There are many alternatives available when it comes to how to build an online store, but deciding the best online store builders for your business in Canada can be very difficult. It is also a crucial first step in setting up an online store, giving you a chance to pick the best for your business.
Your website serves as your online storefront for potential clients and customers to view your value proposition.
Today, using an online store builder is the quickest and easiest way to create a website for your business.
What is an online store builder?
Online store builders are essentially integrated platforms that can design, develop, and host your website. They make it simple for anyone to create a website that looks professional without needing to learn how to code or other technical skills.
Online store builders provide a variety of appealing, pre-made design templates with simple drag-and-drop functionality to quickly develop personalized sites for your store in Canada.
Some online store builders also provide users with the opportunity to delegate design duties to artificial intelligence. They additionally offer specialized 24-7 customer assistance to help you out when you get stuck.
Basically, a comprehensive platform allows customers to do product searches, add items to shopping carts to manage their orders, and use debit and credit cards to make payments.
You will need a solid eCommerce Platform to get going if you want to launch an online store. With dozens of online store builders in Canada, we analyze the highest ranking of them.
How much do online store builders cost in Canada?
The majority of online store builders in Canada provide inexpensive monthly basic plans with prices ranging from free to $35 per month. Yes, you heard me right. You can now open your online store in Canada for free.
Some of them also provide free versions to create a simple website or free trials to try out the builder before upgrading to the subscription plan for more sophisticated design options when you’re ready.
Online store builders are a good value for a business that hasn’t yet generated enough revenue. This is in comparison to hiring a professional web designer, who will charge you between $2000 and $5000 or more depending on the number of pages your site has. An online store builder will let you launch a fully functional website for your business in Canada, in less than a day for just a few dollars.
Criteria for determining the best online store builders in Canada
Some website platforms have functions designed exclusively for e-commerce sales. You can use them to sell physical objects that ship, digital products that download, online and offline services, and even pre-book appointments to sell classes online.
However, some online store builders in Canada are better suited for particular company models and price ranges than others. This article examines the best online store builders and focuses on their pricing, best qualities, and suitability for different business requirements in Canada.
Let’s discuss how to examine the many online store builders on the market in light of your business’s specific objectives.
1. E-commerce
This is the most basic capability of running an online store. You need a website builder with e-commerce features like a secure checkout, inventory and order management, tax, shipping, and discount controls if you want to run an online store on your website.
Additionally, you want the website builder to be mobile-friendly and not impose restrictions on your available stock. One of the best online store builders on the market is Olitt and shopify.
2. Value for money
As a business person, you are trying to make money, hence you know how valuable each coin is to your venture.
Earlier in this article, we highlighted how website builders cost less to use than expert designers. Nevertheless, some website builders are more cost-effective than others. Look for packages that include things like web hosting and domain registration.
Verify the price to see whether photos are included. WordPress is open source and free to use, but in order to install it, you’ll need your own domain name and web hosting. Olitt will ensure every coin is worth the investment, especially with the free basic plan.
3. Ease of use
The majority of online store builders don’t require coding or design knowledge, however, some will be simpler to use than others.
Pick a website editor that offers drag-and-drop website design, ready-to-use theme templates, and an easy-to-use editing interface. The easiest drag-and-drop websites on the market include Olitt, Wix, and Weebly.
4. Search engine optimization
A fully functional website is a good place to start, but in order to increase your online visibility and be noticed by your target audience, your site must rank well in search engine results.
In order to improve your SEO, look for online store builders that have features like quick loading times, mobile-friendly designs, and Google indexing so that you can appear in search results.
You will also need default meta tags so that search engines can understand what your site is about, sitemaps so that they can find and crawl your pages, secure hosting, and more.
Weebly, Wix, and Olitt are highly renowned for their SEO management. To develop your online store, you can also take into account GoDaddy.
5. Mobile-friendly
Most people nowadays use their mobile phones for almost all their online activities, including shopping. If your website doesn’t function well on a mobile device, a significant portion of your prospective client traffic will leave.
Your online store builder’s design templates should be responsive, which means they should restructure the website for viewing on mobile devices. A few websites using responsive themes are Olitt, Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, and Weebly.
6. Online store transfer
You must back up your website data and make sure the new site builder offers an import feature if you decide you no longer love your website builder and want to switch to another one. Before selecting a website builder, examine your long-term goals.
WordPress makes it simple to download and move all of your web data when moving your site to a new server. In contrast, Wix hosts all of your material on their servers and does not permit exporting to different providers.
7. Support various content formats
Depending on the nature of your business, your website may require elements like a photo gallery, video background, audio player, animation, map, contact forms, and testimonials, among others.
The required content format should be supported by your online store builder. Wix offers a wide range of capabilities and a wide selection of apps.
8. Design flexibility
If you want a fully customized website, use a builder with a wide range of editing capabilities to alter the provided theme templates. Squarespace is a popular choice if you want a design and image-focused website, for example, for a photography business, restaurants, or shops, among other types of businesses. The drag-and-drop option is a preferred pick for creatives who desire more freedom.
9. Personalized Business Email
Once you have a domain for your own website, you may increase your professional reputation by incorporating your domain name in your business email address. For example, [email protected]. This service is provided by most online store builders in Canada.
10. Resources and customer support
Although website builders are often user-friendly for beginners, having tutorials that show you how to use their features and work through any technical issues is useful. Most online store builders in Canada provide a help desk you may contact via phone or email if something goes wrong.
Let’s discuss the features of the best online store builders in Canada.
Best online store builders in Canada
#1. Olitt
Utilizing Olitt to create your online store is one of the best decisions you can make since it gives you access to a stunning, and contemporary user experience that makes it simple for clients to browse your products and make purchases.
Additionally, all of Olitt’s templates are responsive in nature, which means they change themselves based on the device being used to view them.
Another benefit of utilizing Olitt is that it smoothly integrates with various third-party programs, such as Google Analytics, MailChimp, and QuickBooks, making it simpler for you to manage multiple facets of your business from a single central spot.
Olitt has two plans, a free plan and a pro plan of CAD 41.47 per year.
#2. Shopify
Shopify is your one-stop shop if you want to create an online store. It is the most used eCommerce platform, and for good reason. It provides all the tools you require to launch a prosperous online store.
Shopify has beautiful themes that are made especially for online stores. They provide a ton of tools and integrations to help your store succeed. Additionally, Shopify provides a 14-day free trial so that users can test the software before signing up.
There are three pricing categories on Shopify. You have the option of subscribing to the $29/monthly basic plan, the $79/month Shopify plan, or the $299/monthly advanced plan.
#3. Wix
If you want total control over the creation process of your online store, Wix is your best option. It offers basic drag-and-drop facilities for making websites user-friendly.
It also includes a wide variety of themes, including eCommerce apparel themes that can be customized to meet your store’s requirements. There are more than 800 templates included as well, but once your website is online, you cannot modify the layouts.
Although Wix offers a free plan, you may upgrade to the combo plan for $23 or $16 per month when paid annually. For a one-time annual subscription fee of $22, they also offer an unlimited plan.
Additionally, you need select one of the $27 or $34 per month business subscriptions if you want access to all the services.
#4. Strikingly
Strikingly is the perfect beginner-friendly website builder for designers with limited experience in website design and development. The builder specializes in producing one-page websites without any prior programming experience.
It is perfect for small businesses with a penchant for building landing pages because of this functionality. These landing pages could be used to showcase an online store with a maximum of 500 products, advertise blogs, or accept registrations for events.
One-page websites are best since users can access and utilize them on smartphones and other mobile devices. Due to its accessibility, it makes a client’s mobile experience better.
If you’re on a tight budget, Strikingly has a free plan you can use. You can, however, upgrade and pick from its three premium plans: the basic plan, which costs $8, the Pro plan, at $16, and the VIP plan, costing $49 per month.
#5. Weebly
Another popular drag-and-drop online store builder is Weebly, allowing you to arrange elements however you like on each page.
It is a fantastic value for money since it offers reasonable price plans, a ton of apps to help you expand your business, and powerful SEO capabilities to help your website rank higher on search engine results pages.
Weebly is quite affordable and can support the online expansion of your business. It has a fantastic pricing structure for anyone interested. Users have the option of subscribing for free or as little as $12 a month.
#6. Zyro
If you have a tight budget, Zyro is perfect. Despite having clear templates and an easy-to-use interface, it lacks the features necessary to compete with other online store builders in Canada.
For this reason, it is the best website builder if you want a straightforward website without search, commenting, and archive capabilities.
Zyro, however, appreciates quality and has a good UX feature for all of your visitors that you can easily modify. You should also keep an eye out for upgrades because Zyro continues to add new features to suit consumer demand.
Furthermore, their prices are reasonable. The monthly costs for the website are $11.99, the business is $14.99, and the advanced shop is $39.99. Currently, they have a 75% off. Quite a deal if you are interested!
#7. Squarespace
If you’re launching a new online business, Squarespace is a good choice. It offers numerous eCommerce features that are suitable for your online store.
Squarespace’s template designs, however, are one feature that sets it apart. If you want to build a unique website that gives customers a flawless depiction of your products and services, these designs are perfect.
If you want to develop a unique store at a cost you can afford, Squarespace is also for you. There are four categories that make up their price breakdown.
You must pay a monthly fee of $27 for the Online Store (Basic) plan and $49 for the advanced plan.
#8. Godaddy
GoDaddy is a good option for businesses in general. It is user-friendly because of its ADI feature, and it recently enhanced its design functionality by providing more streamlined templates and customization options. Additionally, it provides the simplest and fastest website creation process.
The ADI function compromises originality for speed, so while your store will be generated quickly, it can end up looking generic because these sites are exact replicas of one another.
GoDaddy’s SEO Wiz, is particularly impressive, which supports website optimization so that it would rank higher in search engine results. Overall, GoDaddy is a trustworthy company.
Regular costs begin at $7.99 per month. The shared pricing plans offered by GoDaddy cost between $1.99 and $12.99 per month.
They provide four premium options in addition to their free one, with monthly prices ranging from $6.99 to $29.99 if you pay yearly. They have a 50% off if you are interested now.
#9. WordPress
WordPress.com is a cutting-edge content management system suitable for both professional developers and bloggers. Customers may select the websites of their choice across all industries thanks to their adaptability.
Consider wordpress.com for your endeavor, for instance, if you plan to start a lifestyle blog on cosmetics, makeup, and clothing styling. This is due to the website’s useful features, which include the search function, analytics, display categories, and social bookmarking to make your website adaptable.
Given that it necessitates having a foundational understanding of coding and programming, WordPress.com may not be simple to learn and use.
For those interested in using WordPress.com, there is a free plan available. You can upgrade to the premium plans, which range from $4 to $45, use host sites, or buy a domain that you pay for annually.
#10. HostGator
Gator builder automatically creates your site with a layout and style that are tailored to your industry. Additionally, rather than taking hours to get going, you’ll be up and running in a matter of minutes.
There is a group of HostGator experts who are willing to assist you and support your website as well. Whether you’re a novice or a pro, HostGator will have your back.
HostGator offers shared hosting plans starting at $2.75 per month, in addition to VPS, WordPress, cloud, reseller, and dedicated hosting plans. The most expensive hosting is dedicated hosting, with monthly prices starting at $89.98.
Conclusion
The advantage of using website builders to establish an online store in Canada is that they are super simple to use. Without the trouble of learning how to code, it is a quick method to build a website. The cost of a few dollars will be all that is required to launch your online business.