Building an Ecommerce site on Wix (How easy is it?)

Rating: 3 star difficulty level.

Let's start by saying, building an Ecommerce website on Wix is probably the best way for big and small businesses to get an online store online fast. Wix is an incredible website builder that is

1. easy to learn

2. extremely functional

3. makes updating an online store really easy and scalable

So, if it's so easy and great why doesn't everyone do it? Well that's where you have to look at what building an online store actually entails...

To build an online store you need:

1. a GREAT product, that people want and has a good profit margin

2. an awesome brand that people can understand, identify with and stay loyal to

3. awesome photography of your products

4. great reviews of your products

5. a marketing platform like social media or some other way to drive traffic

6. a marketing strategy and the content (pictures or videos etc.) to execute the strategy

7. an extremely user friendly and professional looking websites, as "amateur-looking sites" are the number one cause for a person not trusting a website

8. a registered business with a business bank account (this is so you can collect money)

9. an account with a payment gateway provider (this is more difficult in stricter countries)

10. a fulfilment strategy. - this is how you deliver your products to the people that buy them

That is a short but very important list of things you absolutely NEED before you even build a website. Once you have all of that, building a professional looking site, that is user friendly and functional are only two of your challenges. So being good at Wix doesn't mean you will have a successful online store. Being good at Wix is the easy part of owning an online business.

At Marshall Arts, we build stores for clients all the time. We provide a number of services that take care of all of those needs above. That's why people hire out agencies to build their online businesses all the time. Perfectly normal people with little to none of above "needs" taken care of, outsource their online business and make good money doing so. In a lot of ways, it is kind of like Ghost Writing a novel... Writing a novel is "easy enough" so long as you can speak and write... But there is so much more to a good novel than just the author's ability to craft a sentence. This is what website building agencies understand and it is the main reason to work with them.

What is awesome about Wix, is that even after the agency has built your site, it is easy enough for someone with absolutely ZERO website experience to take over and manage on their own.

Building a site with Wix from scratch, if you have zero website experience, will take you a little while but it is 100% possible and if you have all of the above needs taken care of and all that is missing is your site, then I seriously recommend you start building it right now.

But... if you only have a great product and you need everything else on that list, I seriously recommend working with agencies to outsource those jobs. You'd be surprised how little it can actually cost.

(View agency rates)

Of course if you decide to just go it alone and build yourself a Wix site then I do recommend checking out YouTube for step by step details on how to do that. There is a channel called the Wix Training Academy and they have over 483 videos about how to do things on Wix. So whether you are stuck with a small problem or need to know how to build a website from scratch, their channel is bound to have something relevant for you.

The above video link is a whole playlist created by the Wix Training Academy and it is the ultimate guide to creating an Ecommerce website on Wix. I highly recommend you check that out.

If you decide that you want to speak to us about building your Ecommerce site, managing your product photos, social media strategies, content and more - then why not book a call with us. It is totally free and comes with no obligations. We can just have a chat about what your business needs and then we'll send you a quote.

Book a call with Marshall Arts

Why I chose Wix - 3 years later

My name is Michael Marshall and I build Wix Websites. I have built sites for Disney, Coca-Cola, Suzuki and over 100 mentionable brands and I have done all of that in the last three years and all of it has been using Wix.

Most people are shocked at that point. They usually don't believe me when I show them a virtual art gallery that I made, like this one (click the link to visit the gallery shown in the image below)

Absa Art Hot Spot - Virtual Gallery Experience

I have built everything from Video on Demand sites to Ecommerce stores that make thousands per month and I have to say, Wix has performed exceptionally well on all my projects.

So I made the right choice, but I made that choice 3 years ago and I wondered if my reasons for choosing Wix would be different if I were to be just starting out now.

Why I chose Wix three years ago:

1. Hosting. Unlimited bandwidth and video storage space are an amazing offering. Yes, everyone offers unlimited hosting, but it was vital to me that Wix offered these two services.

2. Impeccable website security. Every heard of someone hacking a wix Website... ? Go on, Google it. I'll wait for you in the comments. In the meantime, I'll tell you that when I googled WordPress hacks three years ago, the results were frightening. So unlimited bandwidth and video storage with great security and I was ready to offer my clients something unique.

3. Ability to use code and embed iFrames. These should maybe be two separate points - and I should also talk about API's but I'm just going to boil it all down and say that being able to do some coding was super important as I knew I would need inevitably need some feature that Wix doesn't provide. With the the ability to use external API's, a bit of JavaScript and a lot of iFrames, I know I can do anything.

4. Analytics - I knew Wix offered analytics and that is hugely important tool in my business.

5. Wix was built by designers for designers. At least that is how it feels. Because I have worked in Photoshop, Canva, Mobirise, illustrator, and Final Cut Pro, learning Wix was actually super easy because it feel intuitive for a designer. The templates are also beautiful and the whole platform feels easy to use, quick to navigate and enables me to design what I want.

6. Everything above was included in one simple price that was easy to understand. I am an Apple user all round. I have the Watch, Phone, Air Pods and Macbook. Wix feels like Apple sometimes. Everything works and it is all from one supplier. Yes, I learned all about the Wix App Market and that is a great place, but for me it was really important that everything I needed my website to do was catered for in one price and that price was going to Wix. In contrast, on Wordpress I must pay a million different app providers for each and every app that i want on my site. I must have a Woo commerce account and Yoast SEO account and that all felt cumbersome and annoying. Wix took care of all the essential features I needed.

So, would my list be any different if I had to chose Wix now. My website builder priorities now would be:

1. Can it build responsive sites?

2. Does it have features that allow me to edit and write code?

3. Is it user friendly and can I "design" what I want?

4. Is it a well priced, all in one package?

5. Does it have good analytics?

6. Unlimited Hosting and storage

Honestly, my needs haven't changed much. These are still THE most important things. Wix does them all. Webflow, Wordpress, Squarespace, Google Sites just cant do everything on that list. Wix is still the only platform that delivers all of the above. So for me it is a no brainer, I am choosing Wix for next 3 years at least and I'll update this blog and let you know if anything changes.

Hire a developer: Marshall Arts

Out of this world web development. Click here to view our portfolio.

Marshall Arts builds websites, apps and digital content for marketing and brand realisation. Our rates are super affordable and working with us is easy. If you are looking for someone to build your website, you should definitely click the button at the top of this page and book a call.

We build websites using a platform called Wix. You've probably heard of it before. Wix is an incredible website building solution that allows us to build any kind of website be it an Ecommerce site, a portfolio website, blog, livestream event site, VOD website or otherwise. Wix is versatile enough to achieve all of the above with ease. Wix also allows developers to use their coding language, called Velo, to do even more complex tasks allowing Wix to truly build any kind of website.

Wix is also amazing because they provide free web hosting and take care of all the website security once you pay for their "premium" subscription. Because Wix is a multi national, mulit billion dollar company they have a lot of resources dedicated to making sure their entire infrastructure is secure. With a Wix website you have the autonomy of building a custom site with the security infrastructure of a billion dollar company. That's one of the best reasons to use them. But that is not all... Wix is always up and always fast, reliable and efficient. Wix is also constantly being updated and improved with useful new features.

So enough about Wix, let's talk about hiring a developer. Is someone who builds Wix websites a "developer". No, not in the traditional sense. But do developers use Wix to get rapid website development off the ground, yes - absolutely.

Building a website on Wix is the difference between two weeks and two months of development in most cases. It makes the entire process cheaper and more efficient for the client and the developer. Paying someone to code an HTML website for something like an online store is a waste of time, money and energy and the project will likely fail because it is not a cost effective was to run an online business - especially if volume of trade is low.

So hiring a developer to build you an ecommerce site on Wix is the right idea because if you cant afford to pay the developer you can literally step in and within a couple of hours be able to take over the development of your site yourself - it really is that easy.

Once you have decided to hire a developer there are some things you should know:

1. It helps tremendously when you know what you want to do. Do your research. Learn about what type of site you want to build and how you want it to work. Know what your goal is with the website. The more clearly you can express your goal, the greater the chance of the developer being able to achieve it.

2. Get your branding ready before you build your website. A website is Two things: UI and UX. Your branding forms most of the UI elements of your site. Having a logo, pictures and the brand voice written in clear website copy is half the battle won. At Marshall we help our clients develop this material. Once this is in place the website building begins.

3. Have a realistic and solid marketing plan for your website. Nothing hurts more than building a site that gets neglected after is built. Make sure you are ready to create Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts. You will also need other accounts like Google My Business and Marketing integrations like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. A website doesn't "need" all of these things but they are among some of the essentials if you want your website to be findable across the web.

4. Know your budget and work with your developer to create a staged approach rather than an all-in push to get everything done at once. The internet rewards businesses that are in it for the long haul. Building a website that gets neglected is pointless because Google can tell when a website is not being updated. Facebook knows when a page is not being interactive with its audience. Have a staged approach to your development strategy to you can update regularly and stay on Google's watchlist.

5. Be prepared to put in the work. A website owner is not a job without hard work. You have to be prepared to put in the time to make sure your website provides the experience that it says it does, in a way that makes every single customer feel amazing. Be prepared for the work it takes to do that.

If you are ready to hire a developer, why not book a call with us by the clicking the link at the top of this page.

Want to know why Marshall Arts is considered one of the best developer agencies in the world, click here.

Feel like you want to build a site yourself? Check this out, it really is easy!