The surge of e-Commerce continues to break records worldwide. It is a trend that was already picking up the pace well before the pandemic. In fact, merchants that sold on the Wix platform specifically stated that they experienced a boost in revenue by as much as 114%, “year-over-year”, in 2020. This amounted to as much as $5.4 billion in online transactions.
There is no better time than now to set up an online store. It’s actually a lot easier than it ever has been to set up an e-Commerce business. You can begin selling your wares or services online by using an all-in-one platform, like Wix e-Commerce.
What Is Wix?
Wix is a popular website builder with an intuitive “drag and drop interface”. There is no need to know FTP or coding. The only thing you need to get Wix’s web hosting is your e-mail.
It has over 500 “designer-made store templates” to fit every e-Commerce store. All templates are customizable, enabling you to customize your checkout, product pages, cart, storefront, and your store member’s area.
With its free business tools like Wix Logo Maker and Business Name Generator, you can begin building your brand and your online presence.
You can offer as many as 50,000 products within your online store. You have the capability of managing your own inventory and even automating your taxes for every sale you make.
The Various Wix Plans And What You Get
Although Wix does have a Free Tier, what you will have to contend with are on-site ads. They appear on every page and even on the favicon in the URL. Here are more features that are automatically included in the Free Tier:
- An assigned URL
- Up to 500 MB of storage
- Up to 500 MB of bandwidth
- Free customer support
What is not included is the ability to take and process online payments or Google Analytics.
To unlock more of Wix’s premium features, without ads, and with e-Commerce capabilities, then you will need to upgrade to their paid accounts.
These can range from $16 per month for their Combo account (2GB of storage and 30 minutes of video hours) to the complete $45 per month VIP plan (100GB of storage, 5 video hours, Ad vouchers, professional logo, and priority support).
If you want to include e-Commerce capabilities on your site, you have the choice of their Business and e-Commerce plans that range from $27 to $59 per month.
Their last level includes their Enterprise Plans that provide you with a more personalized plan to develop and launch your store. They also offer one-on-one coaching for any challenges you may face on a project. Custom storage, custom billing solutions, and so much more are available with this plan, starting at $500 per month.
A Host Of E-Commerce Capabilities
The Store element includes a Shop page that offers a product gallery that is “prepopulated” with a display of sample products that you can easily replace with your own. However, to receive any payments, you will need an e-Commerce premium plan.
Wix also provides storefronts that are customizable storefronts as well as subscription and recurring payment options. With their product editing panel, you can group products according to collections as well as provide coupons.
Their credit card processing options include Square and Stripe and you can also cash via “snail-mail” and PayPal. You can even include both shipping and tax rules.
To market your wares, Wix has a mail-blast app called ShoutOut. It enables you to send up to 5,000 emails every month. Their third-party integrations for e-mail marketing include V.I. Plus, MPZMail, and CakeMail.
Another marketing service Wix makes available for your site is Ascend by Wix. It allows you to interact with your customers through forms, chats, price quotes, invoices, and trigger actions. It provides workflow organization resources. It also offers email marketing, social posting, SEO, and video tools.
It also has an Automations tool that sends reminders to customers about when invoices are due.
Launching A Store With Wix Is Easy
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the wealth of tools and features that Wix has to offer. You could just as easily launch your Wix website for free. However, if you want to launch and scale a business, you will need to consider opting for their paid tiers to fully benefit from all of their e-Commerce capabilities.
Depending on your goals with your website, you could choose the plan that is best for you and the needs of your business.