecommerce plan; see above) |
| Key features on most expensive plan | • 100 website collaborators • Unlimited storage • Data-driven reports • Automated sales tax on 500 transactions/ month • Advanced shipping options | • 15 additional staff accounts • Shipping courier discounts of up to 88% • Custom analytics • 10x larger checkout capacity | • Unlimited video storage • Low processing fees | N/A (Single ecommerce plan; see above) |
Can I Set Up an Online Store for Free?
Yes, there are free ecommerce platforms out there, but we wouldn’t recommend them in the long-term. Our research highlights Square Online as the best option, since it lets you set up and sell at no additional cost.
Square Online’s free ecommerce plan does, however, come with limitations. Most notably, you’ll have:
- Website ads
- A Square domain (e.g. www.onlinestore.square.site)
We don’t recommend this plan if you want to look professional online. It’s worth paying more for better control over your online store’s appearance.
Which Additional Costs Should I Look Out For?
When you build an online store, you may come across additional costs. These include paid templates, paid apps, and add-ons like email marketing plans.
Your total costs will depend on what features your website needs. For instance, if Wix doesn’t have a specific checkout tool, you may need to purchase an app to add this function to your store.
You will also come across processing fees for payments. If a user purchases an item through a bank like Visa, there’s a small processing fee per transaction – keep this in mind!
3. Get a Domain
A domain is the unique URL internet users search for to access your website.
Most website builders, such as Squarespace, include a free domain for your first year. However, you’ll be charged when your domain is renewed, with a price ranging from $20-$70 per year (billed annually).
For more options, you can also purchase a domain name from a domain name registrar. With Domain.com, for instance, a “.com” domain is only $11.99 for your first year, while a “.store” domain is $1.99 for your first year and rises to $79.99 per year after renewal.
How Do I Create a Strong Domain?
A strong domain name is easy to remember. Here’s a famous example, with the domain in bold:
https://www.ebay.com
eBay, the famous auction site, has an instantly memorable domain name. Though your business won’t be as well known, you can still ensure your domain stands out with a catchy name.
As well as being memorable, your domain name should be easy to find. This means keeping it short, snappy, and simple. To reduce the chances of your domain name being misspelt, it’s best practice to avoid:
- Hyphens
- Numbers
- Double letters
What if I Already Have a Domain?
If you already have a third-party domain name, you need to transfer it to the ecommerce builder you’re creating your online store with.
Most website builders have a dedicated domains tab in your settings, but we recommend referring to each platform’s help center for detailed information about transferring.
4. Pick Your Ecommerce Template
The power of web design shouldn’t be underestimated – it forms 94% of users’ first impressions. So, to make sure you impress, you need to wow them with a professional ecommerce template.
Thankfully, most website builders, like Wix and Shopify, offer beautiful free and paid templates for online stores. Here’s what to look for when choosing your design:
- A user-friendly navigation bar is key – your main category pages should be logically organized, making it easy for users to find what they’re looking for.
- Website search bars can help shoppers find the items they need.
- Footers with useful information – this could include a “Contact Us” page, an “About Us” page, social media icons, and customer support links.
- Product reviews for customers to share their experiences – they’re also social proof that you’re a real brand selling legitimate products.
- Newsletter sign up form for building email lists – you could send email marketing campaigns to users, showcasing the latest products and company news.
Once you’ve picked out a template, it’s time to customize your store and ensure that your design suits the unique branding of your business.
Most website builders have design tools you can tweak your design with. Aspects to change include your website’s color palette, font and text size, sections, embedded social media links, photos, and videos.
Here are a few pointers to make sure your website design is as professional as possible:
- Use high-quality photos and videos to keep your website professional. Avoid blurriness, cluttered backgrounds, and inconsistent lighting.
- Optimize your site speed by using free online compressing tools to reduce the file size of your images. This makes them smaller without impacting the quality.
- Use a mobile-friendly design: During Cyber Week 2025, mobile was the preferred transaction channel and took up 57.5% of online sales. Website builders like Wix will let you tweak your mobile design from the editor.
5. Upload Your Products
Before you upload your products, double-check the plan that you’re on. Your chosen builder and plan must cater to your store’s specific needs. Features to look for include:
- How many products you can sell: Look for a plan that reflects how many items you’re selling (e.g. Wix lets you sell up to 50,000 products on the Core plan and above).
- Shipping integrations: Ecommerce builders often come with built-in shipping integrations or apps that can speed up order fulfilment, helping you save labor costs and time. (e.g. Hostinger’s built-in Printful integration that enables you to sell products via print-on-demand).
Now that’s sorted, it’s time to start building your inventory. You need to consider these key points when uploading your products:
- Pricing
- An enticing product name that accurately describes what the item is
- A clear product description including all of the key details buyers need to know
- High-quality photos
- The category page that items fit into so users can easily find the product on your website
- Your product’s variants like size, color, or price differences
- Weight (if it’s a physical item)
When uploading products, you also need to consider your SEO strategy (Search Engine Optimization). Include targeted keywords in your copy to ensure you’re visible on Google search.
A fitness brand selling sports apparel might include keywords like “gym clothes” or “workout clothes” in its product titles and descriptions. If you find keyword research difficult, think about what customers are searching for when looking for your product on Google.
Last of all, it’s important to consider visual searches. This is when a shopper makes a search using an image instead of a traditional, text-based query. For example, Google Lens enables users to search with an image and receive a list of related images in return. Your products could be found in these results!
To optimize your website for Google Lens and other kinds of visual searches. Make sure that your product imagery is eye-catching enough to stand out in a sea of images. Also, don’t forget to write alternative text that accurately describes what your photos are portraying (descriptive words are key!).
6. Set Up Payment Options
To encourage more sales, speedy and convenient checkouts are key. Your store should offer multiple payment options and make it easy for your customers to buy your products.
Payment gateways are the most common payment method online. This is when a bank like Visa, American Express, or Mastercard is integrated with your online store. When a customer buys an item, they may enter their card details into a payment gateway’s embedded checkout, or be redirected to its website.
Most website builders support the most popular payment gateways, such as Stripe and PayPal. But if you’re looking to go above and beyond, our testing found BigCommerce to offer the largest variety of payment gateways. The more options you give your customers at checkout, the more likely they are to convert.
Another common way to accept payments online is through digital wallets. This is one of the easiest ways to pay, and these wallets also come with built-in security features, so we recommend adding the ability to accept them to your online store. Similarly to payment gateways, many website builders allow you to integrate digital wallet payments with your online store.
In 2026, it’s common for shoppers to use social checkouts to purchase products from their favorite brands. By creating business accounts on platforms like TikTok and Instagram and uploading your product catalog, you can start selling to your audience directly from these platforms.
This is a convenient payment method for shoppers, since it enables them to make purchases without having to leave the platform they’re currently browsing.
What About All-in-One Payment Solutions?
If managing multiple payment gateways sounds stressful, some website builders have an all-in-one solution.
Shopify and Squarespace both have payment management tools with which you can accept all payments in one place, automatically integrating popular payment methods with your store. Here are the key differences between the two:
How Do I Keep My Payments Secure?
To keep online transactions secure, make sure the website builder you choose has an SSL certificate, two-step verification, secure customer login areas, and provides fraud detection. To ensure that your data (and that of your customers) is kept safe, read our website security checklist for further information.
Are There Any Fees for Using Online Payments?
With online payments, you’ll come across transaction fees and processing fees.
You can sometimes avoid transaction fees on certain website builder plans. For instance, you can avoid Squarespace’s 2% transaction fee if you upgrade to the Core, Plus, or Advanced plan. Some platforms, such as Wix and Hostinger, don’t charge transaction fees on any plan.
Processing fees for online payments are unavoidable. These are the small fee payment gateways, like Visa, charge for handling the transaction. As an example, Squarespace Payments takes out 2.9% + 0.30¢ per transaction.
7. Set Up Shipping
After sorting out your payments, you need to consider how to ship your products to customers. With fast, reliable shipping being the norm (like same-day delivery), being able to ship your goods quickly and efficiently is a non-negotiable.
Here are two steps you need to take beforehand:
- Establish your shipping origin address – This address must include where you’re shipping your products from. Make sure it’s up to date to ensure that all shipping rates and taxes are correct.
- Decide where you’re shipping to – You need to work out which countries and regions (zones) you’re shipping to. Different locations will alter the shipping costs of each delivery, so make sure you work out a rough estimate for each location first.
You can pick out which couriers you’d like to use. The most popular couriers are USPS, FedEx, and DHL Express, which are options that most website builders offer.
For convenience, Shopify Shipping includes USPS, UPS, DHL Express, and FedEx by Shippo. You can also access shipping label discounts and see real-time rates.
To anticipate your buyers’ delivery needs, remember to give them as much choice at checkout as possible. For instance, a visitor may want to pay extra for express shipping so their parcel arrives within 1-2 days instead of 5-10 days.
What Shipping Options Should I Offer My Customers?
To entice customers to buy your goods, you should at least provide standard and express delivery options. On top of this, you can offer special shipping options to sweeten the deal, such as:
- Free shipping on all orders or you could offer free shipping if a customer spends over a certain amount (e.g. free shipping for all orders over $80)
- Flat rate shipping no matter the order – as an example, you could offer “$5 shipping for all orders” if the parcel is being delivered to a specific state
- Buy online, pickup in-store so customers can order online and pick up their parcel in person – ideal if you have a brick-and-mortar store (you could also set up local-pick up at designated collection spots if you don’t have a physical store).
8. Publish Your Online Store
Wait a moment before you hit publish — there are a few things to double-check before you share your store with the world:
- What languages does your store support? If you’re selling to customers abroad, you should enable different languages. Some website builders, like Wix, support a range of languages.
- Is your checkout working? Test your ecommerce checkout pages before you go live. Make sure that payment methods and discounts work, the right shipping methods are available, and that all pricing is correct.
- Does your store look good on desktop, mobile, and different browsers? Users will access your website in different ways, so make sure your website looks great on all devices. Key browsers to check include Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, and Edge.
- Are your settings correct? Important settings include your currency, time zones, and contact details like your address, phone number, and email.
Remember, you must test out your online store before you go live to your customers. Look out for key errors (like typos and low-quality photos) and ensure your store looks professional to users.
Next Steps: Market Your Online Store
When your online store is live, you’ll need to focus on attracting customers. Here’s four different ways that you can do so, and in turn increase your online sales:
- Optimize your site: There are so many benefits of SEO for ecommerce, so it’s vital to keep SEO in mind with every new piece of on-page content you publish after your site is live.
- Build a social media presence: Use platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Social media platforms can grow your business much faster than word of mouth.
- Sync your products on socials: If you want to sell from additional touchpoints, you could also sync your store with platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Some website Builders like Shopify have built-in tools and apps that enable you to do this.
- Utilize your email list: With a powerful email marketing strategy you can share updates, new products, and promotions directly with customers.
- Localize your marketing: Promote your business locally with social media location tagging and partnering with local influencers and businesses.
How We Test Ecommerce Builders
All of our recommendations are driven by data, not hunches. Our in-house research team put each ecommerce builder through a rigorous testing process which draws out their strengths and weaknesses.
The research includes over 300 hours of data collection, split across seven key testing categories. These categories are based on what users are looking for in an ecommerce platform, and are weighted by their overall importance:
- Sales Features: 30%
- Website Functionality: 15%
- Help and Support: 15%
- Design Features: 15%
- User Experience: 10%
- Pricing: 10%
- Reputation: 5%
Thanks to our small business surveys and market research, we know the criteria you value the most, and made sure this article covers these factors. Whether you need great design options or a plan that’s great value for money, we’ll point you in the right direction.
Building Online Stores Summary
Thanks to these eight steps, you know how to set up an online store!
If there’s one thing you take away from this process, it’s this: put your website visitors at the center of everything you do. Whether you’re adding a range of shipping options to choose from or organizing your product categories, make sure buyers can access everything they need, from purchase to delivery.
Ready to pick your website builder? Read our guide to the best ecommerce builders and get set up today.
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