Most people know Wix as a website builder. In fact, we were quite impressed by the site builder’s visual strengths and ability to create professional-looking websites.

Now, imagine you could sell your t-shirts, custom-made furniture, digital products like music and ebooks, or even subscription boxes, directly through your website. Wouldn’t that be handy?

On top of that, with Wix, you can sell products on Facebook and Instagram and on marketplaces like Amazon or eBay. Or do dropshipping if you're not going to produce the products yourself.

But is it also a sensible choice for you? Let's see how Wix Store Builder works, and for what type of ecommerce business it makes sense.

How do I open a Wix online store?

The best way to try Wix Stores out is with the free plan. It doesn’t cost a penny, and even better, you don’t have to install any software on your computer. Everything runs directly in your browser, so you don’t need any technical skills. Whether you are a beginner or tech-savvy user: it doesn’t matter! Wix is meant for small to mid-sized stores.

Keep in mind that with the Wix free version, you won't be able to sell online. However, it does let you play around with the store settings so you can give it a go and try its system out.

You can either choose a free template and customize it yourself with the Wix drag-and-drop editor, or build your site with its AI Website Builder. This AI feature allows you to answer a few questions about your business type and design preferences. It builds the site for you in minutes, with placeholder images and content included.

It's now also possible to sell via Facebook and Instagram. Once connected, your visitors can tap your photos to purchase the item in your Wix store. Other sales channels that you can connect to include eBay and Amazon.com (plus a whole lot more if you use the Multiorders app).

Next, jump to the store settings to check out your tax and shipping rates. There you decide who can order your articles. If you are a merchant from the US, you might even offer real-time shipping rates. Thanks to the free Avalara app you can get automatic sales tax and VAT calculations - (almost) worldwide!

Wix's ecommerce provides three payment options for your customers: credit card, PayPal, and offline payments like cash or money transfer. They don’t charge any additional transaction fees like other online store builders sometimes do. To see if everything works correctly, you can go ahead and can a test purchase.

Wix App Market: the sky’s the limit!

If you’re looking for a feature that you can’t find in the editor, you should check out Wix’s App Market. There you will find apps to enhance your ecommerce store with useful features like live chat, a telephone call button, or the ability to connect the shop with an external accounting and invoicing solution. (Note that you can also use Wix’s invoicing solution, Wix Invoices, to automatically create invoices whenever an order is made).

Very interesting is the Member Login App. This will add a login function to your store. Thanks to it, users can reuse their account when they come back and want to see their order history, as well as save credit card information for future purchases.