Store builders

A store builder is the platform your shop lives on. It hosts the pages, keeps the product list, runs the cart and checkout, and records orders. When people talk about starting an online store, this is usually the first real decision, because almost everything else you add later plugs into it.

The platforms here fall into a few groups. Shopify, BigCommerce and Big Cartel are built around selling first, with the website wrapped around the shop. Wix, Squarespace, Hostinger and GoDaddy are website builders where the store is one part of a wider site, which suits businesses that also need pages for services, bookings or a blog. WooCommerce turns a WordPress site into a store and leaves hosting and upkeep to you. Square Online and Ecwid connect a store to selling you already do elsewhere, in person or on another website.

Most of these platforms now include AI help during setup. Typical features draft a homepage from a few answers, write product descriptions from a product name and some notes, suggest a color scheme, or answer questions about settings. These save time on an empty store. They do not know your products, your customers or your policies, so treat their output as a first draft and check every product detail, size and claim before you publish.

For a first shop, the most useful question is what you will sell in the first few months and how many products that means. A maker with a dozen items needs something simple that looks good on phones. A shop with many sizes and colors per product needs strong variant and inventory settings. A cafe or market stall that already takes cards in person needs a store that shares its product list with the point of sale.

Next, look at the money side. Platforms charge a monthly plan, a payment processing fee per order, and sometimes an extra fee if you use an outside processor. Paid apps and themes add to that. Estimate a normal month of orders and work out the total, since a cheap plan with high fees can cost more than a pricier plan once orders pick up.